Sunday January 22 - Rockaway Beach: Diving in the middle of winter

The water temperature when we dropped in was 45 degrees Fahrenheit, 7.2 degrees Celsius or 280.35 Kelvin degrees.  Whichever you prefer the fact is the water was cold.  In water we lose heat 25 times faster than in air and at 45 degrees Fahrenheit it's estimated you will be unconcious within 45 minutes.  We dove for an hour.  Why am I throwing out these facts? Because all of this was spinning through my head as we dropped down on the line at 11:40am on Sunday morning with the snow still melting from the storm that kept us inside for the past few days.  The sky was dark with a light, steady rain blanketing the Sound as we swam out to the buoy.

The landscape on the bottom reminded me that we were in the middle of winter.  The visibility was decent at 20 feet and I could follow Steve as we made our way along the line to the reef.  What was absent was many of the creatures we normally see.  The line was devoid of the seaweed that renders it invisible in the summer and the sandy bottom appeared more similar to a garden in the early spring before the growth takes over.  The kelp crabs were sparse and I could count on one hand the number of nudibranchs I saw during the whole dive.  Once we passed the brick pointing to the shallow reef the sandy floor was barren of anything but an occasional sunflower star or crab.

California Sea Cucumber

Down on the main reef the current kicked up and pulled us forward as we tried to stop and photograph an interesting sponge or an occasional sculpin or nudibranch along the way.  The rockfish, ratfish, greenlings, lingcod, sculpins and painted greenlings that we saw just a month or two ago were gone, vanished with nothing left behind to mark there stay.  Looking deep into the cracks and crevices we found the occasional pair of eyes staring back from the rockfish or painted greenling that didn't have enough sense to leave.  Incredibly, the coonstripe shrimp appeared to have multiplied 10-fold and piled one on top of the other with there black eyes staring back when we peered into the cracks lighting the voids between the rocks with our lights.  They didn't venture far from these cold dark homes leaving the front of the reef bare and desolate with even the starfish appearing to sense the barren landscape and not waste precious energy searching for food.

On the way back up the reef Steve was excitedly flashing his light at me as I approached the small rock he was peering into.  At first I saw nothing and couldn't understand what he was looking at.  The crevice was a few inches wide and about 2 feet deep.  The seaweed obscured a good view inside, but then I saw a flash of brown movement.  I looked again with my own light and spotted it, a small juvenile wolf eel gaping at us from the confines of its den.  Its narrow face and long slender body was muddy brown not yet taking on the grey and black coloring with the face of a fat shrivelled apple doll so characteristic of mature wolf eels.  He opened and closed his mouth showing rows of sharp teeth but we had nothing to offer and so eventually moved on.

By the time we came back up the line, did a safety stop and got into shore the rain was coming down in sheets.  I felt so tired I could barely drag myself out of the water and stared at the rocks I needed to walk up wondering how I would get the energy to do it.  Eventually I just put as much gear down as possible and heaved myself onto the first rock then crawled up to the grassy berm and stood up before grabbing my gear and plodded the last 100 feet back to the truck.  I dove in the middle of winter and knew it.      

      

Saturday January 7 - Deco at Devils Boulder

We came around the boulder on devil's with 8 minutes on my no deco time.  After taking a few photos it dropped to 6 minutes and I headed over to see the Wolf Eels Rick had found under some rocks.  They were hanging back inside their den and wouldn't come out with the lights like they normally would.  I forgot to check my time and when I did I was down to 3 mintues and still needed to get to the main line.  I motioned to Rick I was heading up to the line and began to ascend to try and gain time.  That didn't work and the computer counted down to 1 minute.  I was still following everyone to the line but the computer went into deco and I decided to start a free ascent.  I had done these plenty of times before but not with my computer in full deco flashing my penalty time at me and giving me a 10 foot ceiling.  I continued up and stopped at 18 feet; 6 minutes on the safety stop.  This definitely put my heart rate up as this was the first time I've had this happen and the immediate feeling was that I wanted to go to the surface.  I had plenty of air plus the back up tank so the rational part of my brain won out and I stayed where I was supposed to not going above 15 feet.  Copious quantities of bubbles emerged from the depths below and I followed them hoping they would get me to the line.  They didn't but eventually Ryan and his student showed up to keep me company.

My computer cleared the deco by this time and reverted back to the 3 minute normal safety stop without the 10 foot ceiling.  I waited for Ryan to complete his safety stop figuring the extra time wouldn't hurt.  I should have deployed my safety sausage to let the other group know where I was since I ascended prior to the line but we don't always think of these things when everything is happening quickly.  Pam told me later I did everything right which made me feel better.  She had taken me into deco using a simulation program on the computer during a previous trip and this definitely helped with understanding what was happening at the time.

