I explored a new dive site on this dive, which was always fun!
I was quite surprised no one had mentioned Woodlands before. I had known about it from the 151 Dives book. I had thought several times to go out, but never made it. I was glad I did because it turned out to be an awesome dive site!
Woodlands was north of Deep Cove, in Cove Forest. On Google maps it's labeled North Woodlands. Use satellite view if it's not on in the link already.
The road was quite winding and narrow. You followed Indian River Drive pretty much all the way to the end. There was a steep hill down to a cul de sac. From there a trail led down a long dock/warf, which was public. Other docks there were private.
I was diving with Anita Hollands today. She had come along to Pavilion Lake with me, and we had a great time. She had brought along wine, cheese, avocado and soup. Diving in civilized comfort! Of course, the wine was after.
We unloaded gear at the cul de sac. There were no benches, and residential homes were all around. If you had doubles, it could be tricky. Anita appropriated a stump in the driveway of one of the houses, though. No one came out to yell! I think there was some low retaining walls that could work to put doubles on, though.
Parking was a problem. You had to park fairly far back up the hill. But there would be room for several vehicles. However, I don't think more than 4 divers could comfortably dive here at once. If you spent your time on the beach it might give more room.
Parking and gearing up issues aside, it was easily doable. We entered the water from the beach. The book said to enter from the dock, but we checked that out and it was not good. Not only was it a steep walk down the walkway at lower tides, the exit ladder was dodgy at best. With doubles you'd be hard pressed to climb it back out.
It was much easier to go down the narrow trail to the right of the dock, and enter from the beach. It was narrow, and there were brambles, but it was fine. It could be that the beach was not public. There was a massive mansion there, with a pair of red lips as a couch out front. Very garish. Making sure to go into the water from near the dock pilings might have been a good idea. Don't want to give divers a bad name!
The dive site was around the channel side of the small island, and around the marker. The depth in the bay out there was quit shallow, about 20 feet. It was a sandy bottom, so we surface swam out closer to the marker and then descended there.
There were tonnes of crabs, so crabbing here seemed to be a great option.
On the first dive, we went to the south east of the marker and followed the rock. Out in the channel side, the rock dropped off to a really great wall that continued east to west all along the back of the island. The wall slopped off to more than 100 feet for sure. Maybe not much more than that, but perfect for recreational dives.
All through the dive we were amazed at the number and types of nudibranchs, as well as crabs. No octopus, which was odd considering the amount of food. The visibility was pretty good, maybe 30 feet, but dropping to 5 in the shallows.
We saw leopard dorids, yellow margin dorids, hooded nudibranchs, white-lined dironas (also known as frosted nudibranchs), huge constellations of moon jellyfish, hundreds of longhorn decorator crabs, red rock crabs, dungeness crabs, coonstripe shrimp, a grunt sculpin, roughback sculpin, a water jelly and a bunch of others that escape me. The grunt sculpin would not cooperate to swim for us. Too tired I guess! There were so many nudibranchs, especially the white-lined ones. I'd never seen so many in one spot before. Most of them were laying eggs, and there were eggs everywhere.
The size of the dungeness crabs was amazing too. Massive. They were in the cracks and crevices everywhere, some guarding their cracks fiercely.
On the second dive, we aimed to go between the marker and the island. However the depth was so shallow and the visibility so poor, we skipped that in favor of going around deeper like on the first dive. We did return back between the marker and the island though. Out the channel side, it formed a sand bottomed cut in the rock wall, so it made a good landmark to come back to.
We spent most of the dive between 60 and 80 feet. That seemed to be where the most interesting stuff was. However the shallows around the marker at 40 feet provided a varied landscape of tumbled boulders and cracks where a lot of stuff was living. You could spend a whole dive poking around here.
Other landmarks of note were underwater anchor cables for the dock on the island. If you came across those you would know you were on your way back in. Useful when the visibility was bad.
Boat traffic in this area was a hazard, but it was no problem if you carried a surface marker and made sure to stay near the rock walls.
Current seemed to be non existent. We were diving on a rising tide. I'm sure current could be an issue in the channel, so diving near slack would be a good idea. However, there seemed to be enough protection from the rock walls to make for a nice dive even if there was current.
