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