Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Egmont 2-4/10/2015

It was finally time for our annual trip to Egmont! It was hard to imagine that this was the fifth year of this trip, starting back in 2010. As usual, we were going with the excellent Porpoise Bay Charters. Kal and Ann were always amazing hosts, and this year was no exception.

With no further ado, here was the video compilation!


We headed up on the Friday, saying goodbye to work, cell phones and internet. Well, to be fair, WiFi had been available at Kal and Ann's place for two years now, but you didn't have to use it. I always liked being able to "unplug" for a while. This year, we couldn't go on the Thanksgiving weekend because there had been a pre-booking conflict. So we went up a week early.

Everyone met on the same 11:30 ferry at Horseshoe Bay going to Langdale. It was a bit cloudy, but it was supposed to be a great weekend. There was an inquisitive harbor seal in the water wondering what was going on. The visibility in Horsehoe Bay was amazing!


The group had a brand-new addition in the form of Baby Pierre. The rest of the group consisted of (from left to right) Vince, Francois, Bridgette, Baby Pierre, Bill, Heather, me, and Josh. This was taken at the end of the trip.


The drive up to Egmont was excellent. The sun came out, and the fall colours were in full force. Heather and I stopped at Halfmoon Bay for a picnic lunch. It was a very relaxing trip up.


We arrived right on time, and unloaded all our gear. Kal showed up just before 3, and we soon had everything on board, including Baby Pierre in his fancy life jacket!


Our ride.


Kal and Ann's two dogs Nemo and Nanuk met us as well. I got a good photo of Nemo looking forward to his dinner.


And Nanuk, guarding the boat.


We got settled, picked our yurts, and then it was time to go diving! It was just a short hop away to the South Sutton Island were we did a fun drift dive. The highlight was a visit by several inquisitive sea lions. Things were off to a great start! Several tiger rockfish made an appearance, and we recovered a really nice urchin test (shell) which survived the trip to the surface.

After a hearty dinner, it was into the hot tub for some relaxing under the stars. The next morning dawned clear and calm, and we were treated to Ann's apple pancakes to fuel our morning dive. We traveled to Agamemnon channel (aka the Power Lines) for a dive on the fantastic cloud sponges there. They did not disappoint! Bill reported seeing several dwarf gorgonian corals. During our dive we also found several cute decorated warbonnets. One in a crack and one in a boot sponge. Look carefully!


Back for lunch, and then out again. We checked out Swede's Reef, but the conditions weren't right, so we hoped over to Jaggy Crack instead. Heather got quite a few excellent pictures.

There was a beautiful leopard dorid.


And a white lined dirona (aka frosted nudibranch.)


And a penpoint gunnel out in the open.


Heather got a short video clip of the gunnel swimming.


A rose star (there were lots of these throughout the trip).


A sea lemon dorid.


Heading back from the dive we were treated to a sea lion sunning himself on a dock. He was a huge male, and I don't know what you would do if you found him on your back porch like this!


Not far away were some in the water, probably part of the big guy's entourage.


In the evening, we had one last dive in the Skookumchuck rapids at Boom Islet. I think it was the best dive of the weekend, with excellent visibility, fun drift, and loads of life. We saw the painted anemone gardens, red irish lords, puget sound king crabs, opalescent nudibranchs, and kelp forests. It was great! The reward after such a great dive was a pre-thanksgiving turkey dinner, courtesy of Ann, complete with pumpkin pie! It was a great night, with more hot-tubbing under the stars.

Cool giant rock scallop, you could see it's "eyes".


A spiny lithode crab. I had always thought these were called red fur crabs.


A bivalve mollusc that needed identifying.


A white lined dirona (aka frosted nudibranch).


A rose anemone with kincaid shrimp, and in behind was a heart crab (look close!).


A really nice puget sound king crab, who was molting. This was a front picture.


And here you could see the old shell, and just how big the new shell was!



A juvenile puget sound king crab, very pretty!


Fringed Filament-Worms, all over the place. Very cool watching them feed.


The urchins liked to decorate themselves. This one was carrying around a full shell!


A great picture of a clown nudibranch.


The next day, we had thought to try for a night to dawn transition dive, but in the end decided the conditions were not good enough to get up that early. So instead, we had a leisurely breakfast of eggs benedict, followed by a relaxing boat ride out to Argonaut Point.

Heading out for the dive. It was a fantastic morning. We really lucked out on the weather.



We had never dove Argonaut Point before, so it was a nice treat. It had similar sponges to Agamemnon and Captain's Corners, but with more shelves of rock for critters and a huge amount of rockfish. This was probably my second favorite dive of the trip.

A swimming scallop.


Another very large sea lemon dorid.


A rhinoceros crab. The filaments covering it were mentioned by some Aquarium people, but I forgot what they came from.


On the way back from Argonaut Kal found us some humpback whales! We spent a lot of time trying to maneuver around to get the best view, and were prepared to jump in the water too if conditions were good. Unfortunately, the whales stayed distant, and we had to content ourselves with viewing their majesty from afar. Josh and Francois did try to jump in on the off chance that one surfaced near us, but Team Whale was a bust. Next time maybe. This was definitely one of the high-lights of the trip.


The last dive of the trip was at Captain's Corners. There, we came across the biggest concentration of krill I'd ever seen. It was like diving in a living, moving cloud. I figured it was krill, and not actual zooplankton as the organisms were small, but not microscopic. It was an amazing sight to see, and be inside of. I could see why the whales were around! We also came across a very nice little octopus in a crack, with its last crab meal neatly arranged on its doorstep.


Too soon it was time to pack up. We got our group picture, chatted for a time, then bid our farewells. Until next year!

P.S. a final nice piece of this weekend was that it put me to dive 600. A milestone and a great set of dives!

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