All in all this was a great dive site. It really took me by surprise!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Pavilion Lake 02/09/2010
For over a month I had been organizing a trip to Pavilion Lake. Primitive life called microbialites had been found there by chance by a recreational diver. NASA has been involved in studying the life there to give them clues about how life could arise on other planets. The lake has been in the news a few times too.
Some details on the lake and the project:
Pavilion Lake itself:
823m elevation
Max depth 65m
Dive sites are at 0-40m
Recreational diving only permitted in designated areas.
On the map in the PDF below, the dark green areas are where diving is allowed.
http://www.pavilionlake.com/pdf/BCParksPavilionLake.pdf
The main project website is here:
http://www.pavilionlake.com/
Wikipedia article on the lake:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavilion_Lake
BC Parks information on Marble Canyon campground:
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/marble_can/
Logistically, it was complicated. The lake is at ~800 meters altitude, and to get there you are going up and down elevation in the mountain passes a lot, which made dive planning more complicated.. The drive is about 5 hours one way. There are no places for fills, so we had to bring all our gas, especially since most of us were on 32%.
Accommodations were limited to tenting it in the local provincial park. That was $16 per car, pit toilets and hand-pump water. There was a water quality warning sign on the pump, advising anyone with weak immune systems to boil it. There were no showers or washing facilities. Each overnight site was spacious and well tended, also each had a fire pit. Fire wood was not available, so you had to scrounge or bring it in.
The Sky Blue Water Resort was not open as far as we could tell, so don't count on that unless you call ahead and make sure. Their web site offered little information. When we arrived we thought we might stay there as it is right beside the central dive site, but the gate was closed and there was no obvious way in.
The provincial camp ground was far enough from the dive sites to need to drive back and forth. You wouldn't want to hike it with your gear!
The map and descriptions of the boundaries of the sites were good. However there was little we could find in the way of directions on how to find the microbialite formations. Thankfully we discovered that it was not hard!
We explored the center site and the south site during our time there. We did not have the time to explore the north site.
The center site entry was well marked with a large sign. It was the same document that you will get from the website, so there was nothing different in terms of details. There was space for maybe 3 or 4 vehicles at the side of the road. There is no official parking, just a wide shoulder area by the highway.
The entry trail looked very steep. However, this was not the trail we had to use. I had gotten a tip that there was an easier trail and this turned out to be correct. From the sign, the easier trail led off to the right. It was farther, and not obvious, but with doubles on it was quite manageable, unlike the main trail.
A google map link to the center site is here.
On the map, the entry point is off the shore at the north side of the small island, called 3 Poles Point. Entry into the water was on smooth gravel and sand. There was quite a nice shallow area to get prepped and do equipment checks. The bottom also had a lot of freshwater vegetation all over it. Our dive plan took us to the south west around 3 Poles Point, then back to the entry. The majority of the microbialites were in the 60-70 foot range. Right after entering the water and descending, we came across a large microbialite formation in very shallow water, about 15 feet.
We did not make it very far around the island as we were going pretty slow. All the microbialites looked very similar. Lumpy organic looking brown rock formations, with a lot of holes. We did not see the more spectacular formations listed on the project website. Those may be deeper, or in another location.
On day two, we dove the south site. A google map link is here.
This site was not well marked at all. However, it was fairly simple to find. There is a very wide and open trail leading down to the water from the highway. It went a very short distance through the trees down to a small beach. Parking was ample at the side of the highway again.
Dive 2 followed much the same profile as dive 1. We headed out from the beach to about 60' and then to the south west along the contour. There were a lot of microbialite formations at this site as well. Notable features were a "cascade" effect, where the microbialites cascaded down the depth contour perpendicular to the shore. Then there would be a stretch of sand, and another cascade. There were no microbialites shallower than about 50' here, so don't waste your time in the shallows!
Of further note, it looked like microbialites would attach and form their formations on dead trees or other things. Several deadfalls were slowly getting covered in the, and looked very spooky.
There was no fish life to speak off that we saw. There were a lot of small snails, and some kind of water flea, but beyond a lot of bottom vegetation, the lake was pretty barren.
All in all, a very interesting experience!
