this is why I dive ....

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MXGratefulDiver

Mental toss flycoon
ScubaBoard Supporter
Scuba Instructor
Messages
92,879
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Location
On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
# of dives
2500 - 4999
Today I had one of my better diving days of the year. I picked up TSandM at around 8:30 and headed north for about 90 miles to one of the area's more interesting dive sites ... Skyline Wall. This site can only be dived during certain conditions ... slack before ebb on a moderate exchange ... because any other condition results in you getting flushed out of Burrows Pass, and at that point you'd better have your passport, because the next stop is probably some little island off the Canadian coast. We met up with another friend, Sandra, and the three of us would be bringing cameras and scooters ... the former because the wall is usually packed with life and the latter for "insurance" ... just in case the current didn't read the same chart we did.

The dive started in a rather unusual way ... in fact, I can honestly call this a first ... we're in the water, doing our buddy checks. Sandra ... who is on a rebreather ... is doing a bubble check with Lynne, and I'm waiting my turn. Suddenly I felt something move on my head ... and then again ... it felt like little feet! "Hey guys ... is there a bird on my head"? Sandra and Lynne looked at me and both of them immediately reached for their camera, laughing hysterically. This silly little bird had found a nice perch on top of my hood. If the pictures turn out, I may have a new avatar. The bird then flew over to Lynne and landed on her hood ... but only stayed long enough to make a deposit, and then flew off. Uh ... Lynne ... I think we'd better get in the water and wash that off.

We scootered out to a kelp bed in about 20 feet of water at the end of the beach and dropped down to the base of the wall. Hmmm ... it appears we got there a bit early ... there was still a bit of current. But the visibility was awesome ... easily the best I've ever seen at this site. Dappled sunlight was filtering down through the kelp fronds above us, and we almost didn't even need our dive lights to bring out the colorful reds and oranges of the creeping pedal sea cucumbers or the spectacular yellows and ivorys of the sponges that filled just about every available space on the wall. So we clipped off the scoots and let the current take us for a ride out along the wall. Problem is, as we got further along the wall, the current only got stronger. Hmmm ... this ain't supposed to happen. Fifteen minutes later, we've been turned every which way but loose, and when we hit a sudden downwelling, the three of us looked at each other and almost simultaneously tossed a thumb skyward ... this wasn't working for us.

Even with scooters the ride up the wall proved interesting, between what was now washing machine current and trying to avoid getting tangled in the bull kelp. But up the wall we went ... Lynne in the lead, me slightly behind, and Sandra behind me. Or at least ... I THOUGHT Sandra was behind me. I could hear her scooter ... but when I turned around, she wasn't there. We surfaced, and a few seconds later she surfaced about 40 feet away. Some fishermen on shore hurriedly reeled in their lines so that we could reconnect without having to worry about hooks and fishing line (thanks guys, that was considerate). Turned out Sandra had an issue with her rebreather that had resulted in her O2 bottle freeflowing into her loop, and she was on her bailout and done for the day. Lynne and I wanted to try again ... convinced that we'd just mistimed the slack, because by now there didn't seen to be any current. We stayed on the surface and watched Sandra scooter back to shore, and when she stood up we went back down to try it again. This time was completely different ... the current had died completely. We had got in about 30 minutes too early. Oh well ... that's why they call 'em "predictions". Our dive was short ... only about 25 minutes on the wall ... but absolutely stunning. We kicked the whole dive ... both ways ... no need for the scooters whatsoever. And with the vis and sunlight, the best views were beyond the ability of our cameras to capture ... but they were memorable. Best Skyline dive ever.

We came back playing in the shallows ... sunlight in the eel grass, which was absolutely covered in what looked to be some kind of eggs (eel grass is always a nursery). Sandra was waiting on the beach when we came in ... and informed us that she was done for the day ... no second dive ... which was disappointing, because we were planning to hit one of my other favorite dives later in the afternoon ... Northwest Island.

(more to follow in part 2)
 
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Northwest Island is about 15 miles from Skyline ... near one of Puget Sound's more interesting features ... Deception Pass. The entry is off a beach inside a state park, and it's about a 10-minute scooter ride from the beach to the island. The reef around the island gets progressively interesting (and deeper) as you head out away from shore ... but for the scooter ride out you generally aim for the shallow side, and make your way to the deep side once you're out there ... because if you try for the deep side and miss, it's a long ride until you hit anything interesting. I'd had some reservations about doing this dive because of concerns about current (particularly after the first dive), and had been proposing a nearby site as an alternative ... but we decided since we'd only used about 10 minutes of trigger time on the first dive we had plenty of battery left in case we needed to turn ... what the hell, let's go for it.

