Howe Sound Boat Dive - 04/07/2010

A big weekend of diving, since I was just in Victoria on Saturday. Fine by me!

It was a pretty last minute decision to go out on a boat dive with the Topline on Sunday. But since I didn't dive much last weekend, and it was the long weekend, I figured sacrifices had to be made.

It was an early start again. The night before I didn't get as much sleep as I wished, since getting back from Victoria made it pretty late. The morning was cloudy and fairly cool so it was certainly not a "summer" day.

I was diving with Jason Kolba, and we had some time to get to know the other divers on the trip. There was one fellow from Oregon, one from next door Bowen Island, and two from Vancouver.

Our first dive site was the Collingwood Day marker, in the channel on the west side of Bowen Island. I had dove this once before, and really liked it, so it was a treat to go back. Our dive was 42 minutes, and we spent the first 15 around 24-25 meters or 70 feet. The wall that was there was covered in cloud sponges. There were not a lot of rockfish, but there were several big swimming nudibranchs. Collingwood Day Marker is interesting as you can follow the wall north, and then come back over sloping boulder fields which are shallower. The prospect of octopii hiding was great, but we didn't see one. There was a very nice warbonnet on a big chimney sponge, too.

We went south to Wolcombe island for dive two. Another site I had dove once before and found very very nice. There were basket stars there last time, but none to be seen this time. This was the only known location of basket stars in Howe Sound. Perhaps there are no locations now!

There had been gale warnings in the area, but the water had calmed a lot so we were able to do this site. Jumping in, we moved to the rocks and the marker pole on shore, and descended quickly to get out of the surf. The wall opened up withing a few feet of swimming away from the shore, and it was a great dive from there on. Current was minimal, and it was a sedate drift all the way.

The biggest find (literally) was a giant pacific octopus. It was at 27 meters (90 feet) about 7 minutes in to the dive. It was under an overhang of rock, quite exposed and snoozing. It was a great sight to see. A huge orange peel nudibranch about a foot long was also a highlight.

All in all, another great day of diving!