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- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
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Just returned from my third trip this year to Barkley Sound and Rendezvous Lodge. Each trip was a little different ... but I think I can say this one was the best overall.
We arrived on Friday to balmy summer-like weather ... sunny and in the low 80's. Our 2-1/2 hour trip boat trip from Port Alberni to the lodge was under a moonless night sky. The warm breezes were almost tropical, and I spent the entire trip sitting on the flying bridge gazing at constellations and shooting stars that one rarely gets to see except when in a place far from civilized environs. The calm sea and warm night air held promise for a perfect day tomorrow, and we were all anticipating a great week-end of diving. And we were not disappointed.
Saturday was sunny and warm ... again more like summer than autumn as temps soared near 80. Our first dive on Saturday was Bull Rocks ... a canyonlike reef that ran roughly north-south. We anchored at the top of the reef ... at about 35 fsw, and descended down the anchor line. There was a reddish plankton bloom on the water that had vis on the upper layer down to maybe 10 feet or so ... but by the time we got to the bottom vis had opened up to maybe 50 feet or so. The reef was teeming with vast schools of rockfish of many varieties ... china, canary, tiger, yelloweye, vermillion, and others both juvenile and mature. Beautiful urticina anemones were abundant, as were cup corals, strawberry anemones, lacy bryzoans, as well as several species of encrusting sponges. We made our way slowly down the canyon to about 100 fsw before turning back, taking a shallower profile for our return. Along the way we encountered a mid-size octopus, as well as a large wolf eel. Oh yes, this trip was starting out well indeed.
After a lunch break we did our second dive at Meade Reef ... a pinnacle that starts at about 45 fsw and drops down to a sandy bottom at roughly 100 fsw. Following the reef in a counterclockwise direction we slowly spiraled down from the anchor line to rougly 85 fsw when I spotted a six-gill swimming along the sandy bottom below. Hovering to hold my depth, I watched the shark swim beneath me and Kricket (my dive buddy for this dive), then do a slow turn and start to ascend directly toward us. I have to admit it was a bit disconcerting ... this lovely female was about 8 feet long and had some distinctive scars on her snout ... I was sure hoping she didn't get those by chewing on scuba cylinders. We held our position as she swam directly at us ... then when she was only about four feet distant she veered off and swam directly beneath us and descended once again to the ocean floor, where she continued her slow journey along the reef's edge. I'd be lying if I said my heart wasn't beating just a bit faster than normal after that ... and I thought, well if nothing else happens on this trip, this encounter was worth it all. We continued our dive after that ... enjoying the great vis (50+ feet) and wonderful colors of the reef. This was my longest dive of the trip, at 59 minutes ... and well worth all of it.
Our final dive of the day was a personal favorite of mine ... Pill Point Wall. This time I buddied with JD, while Cheng buddied with Kricket. Pill Point Wall has one really interesting section where there's quite an overhang ... and if you turn over on your back you can look up about 70 feet of wall that's just covered with anemones and other critters ... and watch as your bubbles filter through all that life and make their way from there to the surface. It's rather surreal, and we hit it at a time when the sunlight was filtering down for maximum effect. JD and I made our way down the wall to about 107 fsw when he found a modest sized octopus nearly blending into the colors and textures of the wall. We stopped for pictures, then made our way back up to about 60 fsw and started back. Making a slow ascent as we went, we swam across the top of the overhanging section ... looking down I could see the bottom roughly 60 feet below me. I love that kind of diving ... it's like being in outer space.
After the dive we went back to the lodge. While Renate was preparing dinner we were treated to an entertaining show by a large pod of sea lions who were herding schools of fish just off the dock. The sun was setting behind crimson red clouds, and everyone pulled out their cameras to capture memories of an incredible sunset. Just then Renate called for dinner ... Prime Rib. Outside the sea lions were barking as they were calling for dinner too.
After dinner some of us went down to the boat to prepare our gear for tomorrow, and were treated to an altogether different show. The thick layer of plankton we'd been diving though all day proved to be incredibly bioluminescent. In fact, it was so much so that you could literally see the fish swimming under the boat by their luminent trails. Schools of herring and squid lighted up the water in weird spiraling trails close by ... and further out, massive schools created a flood light effect wherever they swam. David pulled down a kayak and launched it in the water, creating a light show worthy of a Grateful Dead concert ... all that was missing was the music. Ah, the wonders of Nature ..
Sunday proved to be the best day though. We were up bright and early, and heading off for a two-hour boat ride to the entrance to Barkley Sound ... where we'd be diving the wreck of the Vanlene. The weather had turned to autumn though, with a cool fog making it difficult to make out more than a few vague shapes as we made our way down through the Broken Islands.
