Where did you solo dive today?
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Cthippo
Contributor
Chuckanut Island, NW Washington.
This was a good dive, but an awesome experience. I had previously looked at the bathymetry maps around the island and it looked like the cliffs of the island dropped straight down to the seafloor ar 60 feet, so I was expecting a wall dive. We were out to the island for a hike after working sidescan on a wreck earlier in the week and there too it looked like the bottom went straight down. The water clarity around the island was also phenomenal, at least for this part of the world, so I expected great things and was very excited to get back out and dive it.
This was also my first dive where I used the RIB I bought last winter. We have been using it to explore surface wrecks, but have never dived off of it as I had no way back on. I finally had the money to order a ladder (from Italy). Still didn't dive off the boat today, but did take the boat and all the gear to a dive site and developed further confidence in it.
Tied the boat to a tree and geared up for a shore entry. What I thought was going to be a wall was in fact just maybe 6 feet or rock down to sand which sloped down hill fairly steeply to about 50 feet where it leveled out to the muck I am used to around here. Not a lot of life, lots of crabs, some sea cucumbers on the rocks, a few fish and anenomies. There were lots of big worm like things sticking out of the bottom, which I am guessing were geoducks. Video is still uploading to the computer, so don't know if I got anything worth uploading or not. The vis at depth was only about 5 feet.
Lessons learned: My buoyancy is not horrible, but not where I want it to be. When I would try and stop to film something often my feet would go up and I would be in a vertical position head down until things settled. Once motionless my feet tend to sink until I am doing the resting on my fin tips thing. Likewise, when filming around a rock outcropping on the slope I was not able to hold a depth as well as I would like. Is this just a practice thing or are there specific things I need to do differently?
This was the deepest I have been since certification (51 feet) and the deepest I have been solo. No problems.
My instructor is good at what she does. I finally did a weight check at my safety stop and taking off even 3 lbs of lead made staying on the bottom very difficult. I may be slightly overweighted, but not much and I would be a little over than an little under. This also means that the difference in buoyancy between my 3/2mm and my 7mm is not that significant.
Overall it was a good dive
Not the crystal clear wall I was expecting, but an incrementally more challenging one with new moving parts. I never did try out the ladder, but that is a task for next time.
While I was diving my partner swam around the entire island! She said it was the most fish she had ever seen and this was the best snorkel location she has been to. We also saw seals on the way out and back, so even if the diving was only good, the overall trip was excellent.
40 minutes
51 feet max depth
2600/3000 start
770/3000 finish
This was a good dive, but an awesome experience. I had previously looked at the bathymetry maps around the island and it looked like the cliffs of the island dropped straight down to the seafloor ar 60 feet, so I was expecting a wall dive. We were out to the island for a hike after working sidescan on a wreck earlier in the week and there too it looked like the bottom went straight down. The water clarity around the island was also phenomenal, at least for this part of the world, so I expected great things and was very excited to get back out and dive it.
This was also my first dive where I used the RIB I bought last winter. We have been using it to explore surface wrecks, but have never dived off of it as I had no way back on. I finally had the money to order a ladder (from Italy). Still didn't dive off the boat today, but did take the boat and all the gear to a dive site and developed further confidence in it.
Tied the boat to a tree and geared up for a shore entry. What I thought was going to be a wall was in fact just maybe 6 feet or rock down to sand which sloped down hill fairly steeply to about 50 feet where it leveled out to the muck I am used to around here. Not a lot of life, lots of crabs, some sea cucumbers on the rocks, a few fish and anenomies. There were lots of big worm like things sticking out of the bottom, which I am guessing were geoducks. Video is still uploading to the computer, so don't know if I got anything worth uploading or not. The vis at depth was only about 5 feet.
Lessons learned: My buoyancy is not horrible, but not where I want it to be. When I would try and stop to film something often my feet would go up and I would be in a vertical position head down until things settled. Once motionless my feet tend to sink until I am doing the resting on my fin tips thing. Likewise, when filming around a rock outcropping on the slope I was not able to hold a depth as well as I would like. Is this just a practice thing or are there specific things I need to do differently?
This was the deepest I have been since certification (51 feet) and the deepest I have been solo. No problems.
My instructor is good at what she does. I finally did a weight check at my safety stop and taking off even 3 lbs of lead made staying on the bottom very difficult. I may be slightly overweighted, but not much and I would be a little over than an little under. This also means that the difference in buoyancy between my 3/2mm and my 7mm is not that significant.
Overall it was a good dive
Not the crystal clear wall I was expecting, but an incrementally more challenging one with new moving parts. I never did try out the ladder, but that is a task for next time.
While I was diving my partner swam around the entire island! She said it was the most fish she had ever seen and this was the best snorkel location she has been to. We also saw seals on the way out and back, so even if the diving was only good, the overall trip was excellent.
40 minutes
51 feet max depth
2600/3000 start
770/3000 finish
Cthippo
Contributor
Video from Friday's Chuckanut Island dive
- Messages
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Tomorrow I'll dive at Fox Point, Nova Scotia for dive #s 997 & 998. Then next week....
matt_yates
Registered
Back to the local beach and wreck for me. The SS Rosalie was torpedoed during the first world war whilst running north in the north sea. The captain managed to beach his vessel on the beach at Weybourne, Norfolk, England.
The wreck is less than 200m from the beach and a bit of a hike along a pebble beach with steep terraces. A better idea is to dive the wreck at low tide as the tide runs along the beach towards the wreck before slack, and an hour or so later as slack finishes the current will take you back to your start point.
The wreck is covered in anemones and is home to crabs and lobsters and it's shallow depth less than 10m allows nice relaxed diving for the duration of slack before drifting off homewards
It's a great dive if the conditions are right.
To top off a lovely evening dive there was an amazing sunset.
The wreck is less than 200m from the beach and a bit of a hike along a pebble beach with steep terraces. A better idea is to dive the wreck at low tide as the tide runs along the beach towards the wreck before slack, and an hour or so later as slack finishes the current will take you back to your start point.
The wreck is covered in anemones and is home to crabs and lobsters and it's shallow depth less than 10m allows nice relaxed diving for the duration of slack before drifting off homewards
It's a great dive if the conditions are right.
To top off a lovely evening dive there was an amazing sunset.
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- Messages
- 16,429
- Reaction score
- 5,232
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
Dived Paddys Head, Nova Scotia yesterday for my 999th & 1,000th. Thread in Basics.
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