Tube dwelling anemone

Our first dive was on ShangriLa reef where we dropped in at 36 feet.  We went over the wall to visit old man toothless then headed along the wall with the reef on our right.  I was again looking in the cracks and crevices for small creatures such as the red dendronotids that showed up and everyone eventually went ahead.  I continued down to 92 feet trying to get pictures of the and scallops scattered all over the seabed.  The scallops were about 2 inches in diameter with a yellow shell and orange "lips" protruding when they were relaxed.  These pulled in whenever I came close.  I hadn't seen so many here before.  I took my time coming back up the middle of the reef and eventually saw a number of divers lights flashing in the distance.  They had found a GPO at the bottom of the line in a hole.  We missed him when we first went down.  The mantle was a beautiful rustic red fully displayed with its arms moving in a slow graceful dance.

We were out of the water for an hour and a half before the next dive on Devil's Boulder which was another deep dive to 90 feet or more.  I checked my bottom time when we hit the bottom of the second line at the boulder but time can get away from you fast.  Especially when things such as swimming anemones and wolf eels grab your attention.  I looked at my no deco time, it was 8 minutes so I had time for some photos.

More underwater photos

Thursday January 4 - Night diving at Alki with the seals

Their steel grey and black metallic bodies, so graceful in the water and clumsy on land, glided beneath us as we shined our dive lights toward the depths below.  Their phantom forms darted through our beams over and over as though we were only there to help guide them to their next meal.   We dropped into 6 feet of water not going past 15 feet before Katie found the seals just over the edge of a rock.  We followed them in the shallows mesmerized by their graceful movement below.  At times they would grab something and shake their heads from side to side while other times they would stop and lay on the bottom not moving but seeming to just wait for the fish to come to them.  While I tried photographing them they were too fast and when they stopped I was to unsure of what they might do to get close enough for a picture.

Starfish relaxing taunting the seals

We followed them, or they followed us, until we hit 30 feet at which point they disappeared.  We headed down to the old boat at 60 feet looking for the octopus that was under the steel plate.  It was gone but a lingcod on eggs had taken its place.  While on the bottom looking at the giant shrimp that made us hungry for dinner, Steve began wildly signalling us with his dive light.  I noticed it right before one a large shape darted past us within a few feet of Katie and I.  The seals stuck around for a bit then left and we didn't see them again for the remainder of the dive.

By the time we made it up to the safety stop the smaller creatures had lost some of their luster so I went on in after clearing my time.  At the beach I met back up with Steve and Katie and we stumbled out of the water jabbering about an experience we won't forget for a long time to come.

Monday January 2 - Skyline Wall

Thick  Strap Sponge? with Pink Encrusting Sponge

It was a good day of diving.  We timed the the tides so that the ebb pulled us out and the flood pushed us in.  The visibility was about 10-15 feet and the light decreased rapidly as we dropped down to 80 feet on the wall.  Similar to other sites in the area in the winter the usually abundant aquatic creatures were either gone or in hiding to return when the water warmed and the food sources increased.  The majority of the rock formations were covered with encrusting sponges of multiple colors including pink, brown and orange along with some other sponges in shapes reminiscent of the futuristic houses in Sleeper.  

We made our way along the rock formation looking in cracks and crevices for any creatures we could find.  I didn't know, but found out later, that Katie was waiting for me to swim by so that she could send a lingcod shooting my way.  Fortunately, I took to long and she tired of waiting.  We found one GPO deep within a crevasse with numerous copper and black rockfish residing under the overhangs along the wall.  The crimson anemones were few but the ones I did find were a deep red so I attempted to illuminate them with my dive light while photographing with my other hand.   

As our no deco time ticked down we began to move up the wall to shallower depths eventually ending up at 35 feet prolonging our time well beyond our air supplies.  We were well into the dive at this point so we began moving back along the rocks to the exit point at the beach.  As I stopped to take some pictures I quickly lost Steve and his son, Eric, since The flood tide came up fast.  Max flood was 2.5 knots, so it was difficult to stay in one place.  For the safety stop it was necessary to hold onto the rocks and the kelp while trying to take some last photos of the sponges eventually letting go and gliding through the kelp beds.  The swim back to the beach was long but well worth it and much easier with a little help from the current.  All in all a beautiful dive with friends.  Not much is better than that.