airsix
Contributor
Hope you all don't mind another update from the arid side of Washington. 
After my first dives in Puget Sound (end of March, 1st of April) I came home and took a Nitrox course. That trip to Cove 2 was my first experience trying to cram as many dives into a short span of time as possible, and I quickly found that 'air' was cramping my style.
I did the class, but have been so busy I haven't taken time to do my checkout dives. Then last week the guys at the LDS invited me to tag along with their AOW class to Anacortes to do their checkouts. I really didn't have time but I went anyway, and I'm so glad I did. I got my sanity back!
Friday afternoon I threw everything in the trunk of the car and made a bonzai run across the state. I fell into a hotel bed in Oak Harbor around 10:30pm. At 7:00am we drove to Skyline Marina outside of Anacortes where we boarded 'Lu Jac's Quest' (Diver's Dream Charters). The Skipper, Phillip Jensen, and crewman Don were great. This was my first-ever boat dive, so I don't have anything to benchmark against, but I thought they did a fantastic job.
Dive #1 - Are we having fun yet?
It was a little over an hour to the first site. The name? Don't remember. Seas got a little rough on the way out and I started to get sea-sick, however I was able to "contain my enthusiasm". First dive was to meet the deep-dive requirement for the AOW class and wasn't intended for anyone's recreation. All I can say about that dive is it was deep. Not much else to say about it. If Cove 2 is a box of chocolates, this was a box of dirt. I saw a ling cod at a distance, a cucumber, and not much else but barren waste. And my drysuit flooded. Brrrrrr... Bobbing on the surface I remembered that I was sick.
Dive #2 - things are getting better!
After wringing out my clothes and standing in the wind to dry for a half-hour the seas calmed and my sea-sickness vanished. (HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!) I downed some chicken soup (YUM!!) and hot chocolate. I felt MUCH better now. We arrived at the second site and again the name escapes me. I believe it is an underwater volcanic cinder-cone. The top of the cone was at about 15-20ft and covered in a kelp forest. The circumfrence of the base of the cone was probably 100 or 200 yards around. This was a fun dive but not having found the source of my suit flood I was again flooded and very cold. It was a great dive though. LOTS of things to see. Most memorable were the two duelling herrmit crabs. I had no idea they could get that big. They were the size of Guinea Pigs! Dive ended with me much happier than durring/after the first dive, but still freezing.
Dive #3 - Long Island wall - Most amazing dive of my life so far
On the way to our last dive I found the source of my drysuit flood. My neck seal separated from the suit at the back of the neck. I had thought it was a zipper problem and didn't see the 2-inch hole where the seal and suit parted company. :shakehead Just wait until I get my hands on the moron who installed that seal! Oh, that's right, it was me. So anyway, I slapped a piece of duct tape over it (which didn't stick) and splashed for the third time in wet clothes and a suit with a gapping hole in it because this is an adventure, and we are men of action (also known as 'fools')! We were dropped at the West end of the wall and driffed to the cove at the East end. This dive was simply AMAZING. As we drifted along it seemed that every 10-15 feet brought a completely new eruption of color and life. First there was the anemone forest - like being surrounded by towering cumulous clouds as far as you can see in every direction! Then the anemones thinned out and suddenly we were in a school of thousands of fish. Not sure what they were - 3 inch & orange. We drifted along surrounded by them for a minute or two. We decended some more and started to explore the wall more closely when I saw my first wolf eel (first ever). Wow! His colors were such a stark contrast to the suroundings. I didn't expect him to look so vivid. And BIG! really BIG. As we drifted along some more the wall cut back into a shallow overhang and we found a section carpeted with tube worms and many small anemonies. We also saw several 2-3 inch jelly-fish that we drifted along with, watching just inches from our faces. I feel almost hypnotized just thinking about it. Lots of other things seen - too many to list. My buddy Paul and I got back on the boat and went on and on about all the things we saw. The rest of the group (who we never saw on the dive) just looked at us funny. The dive master laughed and said "you guys must have been in your own little world because we were on a different dive." Anyway, it was just spectacular. I didn't know I could be mildly hypothermic and yet so happy at the same time.
So now I'm back home and so glad I went. I am mentally and physically rejuvinated. I'm getting my suit repaired, and I am HUNGRY for more. This was a certification trip (nitrox) with no hang-out time, otherwise I would have really liked to meet up with some of you. I would still really like to do that, and hope to on the next trip.