I did not take any of these pictures, but here are some from Anita who was on the trip:
http://picasaweb.google.com/AntonNorth/ScubaPavilionLakeAnitaHollandsPhotographer#
Some details on the lake and the project:
Pavilion Lake itself:
823m elevation
Max depth 65m
Dive sites are at 0-40m
Recreational diving only permitted in designated areas.
On the map in the PDF below, the dark green areas are where diving is allowed.
http://www.pavilionlake.com/pdf/BCParksPavilionLake.pdf
The main project website is here:
http://www.pavilionlake.com/
Wikipedia article on the lake:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavilion_Lake
BC Parks information on Marble Canyon campground:
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/marble_can/
Logistically, it was complicated. The lake is at ~800 meters altitude, and to get there you are going up and down elevation in the mountain passes a lot, which made dive planning more complicated.. The drive is about 5 hours one way. There are no places for fills, so we had to bring all our gas, especially since most of us were on 32%.
Accommodations were limited to tenting it in the local provincial park. That was $16 per car, pit toilets and hand-pump water. There was a water quality warning sign on the pump, advising anyone with weak immune systems to boil it. There were no showers or washing facilities. Each overnight site was spacious and well tended, also each had a fire pit. Fire wood was not available, so you had to scrounge or bring it in.
The Sky Blue Water Resort was not open as far as we could tell, so don't count on that unless you call ahead and make sure. Their web site offered little information. When we arrived we thought we might stay there as it is right beside the central dive site, but the gate was closed and there was no obvious way in.
The provincial camp ground was far enough from the dive sites to need to drive back and forth. You wouldn't want to hike it with your gear!
The map and descriptions of the boundaries of the sites were good. However there was little we could find in the way of directions on how to find the microbialite formations. Thankfully we discovered that it was not hard!
We explored the center site and the south site during our time there. We did not have the time to explore the north site.
The center site entry was well marked with a large sign. It was the same document that you will get from the website, so there was nothing different in terms of details. There was space for maybe 3 or 4 vehicles at the side of the road. There is no official parking, just a wide shoulder area by the highway.
The entry trail looked very steep. However, this was not the trail we had to use. I had gotten a tip that there was an easier trail and this turned out to be correct. From the sign, the easier trail led off to the right. It was farther, and not obvious, but with doubles on it was quite manageable, unlike the main trail.
A google map link to the center site is here.
On the map, the entry point is off the shore at the north side of the small island, called 3 Poles Point. Entry into the water was on smooth gravel and sand. There was quite a nice shallow area to get prepped and do equipment checks. The bottom also had a lot of freshwater vegetation all over it. Our dive plan took us to the south west around 3 Poles Point, then back to the entry. The majority of the microbialites were in the 60-70 foot range. Right after entering the water and descending, we came across a large microbialite formation in very shallow water, about 15 feet.
We did not make it very far around the island as we were going pretty slow. All the microbialites looked very similar. Lumpy organic looking brown rock formations, with a lot of holes. We did not see the more spectacular formations listed on the project website. Those may be deeper, or in another location.
On day two, we dove the south site. A google map link is here.
This site was not well marked at all. However, it was fairly simple to find. There is a very wide and open trail leading down to the water from the highway. It went a very short distance through the trees down to a small beach. Parking was ample at the side of the highway again.
Dive 2 followed much the same profile as dive 1. We headed out from the beach to about 60' and then to the south west along the contour. There were a lot of microbialite formations at this site as well. Notable features were a "cascade" effect, where the microbialites cascaded down the depth contour perpendicular to the shore. Then there would be a stretch of sand, and another cascade. There were no microbialites shallower than about 50' here, so don't waste your time in the shallows!
Of further note, it looked like microbialites would attach and form their formations on dead trees or other things. Several deadfalls were slowly getting covered in the, and looked very spooky.
There was no fish life to speak off that we saw. There were a lot of small snails, and some kind of water flea, but beyond a lot of bottom vegetation, the lake was pretty barren.
All in all, a very interesting experience!
I did not take any of these pictures, but here are some from Anita who was on the trip:
http://picasaweb.google.com/AntonNorth/ScubaPavilionLakeAnitaHollandsPhotographer#
Whytecliff Stage Bottle Checkout Dive 28/08/2010
That evening I had a check-out dive planned with Alan Johnson to practice stage bottle skills. In keeping with my philosophy of learning things before I need them to get used to them early, I figured getting a stage was a good idea.
