Friday December 30 - Underwater scooters - Got Air?

     This was one of the few times I worried about running out of air.  In the end it was not my main concern.  Today was the day to try out the Torpedo underwater scooter (DPV).  After a short rundown on the operation of the vehicle we headed down to the water with a goal of exploring South of the Rockaway deep reef at 100 feet.  The scooters would be perfect for just this sort of operation.  On the surface I used the scooter to get out to the buoy before dropping down onto the line.  So far so good and it seemed fairly intuitive to use.  The plan was for me to take Ryan, Lucas and I down to the deep reef then we'd separate by 5 feet between us with myself in the middle and explore the depths to the South.  Another group of divers headed out in front of us and we periodically went through their sediment trail they stirred up from the bottom.  I led us along the main reef at 50 feet with little difficulty and able to maintain relatively good buoyancy.

     At the end of the main reef we followed the rope leading to the deep reef and that's when I began having trouble with my buoyancy.  I didn't remove weight to compensate for the scooter so I continually needed to add air to the drysuit while equalizing my ears and not steering into the bottom or up towards the surface.  At the deep reef we checked our depth and no deco time, 15 minutes so we could go out 6 minutes then turn around.  We spread out as planned with Lucas taking the lower contour and Ryan on the upper.  It was difficult maintaining the proper buoyancy and I continually settled towards the bottom so I would add more air.  Then I would float too much and dump air with the cycle being repeated again.  This caused me to increase my breathing rate as I was a bit nervous about the situation.   I kept an eye on the bottom and on Ryan to make sure we didn't separate.  The bottom was barren with a lot of sand and silt, but no new reefs to be found.

     After 5 or 6 minutes I checked my air and I was down to 1500 PSI from an initial level of 3200 on a 100 cubic foot tank.  I needed to head back and immediately began thinking of what to do if my air ran low.  I used my fins to gain speed and get up front to gain Ryan's attention and let him know my air pressure and that I needed to immediately turn around.  As we headed back to the deep reef I felt my breathing increase as I knew I was using air much faster than I should.  This only served to increase my anxiety so that when we were back at the deep reef my tank was down to 1000 PSI.  We were only 20 minutes into the dive.  I felt for the regulator of my pony tank for security and headed up the line using my fins for added speed.  500 PSI at the main reef and I couldn't go fast enough to get myself along it and back to the rope heading towards the buoy.

     I held my pressure gauge to watch my air and ascent rate as I went up the line trying to dump air and get to 15 feet for a safety stop.  By this time I figured if I could make it that far I could use my pony tank for the 3 minute safety stop and all would be fine.  My pressure dropped steadily and I hit 194 PSI at 20 feet.  I made it, but unfortunately had neglected to dump enough air and my feet had floated up a bit as I was moving along.  Before I knew it I was in a classic feet first uncontrolled ascent with no way to correct as I had the DPV attached to my BCD.  I broke the surface with Lucas and Ryan following shortly behind.  I later found out from both of them that I had flared myself out beautifully and slowed my ascent as I was trained to do.  I had no recollection of doing that but could only thank my scuba instructors for drilling this into my head.  This still raises my heart rate thinking about it but as pointed out after the dive "All is well that ends well".  It's just slow fins for me right now, at least until my heart rate slows to its normal level.

Wednesday December 28 - Point Hudson

The weather report for Point Hudson on Wednesday was for strong winds with gusts to 24 mph.  Eight of us were heading up there and I didn't want to cancel for just a bit of wind so an early morning email went out that the dive was still on.  As luck would have it the weather forecast for this part of the day was wrong and we had no wind with partial sun. We geared up and headed for the water doing our best to stay together.

Painted Anemone

Point Hudson is an easy dive in many respects with an abundance of life throughout the different habitats we passed through be it a sandy bottom, wood pilings or rocks.  Along the West wall you generally won't go below about 50 feet and on the first dive I didn't drop below 35.  Hermit crabs were everywhere with small fish, starfish, nudibranchs and giant pacific octupii along the pier.  The Barnacle Nudibranchs convened on the wood pilings of the pier in the shallower depths forming trains and bumpy carpets for other small animals to skitter over.  Decorator crabs with their long spindly legs were covered in a soft yellow sponge like material rather than the seaweed usually seen down at Rockaway while Grunt Sculpins abounded on the rocks below the pier.  On a good dive in Puget Sound we may see 1 and possibly 2 but here the rocks were covered with the small creatures.  Their bodies though had more of a greyish tinge as compared to the bright orange and brown colors we saw up in Port Hardy.  The Sculpins were also on display hiding in the giant barnacles with their heads sticking out to watch the divers watch them.

Scalyhead Sculpin

Part way through the dive I lost my buddy Lucas and paired up with Leanne and Russ.  This worked fine for awhile until they decided to head back to the beach.  I followed them part way then found Ben and Steve and hung out near them while exploring the rocks and woodpiles for small animals.  Eventually, Ben and Steve moved on but I didn't notice.  Not a problem, I thought I'd move along the pier keeping it on my right back to the beach.  The problem was I stayed at 30 feet along a sandy slope and the structures I was looking for disappeared.  Not being familiar with the site I headed up the slope to 15 feet did a safety stop then surfaced to gain my bearings.  I was 10 feet from the end of the pier where I wanted to be so went back down for some more fun and headed in along the sandy bottom to the beach.

Juvenile Rock Sole

By the time we were ready for the second dive the wind had picked up and 1-2 foot wind waves were being kicked up in the bay.  This only made the entry and exit a bit more exciting.  On the second dive we headed out towards the dolphins, a number of pilings in a questionable state of repair at about a 30 foot depth and approximately a 100 feet from the pier.  The pilings are covered with beautiful white plumose anemones of all sizes creating an etheral image with emerald green light filtering through from the surface.  On the way back to the exit point we explored the sandy bottom for creatures we don't normally find.  If you haven't done this, you should as you'll find a number of animals you won't normally  find around the rocks or structures.  One of them was a juvenile rock sole about an inch and half long and almost pure white with it's classic coloring just beginning to show up.  Further along in the barren landscape was a Shaggy Mouse Nudibranch resembling a furry grey mouse with a long slender body.

After we exited the water we heard a number of ambulances and fire trucks converging on a pier about 2 blocks down the road from us on main street.  We figured they need something to do and convened as soon as a minor incident was called in. Wrong.  It turns out a body was caught in the pilings below the pier and a subsequent news report identified the body as that of an Oak Harbor woman missing since November 25.  Glad we didn't find it while diving a short ways away.  The deco beer tasted good that day.

Monday December 26 - The Shallows of Rockaway

When diving Rockaway our usual order of the day is to swim to the buoy, follow the line to the reef, explore the reef, head to the deep reef, look for the octopus, back up the line to the main reef, then up the line to the buoy or over to the shallows for a quick look before the air runs low.  Today was different.  We were supposed to head for Keystone but I couldn't get ferry reservations so after a half hour of trying to figure out different places to go we came up with the brilliant idea of heading to Rockaway.  This time would be different, we would stay at 15 feet and follow the shoreline South to the beginning of Blakeley Harbor.  An hour and a half later Lucas and I were pulling ourselves out of the water exclaiming what an awesome dive that was and wondering why we hadn't done it sooner.

