With the GUE Fundamentals done, the Instructor Dan Mackay told us to go out and do some fun diving. Copper Cove wasn't necessarily “fun” because it was a working dive to map the bottom, but Klevin Grove was a fun dive for sure.
Jason had been working on his PADI Dive Master course, and we had started the underwater mapping project a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get the deep 24m depth contour done on the previous dives. So, with Port Hardy taking up next weekend, this was the only time to get it finished.
We got out to Copper Cove very early. There was a lot of ferry traffic that was stirring up the bottom, so it wasn't very easy to see much during the dive. It was basically like a night dive it was so dark. Jason's light got very dim on him, so it was tough to write down the data as we measured things out. I didn't have a problem because I wasn't writing anything, just measuring depth and distance. It was a real working dive, and we used up our air pretty quickly. There was not a lot that I remember seeing, but there were some nice anemones and sea pens, along with a buffalo sculpin camouflaged against the rocks. Swimming back along the bottom to shore was pretty dull too. The bottom of Copper Cove is pretty sandy and plain. I think I remember seeing a few crabs along the way.
At the end of the dive, the water near shore was full of debris and junk. It was pretty yucky. We heard later that the visibility was so bad that they cancelled the Open Water course that was supposed to be training in the ocean at Whytecliff. I took the opportunity to work on my backkick at the surface though. I think I got moving backwards a bit which was encouraging. We opted out of a second dive since Jason's light was basically dead. I think we should have stuck it out in hindsight since the day turned very sunny and bright, but oh well.
The next day, I went back to Kelvin Grove with another DIR diver David Ryan. He would be coming along to Dodd Narrows with me on April 10, so it was a good opportunity to have a fun dive and to get to know each other. We had met at Kelvin Grove actually.
I got a lot of sleep the night before, but I had woken up a few times to hear very heavy rain. I was a bit worried that we'd be in for a wet day, but it turned out not too bad. It did rain briefly in the afternoon, but that was it. There was a group of 5 other divers there when we arrived. They were doing a single dive, then were off for a tour of the hyperbaric chamber that Vancouver General Hospital. They invited us along, but there wouldn't be time for us to finish our planned two dives and get back to town. I'd have to remember to check back on that tour sometime, it sounded interesting.
On our first dive, David led. Our plan was to do 20 minutes at 30m, then 20 minutes at 24m, but we ended up between 24 and 15m mostly for that. Then the last 20 minutes would be following the bottom back up to the surface. Kelvin Grove has a very nice wall to the right. I had forgotten how nice it was. There were interesting overhangs of rock, big cracks and crevices, and lots of things to see.
The beginning of the dive wasn't so great. We could hardly see a thing there was so much crap in the water. I lost sight of David if he got 5 feet away. But, once we got down past 15m, it was nice. Dark, but nice. It was basically like a night dive. It was also a bit dicey in that David's primary light didn't switch on properly at the beginning of the dive. We did get it going, but that would have been bad.
During the dive itself, there was a lot to see. The cloud sponges and boot sponges were really neat. David found an octopus deep within a crevice. There were quite a few big ling cods, and still a lot of long cod egg masses as well. There were nudibranchs everywhere, and I'd never seen a chiton standing on its end before. Normally they were glued to the rock. At the end of the dive, David went through a valve drill, and I practiced my backkick some more.
We spent an hour on the surface eating some lunch and talking about dive locations. Cozumel, Mexico was one place David said was good and cheap.
I led the next dive, and the plan was to stay shallower. We'd do 20 minutes at 24m then 20 minutes at 18m with a gradual ascent to the surface after that. Again there was bad visibility until below 15m, but it was a pleasant dive after that. I saw some kind of pink eel-like thing in a crevice which I couldn't identify. I'm not sure if it was just a fish of some kind, or a juvenile of something. I'd have to look it up later. Again at the end of the dive I did some backfinning practice, and I think it went ok.
We packed up and got rained on briefly, but it didn't last. The creek beside the dive site gave a handy location to rinse some of our gear too.
I had forgotten how nice Kelvin Grove was to dive. I'm glad I went again!
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