Our own LauraJ has been organizing these midweek training/fun dives for a couple of months now, and they have really taken off. The training dive I wrote about from last week was one of these. This week we had even more people, and MUCH better weather:
Bottom line: A lot of people had a lot of fun!
The weather held out, despite the predictions, and we arrived at dusk to a surprisingly warm September night. The flip side of course, was no parking at the Cove, but Peter waited patiently en queue until a spot opened up. There were already quite a few divers there, and more arriving; I believe in the end, we had 12 altogether, which is not at all bad for a late evening mid-week dive!
After the obligatory schmoozing, and a quick summary by Laura of the utility of keeping ones head up and its effect on trim and situational awareness, we all went and got dressed and geared up, and congregated by the steps. In a spontaneous process that resembled the separation of overwhipped cream, we broke into teams and made dive plans. The doubles folks stuck together, and various teams of single tank divers talked over depth, time, gas, and any proposed skills.
I teamed up with Ben and Ross, and our plan was much as last week -- descend to midwater, do mask skills there, go to the bottom and do a round of S-drills, and then go for a tour. Ross wanted to end the dive with a bag shoot again, too.
We swam out to the third buoy, being too lazy to go further, and discovered the water was so clear that, at 20 feet, we could clearly see the bottom! (That's cheating, for midwater skills.
) But we did them anyway, and then went on down to the boundary line and worked on the S-drills. I still have an enormously hard time not moving off station when my buddies do, so that's definitely something I have to work on.
Once drills were done, we moved off downslope to see what was to be seen. It was a very good night for alabaster nudibranchs:
Shortly after we turned off the boundary line to cross the cove, we ran across one of my favorite night dive critters, a sailfin sculpin:
I have seen them occasionally at Cove 2, but not often, and I wasn't sure if Ben had ever seen one. I pointed him out and then did something I find personally a little shameful -- I went and disturbed the little guy to make him swim a little, so Ben and Ross could see the beautiful way they ripple their dorsal fin for propulsion.
We made our way to the jackstraw pilings, which were just chock full of warbonnets -- big ones, little ones, shy ones and bold ones. Apparently Ben was watching one, and his light attracted a bunch of krill, and the little guy was just slurping them up.
We then made our way to the Honey Bear wreck, and sure enough, both the enormous, toothy ling cod and his roommate, the octozilla, were at home. It still amazes me to find both of them sharing a den, but this is the third time I've seen them there together. It was so much fun, hovering about two inches off the bottom and peering down under the wreckage, with my two buddies beside me, and best of all, we moved off leaving the viz just as nice for the next diver as it was for us!
We left the HB at about 40 minutes, and I headed for my favorite pilings to swim under. We have to go single file through there, so I was ahead of my buddies, when I saw an "attention" signal from behind me. At first I wasn't sure if it was a signal, or just someone adjusting buoyancy, but it was repeated, so I thought, "Oh, foo, I've got to turn around," when I was, of course, right in the middle of the small space under the pilings, where turning was most difficult. But it was good cave practice! Turned out my buddies had found both a large clown nudi and a whole group of tiny, pink shrimp (stilettos, perhaps?) on top of one of the concrete balls on the line leading to the HB. We admired them, and then I went back and did my piling swim again, with my team following me.
We ended the dive with a bag shoot by Ross, and Ben calling deco and looking like an absolute rock star in midwater (do you hear the envy in my voice?) And we surfaced to a brilliantly clear night with the entire Seattle skyline sparkling in color, and reflected in the still, dark water. What an amazing place we have to dive, right off the shore of a major metropolitan city! It never ceases to astonish me.
Back in the parking lot, Laura had brought her car around and put water to boil, so we soon had cocoa
and of course, the obligatory Tweek brownies, and maybe a little subliminal message, too?
Good times. I love this combination of skills practice and critter-hunting, and it's a great and varied group of folks who are turning out for these dives. Thank you, Laura, for putting this together!
Bottom line: A lot of people had a lot of fun!
The weather held out, despite the predictions, and we arrived at dusk to a surprisingly warm September night. The flip side of course, was no parking at the Cove, but Peter waited patiently en queue until a spot opened up. There were already quite a few divers there, and more arriving; I believe in the end, we had 12 altogether, which is not at all bad for a late evening mid-week dive!
After the obligatory schmoozing, and a quick summary by Laura of the utility of keeping ones head up and its effect on trim and situational awareness, we all went and got dressed and geared up, and congregated by the steps. In a spontaneous process that resembled the separation of overwhipped cream, we broke into teams and made dive plans. The doubles folks stuck together, and various teams of single tank divers talked over depth, time, gas, and any proposed skills.
I teamed up with Ben and Ross, and our plan was much as last week -- descend to midwater, do mask skills there, go to the bottom and do a round of S-drills, and then go for a tour. Ross wanted to end the dive with a bag shoot again, too.
We swam out to the third buoy, being too lazy to go further, and discovered the water was so clear that, at 20 feet, we could clearly see the bottom! (That's cheating, for midwater skills.
) But we did them anyway, and then went on down to the boundary line and worked on the S-drills. I still have an enormously hard time not moving off station when my buddies do, so that's definitely something I have to work on. Once drills were done, we moved off downslope to see what was to be seen. It was a very good night for alabaster nudibranchs:
Shortly after we turned off the boundary line to cross the cove, we ran across one of my favorite night dive critters, a sailfin sculpin:
I have seen them occasionally at Cove 2, but not often, and I wasn't sure if Ben had ever seen one. I pointed him out and then did something I find personally a little shameful -- I went and disturbed the little guy to make him swim a little, so Ben and Ross could see the beautiful way they ripple their dorsal fin for propulsion.
We made our way to the jackstraw pilings, which were just chock full of warbonnets -- big ones, little ones, shy ones and bold ones. Apparently Ben was watching one, and his light attracted a bunch of krill, and the little guy was just slurping them up.
We then made our way to the Honey Bear wreck, and sure enough, both the enormous, toothy ling cod and his roommate, the octozilla, were at home. It still amazes me to find both of them sharing a den, but this is the third time I've seen them there together. It was so much fun, hovering about two inches off the bottom and peering down under the wreckage, with my two buddies beside me, and best of all, we moved off leaving the viz just as nice for the next diver as it was for us!
We left the HB at about 40 minutes, and I headed for my favorite pilings to swim under. We have to go single file through there, so I was ahead of my buddies, when I saw an "attention" signal from behind me. At first I wasn't sure if it was a signal, or just someone adjusting buoyancy, but it was repeated, so I thought, "Oh, foo, I've got to turn around," when I was, of course, right in the middle of the small space under the pilings, where turning was most difficult. But it was good cave practice! Turned out my buddies had found both a large clown nudi and a whole group of tiny, pink shrimp (stilettos, perhaps?) on top of one of the concrete balls on the line leading to the HB. We admired them, and then I went back and did my piling swim again, with my team following me.
We ended the dive with a bag shoot by Ross, and Ben calling deco and looking like an absolute rock star in midwater (do you hear the envy in my voice?) And we surfaced to a brilliantly clear night with the entire Seattle skyline sparkling in color, and reflected in the still, dark water. What an amazing place we have to dive, right off the shore of a major metropolitan city! It never ceases to astonish me.
Back in the parking lot, Laura had brought her car around and put water to boil, so we soon had cocoa
and of course, the obligatory Tweek brownies, and maybe a little subliminal message, too?
Good times. I love this combination of skills practice and critter-hunting, and it's a great and varied group of folks who are turning out for these dives. Thank you, Laura, for putting this together!
