I've been doing some "giving it a second chance" dives lately and this is one of them. I've only been diving here once before, about 10 years ago and I said I wouldn't be back. I just remember silty rocks and not much marine life. Last time I swam out to the left and found some silty rock areas without much on them that went down to about 40-50' deep. This time (Nov. 5, 2015) I wanted to look for another sort-of-steep area South-East from the tip of the point. You can see this area on a marine chart. It shows what looks like a rocky drop to about 40' deep out on a compass heading towards Tod Rock.
I swam out while following my compass South-East. The rocks ended near shore and there was a plain of silty sand, eel-grass and small, silt-covered rocky reefs. This area was about 10-25' deep. Visibility was 20'. For some reason, both of my camera strobes on both of my cameras decided to stop firing most of the time so most of the photos were taken with natural light. The close-up photos were taken on the rare occasions when that camera's strobe fired.
After swimming for quite a while, I reached 30-40' deep. There were lots of sea pens out here on the flat, sand bottom. I didn't see any sign of a steep, rocky area. I think I swam out in a slightly-wrong direction and missed it. There was about a 1/2-knot current that may have gradually drifted me off my heading. I saw a strange creature that looked like a pale cockroach (amphipod/copepod?). It was about 2" long and was swimming just over the bottom. When I approached it settled on the bottom and fortunately my strobe worked for a picture. I also saw a small skate (the first one I've ever seen).
Seeing the skate was neat, but my opinion of this place as a dive site is the same as before. I don't think I'll bother coming here again. I guess if I come across any naughty children, I could threaten them with having to go diving at Cattle Point. I think this would give them a feeling of dread and it would cause them to improve their behavior.