For one thing, it would be good prep for the tools required for technical diving, it builds skill capacity and it allows you to bring more gas on remote location dives.
We went to Whytecliff and did some preliminary skills at the surface. It was very humbling. Just adding one piece of gear like this really taxed me. There seemed to be a never-ending series of drills and skills that I had to learn.
The dive went ok at the beginning but I had to cut it off after half an hour. My calves cramped up very badly from all the backfinning I was doing. I'm sure I was doing too much of that. Also the fact that I had a full morning of diving contributed to fatigue. I had a lot of sleep and was well hydrated, but all the new skills were too much.
So another checkout dive would be planned and I'd make sure to go over the skill steps so I wouldn't have to concentrate so much on keeping them straight.
I learned a lot, and know that once I get this down I'll have progressed very far in my diving skills!
For one thing, it would be good prep for the tools required for technical diving, it builds skill capacity and it allows you to bring more gas on remote location dives.
We went to Whytecliff and did some preliminary skills at the surface. It was very humbling. Just adding one piece of gear like this really taxed me. There seemed to be a never-ending series of drills and skills that I had to learn.
The dive went ok at the beginning but I had to cut it off after half an hour. My calves cramped up very badly from all the backfinning I was doing. I'm sure I was doing too much of that. Also the fact that I had a full morning of diving contributed to fatigue. I had a lot of sleep and was well hydrated, but all the new skills were too much.
So another checkout dive would be planned and I'd make sure to go over the skill steps so I wouldn't have to concentrate so much on keeping them straight.
I learned a lot, and know that once I get this down I'll have progressed very far in my diving skills!
Howe Sound Boat Dive - 28/08/2010
I headed out on the Topline with Jason for two dives in the morning. Glad I did since on dive 1 there was a spectacular wolf eel! This was at Bowyer Island, on the North Pinnacle dive site. We descended down the line, and the wolf eel was sitting on the rock right there at 45 feet. I signaled Jason and we watched and followed it for a while. He didn't seem happy to see us though, so we left him alone. I had not been back to this site in some time, so it was nice to see. From the line we went south east over the plumose anemone fields. There was somewhat of a wall there, but mostly rugged boulder formations and gently sloping rock. There was a cloud sponge that seemed out of place near 80 feet.
Dive 2 was across the way to Halket Wall. Nothing jumps out at me now of note on that one. It was a pleasant drift dive. We were at 80 feet to 60 feet and the wall was good. Not packed with stuff though. Visibility was good too maybe 30 feet.
Hard to top that wolf eel though!
It's not my video, but a good bit representing what I saw is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8zgQXG5mKE
Dive 2 was across the way to Halket Wall. Nothing jumps out at me now of note on that one. It was a pleasant drift dive. We were at 80 feet to 60 feet and the wall was good. Not packed with stuff though. Visibility was good too maybe 30 feet.
Hard to top that wolf eel though!
It's not my video, but a good bit representing what I saw is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8zgQXG5mKE
Whytecliff 22/08/2010
Sunday was a dive at Whytecliff with Teri and her friends. Originally they wanted to do Kelvin Grove but there was still a sewage warning there. The septic tank had been ripped up and was being replaced. I guess there might be the possibility of untreated water going into the ocean.
We did one dive at the Cut. Teri wasn't feeling great so we passed on a second dive. The visibility was pretty good but we didn't see anything spectacular. John saw lots of stuff including a puget sound king crab. Wish I'd been on the dive he was on! Not observant enough today I guess.
It was nice to be done early, though.
We did one dive at the Cut. Teri wasn't feeling great so we passed on a second dive. The visibility was pretty good but we didn't see anything spectacular. John saw lots of stuff including a puget sound king crab. Wish I'd been on the dive he was on! Not observant enough today I guess.
It was nice to be done early, though.
Porteau Cove 21/08/2010
A dive at Porteau Cove with a new dive buddy Dennis. He'd been out of the water for a while, and wanted to get back into things.
Porteau gave two nice easy dives for him to start back into. We followed the firehose from the first marker to the main sites. I like the firehose marking the way, now that I've discovered it. It makes for an easy way to get from the closest marker buoy to the main site. Whoever put it there did everyone a favor!
