- Messages
- 97,509
- Reaction score
- 98,619
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
It was a great day to be out on the water ... and under the water ... today. My friend Cheryl had recently made the switch to a long hose config, and today was her first day to try it out. She called me the other day and asked if I'd be willing to help her get used to it, and we decided a Bandito Charter would be the way to go. So we hooked up bright and early and headed down to Johnny's Dock for what we thought would be a 2-tanker.
Turns out there was bad news and good news awaiting us. The boat we were scheduled to go out on had gotten canceled ... and they were putting us on a smaller boat. The good news was that this boat was scheduled for a 3-tank day and we were getting the third dive at no extra charge (Rick's such a good guy). Problem is we only brought two tanks each. No worries ... they arranged for extra tanks to be delivered. We were good to go.
Couldn't have asked for better weather ... above or below. There was a pretty low exchange all day, and vis was the best I've seen it in quite some time.
First dive was Dalco Wall. We got there just behind the fishing fleet. MY GAWD there were a lot of boats out there. Fortunately, we didn't see any fishing lines in close to the wall, and had a great dive. Vis was 25-35, depending on depth, with a modest current that we managed to swim into for a while, then drift all the way past the end of the wall going the other way. Highlights of this dive were a massive school of squid (several hundred, at least) at 60 fsw, and a pair of heart crabs on the wall ... both at about 50 fsw. Toward the end of the dive we were drifting along the top of the wall, watching the bottom slowly come up to meet the top ... finally the wall petered out completely. At that point we headed in shallower, and got to play in a lovely kelp forest. With the good vis, the sunlight was streaming down through the bull kelp ... scattered shafts of light filtering all the way to the bottom. Schools of tiny fish darting here and there gave it an aquarium feeling. This was so cool! Toward the end of our safety stop I gave Cheryl an OOA sign and she did a picture perfect handoff ... pretty darn good for her first time with a long hose. We made a slow ascent and completed the dive ... max depth 76 fsw, bottom time 45 minutes. Lovely start to the day.
Our next dive was Sunrise. Again, great vis ... 30-40 feet. Tom dropped us off at the south end of the wall, and swimming down we actually passed the wall on our north. I realized when we got to 63 feet that we'd missed it and we turned upslope and let the current carry us lazily in the direction we wanted to go. Heading upslope we searched the rocks and small outcroppings for critters ... and found plenty to look at, but not the prized octos and wolfies this site is famous for. At last, just before we hit the wall, I spotted an octopus laying on top of a rock. I signaled Cheryl and Tony (our other dive buddy for the day) and the three of us just hovered around admiring the kaleidoscope show as the octopus went through its repertoire of patterns in an effort to pretend we didn't see it. Cheryl was busily taking off a glove and offering her hand for the octo to "taste" ... which it obligingly did. After a couple minutes we decided to leave it in peace, and started to swim away. Surprisingly ... it started swimming along with us as we headed toward the wall. We swam together for all of a half-minute or so, then it finally latched onto the wall and started climbing up. We hovered, entranced ... watching the graceful dance that only an eight-legged creature is capable of as it slowly made its way toward an unseen den above. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement. Looking up, a very large male wolf eel was halfway out of its den and hungrily eyeing my hand, which was only a few feet from it. Cheryl ... ever one to be playful ... swam downslope in search of urchins, but came back empty handed. After a moment, we headed northward along the wall in search of other critters. Reaching the end of the wall, we also found a large bed of green urchins, so Cheryl grabbed a large one and we headed back to the wolfie den. The big guy was hungry ... because as soon as he spotted us he shot out of his den as fast as I've ever seen a wolfie move and headed for Cheryl's hand. Fortunately she was paying attention, and let go of the urchin, which dropped maybe 3-4 inches from her hand before it was handily snatched up. The wolfie carried it back to the den, went inside, and stuck its head out just as it crunched down on the urchin. Aahhh ... that was satisfying ...
We headed back up over the wall at that point, and did a lazy drift for a few minutes, offgassing and doing our safety stop ... then Cheryl gave me an OOA sign and we did another hand-off and practice ascent. Once again it went very smoothly (why couldn't I do 'em like this in DIR-F class two weeks ago?). We hit the surface with HUGE smiles on our faces. Max depth 70 fsw, bottom time 48 minutes.
