Malaga Cove: Hiking Flat Rock to Malaga Cove Pt. 3

Below: Diving under the kelp can be exciting.


Skin Dive#:026
Sun July 13, 08
Malaga Cove
Purpose: inspect new terrain
Tide: Low @ 11 am
Gear: 5/3 suit, mask, snorkel, socks, gloves, fins
Temp: Air 72 F/Water 66 F
Enviroment: sunny, 1 -2 ft breaks
Visibilty: 5 -10 ft
Conditions Synopsis: poor

Time to date: 19 hrs 15 min
Total time this dive: 30 min
Total time: 19 hrs 45 min

Special Notes: After Haggerty's I walked some further along the coast heading north. The tide was rising and at one point I had to sort of climb a slimy cement wall at rock levels over some water. I slipped in and my back pack submerged into the water and my water gallon floated an arms reach away as I regained my feet. NO biggy, I just made sure to have better footing on the algae exposed rocks there on. I could see the RAT beach lifeguard shack and the large crowds of beach goers strewn up the sandy coast in the distance. I made it to Malaga Cove, from the back. I found a hammock shapped rock setup, half cement wall, half rock and rested up there in a nap position slurping off my gallon. I was oh so parched from sun and sea. I took out my monocular and viewed two free divers towards RAT with a diving buoy, going down, then up, repeating constantly. I also viewed some SCUBA divers in front of the Pool with gear, and a snorkeler entering the cove. After resting I found my way back into the water there at the southern end of Malaga Cove. The vis here was poor and I thought that maybe it was because the close proximity to the sandy beach. I swam about and looked for lobster and such in the thick eel grass. I've always been skin diving at high tides, but after this day of lower tide diving, I think I will mix up my dives. I like absolute low because your nose is in the grass, and I like high because that's when the hish are out and the intrances are non slippery, low reveals green algae covered rocks. In the eel grass and kelp here I swam about until I found a great sheep crab with a dark purple middle section about the size of a softball. I took out my blunt knife to play with him. He turned around and showed me both his claws, opening them wide to show me his grip. I gently laid the knife in his grip and he did nothing. I let him continue his grapling of the kelp stalk. I got out and packed up and found another precarious hill / trail that lead me up the parking south end of the parking lot. I will use this trail again for ascent, but never for descent, it was sketchy. I walked back to my car parked at Flat Rock. When I got there I was very happy about my slow four hour trek along the coast sprinkled with three great skin dives. I will certainly repeat this process again. I never did find the deep hole the man was talking about but, maybe he was at a loss of words and wanted to describe an area that deep hole wasn't the geatest definition. I'll maybe try to research depths of the shore line. I finished off the water and drove tired towards a late lunch.