The first dive we explored the sailboat and tug. There was a throng of furry crabs on the bottom. I was surprised to see such a concentration in one place.
Both dives we found octopii sleeping in cracks under the concrete blocks. There was also a nudibranch garden, with hundreds of the hanging on to plant stalks on the bottom. It looked like Dr Suess style trees as the nudibranchs were the colorful and feathery flabellina kind.
The visibility was quite good so it was a very enjoyable dive day.
Porteau gave two nice easy dives for him to start back into. We followed the firehose from the first marker to the main sites. I like the firehose marking the way, now that I've discovered it. It makes for an easy way to get from the closest marker buoy to the main site. Whoever put it there did everyone a favor!
The first dive we explored the sailboat and tug. There was a throng of furry crabs on the bottom. I was surprised to see such a concentration in one place.
Both dives we found octopii sleeping in cracks under the concrete blocks. There was also a nudibranch garden, with hundreds of the hanging on to plant stalks on the bottom. It looked like Dr Suess style trees as the nudibranchs were the colorful and feathery flabellina kind.
The visibility was quite good so it was a very enjoyable dive day.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Howe Sound Boat Dive - 08/08/2010
A big day of diving this one.
I went out with the Topline boat in the morning for two dives, and stayed on for the afternoon doing two more dives.
The morning dive was with the IDC diving shop. I was diving with Steve Redding and Ivan. We had a pretty good day, but didn't have any special events happen. We were at Christie Islet and Pam Rocks. Steve hoped some seals would play with us, but no luck. On the second dive Steve and I had some fun playing practical jokes on each other underwater; putting starfish on people and turning people's lights off. It was fun.
The second set of dives I was with Vince. We went to a new site at south Pasley Island near Bowen Island. Being a new site, we had to do some exploring. There were two dive sites here. One to the left and one to the right. Vince and I found the one on the right, and it was a pretty nice wall between 50 and 80 feet. The other group was very shallow around 40 feet, but found four octopus which was kind of aggravating. Vince and I didn't seen anything much in terms of neat wildlife.
The next dive was to the Collingwood Day marker. Again and nice enjoyable dive. This is a good site. Nothing spectacular in terms of life, but nice rockfish and underwater topography.
At the end of the day, I was really feeling tired. A lot of diving will do that!
We finished off things at Ya Ya's in Horseshoe Bay with some nice food and chatting.
I went out with the Topline boat in the morning for two dives, and stayed on for the afternoon doing two more dives.
The morning dive was with the IDC diving shop. I was diving with Steve Redding and Ivan. We had a pretty good day, but didn't have any special events happen. We were at Christie Islet and Pam Rocks. Steve hoped some seals would play with us, but no luck. On the second dive Steve and I had some fun playing practical jokes on each other underwater; putting starfish on people and turning people's lights off. It was fun.
The second set of dives I was with Vince. We went to a new site at south Pasley Island near Bowen Island. Being a new site, we had to do some exploring. There were two dive sites here. One to the left and one to the right. Vince and I found the one on the right, and it was a pretty nice wall between 50 and 80 feet. The other group was very shallow around 40 feet, but found four octopus which was kind of aggravating. Vince and I didn't seen anything much in terms of neat wildlife.
The next dive was to the Collingwood Day marker. Again and nice enjoyable dive. This is a good site. Nothing spectacular in terms of life, but nice rockfish and underwater topography.
At the end of the day, I was really feeling tired. A lot of diving will do that!
We finished off things at Ya Ya's in Horseshoe Bay with some nice food and chatting.
Whytecliff 05/08/2010
Just a quick skills dive with Vince. We went out and did a descent drill, shot a surface marker, ran off some line for reference, did valve drills, back finning, and s drills and some propulsion all while videoing each other.
I felt pretty good. I think I am feeling more ready to progress on to the technical diving that I have planned on.
At the end of the dive, I simulated an out of gas scenario and everything went well.
The video of me doing my valve drills is here http://vimeo.com/13947785 It's pretty boring though!
I felt pretty good. I think I am feeling more ready to progress on to the technical diving that I have planned on.
At the end of the dive, I simulated an out of gas scenario and everything went well.