Third dive of the day was Milepost 8, Tacoma Narrows. This was supposed to be a drift dive, but when we got there the water was dead calm. We geared up and got in just as the tide turned and the current started to pick up. Oh yeah ... this was gonna be good. And it was. Vis was at least 40 feet, and probably a bit better. We made our way along the ledges, I spotted a tiny octopus, but by the time I got my buddies' attention it had morphed and I couldn't find it again. So we drifted, slowly going deeper and slowly picking up speed. This was a really fun dive. Cheryl and I got a little silly ... doing head stands, flips, and barrel rolls in the current ... and Tony drifting slightly above us and wondering how we managed to get so narced at this depth. Vis was awesome ... at 70 feet I shut off my light and put it away because it really wasn't needed. After about 25 minutes, we started a slow ascent upslope ... making our way up from about 70 fsw to about 40 fsw over the course of several minutes. This put us into another kelp forest ... and then things got interesting. First, I spotted a large GPO partially covered with kelp. The current was just enough that with effort we could maintain our position by swimming into it ... and so we did, as Cheryl once again went for the gloves. The octo got one taste of her hand, though, and decided it didn't like us. It almost jumped off the bottom ... squirted a HUGE cloud of ink ... and took off in the opposite direction. Spoilsport. So we proceeded on our way. A minute or so later we spotted a large female wolfie, but she was tucked back in her den and we just didn't feel like working hard ... so we waved at her and kept on drifting. Swimming through the magic kelp forest. At one point, we lost each other in the kelp. We came to a patch too thick to swim through. Cheryl went right ... Tony and I went left. After a few seconds we realized we had managed to split up, so Tony and I rose up high enough to swim through fronds rather than stems, and plunged through a blind mass of waving shrubbery. Exiting the other side, we almost collided with Cheryl, who later claimed she was able to see our bubbles the entire time. Once again we ended the dive by practing an OOA and shared-air ascent ... Cheryl really wanted the practice. Once again it went textbook ... and we ended the dive grinning at each other. Max depth 70 fsw, bottom time 50 minutes.
Back at the dock, Cheryl and I hastily loaded our gear and headed over to ScubaSet for air. We were parting ways ... I was headed back to Titlow to meet Valerie for an early evening dive. We timed it perfectly, and had no current at all for the entire dive. Sadly, it was now low tide and vis had deteriorated to a mere 20 feet or so. But we swam out and explored the ledges ... found an octopus tucked back neatly in its den ... and Valerie found the cutest little (tiny) mosshead warbonnet. It was a lovely, relaxing dive. Best part was coming back at 20 fsw through the horsetails. This was a different kind of forest ... one that was, at times eerie in that the mass or horsetails would make alternating patterns of light and dark to swim through ... but it was a lot of fun. On the way back in I found a weight pouch (if anyone lost one recently at Titlow, let me know) ... and stuggled a bit with a fair amount of extra weight. But we ended the dive nicely ... total bottom time 60 minutes with a max depth of 35 fsw.
Overall just a perfect kind of day for diving ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Turns out there was bad news and good news awaiting us. The boat we were scheduled to go out on had gotten canceled ... and they were putting us on a smaller boat. The good news was that this boat was scheduled for a 3-tank day and we were getting the third dive at no extra charge (Rick's such a good guy). Problem is we only brought two tanks each. No worries ... they arranged for extra tanks to be delivered. We were good to go.
Couldn't have asked for better weather ... above or below. There was a pretty low exchange all day, and vis was the best I've seen it in quite some time.
First dive was Dalco Wall. We got there just behind the fishing fleet. MY GAWD there were a lot of boats out there. Fortunately, we didn't see any fishing lines in close to the wall, and had a great dive. Vis was 25-35, depending on depth, with a modest current that we managed to swim into for a while, then drift all the way past the end of the wall going the other way. Highlights of this dive were a massive school of squid (several hundred, at least) at 60 fsw, and a pair of heart crabs on the wall ... both at about 50 fsw. Toward the end of the dive we were drifting along the top of the wall, watching the bottom slowly come up to meet the top ... finally the wall petered out completely. At that point we headed in shallower, and got to play in a lovely kelp forest. With the good vis, the sunlight was streaming down through the bull kelp ... scattered shafts of light filtering all the way to the bottom. Schools of tiny fish darting here and there gave it an aquarium feeling. This was so cool! Toward the end of our safety stop I gave Cheryl an OOA sign and she did a picture perfect handoff ... pretty darn good for her first time with a long hose. We made a slow ascent and completed the dive ... max depth 76 fsw, bottom time 45 minutes. Lovely start to the day.
