Victoria Vis conditions?

[MarkH]

In 8 years of diving off Victoria, I don't think I've ever seen decent visibility in the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the winter, especially early winter. I feel sorry for divers who visit here in winter from other places because some tourist association told them that "British Columbia has it's best visibility in the winter". While some places may have good visibility in winter, it's definitely not in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
By the way, Henderson Point was about 40 feet yesterday.

 

[wedivebc]

In 8 years of diving off Victoria, I don't think I've ever seen decent visibility in the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the winter, especially early winter. I feel sorry for divers who visit here in winter from other places because some tourist association told them that "British Columbia has it's best visibility in the winter". While some places may have good visibility in winter, it's definitely not in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
By the way, Henderson Point was about 40 feet yesterday.

Gee we had over 100ft at Madrona today.

 

[MarkH]

Gee we had over 100ft at Madrona today.

That's good to hear. I'm going there tommorow.

 

[wedivebc]

That's good to hear. I'm going there tommorow.

I am teaching a meg class at Tyee tomorrow. If you wanted to swing by for a dive there and maybe take some UW pics, or we could do lunch?

 

[Hyper-limits]

I am teaching a meg class at Tyee tomorrow. If you wanted to swing by for a dive there and maybe take some UW pics, or we could do lunch?

Who the crazy instructor that schedule a Meg during a snow fall Hopefully you and Mark can get together so we have some nice CCR diver pictures, which should be very easy with 100ft viz. Who's the lucky guy taking the course?

Al

 

[MarkH]

So the guys salting the highway got bored and went for coffee just before Nanaimo and from there it was a slab of ice and compacted snow. I also made the mistake of buying windshield washer fluid in Duncan. It was supposedly good to -40, but it froze instantly on my windshield and the fluid in the resivoir froze solid in about 20 minutes. I had to stop about every 15 minutes and dump some fluid straight from the jug onto my window to clear off the crud. I joined the convoy of suckers doing 40 km/hr and eventually reached Madrona at about 2:30 giving me time for one dive before sunset. Visibility was about 50 feet from top to bottom. This was pretty impressive in the shallows. As soon as I made it to the wall and all the stuff I wanted to take pictures of, my strobe quit. -And it was actually a store-bought, name brand strobe (last time I try that). I noticed that the monster chiminey sponge was gone. I didn't even see fragments of it so it was probably kicked into the afterlife some time ago. On the way back to shore, I could see ducks swimming on the surface and diving down to walk on the bottom. It wasn't a bad dive, but next time I drive 4-5 hours, it had better be for a sunken ocean liner covered with soft corals or something.

 

[MarkH]

30 feet at Deep Cove today.

 

[naclydogg]

I think it was less than that above the water today, during one of the snow squalls

 

[MarkH]

About 50 feet up near Nanoose (Madrona/Cottam) today.

 

[MarkH]

About 30 feet at Willis Pt. today. That's a lot less than normal, but it was still pretty bright down there. I was going to try for Enterprise Channel, but because of the barge up on the rocks, it was quite a circus with tugs, news crews and sightseers swarming everywhere.