The video of me doing my valve drills is here http://vimeo.com/13947785 It's pretty boring though!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Whytecliff 01/08/2010
The next day I had a more aggressive dive planned with three other divers: Teri, Cedric and Anita (whom I had not met before). I brought my doubles and my scooter to get some practice with them. No one else had a scooter, but that was ok. I found on my dive at Tuwanek with Ivan that you can scooter with just one. You just end up going slower and staying with the group.
We started with the right side of the Cut around 80 feet. The cloud sponges were nice, and there were a lot of decorated warbonnets living in them. I found it very fun scootering up and down the line of other divers. Getting off the wall and looking at the entire group arrayed along the wall with light beams playing on the rock was very nice. A lot like space.
After a nice picnic lunch provided by Teri and Anita, we explored the Plumose garden. Anita found a giant pacific octopus under a rock. I startled a seal scootering around a rock corner. He was coming right at me, and got a good scare. I tried to follow him a bit but he was too fast even for a scooter.
At the end of the day, we finished off with a celebratory drink on the grass in the sun to commemorate Teri's 300th dive (albeit a bit belated).
We started with the right side of the Cut around 80 feet. The cloud sponges were nice, and there were a lot of decorated warbonnets living in them. I found it very fun scootering up and down the line of other divers. Getting off the wall and looking at the entire group arrayed along the wall with light beams playing on the rock was very nice. A lot like space.
After a nice picnic lunch provided by Teri and Anita, we explored the Plumose garden. Anita found a giant pacific octopus under a rock. I startled a seal scootering around a rock corner. He was coming right at me, and got a good scare. I tried to follow him a bit but he was too fast even for a scooter.
At the end of the day, we finished off with a celebratory drink on the grass in the sun to commemorate Teri's 300th dive (albeit a bit belated).
Porteau Cove 31/07/2010
It had been a while since I had dove with Mihai, so I promised to go out to Whytecliff with him on Saturday. Nothing aggressive or fancy, just the left and right sides of the bay on single cylinders.
Both dives were nice but not spectacular. Visibility was ok, around 20 feet. No fauna of note other than some really nice pink and red anemones. We stayed at about 60 feet for both dives.
I put a starfish on Mihai's head as a joke, but with the thick hood he didn't notice. I needed a camera to capture the moment.
Both dives were nice but not spectacular. Visibility was ok, around 20 feet. No fauna of note other than some really nice pink and red anemones. We stayed at about 60 feet for both dives.
I put a starfish on Mihai's head as a joke, but with the thick hood he didn't notice. I needed a camera to capture the moment.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Strathcona 28/07/2010
This night dive was originally supposed to be for crabbing. But, Alan couldn't go, so that was canceled. I decided to go to Strathcona anyway, since I'd been meaning to check it out further. I had been there one time on a previous crab dive with Alan.
Jason and Vince were along for this dive. Prior to getting out to the island, we helped retrieve some dropped car keys. There were some people on the dock and one guy in the water. When we asked them what they were doing, they said they were trying to get their keys. We said "oh, well we just happen to have some scuba gear, we'll get them". And we did!
We dove around the small island off the shore. It was a pretty long surface swim out to it. We went to the right around the south end, and came up the side facing the channel. That was the side with the most life apparently.
It was a long shallow dive around the south tip. We should have went around the north end first. The depth was maybe 10 feet most of the way. We didn't get onto the channel side of the island for at least half an hour. The bottom was a lot of big rocks and boulders, with some sand. The channel side of the island turned into some sloping rock walls that were a bit deeper, maybe 40 feet. I didn't want to get too far from the island in case we got out into the channel. There is a lot of boat traffic there.
We made it almost to the north tip of the island, and it was pretty interesting. Lots of nice solid sloping rock walls and cracks. But current hit us pretty bad and we had to turn back. If we had come the other way around, we could have drifted with it.
There were some new nocturnal fish that I'd not seen before. IT was a roughback sculpin. There were loads of them. There were also loads of sticklebacks/pricklebacks, which are long thing eel-like fish.
I don't think I'd dive here again without a scooter. The swim is far too long for what you get to see!
Jason and Vince were along for this dive. Prior to getting out to the island, we helped retrieve some dropped car keys. There were some people on the dock and one guy in the water. When we asked them what they were doing, they said they were trying to get their keys. We said "oh, well we just happen to have some scuba gear, we'll get them". And we did!
