baynesroad2

I've only been here once before about 10 years ago. At the time, I said I wouldn't bother coming back, but since then I noticed that the sidescan image showed a large rocky area about 150 meters from shore. I came back to try and reach it on Dec. 26, 2020.

Below about 30' deep, the bottom became a plain of small pebbles, clean-swept by the current. I followed my compass out towards that far reef.

I swam for longer than expected and reached a depth (70') deeper than expected. I wondered if I had swam past the Northern end of the reef. I turned right and started to see urchins scattered over the bottom. I soon came across the reef I was looking for. It wasn't that high. It only seemed to rise about 4-6' off the bottom. It was covered with giant barnacles and patches of colonial tunicates (mostly purple and white). There were only a few fish. I saw 2 Irish lords, a couple of small lingcod and maybe 2 or 3 copper rockfish. I only saw a single closed-up plumose anemone. Depths averaged about 60' deep. The shallowest area I reached was about 50' deep.

I left the big rocky area and followed my compass back across the pebble plain towards shore. Once I reached it, I had a look at the urchin-covered rocky slope just to the South of the entry-point. I think this is the area I visited during my previous dive here years ago. My memory (and the photos from that dive) showed more giant barnacles and warty tunicates among the urchins, but today I didn't notice many. Maybe I wasn't deep enough (I only went down to 30-40' deep here today).