Red Dendronotid

The dive itself is not what you would normally think of as spectacular diving.  The bottom is mostly sand with a small outcropping of rocks and a set of reefs towards the end.  You actually pass over the reef structure that goes out to Metridium Reef.  The dive requires patience and an intense curiosity of what is dwelling in the sand and the silt so this makes it a slow, well paced dive.  The deepest depth we obtained was at the last reef that we went down to explore and hit 30 feet for a short period.  It was a good thing we did because it was there that we found the pile of Red Dendronotids that I had previously only seen in books and JC's picture at the dive shop.

Cluster of Small Plumose Anemones

Starting out from the beach the bottom was the usual sandy floor with seaweed, 3-section tube worms (they seem to be dead now), burrowing anemones, numerous crabs and other small animals.  Further along we went around the rocks at the end of the cove leading into the next one where we found scattered clusters of small plumose and rose anemones.  In the sand past the clusters of rocks red rock crabs were buried in the sand while alabaster nudibranchs lumbered along in search of their next meal.  Purple, red and orange starfish were scattered around along with numerous miniature versions of Sunflower Stars about the size of a quarter (these may have been ten arm burrowing anemones) .

We came upon a bed of eel gfass with a school of tubesnout's that scattered as we swam through the class.  The eel grass is important as it houses many juvenile fish and smaller animals making their living in the sand.  It's important to look up from the bottom as well to enjoy the varied jellyfish floating along in the current.  We found the typical cross jellyfish and a small jellyfish called a tube sausage jellyfish which resembles a small spaceship with a red sausage in the center.

Sunflower Starfish

Shortly after the eel grass is the last series of reefs before going into Blakely Harbor.  The reefs run roughly in an East to West direction making it easy to follow any of them down to the lower depths.  Here we found sunflower stars and kelp crabs defending their territory against the invading scuba divers.  As we followed the last reef down we came upon a pile of red nudibranchs swaying with the flow of the kelp.  By this time though we had been down for over an hour, but because of the shallow depth my tank pressure was still half full.

Rose Anemone

As we came back across the last grouping of rocks I came upon the large rose anemone I had found last summer.  It's the largest one I've seen of this type at Rockaway and have been looking for it ever since July.  And so ended a beutiful dive that rivaled many I have done at various other sites.  In this case it was definitely about the journey and not the destination.           

Friday December 23 - Got Crab? Diving at the hood canal

The crab catch and deco beer

A couple of workers from the Hood Canal Bridge stopped by as we were donning our dive gear to warn us "Don't get to close to the bridge, someone always calls it in".  No worries with us, we know what we're doing.  We followed the bottom not paying as much attention as we should have to our depth or direction.  The canal bottom was sand and silt without any structures to provide us our bearings.  Our depth dropped almost imperceptibly until we hit 85 feet.  No crabs.  Katie suggested we go up a bit as our air was dropping and we still had to swim back.  We came upon thick cables we took to be the power and telephone lines running across the canal and began following them back in.  Odd that they were a few feet off the bottom.  Our air was getting low and we were still at 85 feet so we headed to the surface and popped up a third of the way along the bridge.  The cables we followed were part of the bridge structure.  Jaymie's warning came to mind, we moved away from the bridge as fast as possible.  We could have been in some real trouble though if the current was ripping through since we hadn't checked the tidal exchange.  Luckily it wasn't.  For the second dive we stayed near the contour going no deeper than about 50 feet.  Katie threatened to bale on us if we ventured to far and I was clearly not put in charge of leading the group.  Back at the truck our friends from the bridge stopped by again.  They had been periodocally watching us  and wondered if we made it back okay and if we caught enough crab;  They didn't mention our popping up near the bridge.  What do you mean "Do we have enough crab?"  Do we have enough people? 

Sunday December 11- Alki Cove II

Today was one of the most beautiful dives I've done and not for the overall scenery but for the beauty of being underwater.  We began by heading down to the mermaid then it was to be back up to the Honey Bear and the shallows.  The trip down to the mermaid was blase with nothing standing out as exceptional or worth stopping for.  This was a good thing since after I replaced the batteries in my camera it decided to throw out all the settings I had put in.  So I had to reset them as we made our way down to our final depth.  Since nothing was marked this consisted of continually pushing each of the buttons on the back until the proper screens showed up while trying to follow Katie, remember to clear my ears, add air to the dry suit for buoyancy and not run into any underwater structures.  

The Hermit Crap

Katie tickling the Rock Sole

The way back up was different.  The hermit crab was a real poser.  He was sitting out on the silty grey bottom wondering what I was with my large red rimmed eyes, and giant appendage that continually flashed at him.  He was a patient model and didn't retreat into his shell.  After the Hermit Crab the Rock Sole came out to greet us and stayed around for a scratch under its chin,  that is if Rock Soles have chins.  The colors of those fish blend in with the bottom so well we usually just scare them off by the time we come upon them, this one was just friendly.

The Friendly Male Kelp Greenling

After the Rock Sole came the overly friendly male Kelp Greenling.  Usually they are skittish and won't get to close but this one decided we should be friends.  It came up to Katie and looked into her mask, swam down the I-beam, came back around, stopped for another look then took off again; to be repeated many times.  It wouldn't stay still for a photo and as I was about to give up I turned and noticed it flying in from the side.  One last attempt and luck was with me.  He stayed around his territory as we swam off.





The Sea Angels danced in the waters of the emerald sea.  Katie found them and was attempting to get them to perch on her glove as I came up.  They are small creatures about a centimeter in length with small translucent wing-like appendages the length of their body.  They have no shells.  Two of them skittered and fluttered about and one briefly landed on Katie's finger.  I've never seen them here before, they were beautiful. 


 

Saturday December 2 - Bottle diving at Seabeck

We arrived in Seabeck and pulled into the dive site, but according to Lucas everything was different.  A marina was being built that wasn't there before and a large steel barge was in the middle of the bay.  The sandy beach that was easily accessed from the road was filled in with rock.  We eventually found access on the North end of a small  beach.  After a bit of discussion it was decided we'd go for one dive and then see if we were doing another.

Dive site at Seabeck

We headed into the bay and went out on a compass setting of 330 degrees with a return on 150.  Okay, all set and I was the leader since I was the only one with a compass.  A layer of fresh water refracted the light like a million tiny prisms until we got below 10 feet or so.  I honestly don't know how bugs see through compound eyes.  The fresh water from the snowpack also made for a really cold layer of water on the top.   We each had our bags andwere  all set for finding old bottles.

Once we hit 40 feet we turned left.  The bottom was mostly sand and mud making it easy to stir up the silt.  This also made it easy to follow Lucas whenever he went after a crab.  We'd swim along and all of the sudden Lucas was gone with a tunnel of silt to follow.  Crabs move fast but Lucas moves faster.

The mutant crab

The bottom of the bay and much of the sparse plant life was covered with Nudibranchs.  I didn't have my camera but thought I could identify them when I sat down to write this.  The intention was there but the memory wasn't.  I narrowed them down to small with beautiful colors and wished I had brought my camera.

After approximately 40 minutes we decided to turn around and head back to our starting position.  How far we had gone was anyone's guess.  Eventually Lucas and Russ signaled they were running low on air and to turn into shore.  No problem just head back on setting of 150 degrees.  I did that but as we headed back I kept getting off the setting and had to reposition my navigation towards shore.  The strange thing was that we stayed at 40 feet and couldn't get to the upslope.  After another 10 minutes or so our air was getting low enough that we had to surface.  Right next to the giant barge in the middle of the bay. 

The bottle collection

Dinner that night was crab, pizza and beer.  We never made the second dive. 

