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A buddy and I dove Yarrow Point on Monday as an exploration dive. This point is on Saanich Inlet north of Henderson Point and south of Deep Cove. On the east side of the point is Coles Bay and the west side is the inlet.
There is a really good writeup with pictures and a map on swankenstein's site.
To get there, drive north from Victoria to the airport turnoff, turn left and keep going straight on Mactavish to the T intersection at the end, turn right and then left at the Ardmore Golf Course. Keep going past the course until the T intersection and turn left down the 'no-thru' road.
The better entry is via the public access trail on your right that leads to the inlet. Due to heavy winds from the southwest we went to the end of the road and found a short trail leading to the Coles Bay side of the point. The trail is okay but narrow and the entry is really easy.
The heavy wind and south-to-north current was driving water into Coles Bay on the east side. This meant the current was coming back down the west side of the bay so it carried us toward the point. Once we went around the point the current was carrying us north toward Deep Cove. It was not bad, just noticeable.
Depth on the east side of the point was 15-20' max. Vis was maybe 10' max.
Our plan was to swim south and then turn right around the point. There is a little island just west of the point and we were going to circumnavigate it clockwise and return. As we swam around the south side of the islet, we found that there is actually a sequence of small islets/shallows running west so we kept swimming west to the second islet. This one had lots of seals on it and one swam around us to check us out.
Max depth west of Yarrow was 30' and the vis was no better than the bay side - we did not get far enough west to find the deeper reefs. I think the north side of the islet chain might be the better bet.
We turned around and swam around the west/north sides of the first islet and back toward the point. The current carried us a little north so we hit the west side of the point, turned right and swam back around. In retrospect it would have been easier to head for the beach access trail and walk back to the vehicle.
If anyone wants to try this dive, watch the current. Bring a compass and be familiar with the geography/hydrography because there is some distance involved.
I would try it again, but would enter from the west side of the point and swim west to southwest looking for the deeper reefs.
There is a really good writeup with pictures and a map on swankenstein's site.
To get there, drive north from Victoria to the airport turnoff, turn left and keep going straight on Mactavish to the T intersection at the end, turn right and then left at the Ardmore Golf Course. Keep going past the course until the T intersection and turn left down the 'no-thru' road.
The better entry is via the public access trail on your right that leads to the inlet. Due to heavy winds from the southwest we went to the end of the road and found a short trail leading to the Coles Bay side of the point. The trail is okay but narrow and the entry is really easy.
The heavy wind and south-to-north current was driving water into Coles Bay on the east side. This meant the current was coming back down the west side of the bay so it carried us toward the point. Once we went around the point the current was carrying us north toward Deep Cove. It was not bad, just noticeable.
Depth on the east side of the point was 15-20' max. Vis was maybe 10' max.
Our plan was to swim south and then turn right around the point. There is a little island just west of the point and we were going to circumnavigate it clockwise and return. As we swam around the south side of the islet, we found that there is actually a sequence of small islets/shallows running west so we kept swimming west to the second islet. This one had lots of seals on it and one swam around us to check us out.
Max depth west of Yarrow was 30' and the vis was no better than the bay side - we did not get far enough west to find the deeper reefs. I think the north side of the islet chain might be the better bet.
We turned around and swam around the west/north sides of the first islet and back toward the point. The current carried us a little north so we hit the west side of the point, turned right and swam back around. In retrospect it would have been easier to head for the beach access trail and walk back to the vehicle.
If anyone wants to try this dive, watch the current. Bring a compass and be familiar with the geography/hydrography because there is some distance involved.
I would try it again, but would enter from the west side of the point and swim west to southwest looking for the deeper reefs.
