June 9 - Flagpole Point (Hood Canal)

"Okay, I got everyone safely to the surface, you're on your own swimming in to shore".  I listened to Katie shout these words at us while hanging onto the buoy marker.  The current swept past, pulling us towards the South end of the canal.  It was a long swim back.

Copper Rockfish on a Cloud Sponge

The four of us (Katie, Kari, Chris and Myself) arrived at the site early in the afternoon with a strong wind blown current running along the surface.  The plan was to swim out to the buoy, see the sponges, then swim back along the bottom to shore and avoid the current.  We dropped in on the reef with the visibility clearing as we approached the bottom at about 65 feet.  The sponges bloomed from the side of the reef with off-white folds and tubes like cumulus clouds on a warm summer day.  Thoughts of Dr. Seuss swam through my mind. 

Twenty minutes went by and nobody was making a move to swim back towards shore, tank pressure was down to 1800 psi.  The group loosely began to head in towards shore but stopped to look at an octopus so I signaled Katie I was down to half a tank, I wanted to keep moving.  Thinking I told her I was low on air Katie spun around and head straight back to the line.  I thought the plans changed and we needed to conserve air in case we got in trouble swimming back from the buoy.  Swimming along the surface in heavy current I wondered how far I could get swept along before making it to shore. 

The second dive we planned seemed daunting, we went for beer instead.

More underwater photos

June 2 - We don't need no stinkin viz

Katie and I dropped into the emerald green waters above Shangrila Reef, the sun filtering through algae and plankton so thick we couldn't see our fins.  It was a bright spring morning on the surface, it was twilight on the reef.  The current pulled at our bodies as we kicked with our fins struggling to stay in place.  Ready to go in, Pam had us wait 10 minutes for slack, it lasted for a few seconds.

Decorated Warbonnet on Shangrila Reef

Our lights reflected off the plankton, a million diamonds surrounding us, isolating us.  We circumscribed the reef looking for wolf eels and octopi.  A mosshead warbonnet pulled itself underneath an overhang, to narrow for a picture.  I tried sign language to get it to come out, Katie used a wave of her hand.  It rested on a ledge above us blending the colors of its body with the encrusting sponge on the wall and its face with the mossy kelp on the rock.  Ma and Pa wolf eel were in their den.  White flesh torn from Pa's upper lip, red streaks exposed in the open wound.

Katie trapped in the jello

Descending on Devil's Boulder was worse than Shang.  The plankton clumped, disorienting us in our descent.  Below 40 feet the filtered light diminished from an uneasy twilight to the deep black of night.  As we descended, dark boulders appeared from nowhere signaling the bottom.  We couldn't find the line to the reef so we followed a narrow string attached to a rock.  Katie was waiting at the end swinging the broken line from side to side.   Time passed as if in a dream.  20 minutes became 10 and 10 became 3.  Meteors streaked down upon us from the from the night sky above.  It was time to ascend and leave the exploration of this alien world to the others.



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