Friday November 25 - Sund Rock, Hood Canal

Other than the weight belt SNAFU on the second dive it was a great day of diving.  Initially we were going to dive at Flagpole on the Hood Canal.  Lucas, Katy and I were meeting Steve and his sons, Erik and Tom, at 11AM at Mike's Resort.  And that was the plan until Steve called to let us know the resort was closed and we couldn't get down to the dive site.  On to the backup plan, Sund Rock.  Sund Rock is always the backup plan.

The 6 of us went in and because of the heavy rains fresh water layered on top of the salt water.  It was like looking through a million tiny lenses so nothing was clear until we dove below the fresh water layer a few feet down.  We headed straight for the Sea Whips and found them beginning around 76 feet.  The bottom becomes steep at that point and we were at 100 feet before I knew it.  I stopped for a photograph and lost everyone.  After a few photographs I had stirred up enough silt I couldn't see a thing and couldn't figure out which way was back up the slope.  I eventually settled on the bottom, felt the slope and headed up out of the gloom.  I'm sure I could have just floated up a few feet and been out of it but I don't think I was clear headed at that point

Squat Lobster (Identification by Andy Lamb)

On the way back up the slope I came across what I thought were small crabs.  I had seen them before and they always ducked into the small holes they burrow out for their homes.  They cover the sand and silt bottom along the South wall.  It turns out they are Squat Lobsters and not a crab at all but are related to Hermit Crabs.  You'll be able to find this fine picture in the update to the on-line version of "Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest".  My wife calls him the original Occupy Seattle squater.  After we got back to the cars, and Jane brought out the pumpkin bread, Erik and Tom told us they counted 9 Wolf Eels and multiple Octopii.  I saw one Wolf Eel that Steve pointed out to me.     



An interesting point about the first dive was that many of the Plumose Anenome were fully out and feeding.  All last summer when we dove Hood Canal the anenomes would be closed up and hunkered down in their casing.  Not this time though.  Their plumes were fully out and there were hundreds of them cover every rock surface available.  They were the usual white and orange but occasionally there was a mixed anenome with a yellow/brown stalk and a brilliant white plume.

Plumose Anenome

The 2nd dive was Katy, Lucas and I and no less exciting than the first.  We went on the North Wall and found 2 separate Octopii on eggs.  Another Octopus that had recently died lay nearby with multiple Sunflower Stars feeding on the carcass.  A Wolf Eel swam by under Katy and she wildly signalled to us as we looked for other creatures nearby.  Luckily we payed attention.  The Wolf Eels are graceful creatures reptating the length of their bodies like a snake swimming through the water.

After the wall we headed North to the old boat by following the contour at 45 feet.  Right when it seems like you've missed it the dark shape of the hull looms out of the darknes.  It always feels like you are discovering a long lost ship for the first time as the ship takes shape before you.  Underneath we found a huge Giant Pacific Octopus and a few Ling Cods to rival the ones we see at Edmonds.

At the safety stop I was having a difficult time with buoyancy.  I had already added 2 additional pounds to my trim weight and couldn't understand why I was so buoyant.  In fact I even tried picking up some fairly large rocks to help keep me down and I still floated up.  Lucas noticed what I was doing and wondered why I was picking up all the rocks on the bottom.  After the 3 minute time limit I let go and went to the surface.  In the middle of the dive I felt around my waist and didn't feel the weight belt but I was sure I had it on, why would I forget, and didn't want to risk accidentally unbuckling it so I stopped trying to see if it was there.  After we finished I walked up to Lucas's truck and looked inside my blue tub, sitting in the bottom was my weight belt.

The three of us had discussed a third dive at Sea Beck but after 2 dives we decided it was time for deco beer, especially when someone mentioned beer and Mexican food waited nearby in Hoodsport.  So bottle diving will await another day while we enjoy our Shrimp Fajitas, Fish and Chips and beer after another good day of diving in the cold waters of Hood Canal.


 

Sunday, November 13 - Skyline Wall in Anacortes

It all began with Steve telling us he had to pick up some piece of metal for the Navy out in the middle of the ocean.  That was followed by Jon deciding he couldn't be DM on the boat then dive with us the next day.  This was followed by Katie blowing a neck seal and not wanting to wait until 1AM so the suit could dry and she could fix it.  Finally, Kari pulled out and I called Lucas to let him know the dive at Skyline Wall wasn't happening on Sunday.  All of this occurred by Saturday night when Lucas was already up in Anacortes ready to dive.  Sunday morning I was looking at the description of Skyline Wall, obtained permission from the Boss to go at 8:30, spoke to Lucas at 10am from the ferry to let him know the dive was back on and by 11:45 I was standing at the cold, windswept dive site watching the chop in the bay, speaking with Lucas and grinning because I was diving once again.

The original plan was to dive at 12 o'clock then head into town for lunch and catch the slack tide at 4 o'clock for a second dive.  This site is highly dependent on slack tide with a minimal current flow on either side so that we can't dive it very often.  This didn't go as planned either.

We dropped in and the viz was about 12 feet with lots of silt.  This was probably due to the storms moving through the area churning the bay and bringing up the silt from the bottom.  The silt covered everything from the pebbles in the shallows to the rock outcroppings making up the wall.  We, being Lucas, found GPO's in almost every hole we could find.  In one we could only see the eye staring up at us through a small opening and we couldn't figure out how it got in there.  Further down the wall I was photographing another octopus that was partially exposed on a wall when Lucas began flashing me with his light.  I went down to investigate and found a small Red Pacific Octopus fully exposed on a small boulder at about 40 feet.  As I prepared to take a photograph the octopus jumped off the wall, shot down below us then came up and hovered for a few seconds with its tentacles hanging down.  It decided we weren't friendlies since it next shot sideways, inked a small plume out his channel and took off into the gloom.

Crab on kelp

The remainder of the dive consisted of looking for more Octopii, trying unsuccessfully to get a picture of a Sail Fin Sculpin hiding on a rock.  I saw another Sail Fin on another dive doing the same thing fitting into a small indentation on the rock and blending in so well it could barely be identified from the rock surface.  At the end of the wall the current picked up enough that we had to hang on to small outcroppings to stay in place.  Of course I only had one hand to do this with, the other was holding my camera, so for me it also consisted of a lot of kicking with my fins to move back along the wall.  As we approached the end of the dive we found a beautiful anenome and a small crab hanging on the kelp.  This one was difficult to photograph as my buoyancy was off due to the shallow water and a tank low on air.  I persevered though and did my best to record its place in history.

Once we were out the question came up of going back in at 4PM for a perfect dive on the slack or having a beer at the local pub before heading back to the ferry.  Fish and chips and beer were the winners.  The second dive is for another day.

Saturday, November 5 - Watermans Wall and Devils Boulder

Twice on the boat and twice my drysuit became a wetsuit.  This time it was just my arm.  The new valve I had installed loosened up and I forgot to check it before we went down.  At 90 feet when I went to close down my valve it began twisting and I could feel water flowing down my arm.  Steve and Steve were in front of me dropping deeper and flashing their lights that they found something interesting that I should photograph.  I was keeping my arm below my shoulder so the water didn't flow into the rest of my drysuit.  I also kept my arm bent so the water didn't flow into my glove.  I wasn't going to abort another dive so I spun the valve closed and continued turning it, tightening it up enough to stop the leak.  I fixed it properly when we arrived back on the boat.

