A lot of diving happened this week. I barely had time to service and dry my gear between trips!
This was another boat dive with the IDC and the Sea Dragon. I had had to re-schedule since it conflicted with my Port Hardy trip. Port Hardy was certainly more important than a boat dive in Howe Sound! I was looking forward to some nice diving this day, but the weather wasn't co-operating. I woke up early that morning to a miserable rainy sky. It was going to be wet!
Jason Kolba was on the boat too, so he picked me up that morning. We made it out to Horseshoe Bay in plenty of time. The Sea Dragon crew, Kevin and Jan were not there yet, but we were able to get our gear down to the dock past the gate as someone opened it for us. I think they knew we were divers, with all of our stuff.
We spent a good amount of time chatting with Kyle about the Tuwanek trip the last week, and just diving in general. It made hanging out in the rain not so bad. Kyle did end up leaving his lunch on the dock, and the seagulls ate it. We found the remnants when we got back later that day.
We got underway a bit later than we wanted, but it wasn't too bad. The first dive site we went to was a standard one: the Pinnacle off of the North end of Bowyer Island. We had several new open water divers, and Kevin wanted to have an easy first dive for them. That was fine by me, I just wanted to get down there!
Jason and I geared up and were in the water pretty quickly after our checks. Our plan was to follow the south-western wall, and then come back. The water wasn't very clear because of all the rain, so visibility was pretty bad. I don't recall seeing too many things that were exciting, but Jason did come across a tiny 5 inch baby octopus in a small crevice. I was concentrating on my propulsion, so I was more active than normal, meaning that my air went faster than usual. It was all fine, but we had to stop the dive sooner than I had hoped. My navigation was good, so I got us back to the ascent line with no difficulty. On the way up, we ran into the other group just on its way down. That was quite strange, since it meant that they took half an hour at least to get into the water. We soon found out that there were some problems with weighting and regulators that delayed the dive. One fellow, Ivan, couldn't dive at all due to a malfunctioning regulator. Pretty bad to be out on the boat and not be able to dive. Sometimes there is not much you can do though.
It was still raining quite a bit, so we spent most of the time in the cabin. When the other group got back, we chatted a bit, and answered questions from the newer divers. It was nice. Soon though, we were on the move and going to the next dive site. Again, nothing new for me, but still a nice dive coming up. We went to the south end of Bowyer Island to the Canyons. That's where there were supposed to be wolf-eels, and this time I was determined to find them.
After going over directions to where the eels should be, Jason and I went down and started looking. I had tried to find them once before, and made a wrong turn. This time I was sure I knew where to go. In the end, I went too far, and missed them on the way out. They are actually quite close to where you descend. Jason and I ended up curving far out past them, and only on the way back did we happen across Kyle and his group who had found them. Jason and I checked out the eels for a bit, but I was near our agreed pressure on which to surface, so had to cut things short. We didn't quite make it back to the line, so did a mid-water no-reference ascent. That's always good practice. When we surfaced after our safety stop, we weren't far off from the boat. So all in all, not a bad bit of navigation. It could have been worse!
Pretty soon we were all packed up, docked, and saying our goodbyes to the Sea Dragon and everyone. The rain had let up a bit, so that made walking back to the car a bit nicer. I didn't have another boat dive planned with the Sea Dragon anytime soon. I think my plan is to stick with shore diving for the remainder of the winter. The weather is just too chancy sometimes. I don't like the idea of having a boat dive cancelled!
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