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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The bottle collection |
Dinner that night was crab, pizza and beer. We never made the second dive.
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ReplyDeleteHi Bruce, thanks for fantastic dive on Alki yesterday! I misspoke, those charismatic fauna were not swimming angels, but I believe they are still pteropods. I haven't been able to identify. Sounds like a job for Andy Lamb! Unless you've figured it out?
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