Arriving in a fog, Cap'n Dave carefully maneuvered the boat into position above the wreck and lowered the anchor. Nearby rocks protruding out of the water were a clear indication of how this ship sank. We descended the anchor chain into a rubble field that was once the middle part of this nearly 500-foot long ship. Descending downslope we encountered massive steel shafts, twisted bits of wreckage, and giant pieces of hull. It was immediately obvious that this was a wreck, not an artificial reef, and looking at the amount of wreckage strewn out over an area far too large to cover in a single dive really can give a diver an appreciation for what Nature can do to something as huge and powerful as a steel ship. The stern section sits in roughly 120 fsw, along a sloping sandy bottom. She sits on her starboard side, listing at an angle of about 45 degrees, with her giant kingposts sticking up into the water column. Cheng and I swam out along the kingposts, and from the top ... and distance of maybe 50 feet or so ... looked down to see the entire stern section ... perhaps 150 feet of intact hull, sillouetted against the ambient light. Now, I should mention that vis was around 80-100 feet, and although there was no direct sunlight due to the fog above, it was quite easy to see everything. Looking down from about 75 fsw I could make out ripples in the sandy bottom nearly 50 feet below me. And looking out across that stern section I could make out the other divers, like insects, making their exporatory way across the hull. It was an awe-inspiring sight.
We finally made our way back up toward the rubble field and ended our dive. Others in our group went on to explore the bow section closer to the rocks, but we decided to save that for another time.
Our second dive of the day is still my all-time favorite dive in Barkley Sound ... Renate's Reef. Much has been written before about this particular dive, and because this is already turning into a novel I'll only mention that the life on this reef is some of the most prolific in all of Barkley Sound. For that reason it continues to be a photographer's paradise, and a great place for octopus and wolf eel encounters. However, perhaps the most auspicious thing about it on this particular day was that with the fog it was downright difficult to find. Renate's Reef sits well out into Imperial Eagle Channel, and with the fog it was difficult for Cap'n Dave to get his bearings. But with a bit of "mapping" using the bottom sounder he put us right on top of the reef and we had a great dive.
Afterward we returned for a soak in the hot tub and another of Renate's incredible meals. Once again we were entertained by the sea lions herding schools of fish ... this time they were driving them into the log boom attached to the dock, where they were easy pickings for both the sea lions and the huge flock of gulls who were there for the leftovers. It was quite a show.
Finally, it was time for our night dive at Chup Point. By now the fog had settled in thick, and we were all glad that we didn't have far to go, as Dave slowly made his way out to the point. Finding the "right" part of the reef was a bit tricky, as bottom topography here doesn't really vary much till you get right out over a wall that drops down into nothingness. So it took us a while to get situated right ... but once again Dave was slow and methodical, and put us down right where we wanted to be. Visibility topside was actually quite a bit less than visibility below the surface at this point ... and because we wanted to make sure everyone came up the anchor line we attached a strobe light to the anchor chain about 10 feet off the bottom. It worked like a charm, as you could see the strobe flash from just about anywhere on the reef.
The dive itself was almost anticlimactic after the first two dives of the day ... but still quite nice and long. For our safety stop, Cheng and I turned off our lights, and swirled our arms and legs around to make a bioluminescent light show.
Our final day started with a trip to Shark Alley. Now, several folks had told me that there's a great place to see six-gills ... but this day none were in evidence. Still it's a nice reef, with lots of corals and other things to see ... though not as prolific as many of the other sites to dive here. Still, we did find an octopus who was just downright playful. David and Chris had their gloves off and were letting it "taste" them, while others in the group snapped photos. This particular octopus was more accommodating than most, giving me the impression that it's been handled before ... it never turned colors, or tried to leave at all. It simply stretched out it's tentacles to one or the other of them, and they let it wrap around their hands and arms as it wanted. At one point it had all of it's tentacles attached to divers (even Cheng had her gloves off at that point), and was basically just stretched out like a trampoline between them. Finally it let go and settled down among the divers, and we waved "bye" and went on our way.
The final dive was Tyler Rocks, where Cheng encountered a wolf eel that tried to eat her camera. Still can't figure that one out, but the thing tried to bite the framer off the end of the camera. She startled it off by taking the picture ... which came out looking like a wolf eel's mouth. Otherwise, the best part of this dive was finding a whole lot of dendronotis iris nudis in a patch of tube anemones ... feeding, of course. There were the usual white and red ones ... but also some beautiful gold-tipped ones that I hadn't seen before. Lovely.
Finally it was time to head back to the lodge, pack, and head home. The weather had cleared, and the ride back up Barkley Sound was lovely. At one point we spotted a whale spout in the distance ... but the whale sounded well before we could get close enough to see it. Ah well ... that would've capped an incredible week-end, but I'll have to settle for having seen just the spout.
