- Messages
- 93,278
- Reaction score
- 91,294
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
What do you suppose is the last thing a crab gets to see before it dies?
Probably something like this ...
I was down in Hood Canal yesterday with three of my diving buddies. We went to a site I hadn't been to since about 2004 ... a pinnacle called "Flagpole" ... so named because it sits out about a hundred yards off a rocky point with a flagpole on it. This was also my first time doing this dive from shore, as it's a bit of a swim out to the pinnacle ... which is called "The Knuckle". The top of the pinnacle sits at about 60 fsw, and it drops down a steep slope to about 130. The site is known for cloud sponges, which is what we were going to see.
We picked a perfect day for it ... there was no wind, and the surface was glass-flat, making the 10-minute surface swim out to the buoy easier than usual (next time I'm bringing a scooter). Dropping down the buoy line I was delighted to see that we were going to have pretty good visibility ... I could clearly make out the bottom about 30 feet before we got there. Taking a moment to make sure everyone was squared away, we proceeded down the slope toward the cloud sponges ... which start at about 80 fsw. At about 95 fsw I found a particularly large and lovely cluster, so I stopped to take some pictures ...
After a couple shots I decided to get my dive buddy in the picture for scale. But I noticed he was about 15 feet away, taking pictures of something. So I wandered over to see what it was ...
I cruised in for some shots, hoping to not spook him. But when they're this big, they're not typically concerned about divers ... even when said divers are shining their big-ass HID lights where they shouldn't oughtta ...
After a while he decided he'd had enough of the papparazi and flicked a warning tentacle our way ... letting us know it was time to back off ...
So we decided to leave it to its hunting and move on ... we were by then at about 105 fsw, and wanted some time to check out the sponges. But before we went too far we found something even better ... a very large pair of octos in the act of doing "the act" ... ah, love is in the air. Cue the tinkling of wine glasses, soft music, loving caresses ... and about 200 lbs of calamari ...
Heading back upslope, we found the cloud sponges we'd come down here looking for ...
Moving on, we came across octopus #4 ... this one clearly not wanting our companionship ... I called him Mr. Angry ...
Eventually we had to head shallow, and toward shore ... visiting a smaller pinnacle that went from about 65 fsw to about 30. This pinnacle was just covered with plumose anemones ... and nested among them we found octopus #5 of the dive ... sound asleep ...
This has got to be one of the goofiest shots of an octopus I've ever taken ... his tentacles are curled up like little "feet" underneat him ...
We made our way back to shore, and after about an hour and half surface interval, decided to go check out a shallow reef on the opposite side of the point. It was a fairly long swim over a silty bottom to get there, and except for the occasional rock and sand anemone, a pretty uneventful first 20 minutes. Then we hit the structure and found our sixth octopus of the day ... this one also nestled in among the anemones.
... and, finally, no self-respecting Hood Canal dive would be complete without at least one wolf eel ... which is the only one we found on this day ...
Overall, an awesome day of diving ... it's usually pretty special when you can find an octopus out roaming around during the day. To find six out in the open on the same day is about as special as it gets ... I feel very fortunate to have experienced it ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Probably something like this ...
I was down in Hood Canal yesterday with three of my diving buddies. We went to a site I hadn't been to since about 2004 ... a pinnacle called "Flagpole" ... so named because it sits out about a hundred yards off a rocky point with a flagpole on it. This was also my first time doing this dive from shore, as it's a bit of a swim out to the pinnacle ... which is called "The Knuckle". The top of the pinnacle sits at about 60 fsw, and it drops down a steep slope to about 130. The site is known for cloud sponges, which is what we were going to see.
We picked a perfect day for it ... there was no wind, and the surface was glass-flat, making the 10-minute surface swim out to the buoy easier than usual (next time I'm bringing a scooter). Dropping down the buoy line I was delighted to see that we were going to have pretty good visibility ... I could clearly make out the bottom about 30 feet before we got there. Taking a moment to make sure everyone was squared away, we proceeded down the slope toward the cloud sponges ... which start at about 80 fsw. At about 95 fsw I found a particularly large and lovely cluster, so I stopped to take some pictures ...
After a couple shots I decided to get my dive buddy in the picture for scale. But I noticed he was about 15 feet away, taking pictures of something. So I wandered over to see what it was ...
I cruised in for some shots, hoping to not spook him. But when they're this big, they're not typically concerned about divers ... even when said divers are shining their big-ass HID lights where they shouldn't oughtta ...
After a while he decided he'd had enough of the papparazi and flicked a warning tentacle our way ... letting us know it was time to back off ...
So we decided to leave it to its hunting and move on ... we were by then at about 105 fsw, and wanted some time to check out the sponges. But before we went too far we found something even better ... a very large pair of octos in the act of doing "the act" ... ah, love is in the air. Cue the tinkling of wine glasses, soft music, loving caresses ... and about 200 lbs of calamari ...
Heading back upslope, we found the cloud sponges we'd come down here looking for ...
Moving on, we came across octopus #4 ... this one clearly not wanting our companionship ... I called him Mr. Angry ...
Eventually we had to head shallow, and toward shore ... visiting a smaller pinnacle that went from about 65 fsw to about 30. This pinnacle was just covered with plumose anemones ... and nested among them we found octopus #5 of the dive ... sound asleep ...
This has got to be one of the goofiest shots of an octopus I've ever taken ... his tentacles are curled up like little "feet" underneat him ...
We made our way back to shore, and after about an hour and half surface interval, decided to go check out a shallow reef on the opposite side of the point. It was a fairly long swim over a silty bottom to get there, and except for the occasional rock and sand anemone, a pretty uneventful first 20 minutes. Then we hit the structure and found our sixth octopus of the day ... this one also nestled in among the anemones.
... and, finally, no self-respecting Hood Canal dive would be complete without at least one wolf eel ... which is the only one we found on this day ...
Overall, an awesome day of diving ... it's usually pretty special when you can find an octopus out roaming around during the day. To find six out in the open on the same day is about as special as it gets ... I feel very fortunate to have experienced it ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