Hudson's Dorid

The dive call was 6:30AM at the shop and we loaded the boat in the dark.  Buildings lit the Seattle skyline in the early morning dawn as our senses awakened to the resplendent colors of sunrise over West Seattle.  We splashed in about 8AM and headed over the wall towards our final depth.  The Octopii were deep in their holes avoiding our lights.  The visibility improved considerably over Rockaway the previous weekend allowing me to follow Steve and Steve as I was sometimes left behind while taking pictures.  Sharpnose and Decorator crabs littered the wall with a multitude of Copper Rockfish interspersed with Lingcod and an occasional Sail Fin Sculpin.  I thought Steve showed me a Mossy Head Warbonet but my picture proved otherwise. The Nudibranchs were sparse with only a few making a showing on the way back to the boat in the shallower depths.

Golden Dirona

Back on the boat it was Tortilla Chicken Soup for breakfast in our warm cabin on the boat.  Nothing tastes better after a dive than soup.  Alas though, we had no cookies or desert.  Ben was not the captain today.  We headed to Devils Boulder and jumped back in the water after tying up to the buoy.  It was back down to 70 feet.  The problem with a second deep dive after the first at 100 feet is we don't get much time on the bottom.  This is when nitrox would have been good to have.  Steve came up to me when I was photographing a fish and he started pointing at his dive computer.  At first I thought something was wrong then realized he wanted me to look at mine.  I wasn't sure why he did since I thought I still had 8 minutes on my no deco time.  Wrong!  It was down to 2 minutes and we still had to swim back to the line.  At the line we hit 0 and my computer decided I needed to go into deco.  I was docked 5 minutes until we reached our safety stop and it dropped to 4 minutes.  Plenty of time to take pictures of Steve and Steve's happy faces since I couldn't really hold onto the line without crushing a few sea creatures I'm so fond of.

Safety Stop

Back on the boat the sun was out and we headed back to the dock.  Oh, what a beautiful day.

Steve

Steve

Sunday, October 30 at Rockaway Beach

Before Steve and I set out at Rockaway he told me the visibility wasn't so good in the shallows but cleared up at the main reef.  That was partially true.  The visibility wasn't so good in the shallows but didn't clear up at the main reef.  That was okay though, this was Puget Sound and any visibility past your mask is a good day.  In reality it wasn't bad and I could always find Steve by the red focus light on his new camera.     

The Coonstripe Shrimp were guarding the entrance to the main reef.  At least they were until I put my finger out to touch them and they scattered.  Actually, I was testing them to make sure they knew to move when the new GPO that moved into a crevasse on the main reef came around. I wouldn't have noticed it except Steve signalled to me where it was.

Coonstripe Shrimp

The Frosted Nudibranchs have all but disappeared from the main reef with just a few scattered here and there.  A few weeks ago the Frosted Nudibranch's covered the main reef as well as the sandy floor of the shallower depths.  Other nudibranchs (Nanaimo Dorids, Leopard Dorids and a Monterey Sea Lemon) have taken there place but not to the same extent.

Shrimp and Nanaimo Dorid

.

Monterey Sea Lemon

The Kelp is beginning to die back signalling the slow approach of Winter with its drop in water temperature and disappearance of large fish.  Copper Rockfish were still around along with a single Spotted Rat Fish and numerous small Sculpins and Black Eyed Goby.  The good part here is that the Anenome's are more visible.  I came upon a couple on my approach back to the beach.  There colors are brilliant and they are always a pleasure to see. 

Anenome

By the time we got out the the waves had picked up and I twisted my ankle on a rock on the way out of the water.  Too tired to say anything I hobbled up to the car and changed.  Another good day in Puget Sound.  

Friday October 26 - Night diving at Alki Cove II

Yes, there really are some large octopi at Alki Cove II.  "Putative Octopuses" I told her until I had seen them.  She took me down to them first so now I have to admit I was just blind to them before.  We found the largest under the honey bear, an old decayed boat at 60 feet.  As I watched, its mantle and tentacles were close to the edge of its cover and moving about so I could almost reach in and touch them.  I thought of it wrapping its strong tentacle around my hand and pulling me in so I didn't.  The mantle was a deep redish-brown with a stark white showing inside when it blew out air.  The suckers were maybe an inch and a half in diameter.

This was our second dive of the night.  We didn't go down to the mermaid this time but headed for the posts and old rotted logs.  Night diving here was much easier and in the end much safer than Port Hardy.  I was still a bit nervous getting in so I left my camera in the car.  That turned out to be a  mistake since Katie found a long Moss Headed Warbonnet residing in a log.  With a bit of poking it came out and attempted to blend into the color on the outside as we examined it with our lights.

We left the Warbonnet to its own devices and headed up the silty slope looking for other creatures that stalk the sea floor at night.  The night diving is different since you can only see what's in the light beam rather than just using the light to bring out the colors while still being able to see the shapes around you.  A couple of times I covered my light to experience complete darkness.  I could have stayed there all night.  No visual input, no touch, only the steady sound of breathing and the bubbles as I exhaled from each calming breath.

The hermit crabs were fighting the shrimp for contol of large white, flat shell on  a small rock.  The shrimp was a Coon Stripe Shrimp about 3 to 4 inches long.  Maybe 15 or 20 hermit crabs of all sizes, naked without their stolen shells, were battling for control over the prize. There bulbous abdomens exposed to whatever hungry creature came by.  The Shrimp moved in and pushed the Crabs out of the way who would immediately mount a counter attack and try to push the Shrimp back away from the prize.  As I left the Shrimp was clearly the victor.

Multiple Gunnels greeted us in the shallows for our safety stop.  The Saddleback Gunnels coyly looked out from the security of the kelp on the bottom while an orange Longfin Gunnel hid within the confines of a rotted log.  Katie was much better at finding these than I was so when her light quit I forced one of mine on her and we continued looking for more prizes before going in.  After 2 dives and it was heading towards 10pm it was eventually time to go in.  No seals on this trip and the elusive Six Gill Shark didn't make it up from its watery depth.  We'll have to go back again. 

Sunday, October 23 at Alki Cove II

We followed the bottom up from 100 feet after viewing the mermaid.  She awaits patiently in the cold depths of her murky realm as barnacles imprison her bronze skin.  Katie helped place her last summer.  As we passed through 60 feet I stopped to look around underneath the piled logs.  I thought Katie signaled to stop, but she continued up the grade.  I thought it was a starfish at first.  The out streched shape slowly floating down from the top of the logs, but that didn't make sense.  It descended to slow.  I came closer and realized it was a small octopus about 12 inches across.   Its tentacles were rolled up with its mantle laying on the silty bottom.  It seemed to sense me and unfurled one tentacle as I tentatively moved a finger towards it. 

Juvenile Giant Pacific Octopus

I looked around to show Katie and realized she was gone so I went up over the logs to get a better look at the octopus and take a picture.    I turned on my camera and 3 words appeared on the screen "Out of Memory".  Out of memory?  I have a 16 gigabyte memory card, safely at home installed in my computer.  The myriad of buttons on the back of my camera were not useful since they were not labelled.  I found that if you push enough of them you can eventually delete enough internal memory to take a picture.  After the photo shoot the octopus propelled it self up a few feet, took a look at me then settled itself back on the floor of the cove.  We hung out together for awhile until I realized my air was running low and I still had to swim up the slope to reach the shore with a safety stop on the way.

