cloverpoint11

Many years ago there was a local diving website. On its Clover Point page, it mentioned that there were some sunken railroad boxcars off Clover Point. I've never seen them and I've never heard of anyone seeing them other than the creator of the webpage. The webpage isn't around anymore, but I think I remember the description as being something like: "follow an Eastward curving reef (quite far) and the box cars are on the South side of this reef about 60' deep". A sidescan sonar image of Clover Point shows an area of Eastward-curving rocky areas off the point near the line of outfall boulders. I dove here on April 29, 2016 to try and look for the boxcars. I swam out through the thick kelp and descended down the boulder slope.

I came across the first "Eastward-heading" reef. It was a series of small boulders and rock areas barely sticking up from the sand. I followed it out to where it seemed to end (40-45' deep) and I didn't see any boxcars. According to the description, this area wasn't deep enough.

Near the tip of the point, close to where the sewer pipe boulder pile sticks out, there was another Eastward-curving rocky reef. This one was about 55' deep. Since it was low tide, this agrees with the 60' deep boxcar area. I nervously swam out along the South side of this reef. I didn't waste time taking any photos in this area. The current was stronger than I usually feel comfortable with when swimming out this far. The reef seemed to end. The sidescan image shows a series of these rocky areas. The visibility wasn't good enough to see the next one. I would have to follow my compass out into the current if I wanted to continue following this line of reefs. With the air I had remaining, this wasn't a good idea so I swam back to the boulder slope leading up to shore near the tip of the point. This area is full of urchins and orange burrowing cucumbers.