We dove around the small island off the shore. It was a pretty long surface swim out to it. We went to the right around the south end, and came up the side facing the channel. That was the side with the most life apparently.
It was a long shallow dive around the south tip. We should have went around the north end first. The depth was maybe 10 feet most of the way. We didn't get onto the channel side of the island for at least half an hour. The bottom was a lot of big rocks and boulders, with some sand. The channel side of the island turned into some sloping rock walls that were a bit deeper, maybe 40 feet. I didn't want to get too far from the island in case we got out into the channel. There is a lot of boat traffic there.
We made it almost to the north tip of the island, and it was pretty interesting. Lots of nice solid sloping rock walls and cracks. But current hit us pretty bad and we had to turn back. If we had come the other way around, we could have drifted with it.
There were some new nocturnal fish that I'd not seen before. IT was a roughback sculpin. There were loads of them. There were also loads of sticklebacks/pricklebacks, which are long thing eel-like fish.
I don't think I'd dive here again without a scooter. The swim is far too long for what you get to see!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Porteau Cove 25/07/2010
A day of skills. Alan asked me to be the buddy for a very gifted starting diver named Jose. He already could backfin after 8 dives.
We did two dives, doing propulsion and buoyancy skills on both. Alan videoed it.
Jose learned a lot on these two dives, and showed marked improvement from one dive to the other. He had problems sculling with his hands, but that was because he had propulsion issues that were causing him to lose balance. Once those were fixed, his hand moving was not such a problem.
We basically did dive 2 from the GUE Fundamentals course. It gave me practice on my frog-kicks and backfinning so that was good. It also gave an opportunity for Alan to see how my propulsion was progressing. Since the Fundies he'd not seen my backkick. He said I'd come a long way from the non-existent backkick I had in the Fundies!
We saw a grunt sculpin on the end of the dive. The poor thing was scooting on the bottom, and a big ling cod swam along and sat on him. I really thought at first he was going to get eaten.
There was a pretty wicked current, and we had problems surface swimming with Jose. But it got sorted well enough. Alan set up a new course when we couldn't make it to the area with the first set-up. It worked well. Then he exhibited some pretty stellar underwater navigating to get us back to the old course to clean it up, then back to shore.
We did two dives, doing propulsion and buoyancy skills on both. Alan videoed it.
Jose learned a lot on these two dives, and showed marked improvement from one dive to the other. He had problems sculling with his hands, but that was because he had propulsion issues that were causing him to lose balance. Once those were fixed, his hand moving was not such a problem.
We basically did dive 2 from the GUE Fundamentals course. It gave me practice on my frog-kicks and backfinning so that was good. It also gave an opportunity for Alan to see how my propulsion was progressing. Since the Fundies he'd not seen my backkick. He said I'd come a long way from the non-existent backkick I had in the Fundies!
We saw a grunt sculpin on the end of the dive. The poor thing was scooting on the bottom, and a big ling cod swam along and sat on him. I really thought at first he was going to get eaten.
There was a pretty wicked current, and we had problems surface swimming with Jose. But it got sorted well enough. Alan set up a new course when we couldn't make it to the area with the first set-up. It worked well. Then he exhibited some pretty stellar underwater navigating to get us back to the old course to clean it up, then back to shore.
Tuwanek 24/07/2010
I had tried to plan a trip to Tuwanek all week, but couldn't get a dive buddy. In the end I decided to go on the Topline boat and pick up a buddy, but on Friday Ivan emailed me saying he'd go along.
After the poor visibility at Whytecliff on Thursday I cancelled the Topline in favour of the generally better visibility at Tuwanek.
The morning started off badly. I set my alarm for pm instead of am. We missed the ferry we wanted by minutes. Fortunately there was a 9:40 ferry so we weren't too far behind.
The plan was to do three dives. Ivan had double AL80s and a single AL80, and I'd divide my S130s into thirds. It worked pretty well. Each dive was shorter and shallower too.
I took my scooter along to cut the surface swim. It was slower than I expected towing two fully laden divers, especially on the surface. The prop kept breaking the surface and sucking air. But it still worked. It was at least as fast as swimming. I didn't use the scooter on the dives except for the last one. I got practice stowing it and towing it behind me.