Our group found 2 other octopuses on the way down to visit the mermaid.  Apparently I looked right at them and didn't see them.  Or so they tell me.  As for myself, I saw a baby Giant Pacific Octopus and have the picture to prove it.

       

Sunday, October 16 at Shangri La and China Reef

Nanaimo Dorid

Hudson's Dorid

The Nudibranch's were out in force on Sunday, but not the Frosted Nudibranch's that are covering Rockaway, these were the Hudson's Dorid and Nanaimo Dorid's.  The Hudson's Dorid are a beautiful translucent white with yellow tips on the hair-like papillae and a thin yellow line around the perimeter of the body.  The Nanaimo Dorid is similar but has a maroon tip on the gills and rhinophores.  I'd like to say I've learned all this during years of experience, but in fact this information is courtesy of the encyclopedia on "Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest" by Andy Lamb and Bernard Hanby.  The Hudson's Dorid was by far the most abundant with multiple ones plentiful on many of the rocks and in crevices.  Steve also found a Golden Dirona which he pointed out to me for photographing.

It helped to have a personal guide on the tour of ShangriLa Reef and Steve did an outstanding job.  Being the Divemaster he couldn't take his camera so watching me photograph had to suffice.  Along with the Nudibranch's we found a number of Wolf Eels including a juvenile who stayed too far back in the hole to photograph and our toothless friend looking for handouts.  According to Pam there were a number of GPO's on the site as well but we only found one far back in it's hole.  On the boat Rick, Kari and Katie confirmed there were a number of GPO's and couldn't believe we didn't find them.  Too busy looking at the Dorid's and Wolf Eels.

Golden Dirona

Orange Zoanthid

After a relaxing break on the new Salish Explorer it was time to dive again.  We were dropping in on China Reef.  As I headed down the line I felt a small bit of cold creep down the front of my neck.  I didn't think much of it at the time.  As we descended further on the line it was necessary to add air to the drysuit for buoyancy and I felt some air burp out the neck seal.  Odd, but nothing that worried me.  We landed in 65 feet of water and I was having a hard time adjusting my buoyancy. As I added air I felt the drysuit burp around the neck.  Then I began to feel the cold creep down my chest.  I knew from the last dive I still had a bit of leakage and I thought this was from the valve.  I fought to stay off the bottom and couldn't float my legs up.  I even added some air to my BCD to see if that would help.  As I struggled to stay with the group the cold had crept down further and was hitting my feet.  Time to head for the surface.

I signaled to the others I was heading up and Steve, our Divemaster, went along with me.  I was fairly certain by this time the dry suit had flooded but I didn't know to what degree.  I tried to let Steve know I was okay and that he could stay down but he knew better than to listen to me at that point.  I was usually one of the last ones up, not the first.  Back on the boat after getting out of the now "wetsuit" it was clear water had soaked my thinsulate undergarment and the inside of the suit.  Theories abounded as to what caused the problem but I'm fairly sure I didn't fix my neck seal properly.  Pam and Alyssa are checking it out back at the shop this week so I'm keeping my fingers crossed it wasn't the zipper.  Still, it was another great day of diving in Puget Sound.

Later in the week Alyssa told me both valves had to be replaced along with fixing another small hole in the drysuit.  Issues that wouldn't have caused the flooding at depth.  Next time I'll make sure my neck seal is done properly.

Click here for additional Photographs of Puget Sound Sea Creatures

Saturday, October 8 at Rockaway

We almost didn't dive at Rockaway due to a long roundabout discussion involving possibly diving Rockaway, then Edmonds, then Port Townsend and back to Rockaway.  I was patient, and stubborn, and Rockaway won out.  We dropped in on the buoy with the sun shimmering down through the water in an array of wide and narrow bands brightening the emerald green water and casting shadows on the floor beneath the kelp.  I could bask in those rays and soak up the warmth while the cool water encompassed my body.  I was home once again.

Down the line to the main reef and we were surrounded by Frosted Nudibranchs.  Not just a few, but hundreds, thousands covering everything with a surface to grab a hold of.  The population had exploded since the last time we were here.  They were on the sand, the kelp, the rocks, everywhere.  They seemed bigger as well as if they swelled with the warmer water and sun crawling down from the surface.  Other Nudibranchs had disappeared.  The Lemonpeal and Clown Nudibranchs so abundant in the spring seemed to be all but gone. 

On the deep reef the crabs once again disappeared leaving behinds empty shells and parts strewn about on the sandy floor.  The Octopus was back!  As squirrel is to the dog, octopus is to the diver.  It's mantle and tentacles, a beautiful deep red, curled together within its hole.  The fish didn't mind though.  Copper Rockfish, Perch and Ratfish swam about covering the lower reef.  If you keep still you can commune with them.  At first they'll ignore you, then they'll become curious and surround you enticing you to join there world if only for a short time.  This was all fine until I realized everyone was gone and headed back to the main reef. 

We found the crabs back on the main reef including Red Rocks, Sharp Nose and Decorators.  The Red Rocks became more abundant as we headed back towards shore.  Lucas saw a small juvenile Wolf Eel on the way back to the main reef.  I didn't see it but I believed him.

Our second dive was out to Metridium Reef.  We headed to a depth of 25 feet then followed the contour heading East.  Lucas told us it would take about an hour to get their and back but I didn't quite believe him.  By the time we returned it was 56 minutes.  We passed over a number of smaller reefs in the shallow depths followed by a bed of eel grass at the end.  The area would be fun to explore if we had time but that wasn't our goal.  Our goal was to swim to Metridium and back underwater.  We made it to Metridium at a final depth of 50 feet.  We headed back.  My legs were soar and my knees were still feeling the punishment of the low seats on the dive boat up North.

Browning pass may have been beautiful but it was good to be home.

Browning Pass - A trip to remember: September 14-22, 2011

The front of the hideaway with our dive boats

We arrived at Port Hardy on the 15th of September after staying overnight in Campbell River, BC.  We had 12 people in total.  George from the Water Taxi service came out to take us to The Hideaway.  The total time to get there by the Water Taxi was only 45 minutes with minimal chop in the water during the ride in.  The Hideaway had a "new"old set of hotel rooms floating in back of the main house.  The beds were comfortable and we had warm water for showers but the heaters weren't working so the rooms were always  cold.

Our cabins at The Hideaway

After diving in 48 degree water it was difficult to warm up unless we went into the main house or the cabin with the fireplace.  Christie was there from last year and kept our tanks full while Nicole, Matt and Jessica kept our bellies full.  Hot apple and cinnamon muffins following the afternoon dive were the best.

Peach Ball Sponge and Glove Sponge

Our first afternoon and dives the next day were exciting in both their beauty and congeniality of the local wildlife.  Friday was Kari and Pam's birthdays so, by Pam's request, we went to Rock of Life for our first dive.  After everyone rolled in we went our separate ways around the site.  Steve and I headed down the wall, Josh and Colleen headed West along the shelf followed by Pam and the others went their various ways.  The walls were covered with Anenomes, Red Soft Corrals, Basket Stars, Sulfur Sponges, Glove Sponges, China Rockfish, Quill Back Rockfish, Tiger Rockfish, Giant Scallops, Nudibranchs of all kinds and for the observant Puget Sound King Crabs, Octopus, Warbonnets and the occasional Sea Lion.  While many of us were enjoying the wall and I attempted to get a picture of Kari with her birthday sign, a Giant Pacific Octopus decided to become friendly with Colleen. The GPO wrapped itself around Colleen while Josh, not far away, but busy watching something else ignored the underwater screams of his wife.  According to Pam, Colleens eyes were as big as saucers as the octopus gave her a big hug and welcomed her to Browning Pass.  Pam helped unwrap Colleen. Later, back on the boat we were told the tale by a very excited Colleen and Pam .