Can't wait to go back ... perhaps in February for my birthday ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
We arrived on Friday to balmy summer-like weather ... sunny and in the low 80's. Our 2-1/2 hour trip boat trip from Port Alberni to the lodge was under a moonless night sky. The warm breezes were almost tropical, and I spent the entire trip sitting on the flying bridge gazing at constellations and shooting stars that one rarely gets to see except when in a place far from civilized environs. The calm sea and warm night air held promise for a perfect day tomorrow, and we were all anticipating a great week-end of diving. And we were not disappointed.
Saturday was sunny and warm ... again more like summer than autumn as temps soared near 80. Our first dive on Saturday was Bull Rocks ... a canyonlike reef that ran roughly north-south. We anchored at the top of the reef ... at about 35 fsw, and descended down the anchor line. There was a reddish plankton bloom on the water that had vis on the upper layer down to maybe 10 feet or so ... but by the time we got to the bottom vis had opened up to maybe 50 feet or so. The reef was teeming with vast schools of rockfish of many varieties ... china, canary, tiger, yelloweye, vermillion, and others both juvenile and mature. Beautiful urticina anemones were abundant, as were cup corals, strawberry anemones, lacy bryzoans, as well as several species of encrusting sponges. We made our way slowly down the canyon to about 100 fsw before turning back, taking a shallower profile for our return. Along the way we encountered a mid-size octopus, as well as a large wolf eel. Oh yes, this trip was starting out well indeed.
After a lunch break we did our second dive at Meade Reef ... a pinnacle that starts at about 45 fsw and drops down to a sandy bottom at roughly 100 fsw. Following the reef in a counterclockwise direction we slowly spiraled down from the anchor line to rougly 85 fsw when I spotted a six-gill swimming along the sandy bottom below. Hovering to hold my depth, I watched the shark swim beneath me and Kricket (my dive buddy for this dive), then do a slow turn and start to ascend directly toward us. I have to admit it was a bit disconcerting ... this lovely female was about 8 feet long and had some distinctive scars on her snout ... I was sure hoping she didn't get those by chewing on scuba cylinders. We held our position as she swam directly at us ... then when she was only about four feet distant she veered off and swam directly beneath us and descended once again to the ocean floor, where she continued her slow journey along the reef's edge. I'd be lying if I said my heart wasn't beating just a bit faster than normal after that ... and I thought, well if nothing else happens on this trip, this encounter was worth it all. We continued our dive after that ... enjoying the great vis (50+ feet) and wonderful colors of the reef. This was my longest dive of the trip, at 59 minutes ... and well worth all of it.
Our final dive of the day was a personal favorite of mine ... Pill Point Wall. This time I buddied with JD, while Cheng buddied with Kricket. Pill Point Wall has one really interesting section where there's quite an overhang ... and if you turn over on your back you can look up about 70 feet of wall that's just covered with anemones and other critters ... and watch as your bubbles filter through all that life and make their way from there to the surface. It's rather surreal, and we hit it at a time when the sunlight was filtering down for maximum effect. JD and I made our way down the wall to about 107 fsw when he found a modest sized octopus nearly blending into the colors and textures of the wall. We stopped for pictures, then made our way back up to about 60 fsw and started back. Making a slow ascent as we went, we swam across the top of the overhanging section ... looking down I could see the bottom roughly 60 feet below me. I love that kind of diving ... it's like being in outer space.
After the dive we went back to the lodge. While Renate was preparing dinner we were treated to an entertaining show by a large pod of sea lions who were herding schools of fish just off the dock. The sun was setting behind crimson red clouds, and everyone pulled out their cameras to capture memories of an incredible sunset. Just then Renate called for dinner ... Prime Rib. Outside the sea lions were barking as they were calling for dinner too.
After dinner some of us went down to the boat to prepare our gear for tomorrow, and were treated to an altogether different show. The thick layer of plankton we'd been diving though all day proved to be incredibly bioluminescent. In fact, it was so much so that you could literally see the fish swimming under the boat by their luminent trails. Schools of herring and squid lighted up the water in weird spiraling trails close by ... and further out, massive schools created a flood light effect wherever they swam. David pulled down a kayak and launched it in the water, creating a light show worthy of a Grateful Dead concert ... all that was missing was the music. Ah, the wonders of Nature ..
Sunday proved to be the best day though. We were up bright and early, and heading off for a two-hour boat ride to the entrance to Barkley Sound ... where we'd be diving the wreck of the Vanlene. The weather had turned to autumn though, with a cool fog making it difficult to make out more than a few vague shapes as we made our way down through the Broken Islands.