Our next dive was Sunrise. Again, great vis ... 30-40 feet. Tom dropped us off at the south end of the wall, and swimming down we actually passed the wall on our north. I realized when we got to 63 feet that we'd missed it and we turned upslope and let the current carry us lazily in the direction we wanted to go. Heading upslope we searched the rocks and small outcroppings for critters ... and found plenty to look at, but not the prized octos and wolfies this site is famous for. At last, just before we hit the wall, I spotted an octopus laying on top of a rock. I signaled Cheryl and Tony (our other dive buddy for the day) and the three of us just hovered around admiring the kaleidoscope show as the octopus went through its repertoire of patterns in an effort to pretend we didn't see it. Cheryl was busily taking off a glove and offering her hand for the octo to "taste" ... which it obligingly did. After a couple minutes we decided to leave it in peace, and started to swim away. Surprisingly ... it started swimming along with us as we headed toward the wall. We swam together for all of a half-minute or so, then it finally latched onto the wall and started climbing up. We hovered, entranced ... watching the graceful dance that only an eight-legged creature is capable of as it slowly made its way toward an unseen den above. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement. Looking up, a very large male wolf eel was halfway out of its den and hungrily eyeing my hand, which was only a few feet from it. Cheryl ... ever one to be playful ... swam downslope in search of urchins, but came back empty handed. After a moment, we headed northward along the wall in search of other critters. Reaching the end of the wall, we also found a large bed of green urchins, so Cheryl grabbed a large one and we headed back to the wolfie den. The big guy was hungry ... because as soon as he spotted us he shot out of his den as fast as I've ever seen a wolfie move and headed for Cheryl's hand. Fortunately she was paying attention, and let go of the urchin, which dropped maybe 3-4 inches from her hand before it was handily snatched up. The wolfie carried it back to the den, went inside, and stuck its head out just as it crunched down on the urchin. Aahhh ... that was satisfying ...
We headed back up over the wall at that point, and did a lazy drift for a few minutes, offgassing and doing our safety stop ... then Cheryl gave me an OOA sign and we did another hand-off and practice ascent. Once again it went very smoothly (why couldn't I do 'em like this in DIR-F class two weeks ago?). We hit the surface with HUGE smiles on our faces. Max depth 70 fsw, bottom time 48 minutes.Third dive of the day was Milepost 8, Tacoma Narrows. This was supposed to be a drift dive, but when we got there the water was dead calm. We geared up and got in just as the tide turned and the current started to pick up. Oh yeah ... this was gonna be good. And it was. Vis was at least 40 feet, and probably a bit better. We made our way along the ledges, I spotted a tiny octopus, but by the time I got my buddies' attention it had morphed and I couldn't find it again. So we drifted, slowly going deeper and slowly picking up speed. This was a really fun dive. Cheryl and I got a little silly ... doing head stands, flips, and barrel rolls in the current ... and Tony drifting slightly above us and wondering how we managed to get so narced at this depth. Vis was awesome ... at 70 feet I shut off my light and put it away because it really wasn't needed. After about 25 minutes, we started a slow ascent upslope ... making our way up from about 70 fsw to about 40 fsw over the course of several minutes. This put us into another kelp forest ... and then things got interesting. First, I spotted a large GPO partially covered with kelp. The current was just enough that with effort we could maintain our position by swimming into it ... and so we did, as Cheryl once again went for the gloves. The octo got one taste of her hand, though, and decided it didn't like us. It almost jumped off the bottom ... squirted a HUGE cloud of ink ... and took off in the opposite direction. Spoilsport. So we proceeded on our way. A minute or so later we spotted a large female wolfie, but she was tucked back in her den and we just didn't feel like working hard ... so we waved at her and kept on drifting. Swimming through the magic kelp forest. At one point, we lost each other in the kelp. We came to a patch too thick to swim through. Cheryl went right ... Tony and I went left. After a few seconds we realized we had managed to split up, so Tony and I rose up high enough to swim through fronds rather than stems, and plunged through a blind mass of waving shrubbery. Exiting the other side, we almost collided with Cheryl, who later claimed she was able to see our bubbles the entire time. Once again we ended the dive by practing an OOA and shared-air ascent ... Cheryl really wanted the practice. Once again it went textbook ... and we ended the dive grinning at each other. Max depth 70 fsw, bottom time 50 minutes.
Back at the dock, Cheryl and I hastily loaded our gear and headed over to ScubaSet for air. We were parting ways ... I was headed back to Titlow to meet Valerie for an early evening dive. We timed it perfectly, and had no current at all for the entire dive. Sadly, it was now low tide and vis had deteriorated to a mere 20 feet or so. But we swam out and explored the ledges ... found an octopus tucked back neatly in its den ... and Valerie found the cutest little (tiny) mosshead warbonnet. It was a lovely, relaxing dive. Best part was coming back at 20 fsw through the horsetails. This was a different kind of forest ... one that was, at times eerie in that the mass or horsetails would make alternating patterns of light and dark to swim through ... but it was a lot of fun. On the way back in I found a weight pouch (if anyone lost one recently at Titlow, let me know) ... and stuggled a bit with a fair amount of extra weight. But we ended the dive nicely ... total bottom time 60 minutes with a max depth of 35 fsw.
Overall just a perfect kind of day for diving ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