Kari advertising to the fish she turned 50

The next day we dropped in on Browning wall to 90 feet.  The wall drops to a depth of 300 feet.  Steve and I were buddies and we were both moving South on the wall taking pictures.  At about 5 minutes into the dive while I was intently looking at the sponges I felt a bump on my head.  I thought I had gotten to close to Steve and was hit by his fin so I dropped down lower and was bumped on the head again.  A second later Steve was in my face stuffing my integrated air source in his mouth and grabbing tightly to my BCD strap.  Steve started kicking up.  I checked my gauges and we had 2400 psi on a 100 cubic foot tank so no need to panic, or so I thought.  There was no stopping Steve though from ascending.  As we began ascending I realized I had to open the dump valve on my arm before it became and uncontrolled ascent.  While being pulled up I opened my dump valve and tried to watch my ascent rate.  Bubbles surrounded us with no hope of seeing anything so I hoped we weren't going up to fast.   We ascended at 90 feet per minute. Since we hadn't been down to long and it was the first dive of the day I wasn't to worried.  At one point I took my regulator out of my mouth and attempted to hand it to Steve to replace my integrated regulator he was using but he wouldn't take it.  We broke the surface and the first thing Steve asked in a hurried voice was to find his primary regulator which was around the back of him.  He had placed the reg from his pony bottle in his mouth and breathed that down, then realizing what he had done couldn't find his primary.  Steve later told me he realized he had run out of air after one breath felt difficult to pull in and the next was impossible.  After finding Steves primary regulator and handing it to him I waved an emergency signal to the dive boat.  They came over even though Steve gave them an okay signal.  We went back down for another 25 minutes and I stayed close for the rest of the dive.  I never expected to use my techniques from the rescue diver course and in thinking about it I'm not sure I did everything correctly.  I'm glad I took the class but I would rather have not had to use it.  

Basket Star

Eagle Rock was the second dive of the day although Kari and Katie kept teasing me that I'd already done two and this was my third.  I didn't need to worry about Steve on this dive, he made sure he used the right regulator.  He fiddled with it all the way out to the dive site.  I'd guess that shook him up a bit more than he was saying.  I was shaken and wouldn't do the deep diving that Pam and I had discussed. We dropped in uneventfully at 40 feet.  I followed Steve along feeling like I should stay closer than usual although I didn't need to.  As I said I was a bit shaken still.  I later found out from Ryan there was a juvenile Wolf Eel nearby at depth that Ryan shot video of that we had missed.  Juvenile Wolf Eels are different from the adults in that they are light brown with dark brown spots like a leopard.   Adults are blue-grey colored.  

Later we went to Seven Tree Wall and my lower back was beginning to bother me so Kelly suggested I move my tank up on my back to keep the strain off my lower back.  That and swimming more horizontally rather than vertically on a wall helped tremendously.  It was easy to see down and we generally had about 60 feet of visibility.

This site had a lot of star fish, nudibranchs, anemones and barnacles.  We hit current coming around one rock but that was also where we found a Puget Sound King Crab.  They remind me of tanks with there armour shells and bulky bodies.    I usually see then stuffed into a rock shelf or crevice in the wall.  There was such a rich variety of things to take pictures of that it all seemed to blur together after awhile.  So I kept taking pictures anyway hoping a few would turn out okay. 

Kelp Greenling in Yellow Sulfur Sponge

By the end I saw the largest Cabbezzon I had ever seen.  There was also a Lions Mane Jelly at the surface but luckily I missed it, or rather it missed me.  One of my prior encounters didn't turn out so well.  I followed the Bull Kelp up at the end of the dive and hung on it for my 3 min safety stop.  I enjoy the safety stops. They are very calming at the end of the dive and give me time to reflect on how beautiful it is underwater.

It was the last night for half the group and we still hadn't done a night dive.  It was already three dives that day, I only went on the first two while everyone else went on the late afternoon dive.  After dinner we were discussing one more dive that day and only Katie and I were interested.  The final decision was left up to me between diving and having a beer.  Drinking a beer should have won.  John said he'd take us if we wanted to go.  The wind was blowing up and there were hurricane warnings only 5 miles away.  The cove was fairly well protected.  After much hemming and hawing we decided to go.  It took awhile to get my self together and being in the dark didn't help.  At one point the "valve" on my tank was put in backwards and John had to take it back out and turn it around while I held my flashlight for him to see.  We eventually geared up and the boat took off.  It was pitch black since John had night vision goggles on so we couldn't put on our lights.  The waves picked up as we passed through the break water then calmed down as we went back into the cove.  We were about a 100 feet off shore.  John gave us the dive briefing and we were to move close in towards shore then role into the water.  After he finished, John asked  Katie to move towards my side of the boat and told me to get up on the side.  As Katie moved over I thought they wanted me out of the way and to roll in.  I told them I was going in but I now know they hadn't heard me.  I rolled off the boat.  I came up right underneath the bottom edge towards the back and later learned John was still in the process of turning the boat.  We had been blown further off shore so there was a strong current with the waves picking up[.  They were looking for the okay sign from me but I wouldn't give it to them because I just wanted back on the boat.  To say the least I was a bit unnerved and wanted to abort the dive.  They yelled at me to swim back to the boat, I was about 30 feet off the stern.  Normally an easy swim but in the choppy water with current it was a struggle.  I made it back to the side and Christie pulled off my finns, I pulled myself up the ladder.  Katie later told me "I saw your lights in the wash, I thought you'd be chewed up by the prop".  The dive was over.  

View of wall

The next few dives were what I remembered this place for.  The most beautifully colored walls laced with a stunning array life, 60 feet of visibility and no idea what to look at first.  Half our group left Sunday afternoon and a new larger group arrived in there place.  We stayed apart and kept to ourselves until we were thrown together by our afternoon dive.  Turns out it was multiple groups from across the country.  At least one from Bellingham and another from Florida.  They were all divers, we got along well.

I buddied up with Rick and we found an Octo at 80 feet on the wall.  Ryan came over and shot some footage then motioned for me to follow him.  A huge Puget Sound King Crab was perched on another spot on the wall.  I got some pictures then the crab decided to go for a swim down the wall and settled into a new perch.  Think about throwing a car off the side of a cliff, that was the crab swimming.  By this part of the dive I could feel cold seeping in over my stomach.  This annoyed me but not enough to end the dive.  

The next morning we went out on two more dives.  Rock of Life and and Hussar Bay East End Wall.  Pam went out with us so I buddied back up with Steve.  As we dove down to fifty feet I realized I was doing exactly what Steve did yesterday and was breathing off my pony bottle.  I only realized it because I noticed my normal reg dangling below me and wondered briefly why it wasn't in my mouth.  At the end of the dive I came upon a small PS King Crab in a hole who stayed and poised for pictures.  Our second dive was on air and I was surprised how fast my no deco time ran down.  It was easy getting used to the nitrox mix even though it kept us from going to deep.  Ryan used air and didn't have the depth problem.

