I met Grandpa Curt today at Mukilteo for our Tuesday dive.
The wind was coming from the north and there was some wave action but nothing we haven't done before... except there were quite a few logs from the recent flooding.
High tide was still an hour and a half away but the waves were bringing the water right up to the steps.
Usually this is a very easy entry site and that is why we like it for our quick Tuesday afternoon dives. However this time Grandpa Curt had to crawl on his hands and knees into the waves to start the dive.
We dropped down and once below 20' the surge was gone and the viz opened up. The plan was to putz around at 60' but to stay well away from the old T-dock (which is actually an I-dock these days) as I figured with the wave action it was entirely possible that the end of the I would collapse and join the rest of the T on the bottom.
I didn't want to be under it when it came down.
We ended back in the 30' area after about a half hour and I noticed that the viz was gone and there was a strong surge.
Uh oh. After cogitating on it for a couple of minutes I gave GC the finger/thumb... finger pointing the direction that we should go to egress.
I figured that the wind had built and we must have some serious wave action over us. Not only that but there was probably a lot of log action too and with high tide we only had a narrow window to get out of the water.
If we were too far East we would be pushed against the rocks and probably a lot of logs as well. If we were too far to the West we might get rolled under the walkway around the hotel. The exit opportunity was only about 50' wide.
By the time we got into 15' of water there was 0 viz and it was a washing machine. GC and I were able to surface right in front of the steps. Fortunately a couple of other divers who were getting ready when we went in decided to call their dive when they saw the waves building. They also decided to stick around to help us get back out of the water... Thanks Guys!!!
If we had stayed down for our usual hour dive I really don't think we would have made it out without getting hurt.
This was a freak storm that came in fast and ended up knocking out power to 60-70K homes... including mine (I'm on generator power right now.)
I called my wife after the dive and told her about the building waves and also told her that I thought the resturant (Ivar's) next to the hotel should get the folks out from in front of the windows because I was sure they would end up taking a wave through them.
On my way home I heard on the radio that is indeed what ended up happening.
here is the local newspaper's report about it.
The wind was coming from the north and there was some wave action but nothing we haven't done before... except there were quite a few logs from the recent flooding.
High tide was still an hour and a half away but the waves were bringing the water right up to the steps.
Usually this is a very easy entry site and that is why we like it for our quick Tuesday afternoon dives. However this time Grandpa Curt had to crawl on his hands and knees into the waves to start the dive.
We dropped down and once below 20' the surge was gone and the viz opened up. The plan was to putz around at 60' but to stay well away from the old T-dock (which is actually an I-dock these days) as I figured with the wave action it was entirely possible that the end of the I would collapse and join the rest of the T on the bottom.
I didn't want to be under it when it came down.
We ended back in the 30' area after about a half hour and I noticed that the viz was gone and there was a strong surge.
Uh oh. After cogitating on it for a couple of minutes I gave GC the finger/thumb... finger pointing the direction that we should go to egress.
I figured that the wind had built and we must have some serious wave action over us. Not only that but there was probably a lot of log action too and with high tide we only had a narrow window to get out of the water.
If we were too far East we would be pushed against the rocks and probably a lot of logs as well. If we were too far to the West we might get rolled under the walkway around the hotel. The exit opportunity was only about 50' wide.
By the time we got into 15' of water there was 0 viz and it was a washing machine. GC and I were able to surface right in front of the steps. Fortunately a couple of other divers who were getting ready when we went in decided to call their dive when they saw the waves building. They also decided to stick around to help us get back out of the water... Thanks Guys!!!
If we had stayed down for our usual hour dive I really don't think we would have made it out without getting hurt.
This was a freak storm that came in fast and ended up knocking out power to 60-70K homes... including mine (I'm on generator power right now.)
I called my wife after the dive and told her about the building waves and also told her that I thought the resturant (Ivar's) next to the hotel should get the folks out from in front of the windows because I was sure they would end up taking a wave through them.
On my way home I heard on the radio that is indeed what ended up happening.
here is the local newspaper's report about it.
