Saturday March 24 - Possession Point Ferry and The Fingers

Our destination today was the Possession Point Ferry on the South end of Whidbey Island.  According to Emerald Diving Photography (http://www.boydski.com/diving/dives/possession-point-ferry.htm) the wooden, diesel-electric ferry, originally 227’ long and 44’ wide was built in 1926 as the Golden State for use in San Francisco.   In 1937, it was purchased by the Puget Sound Navigation Company and converted into the Washington State Ferry,  Kehloken.  Infamous for its sad role in 1942 of transporting the Japanese residents of Bainbridge Island to Seattle for placement into California relocation camps, the Kehloken provided nearly 50 years of faithful service.   In 1975, she had outlived her useful life and was sold for $25,000.  She was then towed to Lake Union to be converted into a club house and restaurant, but in 1979 was set on fire and burned to the waterline.  What remained of the Kehloken’s wood hull was then towed out to Possession Point on the South end of Whidbey Island and intentionally sunk in 80 feet of water.

We arrived at the dive site after an hour and half of nervous excitement and expectations (at least I was nervous) with the current running fast enough that we dragged the buoy underwater after tieing off the boat.  Steve H. was our dive master and worried enough that he was considering another dive site.  At least until Pam came aft, looked at the buoy, checked her tide tables and simply stated "wait 10 minutes" and walked off.  Five minutes later the tide slackendeed and 10 minutes later we were splashing into the water.  Katie and Kari were paired, Steve and I were buddies and Ryan was buddied up with Ryan. 

Swimming Anenome

Transparent Tunicates

We hit low tide with a final depth of 67 feet and one of the most beautiful wreck dives in Puget Sound.  Every exposed part of the ferry was covered with anemones, sponges and tunicates with lingcod and rockfish scattered throughout the wreck.  White plumose anemones created living archways inviting us into the depths of the wreckage.  Steve and I headed down the port side of the vessel taking in the expanse of swimming anemones and translucent tunicates that covered every inch of the ferry.  A decorator crab scampered by covered in encrusting sponges and translucent tunicates ducking into the white, lacey plumes of the anemones .  We went out 20 minutes, made it to some large round metal structures showing there exposure to the salt water, then turned around and headed back to the line.  At the surface the current picked up so we let go of the line and caught the ladder before being swept passed the boat and around Whidbey Island.

Orange Cratered Encrusting Sponge

The fingers was a completely different dive from the Possession Point Ferry.  While the ferry is a man made reef the fingers are a series of geologic protrusions on the North/East edge of Whidbey which start from a gently sloping sandy bottom then drop off at 30 feet on a series of ledges to depths greater than 130 feet.  Here we find sandstone like walls with overhangs and ledges providing protective cover for the sponges, worms, tunicates, fish, crabs, anemones and crabs scattered along the wall.  Prior to getting in I was complaining to Pam about how I hurt my back and she informed me of the free chiropractic care at 90 feet.  I took her advice and tried it out but forgot to tell anyone I was going deeper so that everyone was gone when I returned a few minutes later.  No problem, I went North along the fingers swimming through a school of black rockfish and investigating the slime stars and tunicates before turning back.  Periodically, I would come across perfectly round natural holes in the rock wall.  

I eventually came upon Ryan who was ascending from the depths below.  At the safety stop I hung out on the sandy slope observing the siphons sticking up from the geoduck clam.  I wondered how old they were.  Geoduck clams can live over a 100 years.  Back on the boat I was accosted by Pam letting me know they were worried about me.  The crew was following my bubbles and they apparently disappeared while I was at the safety stop.  I'm fairly sure I was breathing and blowing bubbles the whole time but I have nobody to back up my claim.  It was good to know they were watching out for me and next time I'll try to breath more.

Click here for additional photos 

Saturday March 17 - Watermans and ShangriLa: It's always a good day to dive

While on the boat heading out to the dive site I thought of a great name for today's blog "It's a good day to dive".  Brilliant, until I remembered Ryan used the name for his video of the local dive sites.  Shameless as I am I used the name anyway.  I will point out that I added an additional word to avoid any infringement on his copyright.

It was another 7:30 am dive call and for the life of me I don't know why anyone wants to get up so early on a Saturday morning other than a bunch of zealous divers, strap on a 100 pounds of gear, jump in 43 degree water and breath compressed air at a 100 foot depth until the tank is almost empty.  I personally don't call that sane, but I do call it fun.   