During the last few days of the trip we waited expectantly to meet the new dive boat being brought down from Alaska.  Sunday was the first day we expected to see them, which turned into Monday, then Tuesday, followed by Wednesday and we hadn't see them by the time we left on Thursday.  There was a huge storm from Alaska down through Queen Charlotte Sound and we guessed they pulled into a bay somewhere and waited for the storm to pass.  This was also the reason we couldn't go to the Naquacto Rapids.  Going to the rapids was the reason for our extended trip so it was a bit of a disappointment that the weather kept us from crossing the pass.  It also meant that we went to the same dive sites multiple times which wasn't a bad thing since there was always plenty to explore.  Although it did get to be a joke after awhile that we were going to Seven Tree again, and again, and again...

Ryan relaxing in the sunshine

What all this meant is that we also spent much more time around the Hideaway than originally planned.  It gave me a chance to catch up on reading which I did with the book "Matterhorn".  If you haven't read it, read it, you won't be disappointed.  It was also possible to relax outside once in awhile as Ryan showed us how so well.  By the middle of the week though the "rustic" feel of the Hideaway was getting a bit old.  It was difficult to get warm since, as I said, we didn't have heat in the rooms.  This problem was remedied by Tuesday when a makeshift electric connection was set up between the generator and our cluster of rooms.  The only problem was that when the generator was turned on in the morning, always a half hour before breakfast, the fire alarms would go off throughout the building.  This meant that approximately 16 fire alarms all went off together each morning to call us to breakfast.  The first morning this happened we jumped up and looked outside, no smoke so I went back into the room to get dressed.  Ryan eventually jumped up and unplugged the smoke alarm to shut it off.  This was fine as long as a fire didn't occur in the building.  We wouldn't know anyway in the evening as the fire alarms were hooked up to the electric system which was turned off during the night.  We felt better when we found a fire extinguisher in our room until we looked at the expiration date and saw it was last certified back in 2008.

On Wednesday, a particularly rainy day, we arrived back from a dive in the afternoon and found out the water system for the rooms was clogged somewhere.  So our toilets couldn't refill with water in the rooms and we couldn't take our warm showers after a day of diving.  We were leaving on Thursday so we put up with it.  That and we didn't have a choice.  We were able to get the toilets running though by filling our trash cans with water and pouring it in the back tank.  This worked fine except the Hideaway doesn't have a system to take care of waste.  At least not that I knew of.  Luckily, the main cabin with the kitchen still had water. 

China Rockfish

So how does this story end?  It ended with a great dive on Thursday morning at Eagle's Rock.  We dropped in at 40 feet and moved along the bottom around the rock towards the pass.  As we swam along I noticed something out of place in the sand at around 50 feet.  A black pouch with pink writing on the side.  I realized it was Pam's weight pouch.  I picked it up, brought it over and attempted to get it back into her BCD.  I was all thumb's but luckily Rick came along and deftly inserted it in its proper place.  What I remember most about that dive though was the largest, and I assume oldest, Puget Sound King Crab I had ever seen.  The body was the size of a dinner plate and was so encrusted with barnacles the distinct coloring of oranges, reds, blues and purples was barely visible.  Forty five minutes into the dive I became cold, found some bull kelp for my safety stop and said goodbye to the depths of Browning Pass.

Eventually, we rounded up everyone and headed back towards Clam Cove and The Hideaway to finish packing and leave for home.  This was the plan until we noticed the White Sided Dolphins playing in the wake of our boat.  They came and went and we thought we were the luckiest people in the world.  That was until our Captain, Mike, spotted the flock of Seagulls circling and diving into the water.  Then we knew we were the luckiest people.  The Seagulls were circling and diving into the fish ball rounded up by approximately 300 dolphins feasting on Herring.  Exciting, you bet, and divers were in the water.  Of course those in the water missed the Bald Eagle that swooped down in the middle of the Seagulls with its talons outstretched to pick up its own lunch.  We watched for maybe 25 minutes then Pam noticed a whale spout over near the opening to Clam Cove.  Another was spotted not far from the first.  Then, in the space of about a minute the dolphins lined up and headed off while the Gulls settled down on the water and quieted their raucous cry.  This was followed by 4 Humpback Whales swimming by and surfacing 100 yards off the bow of our boat.  It's true you don't appreciate the size of these animals until you see them up close surfacing then flicking their magnificent tales up before diving back down.  We slowly got our divers back in the boat and marveled at the fact that few people would ever see anything so spectacular.

And so ended 8 days of diving at Browning Pass.  We headed home tired, spent and thinking that was a trip to remember.   

The dive list (Thanks Steve.  I was too lazy to write them down):
Dive 1  Frank's Rock
Dive 2  Rock of Life
Dive 3  Snowfall
Dive 4  North Wall of Browning Wall
Dive 5  Browning Wall 
Dive 6  Eagle's Rock
Dive 7  Seven Tree Wall
Dive 8  Hussar Bay Hooded Nudibranchs
Dive 9  Entrance to Clam Cove
Dive 10 Seven Tree Wall
Dive 11 Rock of Life
Dive 12 Hussar Bay, East End Wall
Dive 13 Seven Tree Wall
Dive 14 Browning Pass North Wall
Dive 15 Rainbow Reef
Dive 16 Seven Tree Wall  (night dive)
Dive 17 Rock of Life
Dive 18 Browning Wall
Dive 19 Eagle's Rock          

Thursday, September 1st at Rockaway

We arrived at 5pm to dive today.   The days are getting shorter so it's getting difficult to continue diving at 6PM, get home, clean the gear and get up for work at 5:10am.  We swam out to the buoy and dropped in at 15 feet.  It was easier to follow Steve and Dave tonight since the visibility had cleared to about 15 feet.  The plan was the usual, go to the main reef then head to the deep reef followed by a brief visit to the shallow reef on the way home.  We made it through 2/3 of the plan.

As we headed down to the main reef the Nudibranchs were still populated on the seaweed and the sand.  The seaweed seemed to have changed color though from a lot of green to more purple with a continued decrease in the overall growth.  We arrived at the main reef and a few scattered Ratfish had reappeared along with some Lemon Yellow Nudibranchs and an occasional Sea Cucumber.  The Giant Orange Sea Cucumbers were trolling about as well but none seemed to be giving a ride to the Alabasters tonight.  Once again we didn't have any luck finding the Wolf Eel that we had seen once before.

Before I knew it we had made it to the end of the main reef and were heading down the line to the deep reef.  Similar to previous weeks it was covered in Rockfish with a huge Copper in what was previously the home of the Octopus.  I mourned the fact that the Octopus seemed to have disappeared, as we have such a fascination with him, but that soon dissipated when Steve kept flashing me with his light back up at the main reef.  On the South end tucked away in a hole was a small Octopus.  While Steve was taking pictures I brought my camera to the ready and patiently waited for my turn to blind it.  The Octopus wasn't too thrilled with this prospect and tucked itself deeper in the hole.  I turned my camera on and it flipped through pictures on its screen and wouldn't set itself for picture mode.  This could only mean one thing, the batteries were low so I would rely on Steve for my photos.

As we passed the brick on the way up the line I signaled to Steve to continue back towards the buoy rather than heading to the small reef.  My air was down to 900 psi and we probably could have gone but it felt like it was time to head in.  The water was rough as we made our exit and the wind had picked up considerably.  In Seattle though, this was okay since it was warm and still light out on a summer evening.  All in all another beautiful dive at Rockaway with thoughts of going to Port Hardy fresh on our minds. 

