scubakat
Senior Member
This past weekend I was pleased to have 13 divers join me to at Porpoise Bay Charters for some of the best cold water diving in North America.
My buddy & I had to work a bit on Friday morning so we started out from Redmond at 11am. The weather was quite nasty and we had to stop to replace my windshield wipers in Ferndale. We arrived at Horseshoe Bay in time to get some take-out and board the 3:30 ferry. Our goal to arrive at Porpoise Bay by 5pm was stymied by heavy traffic on the ferry.
Eight divers from the group arrived early and took in a shore dive off of Lambs Island to get warmed up for the trip. They were ready & waiting for us when we arrived. We hustled to unload & assemble gear and get into out drysuits before we took off on the boat to Snake Island for our first dive.
After shaking out some weight & light issues my buddy & I dropped in to find sea stars, dahlia anemones, sea cucumbers, feather stars, and other colorful invertebrates. We were worried that three days of heavy rain might have made for poor visibility. You will hear no complaints from me; visibility was fifty feet at its worst!
The next morning, after a hearty breakfast of sausages & blueberry pancakes, we headed off to the HMCS Chaudiere. Like the previous day the weather was not cooperating, and it was rainy and gray. Staying dry while gearing up at the dock was no easy task.
The boat & skiffs tied up to the mooring buoy over the 366-foot destroyer escort. The Chaud rests on its port side in 120fsw. We dropped down the mooring line attached to the midship and reached the deck at about 70 fsw. My buddy and I decided to keep a conservative profile and headed toward the stern. The massive superstructure and prop shafts are a haven for invertebrate life. Lightbulb ascidians covered portions of the ship. The creature looks like an inverted test tube filled with a pearly goo and an opaque center. I was not sure if it was flora or fauna! Schools of small perch wafted around us. Our bottom time seemed very short because of the depth and square profile and we returned to the upline to complete our ascent and safety stop.
On our next dive at Stag Wall Kal cautioned us to manage our buoyancy carefully. In places the shear wall was bottomless. Red fur crabs or hairy lithoid crabs (not sure which!) were hiding in the cracks and a strange looking tunicate on a stalk dangled from many rocks. Herds of snails huddled over beds of small barnacles.
I sat out the last dive of the day, but here is Bob Bs account. Our final dive of the day was Tzoonie Narrows a drift dive. For the most part, this is a fairly mild drift dive, but the current is variable and almost everyone in our group was taken by surprise by an upwelling that existed at one spot. Several of our party went right to the surface at that point, while Cheng and I managed to swim out of it although we did get shot up from 30 fsw to about 10 fsw in the process. Although we didn't take the camera with us, we did see a lot more life forms on this dive, including a hairy lithodid (basically a crab that looks a lot like a greenish-brown tarantula), tons and tons of different types of whelks, massive clusters of sea stars (all piled on top of each other), feather stars, tube worms and feather dusters, tons of rockfish and kelp greenling, and many ling cod protecting egg masses. After a variable, and very pleasant ride, the current dumped into a small, shallow inlet that made a perfect pickup spot for the boat. Those of us who were so inclined could use up our spare air swimming around at safety-stop depth exploring the pebbled bottom while the rest of the crew got situated into the boat. This is a perfect place for a less-experienced diver to get acclimated to drift diving and a great way to end a long diving day.
We ended the day with a feast of steaks on the grill, salad, veggie lasagna, and a raspberry cheesecake for desert. (Can you tell I like to eat almost as much as I like to dive?
Sunday brought out the sunshine we were all waiting for. Crisp & clear, there was a sheet of ice on the dock & everything left out on the boat was covered with a thin layer. We headed for the Chaudiere for another dive. This time on our way down a seal joined us. He swooped around the wreck and through the schools of perch as though he was amused with our presence and cumbersome SCUBA rigs. We enjoyed interacting with some other divers as well as the marine life on this dive. We surfaced very slowly and entertained ourselves with charades at a long safety stop.
For the last dive of the trip Kal took us to Sakinaw Rock, a pinnacle just offshore. We dropped in to about 60fsw and spiraled our way around the rock. I saw a brown barrel-shaped sponge that was about six inches in diameter. Many ling cod defended their egg masses and starfish and nudibranch lazed around. Big greenlings, juvenile yelloweye rockfish, and docile painted greenling were abundant. Here you could see the fresh water swirling in to the saltwater. We made up for short bottom times on the Chaud by putting in a 61 minute dive at Sakinaw. When Kal & Steve helped us back in the boat they were pleased to gloat that they the Canadians had just taken Gold over the US in hockey. . . OH CANADA!!!
Kal, Ann, & Steve did everything to make this a wonderful trip. I had a great weekend & hope to return to Porpoise Bay and the Sunshine Coast very soon
WetDane made it & I had the pleasure of meeting our very own Uncle Pug & his crew & hope to dive with them again soon!
