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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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