Saturday, August 27 at Rockaway Beach

Saturday I learned once more how easy it is to become separated from your buddies.  After numerous negotiations a small group of us met at Rockaway Saturday morning.  The tide was so low we walked out to the buoy.  Normally it's in 15 feet of water or so.  We suited up, walked out to the  buoy and set up buddy teams.  Steve and his son, Tom and Kari, Katie and I.  Steve and Tom went down first and the three of us went under next.  The water was so muddy and murky I could barely see a foot in front of me and I definitely couldn't see Kari and Katie.  I couldn't find the line down to the reef and after waiting a few minutes, at least it seemed that way, I headed off on a bearing of 065 degrees and thought I'd meet them on the reef. 

As the depth deepened the water cleared but I didn't see anyone, I also didn't see the line that I expected to run into.  I figured I was to the left of it and so went a bit right after hitting 30 feet.  No line so I continued on my way and eventually went through 40 feet then turned right expecting to run into the reef.  No reef.  I assumed I veered off to the right and was South of the reef so I headed North.  I found a reef.  Problem was, it was the wrong reef.  I swam around the reef quickly realizing it was the wrong one and decided to surface.  Yep, I was in the next cove over and definitely South of my target.

I went back down and headed North along the contour staying at 40 feet.  Slowly, out of the gloom the main reef appeared on my left.  I swam over to it but of course didn't see anyone.  I thought they were on the deep reef at this point so I swam a bit further North along the reef then headed back South.  As I came upon the end of the reef I spotted another diver and signaled I was okay.  No response.  I went around the corner and found Steve.  He was heading  back towards the line so I followed them wondering where Kari and Katie were.  Steve and Tom got ahead of me and I eventually got back on the line and headed up towards the buoy.  As we headed in, the water became murky again and it was necessary to keep hold of the line to follow it.  After stopping at 15 feet for my safety stop I continued on in towards the beach.  Nobody was there.

I trudged out of the water looking back for any sign of Kari and Katie.  Lauri, my wife, had come down to the beach and helped me carry my gear up to the car.  I found out later that Katie's light flooded so she and Kari headed back to Kari's house and never made it down to the reef.  The fleeting glimpse of fin I saw in the beginning of the dive and thought I was following was probably Tom's.  I didn't need my pony bottle but was glad to have it just in case.  All in all another good dive in  Puget Sound. 

Thursday, August 18 at Rockaway Beach

As we head into the end of August it's easy to see the beginning of fall setting in on the reef.  We dropped in at high tide and the visibility had decreased considerably from the middle of the summer.  The water was filled with debris from the dieing algae bloom and the slowly decaying kelp in the shallow areas near shore.  In the middle of the summer the multitude of green leaf and purple kelp was so thick it completely obscured the sandy floor beneath.  Now, as we headed down the line, windows were opened to the grey and brown sandy bottom.

Frosted Nudibranch on brown kelp

The clusters of squid eggs, opened at the ends where the squids escaped, had decayed with just a few scattered remains left.  The Nudibranch's were out in force as we reached further along the line with more appearing as we closed in on the main reef.  All colors of Frosted Nudibranch's from pale yellow to deep orange  and brown covered the sandy floor to the walls of the reef.  While they showed up last week even more were apparent this week with the distinct absence of the (Lemon Nudibranch's) that had blossomed on the reef in the spring.  Periodically, the reef lit up with the brightness of the sun on the beach allowing me to find Ryan and his video camera.  Steve was ahead of us taking pictures and only visible when his spotting light flashed our way.

Copper Rockfish

Copper Rockfish were sparingly scattered around the main reef with an occasional Starfish and Sunflower Star moving along the sand.  On the lower reef the visibility did not improve and still no octopus had inhabited the den awaiting for a new tenant.  The lower reef though was still covered with Rockfish, but fewer crabs and the Ratfish so numerous just a few weeks ago had disappeared.  As we headed back up the line, onto the main reef and into shore we looked towards our next Thursday evening dive.

  

Friday August 19, crabbing, jellyfish and anchors

This time around Fay Bainbridge was  something of a bust for crabs.  We met up at 8AM and were in the water by 8:30.  The tide was flooding at 0.12 knots so there wasn't much current to worry about.  We walked to the North end of the beach and with 100 pounds plus of gear that makes for a very long walk.  The weightless feeling after getting into the water was a welcome relief.  We headed East with visibility of only a few feet that cleared as we entered deeper water to a depth of 40 feet.  There was enough ambient light that my dive light was not to useful, but that didn't matter since there were few crabs to be found.  We managed to pull one out of an old tire after we fought with it inside the tire and attempted to grab it multiple times finally reaching inside and pulling it out by one claw.  Later on we found a few more Red Rock crabs around an old pipe but no more after that.  Our greatest find though wasn't a crab at all but an aluminium mud anchor and a 100 foot section of intact anchor line.  The rope was wrapped around a pole at 40 feet of depth that stood up about 15 feet.  I carried the anchor in while Lucas carried in the rope.  We went back out since we had 1700 psi in our tanks but no more crabs were to be had.

Later in the day as the sun was getting low on the horizon we made it to the Hood Canal for another round of crabbing.  We entered in about 5 feet of water with limited visibility in what appeared to be a long sandy ledge.  As we swam through the eel grass we found numerous small Dungeness Crabs but nothing bigger than a few inches in diameter.  We were somewhat worried at this point but figured this meant there must be adults somewhere in the vicinity.  The background light was dimming adding to an eerie feeling and difficulty in finding any crab.  After passing through the Eel Grass the we headed down a sandy slope that became littered with old pieces of wood and other debris scattered about with numerous Giant Orange Sea Cucumbers.  At 40 to 50 feet we began finding Red Rock Crabs that we through in our bag remembering the paucity of crabs at Fay Bainbridge.

As I struggled to stay close to Lucas I felt a strange stinging sensation around my mouth similar to that of stinging nettles on bare skin.  Focusing on finding crabs I brushed my glove across my face but the stinging wouldn't go away.  Suddenly, Lucas flashed his light at me and pointed it upwards and slightly in back of us.  I had swum right through the tentacles of a Lion's Mane Jellyfish.  The stinging sensation centered around my mouth for the remainder of the dive but that wasn't enough to deter us from finishing our crabbing.  Especially since we were beginning to find some good size Dungeness along with the Red Rocks.  Whenever we found a Dungeness Crab Lucas would pounce on them like  a cat pouncing on a mouse except these guys hurt if they were allowed to fight back.  They struggled against going in the bag but would eventually submit as the bag closed around them.  This went on for another 25 minutes as the stinging continued on my face.

Getting out of the water was no relief but seeing that we almost caught a full limit of Dungeness and Red Rock crabs certainly helped.  We dressed as quickly as possible so that we could get back to Lucas's house to splash vinegar on my face and relieve the burn.  As we headed to his house though I could feel the venom spread and I began getting stinging sensations around my arms, legs and feet.  No other symptoms were apparent and as soon as we reached his house I splashed vinegar on my face which made that feel better until I breathed some in through my nose.  Ow.  Upon arriving home my family pointed out that my forehead was quite swollen, I never felt anything there, and I appeared to have a permanent scowl.  The stinging had subsided by this point though so I just had to wait for it to go away which it mostly had by the next morning.

Cooking the crab and cleaning my gear wasn't finished until almost 11pm leading to a very long day.  The next morning though it was a crab omlette for breakfast and crab, bread and beer for dinner.  And I can't wait to do it again.