A big weekend of great diving!
Saturday was a trip planned through IDC with the Sea Dragon. Adrian had asked if I'd be in to some diving this weekend, and we decided on a boat dive. Jason ended up signing up too, so we ended up as a trio. It worked out pretty well as we were well matched for air consumption and bottom time.
The ride out was a bit cramped. I had originally arranged to hitch a ride with Adrian, but two other divers needed a ride too, and he agreed to take them as well. A nice gesture! With all the gear though we fit just barely. I had brought along two cylinders as I was diving Nitrox, so that added quite a bit. Anyway, we made it and car pooling more is always better! And helpful. I hitched a lift back home with Jason though so it ended up being more comfortable.
It was completely clear and sunny, but nippy. We got underway after 9, so it was a late start. Kevin and Jan made Jason and I very happy by taking us to some brand new (for us) dive sites. We started on Christie Islet, and for the second dive did Pam Rocks.
Christie Islet is here:
It's not much to look at! We dove around the south west side of it. It was a nice dive, but less life than I would have thought to see. The bottom was a mixed bag of large rocks and ledges, so it was interesting terrain. There was a mooring line that we could descend on, which was also nice. I found out later that Shay the boat operator I'd be with the following day had placed that mooring line there. There were some really big nudibranchs and anemones, as well as some scallops but not much else that really jumped out in my mind. Jason was leading the dive, and we did a big circle back to the mooring line. When we got back, we still had gas left, so we headed back out for a bit. We did come across a big mass of ling cod eggs. It looked like white Styrofoam beads. On the way back, I lost track of our orientation, and paused to wait for Jason to head us back. But he ended up sitting there waiting too! I had to get his attention and get us moving again, but it was no big deal. The second dive group had come down much later than us, so we were starting our ascent when they came down. Boy did it look like a sand storm because of all the sediment stirred up! But there were some new divers in the group, and proper propulsion and fin control take time to get the hang of. On the ascent, Adrian and I were at a shallower depth and I could see Jason at the bottom of the line looking around for us. It took a bit of signalling with my light to get him to finally look up and see us. It's funny how we forget to look in three dimensions. Adrian tried out his spare air canister on the way up, and on our safety stop I practised deploying my surface marker buoy. It didn't go too badly, but could have been better. I had a hard time clipping the double ended bolt snap back onto the spool to secure the line. In the end, I couldn't do it. I'm glad I didn't drop the spool, otherwise I'd be hauling up a lot of line!
From Christie Islet, Pam Rocks was very close, just a bit to the south. I had heard a lot about diving with seals there, since there were usually a lot of them and they were always curious. The sun was shining, and we sat on the bow of the boat for a while soaking up the sun. I ended up almost getting a sunburn! So much for winter diving! We did have an equipment failure though. Adrian's fin strap broke on him, but a replacement was found. A very good example of why having spares around is a good thing! I made a note to add a strap of that type to my save a dive kit. Also, I had to remember to bring my oxygen analyzer on every dive, because sure enough I left it at home and someone needed one on this dive too!
Pam Rocks is here:
We ended up diving around the south west side of it. Unfortunately I didn't realize that we could have and should have went south east. There were a lot of interesting underwater rock channels and boulders that way. Oh well, I will know for next time! It was a neat dive. I found some treasure too in the form of a lead weight from someone's belt. Lead is expensive! We also found a puget sound king crab, something of a rarity in my eyes because I'd never seen them in Howe Sound before. He was a fairly big size, but half the size of the ones in Port Hardy. We also came across an Oregon triton. Later we had a debate over what kind of decorator crabs were there. The argument was that the ones we were seeing were not decorated at all. Looking in my marine life book later showed that there are two kinds of decorator crab. The graceful decorator crab decorates a lot, while the longhorn decorator crab does not. Kind of funny that it's called a decorator crab when it doesn't decorate! The end of this dive was the prettiest since we came up shallow and hung out near a rock wall covered in red fronds (which turned out to be an algae called slimy leaf). The sun was streaming down through the water and it was just great.
The day was over too fast, but I knew I had more great diving the next day!
On Sunday I was lucky enough to be invited along on a boat dive in Indian Arm. Alan Johnson was doing some practice dives leading up to a deep technical survey of a wreck in that area. Some of their team members cancelled so they needed to fill out the boat spaces to make the trip actually work. Myself, Evan and Terri were those lucky folks. We ended up diving as a trio and had a great time.