-kate
My buddy & I had to work a bit on Friday morning so we started out from Redmond at 11am. The weather was quite nasty and we had to stop to replace my windshield wipers in Ferndale. We arrived at Horseshoe Bay in time to get some take-out and board the 3:30 ferry. Our goal to arrive at Porpoise Bay by 5pm was stymied by heavy traffic on the ferry.
Eight divers from the group arrived early and took in a shore dive off of Lambs Island to get warmed up for the trip. They were ready & waiting for us when we arrived. We hustled to unload & assemble gear and get into out drysuits before we took off on the boat to Snake Island for our first dive.
After shaking out some weight & light issues my buddy & I dropped in to find sea stars, dahlia anemones, sea cucumbers, feather stars, and other colorful invertebrates. We were worried that three days of heavy rain might have made for poor visibility. You will hear no complaints from me; visibility was fifty feet at its worst!
The next morning, after a hearty breakfast of sausages & blueberry pancakes, we headed off to the HMCS Chaudiere. Like the previous day the weather was not cooperating, and it was rainy and gray. Staying dry while gearing up at the dock was no easy task.
The boat & skiffs tied up to the mooring buoy over the 366-foot destroyer escort. The Chaud rests on its port side in 120fsw. We dropped down the mooring line attached to the midship and reached the deck at about 70 fsw. My buddy and I decided to keep a conservative profile and headed toward the stern. The massive superstructure and prop shafts are a haven for invertebrate life. Lightbulb ascidians covered portions of the ship. The creature looks like an inverted test tube filled with a pearly goo and an opaque center. I was not sure if it was flora or fauna! Schools of small perch wafted around us. Our bottom time seemed very short because of the depth and square profile and we returned to the upline to complete our ascent and safety stop.
On our next dive at Stag Wall Kal cautioned us to manage our buoyancy carefully. In places the shear wall was bottomless. Red fur crabs or hairy lithoid crabs (not sure which!) were hiding in the cracks and a strange looking tunicate on a stalk dangled from many rocks. Herds of snails huddled over beds of small barnacles.
I sat out the last dive of the day, but here is Bob Bs account. Our final dive of the day was Tzoonie Narrows a drift dive. For the most part, this is a fairly mild drift dive, but the current is variable and almost everyone in our group was taken by surprise by an upwelling that existed at one spot. Several of our party went right to the surface at that point, while Cheng and I managed to swim out of it although we did get shot up from 30 fsw to about 10 fsw in the process. Although we didn't take the camera with us, we did see a lot more life forms on this dive, including a hairy lithodid (basically a crab that looks a lot like a greenish-brown tarantula), tons and tons of different types of whelks, massive clusters of sea stars (all piled on top of each other), feather stars, tube worms and feather dusters, tons of rockfish and kelp greenling, and many ling cod protecting egg masses. After a variable, and very pleasant ride, the current dumped into a small, shallow inlet that made a perfect pickup spot for the boat. Those of us who were so inclined could use up our spare air swimming around at safety-stop depth exploring the pebbled bottom while the rest of the crew got situated into the boat. This is a perfect place for a less-experienced diver to get acclimated to drift diving and a great way to end a long diving day.
We ended the day with a feast of steaks on the grill, salad, veggie lasagna, and a raspberry cheesecake for desert. (Can you tell I like to eat almost as much as I like to dive?
Sunday brought out the sunshine we were all waiting for. Crisp & clear, there was a sheet of ice on the dock & everything left out on the boat was covered with a thin layer. We headed for the Chaudiere for another dive. This time on our way down a seal joined us. He swooped around the wreck and through the schools of perch as though he was amused with our presence and cumbersome SCUBA rigs. We enjoyed interacting with some other divers as well as the marine life on this dive. We surfaced very slowly and entertained ourselves with charades at a long safety stop.
For the last dive of the trip Kal took us to Sakinaw Rock, a pinnacle just offshore. We dropped in to about 60fsw and spiraled our way around the rock. I saw a brown barrel-shaped sponge that was about six inches in diameter. Many ling cod defended their egg masses and starfish and nudibranch lazed around. Big greenlings, juvenile yelloweye rockfish, and docile painted greenling were abundant. Here you could see the fresh water swirling in to the saltwater. We made up for short bottom times on the Chaud by putting in a 61 minute dive at Sakinaw. When Kal & Steve helped us back in the boat they were pleased to gloat that they the Canadians had just taken Gold over the US in hockey. . . OH CANADA!!!
Kal, Ann, & Steve did everything to make this a wonderful trip. I had a great weekend & hope to return to Porpoise Bay and the Sunshine Coast very soon
WetDane made it & I had the pleasure of meeting our very own Uncle Pug & his crew & hope to dive with them again soon!
-kate
