Browning pass hideaway trip report Sept 10-15/2017

[StuartT]

So 6 of us from the Vancouver area plus Bob Bailey from Washington aka NWgreatful diver headed up to port hardy for a week of diving in the browning pass area nearby. Wether prevented us from getting out to the hideaway on the first night so we hunkered down in port hardy for the night. Winds were calm by 8:30 the following morning and we got out to the floating lodge in clam cove by 10 am that morning. This would be day 1 of 4 great days of diving. We dived many of the signature sites including 7 tree island, browning wall, north wall, rock of life, snowfall, and even had a great dive at hunt rock. Topside conditions were mostly flat calm seas. And for mid September the visibility was at least 50 ft on all our dives. Thanks to Bob for showning me my first candy striped shrimp. Now I know where to look for the tiny little buggers. We saw tons of Irish lords, decorator warbonnets, wolf eels, octopus, and plenty of nudibranch species. Thanks to John Deboeck for hosting us and getting us in the water at perfect slack for all the dives. Can't wait to get back to this area for in my opinion the best cold water diving anywhere. I'll post some pics from the trip. Thanks to Doug, David, Christina, Judith, Khrista, and Bob for a great trip.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wTKMbDlXSo5hZ7Hu2
Hopefully the link works
Oh I forgot to mention we had some awesome humpback whale encounters at least 3 times either on the way to or the way back from our dives.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Good to see the visibility has returned. We had horrible vis above sixty feet in July/August.

 

[StuartT]

The pictures of the 3 divers at the surface was us waiting for the boat at hunt rock. Conditions couldn't have been better. Above and below. We spent about 20 minutes at hunt rock with 2 very large wolf eels.

 

[West.Coast.Diver]

Interested to know what kind of shape was the Hideaway in? Last trip some of my buddies took up there, the place hadn't been maintained all winter, and it was pretty rough (this was before the whole skiff sinking event). Has the heating situation improved at all? The one trip I took up there was four days of spectacular diving, but with accommodations that couldn't keep our group warm at all. I'm hoping that's improved?

 

[StuartT]

The hideaway still has its rustic charm. Still no heat and power overnight as the generator is off then. The baseboard heater in my room worked fine but not in all the rooms. One of our group brought a sleeping bag which I'll do next time. A small propane heater would also be handy if you wanted heat in your room at night. I had a leak in my inflator valve of my Drysuit so had to change base layer for each dive. The baseboard heater dried them quickly when the power was on plus we had nice topside weather so I sometimes hung it out in the sun. I've also been to gods pocket nearby and they have power and heat all the time. Diving is the same at both resorts it's just a matter of ones level of comfort. I would suggest also bringing extra light batteries as the power is also off when out diving. So recharging dive lights was a bit of a challenge but we all managed.