I had wanted to dive Indian Arm for a while. The VT-100 was up that way, so that was a start, but most of the area was only accessible by boat. The first dive site we went to was called the Fish Bowl, and it was on the south end of Croker Island. Here is a Google map link:
I had hitched a ride with Terri that morning, and she was determined to lobby for the Fish Bowl because she had done it the previous year and it was very interesting. It was a depression in the rock much like a big bowl, with rock walls on the outsides that went down to whatever depth you cared for. The south east rock wall was supposed to be the more interesting though. To the west, it got shallow and boring. It was also a fantastic opportunity to try out my new larger capacity cylinder. Terri and Evan were diving doubles, so I wouldn't be as limited by gas. It actually ended up being the longest dive I had been able to do, just over an hour! The dive itself was one of the best I've had. Terri led the dive and we followed the rock wall around and then hung out in the main fish bowl portion for the remainder. The wall turned out to be not as interesting as I would have thought, but it was sheer dropping off to nothing. That was cool. There were a lot of chitons on the wall, and a few anemones but the rock was pretty smooth without many crevices and nooks for things to hide in. Once we got back into the fish bowl, that's when it became the most interesting. The sun was very strong, and the entire area was lit up beautifully. There were many sunken trees with their rotting roots still attached. They must have been uprooted and got water logged in the area. Lots of tube worms riddled the old tree trunks, and the wood was shot through with white fibrous mold-like stuff. There were schools of fish in the fish bowl too, so it lived up to its name. Mostly sea perch I think. There were tonnes of longhorn decorator crabs over everything. Terri found a red rock crab and was tickling it. She also found a helmet crab or maybe a hairy crab and had it in her hand. I can't recall. There was also a baby rhinoceros crab. It really was an awesome dive, and great to be able to keep up with two other more experienced GUE divers. Evan said later that my buoyancy was better compared to Port Hardy. I joked that he only said “better”! It was a good thing though, there is no such thing as perfect in diving. You always have room for improvement. We did end up loosing Terri for a minute on the dive though. Fortunately she knew our direction and we were able to meet back up. That was the only mistake to an otherwise perfect dive.
The dive boat we were on was called the “Cheers”, and it was skippered by Shay. He had a very nice boat, different from what I'd been used to on the Sea Dragon. The main cabin was dry, so you took off your drysuit on the rear deck and hung it up. It was very comfortable. We also had great food. Home-made sandwiches on focaccia bread along with home-made soup and lots of tea, coffee and water. Each diver station had it's own dedicated water bottle. I ended up taking a bottle that was not mine, though!
It was a long but pleasant surface interval. The technical divers needed 2 hours on the surface before their next run, and we spent it on the upper deck relaxing in the sun. Terri had brought some really awesome cheese and salmon pate. We were so spoiled.
The last dive was Racoon Island which is here:
We dove the eastern side of it, which was a pretty nice wall dropping off to nothing most of the way. Near the mid-point, it slopped a lot and was white sand which worried me since I thought we ran out of stuff to see. But the wall picked up after that and turned into a really interesting jumble of rocks and red kelp. I took us shallower than probably necessary, but there was the sun streaming down into the water again, a field of interesting rocks and crevices, and red algae fronds swaying everywhere. It was great. It was also a very long dive again, over 50 minutes, and this time I was only on my steel 100 cylinder! I was quite happy with my gas consumption rate. We debated later over what fish we saw, but there was certainly a nice big school of shiner perch. The smaller eel-like fish we came across we weren't so sure of. I didn't see all of them, but I think we decided they were probably some kind of prickleback or gunnel. Without a camera it was difficult to remember their actual markings and shape. Alas no octopus, even though Terri was designated Octopus Hunter. We looked in and under everything! Oh well.
The trip took a lot longer than most of us planned. There was a huge distance to cover, and the dives were long. We ended up not leaving until about 5:30. Still, you couldn't ask for better time spent. Here are some pictures of the scenery.
http://picasaweb.google.com/AntonNorth/ScubaIndianArmFeb2010
My double tank set is nearly complete too. So soon, I'll be lugging around over 6000 litres of gas and about 150 pounds of gear. Not so great out of the water, but in the water it will be great!
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