Hope everyone else had a great weekend too.
-Ben M.
After my first dives in Puget Sound (end of March, 1st of April) I came home and took a Nitrox course. That trip to Cove 2 was my first experience trying to cram as many dives into a short span of time as possible, and I quickly found that 'air' was cramping my style.
I did the class, but have been so busy I haven't taken time to do my checkout dives. Then last week the guys at the LDS invited me to tag along with their AOW class to Anacortes to do their checkouts. I really didn't have time but I went anyway, and I'm so glad I did. I got my sanity back!
Friday afternoon I threw everything in the trunk of the car and made a bonzai run across the state. I fell into a hotel bed in Oak Harbor around 10:30pm. At 7:00am we drove to Skyline Marina outside of Anacortes where we boarded 'Lu Jac's Quest' (Diver's Dream Charters). The Skipper, Phillip Jensen, and crewman Don were great. This was my first-ever boat dive, so I don't have anything to benchmark against, but I thought they did a fantastic job.
Dive #1 - Are we having fun yet?
It was a little over an hour to the first site. The name? Don't remember. Seas got a little rough on the way out and I started to get sea-sick, however I was able to "contain my enthusiasm". First dive was to meet the deep-dive requirement for the AOW class and wasn't intended for anyone's recreation. All I can say about that dive is it was deep. Not much else to say about it. If Cove 2 is a box of chocolates, this was a box of dirt. I saw a ling cod at a distance, a cucumber, and not much else but barren waste. And my drysuit flooded. Brrrrrr... Bobbing on the surface I remembered that I was sick.
Dive #2 - things are getting better!
After wringing out my clothes and standing in the wind to dry for a half-hour the seas calmed and my sea-sickness vanished. (HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!) I downed some chicken soup (YUM!!) and hot chocolate. I felt MUCH better now. We arrived at the second site and again the name escapes me. I believe it is an underwater volcanic cinder-cone. The top of the cone was at about 15-20ft and covered in a kelp forest. The circumfrence of the base of the cone was probably 100 or 200 yards around. This was a fun dive but not having found the source of my suit flood I was again flooded and very cold. It was a great dive though. LOTS of things to see. Most memorable were the two duelling herrmit crabs. I had no idea they could get that big. They were the size of Guinea Pigs! Dive ended with me much happier than durring/after the first dive, but still freezing.
Dive #3 - Long Island wall - Most amazing dive of my life so far
On the way to our last dive I found the source of my drysuit flood. My neck seal separated from the suit at the back of the neck. I had thought it was a zipper problem and didn't see the 2-inch hole where the seal and suit parted company. :shakehead Just wait until I get my hands on the moron who installed that seal! Oh, that's right, it was me. So anyway, I slapped a piece of duct tape over it (which didn't stick) and splashed for the third time in wet clothes and a suit with a gapping hole in it because this is an adventure, and we are men of action (also known as 'fools')! We were dropped at the West end of the wall and driffed to the cove at the East end. This dive was simply AMAZING. As we drifted along it seemed that every 10-15 feet brought a completely new eruption of color and life. First there was the anemone forest - like being surrounded by towering cumulous clouds as far as you can see in every direction! Then the anemones thinned out and suddenly we were in a school of thousands of fish. Not sure what they were - 3 inch & orange. We drifted along surrounded by them for a minute or two. We decended some more and started to explore the wall more closely when I saw my first wolf eel (first ever). Wow! His colors were such a stark contrast to the suroundings. I didn't expect him to look so vivid. And BIG! really BIG. As we drifted along some more the wall cut back into a shallow overhang and we found a section carpeted with tube worms and many small anemonies. We also saw several 2-3 inch jelly-fish that we drifted along with, watching just inches from our faces. I feel almost hypnotized just thinking about it. Lots of other things seen - too many to list. My buddy Paul and I got back on the boat and went on and on about all the things we saw. The rest of the group (who we never saw on the dive) just looked at us funny. The dive master laughed and said "you guys must have been in your own little world because we were on a different dive." Anyway, it was just spectacular. I didn't know I could be mildly hypothermic and yet so happy at the same time.
So now I'm back home and so glad I went. I am mentally and physically rejuvinated. I'm getting my suit repaired, and I am HUNGRY for more. This was a certification trip (nitrox) with no hang-out time, otherwise I would have really liked to meet up with some of you. I would still really like to do that, and hope to on the next trip.
Hope everyone else had a great weekend too.
-Ben M.
