Even though I missed diving last weekend, I made up for it this week with Lighthouse Park on Monday, and a night dive at Whyteliff last night. It was a pretty good evening, cloudy but not raining and fairly warm. Vince had gotten a new truck (and an equally new license) and he asked if I'd go along. I jumped at that chance immediately. I was sitting in the lobby of my apartment building with my gear waiting, and I got a few odd looks. My friends from upstairs came through too, and asked what I was doing. I said going diving, and they looked pretty incredulous. I thought it was pretty funny, but then, I'm a bit more hard-core than most divers.
Vince was understandably nervous driving out to the park. I had totally forgotten what it was like to be a new driver, and it was doubly bad for him because he had just learned to drive standard! We made it fine, though.
The plan was to dive the Cut and head south curving around the day marker and then north west back up into Whytecliff bay. I figured that would be the easiest, nicest dive since you just have to follow the rock walls. Going to the right at the Cut was nice, but finding the exit again had always been a problem for me. Since Vince was going to take some photos, and I'd be navigating, I wanted to do the most comfortable route for me. It was night too, and I didn't fancy winding up in Howe Sound in the dark trying to find our way out if we missed it!
When we got down to the water, the tide was lower than I'd ever seen. The base of the day marker was exposed at least as much as it was tall, and the water started at the point where we normally swim out to descend at. It was very strange. Visibility was not bad, but not great. There turned out to be a fairly significant current during the middle part of the dive too.
When we dropped down, the visibility got a bit better, but not by much. There was surprisingly not a lot to see on this dive. Well, maybe I should say not a lot new to see. Good thing it was all about being underwater for me, and not new marine life! There were certainly loads of coonstripe shrimp. They were always cool, because of how they gathered in big groups and their eyes glowed eerily in your light. There were some really big ones tonight. I also saw a really big yellow margin dorid, as well as a tiny white dendronotid (both nudibranchs). The highlight of the marine life was a baby giant pacific octopus. That was a contradiction, for sure! It was tiny. There was also one of the biggest copper rockfish I've ever seen hiding in a rocky crevice. On the way around the day marker, the plumose anemone gardens looked a lot different than usual. This was I think because we were actually at a deeper level than I'm normally used to, since the water was actually shallower due to the tide. It was pretty cool. The drop offs from the wall we were following were also spectacular, descending down into murky darkness. Very cool. I'm sure there was a new blue fish that I didn't recognize, but I have yet to identify. It may be that it was just a variation on a kelp greenling. Finally, on the way up to the beach we came across a fat dungeness crab that showed no fear of the two black monsters hovering over it. There were of course, the usual huge amounts of sea stars and sea cucumbers covering many of the rocks. I also retrieved a beer bottle off of the bottom as my contribution to cleaning up the environment.
The last portion of the ascent was very shallow, and was a good test of buoyancy control. Once we hit the surface, we surprised a great blue heron who was taking advantage of the exposed rocks to get some late night snacks. It flew off unimpressed. We also both ended up running into the remnants of the dock pilings that were normally underwater. Swimming backwards usually was no problem in that area, but at such a low tide it was disconcerting to bump into something you didn't expect. I'd need to remember for next time!
We both agreed that it was a pretty good dive. Vince took a few pictures, but very soon into the dive his batteries gave out which was too bad. I felt a lot more comfortable with my buoyancy on this dive. All the diving was paying off!
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