As we sat in the warm cabin (Mike, Jon, Ryan, Rick, Steve W., Hal and I) of the Salish Explorer we once again rounded the buoy as we passed Fort Ward and watched the seals lounging on the platform.  A large male extended its neck as if waiting for us to throw him handouts.  The boat chugged on through the falling snow.  We reached the site and our Captain (the other Mike) put us on top of the reef.  My hand was still sore from a few weeks ago so Rick, my valet, placed my rig on the back deck and plugged in my air hose.  It was into the water with Ryan and down the wall we went to 105 feet.  Rick made it past us to 130 feet, the recreational diving limit.  I followed Ryan with his bright lights for videography at one point coming back over the wall like something from a cheap horror movie.  As I gazed at a california sea cucumber on our way back I was surprised to find it could swim, at least with the help of Ryan's fin.  I was disappointed when I emerged at the surface with over a 1000 psi of air left in my tank.

Swimming Anemone in Current

At ShangriLa Mike invoked the three strikes rule of diving and wouldn't go in since his regulator decided to free flow while on deck, leaving him with only 900 psi of air in his tank.  I never did find out what the other 2 strikes were.  Ryan and I were once again paired and we did a fantastic job of missing the wolf eels and octopi that the site is famous for.  We passed a lone swimming anemone with its tentacles gracefully bending back with the flowing current.  I stayed with Ryan as he shot video of a lingcod on eggs and I examined the intricacies of the encrusting sponges and short plumose anemones nearby.  We swam back up to the top of the reef with Ryan stopping to check his air.  I checked my air.  Ryan showed me his gauges and pointed to his tank pressure, 500 psi, I had 1200 psi.  I won!  No, I lost since Ryan wanted to surface.  His Big Kahuna tank, which holds 120 cubic feet of air, was sad and lonely back at his house.

Plumose Anemone oral disk

At the safety stop Ryan thought I was narced at 18 feet.  I swam circles around him periodically moving up higher then diving down lower while I waited out my 3 minutes.  You shouldn't do this since the activity can release trapped nitrogen but I couldn't keep my buoyancy correct like I did on the first dive.  On that dive I added 2 pounds while I was testing the water tightness of a used camera housing I purchased.  I incorrectly thought the additional 2 pounds would be too much and removed them for the second dive.  This, combined with finally figuring out my neck seal, yes I stayed dry, made me too light at the safety stop so I was forced to circle Ryan like a wacked out shark while maintaining my depth.

It was a great day to dive and no better way to celebrate St. Patrick's day than swimming in the emerald waters of the Salish Sea.

For additional photos click here

Friday March 2 - Alki at night: Diving with seals again

It was Friday morning and I woke up cold.  I took my truck since I was going diving with Katie in the evening at Alki, but that didn't help with warming me up, I was still cold.  I wore my coat all day and all I could think about was going diving and being in the warm water.  5PM finally arrived and I took off for West Seattle through the maze of the waterfront traffic on my way to the West Seattle Bridge.  Katie was already getting ready when I arrived and in between sentences I got my gear together.  I was going to leave my camera in the car since I still get nervous diving at night but Katie was teasing me that I'd see all kinds of cool stuff and I'd miss the shots.  She was right and so were my instincts, we saw lots of cool stuff and I should have left my camera in the car. 

Ratfish (the only picture I took worth showing)

We got into the water and as I reached around to check my computer an intense pain shot through the back of my hand, which was now part of the reason why I couldn't get my pictures as I couldn't move my light into the proper position.  Down we went and I immediately realized I once again hadn't done my neck seal right so all night I was fighting my buoyancy.  I finally fixed it in the last 25 feet of the dive after I soaked myself from top to bottom with a slow leak of water creeping through my undergarments.

Diving that night was unnerving, but not for the reasons I mentioned above.  A week ago another diver died in the area and thoughts of that tragedy slowly crept through my mind, I felt helpless to stop them.  Every time we looked under a metal panel or over a rock I expected to see lifeless eyes staring back from behind a mask.  This was not to be the case and the sleek spotted black and grey form of a seal went flying by at 55 feet.  Seals again.  They glided past with their long whiskers and dog like faces effortlessly gliding through the water, following our lights to the fish and creating a cloud of silt along the way.