Dive 1 was to the North/right island. We descended a bit too early, so wasted some time looking at sand before hitting the walls and boulders around the back side. We also didn't find the wolf eels. Oh well. Right at the start was a big orange tritonia nudibranch. There were tonnes of tunicates covering everything. Apparently they were seasonal. Moon jellies were everywhere. There were lots of tiny flabellina nudibranchs too. A big cloud sponge came out of nowhere too on the bottom all alone. I had not seen any at Tuwanek before. It was a small hotel for several small fish and crabs.
Dive 2 was to the South/left island. Divers had told us there were two octopii there. I parked the scooter on a marker buoy line this time. I was a bit nervous leaving it and made sure it was totally secure. We saw a big swimming nudibranch and a red buffalo sculpin. The highlight was a giant pacific octopus in his crack. We found the one people were talking about! It was south from the marker buoy at about 60 feet. The scooter was recovered without incident, but on the ascent we almost ran into a lions's mane jellyfish.
Dive 3 was back to the North island, but more right than left. There was another octopus reported there, but we didn't see it. Visibility was poor and we were shallow, around 20 feet. The other dives had better visibility, but below 50 at least. I did doughnuts around Ivan with my scooter on this dive. It was fun!
We had to rush, but made the planned ferry back. All in all a good set of dives!
After the poor visibility at Whytecliff on Thursday I cancelled the Topline in favour of the generally better visibility at Tuwanek.
The morning started off badly. I set my alarm for pm instead of am. We missed the ferry we wanted by minutes. Fortunately there was a 9:40 ferry so we weren't too far behind.
The plan was to do three dives. Ivan had double AL80s and a single AL80, and I'd divide my S130s into thirds. It worked pretty well. Each dive was shorter and shallower too.
I took my scooter along to cut the surface swim. It was slower than I expected towing two fully laden divers, especially on the surface. The prop kept breaking the surface and sucking air. But it still worked. It was at least as fast as swimming. I didn't use the scooter on the dives except for the last one. I got practice stowing it and towing it behind me.
Dive 1 was to the North/right island. We descended a bit too early, so wasted some time looking at sand before hitting the walls and boulders around the back side. We also didn't find the wolf eels. Oh well. Right at the start was a big orange tritonia nudibranch. There were tonnes of tunicates covering everything. Apparently they were seasonal. Moon jellies were everywhere. There were lots of tiny flabellina nudibranchs too. A big cloud sponge came out of nowhere too on the bottom all alone. I had not seen any at Tuwanek before. It was a small hotel for several small fish and crabs.
Dive 2 was to the South/left island. Divers had told us there were two octopii there. I parked the scooter on a marker buoy line this time. I was a bit nervous leaving it and made sure it was totally secure. We saw a big swimming nudibranch and a red buffalo sculpin. The highlight was a giant pacific octopus in his crack. We found the one people were talking about! It was south from the marker buoy at about 60 feet. The scooter was recovered without incident, but on the ascent we almost ran into a lions's mane jellyfish.
Dive 3 was back to the North island, but more right than left. There was another octopus reported there, but we didn't see it. Visibility was poor and we were shallow, around 20 feet. The other dives had better visibility, but below 50 at least. I did doughnuts around Ivan with my scooter on this dive. It was fun!
We had to rush, but made the planned ferry back. All in all a good set of dives!
Whytecliff Scooter Dive 22/07/2010
My second scooter dive, and some serious trigger-time. Things didn't start out great as some gear was left behind. We had to go downtown and back, otherwise Alan would have been freezing in a wetsuit. By the time we started the dive it was 9:30.
It was worth it in the end as we saw a dogfish twice (the closest thing to a shark in these waters besides a six gill). I'd never seen a dogfish before. It's a small mini-shark really. Maybe about 2 feet long.
We did all of Whytecliff on this dive. The cloud sponges up the Cut at 100 feet were another highlight along with a baby octopus at the day marker/ plumose gardens.
A very late night but totally worth it!
It was worth it in the end as we saw a dogfish twice (the closest thing to a shark in these waters besides a six gill). I'd never seen a dogfish before. It's a small mini-shark really. Maybe about 2 feet long.
We did all of Whytecliff on this dive. The cloud sponges up the Cut at 100 feet were another highlight along with a baby octopus at the day marker/ plumose gardens.
A very late night but totally worth it!
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