Arriving in a fog, Cap'n Dave carefully maneuvered the boat into position above the wreck and lowered the anchor. Nearby rocks protruding out of the water were a clear indication of how this ship sank. We descended the anchor chain into a rubble field that was once the middle part of this nearly 500-foot long ship. Descending downslope we encountered massive steel shafts, twisted bits of wreckage, and giant pieces of hull. It was immediately obvious that this was a wreck, not an artificial reef, and looking at the amount of wreckage strewn out over an area far too large to cover in a single dive really can give a diver an appreciation for what Nature can do to something as huge and powerful as a steel ship. The stern section sits in roughly 120 fsw, along a sloping sandy bottom. She sits on her starboard side, listing at an angle of about 45 degrees, with her giant kingposts sticking up into the water column. Cheng and I swam out along the kingposts, and from the top ... and distance of maybe 50 feet or so ... looked down to see the entire stern section ... perhaps 150 feet of intact hull, sillouetted against the ambient light. Now, I should mention that vis was around 80-100 feet, and although there was no direct sunlight due to the fog above, it was quite easy to see everything. Looking down from about 75 fsw I could make out ripples in the sandy bottom nearly 50 feet below me. And looking out across that stern section I could make out the other divers, like insects, making their exporatory way across the hull. It was an awe-inspiring sight.
We finally made our way back up toward the rubble field and ended our dive. Others in our group went on to explore the bow section closer to the rocks, but we decided to save that for another time.
Our second dive of the day is still my all-time favorite dive in Barkley Sound ... Renate's Reef. Much has been written before about this particular dive, and because this is already turning into a novel I'll only mention that the life on this reef is some of the most prolific in all of Barkley Sound. For that reason it continues to be a photographer's paradise, and a great place for octopus and wolf eel encounters. However, perhaps the most auspicious thing about it on this particular day was that with the fog it was downright difficult to find. Renate's Reef sits well out into Imperial Eagle Channel, and with the fog it was difficult for Cap'n Dave to get his bearings. But with a bit of "mapping" using the bottom sounder he put us right on top of the reef and we had a great dive.
Afterward we returned for a soak in the hot tub and another of Renate's incredible meals. Once again we were entertained by the sea lions herding schools of fish ... this time they were driving them into the log boom attached to the dock, where they were easy pickings for both the sea lions and the huge flock of gulls who were there for the leftovers. It was quite a show.
Finally, it was time for our night dive at Chup Point. By now the fog had settled in thick, and we were all glad that we didn't have far to go, as Dave slowly made his way out to the point. Finding the "right" part of the reef was a bit tricky, as bottom topography here doesn't really vary much till you get right out over a wall that drops down into nothingness. So it took us a while to get situated right ... but once again Dave was slow and methodical, and put us down right where we wanted to be. Visibility topside was actually quite a bit less than visibility below the surface at this point ... and because we wanted to make sure everyone came up the anchor line we attached a strobe light to the anchor chain about 10 feet off the bottom. It worked like a charm, as you could see the strobe flash from just about anywhere on the reef.
The dive itself was almost anticlimactic after the first two dives of the day ... but still quite nice and long. For our safety stop, Cheng and I turned off our lights, and swirled our arms and legs around to make a bioluminescent light show.
Our final day started with a trip to Shark Alley. Now, several folks had told me that there's a great place to see six-gills ... but this day none were in evidence. Still it's a nice reef, with lots of corals and other things to see ... though not as prolific as many of the other sites to dive here. Still, we did find an octopus who was just downright playful. David and Chris had their gloves off and were letting it "taste" them, while others in the group snapped photos. This particular octopus was more accommodating than most, giving me the impression that it's been handled before ... it never turned colors, or tried to leave at all. It simply stretched out it's tentacles to one or the other of them, and they let it wrap around their hands and arms as it wanted. At one point it had all of it's tentacles attached to divers (even Cheng had her gloves off at that point), and was basically just stretched out like a trampoline between them. Finally it let go and settled down among the divers, and we waved "bye" and went on our way.
The final dive was Tyler Rocks, where Cheng encountered a wolf eel that tried to eat her camera. Still can't figure that one out, but the thing tried to bite the framer off the end of the camera. She startled it off by taking the picture ... which came out looking like a wolf eel's mouth. Otherwise, the best part of this dive was finding a whole lot of dendronotis iris nudis in a patch of tube anemones ... feeding, of course. There were the usual white and red ones ... but also some beautiful gold-tipped ones that I hadn't seen before. Lovely.
Finally it was time to head back to the lodge, pack, and head home. The weather had cleared, and the ride back up Barkley Sound was lovely. At one point we spotted a whale spout in the distance ... but the whale sounded well before we could get close enough to see it. Ah well ... that would've capped an incredible week-end, but I'll have to settle for having seen just the spout.
Can't wait to go back ... perhaps in February for my birthday ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