At one point Katie stopped on the bottom and kept pointing with her light at a dark spot on the sand so I would take a picture.  Okay, I don't see anything interesting.  She pointed again and I still couldn't figure out what it was.  Finally she took her finger and poked the sand so that the Stubby Squid would swim up off the bottom.  The silt kicked up so Katie moved the little guy above the silt, he swam around with his stubby tentacles and flapping appendages reminding me of gossamer wings beating in a gentle breeze.  I never did get myself situated to get a picture worth showing.

On the way back to our safety stop thoughts of the diver that died once again clouded my conscience, but this time they reminded me it was good to be alive and to dive with the seals another day.

Sunday February 19 - KVI Towers and ShangriLa

Before I get going on this blog I need to have a good rant about something that really pisses me off.  Rude divers.  Unfortunately, we had one on this trip and I'm willing to bet he was so self centered he didn't know and I suspect wouldn't care.  The behavior I saw that so annoyed me I've seen with other dive photographers as well.  We found 2 octopuses out in the open on this trip.  When the first one was found he seemed to think everyone should get out of his way so he could get photos.  Okay, take your photos.  But he didn't stop taking photos until the octopus had found another rock to crawl under and disappear.  So maybe he was just excited to see it, but he did the same thing on the second dive planting his ass right in the middle of everyone and taking photos of a dieing Octopus until the group had left.  Then he had the audacity to move things around so he could get a better shot and not allow other photographers to get photos of what was going on.  I take photos and I enjoy it very much, but rude?  Nay, I try hard not to be.  There is always another time to get a photo.  If he was new at this possibly we could forgive him but he had a nice camera and had obviously been diving for quite some time.  So if you are taking photos, be courteous.  Okay, I'm done ranting and am much better for it so now I'll get back to the story. 

Swimming Anemone

I left my house under the steel grey skies of a Seattle morning.  Sea Lions lolled on the buoy under  bright skies as we passed on our way to KVI Towers.  I was paired with Kari whom I enjoy diving with since she always finds great things to photograph.  The first thing she found being a Giant Pacific Octopus stuffed deep underneath a boulder.  He was a messy eater and left crab parts all over his front porch.  Giant orange and white Plumose anemones covered the rocks and the cement pillars thrown haphazardly about among the scattered boulders as the Moon Jellies swam languidly by.  We made our way down to 65 feet where Rick found another Octopus among a pile of concrete beams and boulders.  The mantle was the size of a basketball with a color of reddish ocher.  It moved among the debris entwining its tentacles around concrete and stone looking for a place to hide.  I wished I could post a picture but that is past history.

Squid Eggs

As the rest of the group headed to deeper depths Kari and I headed towards shallower depths.  Eggs like styrofoam masses were tucked into rocks and crevices; Lingcods warily guarding them but unwilling to attack.  An unguarded egg mass was engulfed by a sunflower star feeding on the unhatched eggs.  We were back at the line.  Kari was cold and went up.  I stayed down to photograph, became cold and went up as well.

It was an hour back to ShangriLa from KVI Towers.  We ate spicy soup to warm up while we talked about all that we saw at the site.  Half way back Adam called down for Rick, there was a situation occurring in the sound.  We didn't know what it was at first and called Rick to come up to the bridge.  Later we found out there was a missing diver at Sea Crest Beach and were requesting help to look for him.  We didn't have enough divers trained in search and rescue so continued on to ShangriLa Reef.  The diver was found about 6PM that evening by his friends.  The search and rescue teams had been called off at dusk.  Sad.  Very sad.  

Red Irish Lord

At ShangriLa we went down as a group.  The cold fingers of Puget Sound once again enveloping us as we dropped down the line.  The Wolf Eels at the bottom of the line were on eggs and wouldn't come out to play.  The Wolf Eel egg mass looks like a white styrofoam pellet football wrapped up by grey bodies of the parents hiding it in the back of the cave.  We headed South and came upon another Giant Pacific Octopus with it's color fading and it's Mantle slowly moving with shallow breaths as Sunflower Stars feasted on its tentacles.  For the Octopus it was a good day to die.  We stayed on the reef for quite some time finding an abundance of Wolf Eels, anemones, Sea Stars and small fish, at least until I lost everyone and the current picked up at the end.  I found a portion of the reef at 19 feet and slowly kicked in place while I did my safety stop then surfaced to find I was well separated from both the boat and the other divers who had surfaced shortly before me.  It was a good day for a swim.