The vis for the ride out wasn't pretty ... maybe 10-12 feet ... which was plenty sufficient, but after the first dive I was hoping for better. We got to the shallow side of the island right on time, and turned the scooters northwest to make our way toward the deeper side, and when we started hitting colorful boulderfields, we clipped off the scoots and broke out the cameras. Well, the vis cleared nicely and we spent the next hour finding and snapping pictures of some of my favorite and most colorful Puget Sound macro critters ... colorful crabs, shrimp, nudibranchs and other inverterbrates. I found a nice sized cockerell's dorid ... which I find maybe once a year in all my Puget Sound diving ... and Lynne definitely heard me hooting and hollering into my reg when that happened. We had clusters of lovely clown dorids to look at and take pictures of. And more than a dozen candy-striped shrimp, which are always a treat. As you head deeper, the reef turns almost wall-like, and is just covered in sea cucumbers, sponges, hydroids, and anemones ... all of which provide food and shelter for some of the coolest critters in Puget Sound. By the time we turned the dive, Lynne had shot till her camera battery died. Mine still had some life, but I figured by the time we got to the beach this was gonna be a 70-minute dive ... and with the long drive home, that was enough. Best part was that we got almost none of the current we'd been expecting.

We came out of the water very pleased with how the day had gone. I'll download some pics in the morning ... and hopefully Lynne will too. Awesome day ... and to think ... it all started with a bird on my head ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
It was a good title for the thread, Bob. This is why I dive, and this is why I have the equipment and the training I have. Bob is glorying in understatement about the first dive . . . the current was vicious, and when it began to head straight down, it was almost scary. Knowing I was in the water with two equally experienced and well-equipped folks helped, but I was NOT a happy camper when we lost the rebreather diver, who is most likely to have issues with overexertion at depth. I can't describe my relief when we were all reunited -- but we all followed protocol, which was what made it come out okay.

The subsequent dive was almost surreal. I have done this site a handful of times, and it's always been fun, but the visibility is notoriously poor. Not today! We had beautiful sunlight down to 70 feet, giving us amazing vistas of the dramatic topography and the riotous color that Skyline is known for. I hated to turn the dive where I did, but the current was coming back, and we'd already been whopped upside the head about that once during the dive . . . But we meandered back, and positively moseyed through the shallow part of the dive. Normally, one dives for animals. But the slope back to the beach was a plant dive -- eelgrass in bright green, festooned with an overgrowth of dark red leafy algae, and a carpet beneath us of deep red and bright green sea lettuce, punctuated with gold, and overflown by a myriad of water jellies. In four feet of water, we looked at one another, and neither wanted to be the one to end this magical dive.

The Northwest Island dive was a nickel in the slot machine. We were off slack and knew it; talked over the risks and the contingency plans, and decided to go for it. Several years ago, I took what wasn't initially a class, but proved to be one, from Andrew Georgitsis. At the end, he said to us, "Take what you've learned and go dive, and let the ocean hand your butts to you." We'd already had a taste of that the first dive, but I was up for a challenge. And I'm so glad we went for the gold ring, because we caught it. A site new to me, with beautiful topography and a density of life that left one unsure where to focus, because everything was fascinating. THIS was the kind of dive for which I bought a scooter -- I suppose we could have surface swum out there, but had any current come up, we could have been in a world of hurt. The scooters gave us insurance and power, and the ability to do a fantastic 70 minute dive on an amazing site.

And, of course, my buddy was Bob . . . who picked me up on my 20th dive and began the process of making me a diver. This was particularly poignant, because I dove with my original OW instructor on Thursday. I was having a deja vu week, I guess.
 
Great report guys, a mix of being jealous and a great picture you painted of the day. Thanks for posting.
 
Two of my favorite dive buddies in the whole world get together and dive the best parts of some of my favorite diving anywhere, and then write about it. Y'all just made my day :)
 
Pics or it didn't happen! :)

As you wish ... a pictorial review of our day ...

Me with a bird on my head ... picture by TSandM ...
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I don't normally take pictures of ling cod ... but this fellow was just posing for one ...
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A Red Irish Lord perches on a sponge ...
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In the shallows ... and unfortunately too much ambient light to avoid the backscatter ... a Lynnefish stares at a jellyfish ...
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My prize from the second dive ... a cockerell's dorid ... this guy was HUGE ... almost an inch long ...
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A clown dorid perches on a hydroid ... surrounded by color ...
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A gaggle of clown dorids ... these exquisite little creatures live for two things ... feeding and, um ... reproduction. Since they're hermaphrodites, you can imagine the possibilities going on here ... LET'S PARTY!
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This isn't my best picture of a candy-striped shrimp ... but it's the best one I took yesterday. They're tiny, skittish, and when you can manage a good picture of one, you've accomplished something ...
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Enjoy ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
there's a song jameson loves that now has new lyrics - 'bob has a bird on his head, bob has a bird on his head, booo-00b has a bird on his heaaadd, and he keeps it there all day!' it's 'pig on her head' by laurie berkner if you want to try to google the original.
 
This is the kind of report and diving that keeps the rest of us excited about the sport, even while we're dry.

Thanks for sharing the pictorial words and the photographs.

:thumb:
 
Bob, you identified the underwater critters, but not the bird !

Great description and pix.
 

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