Clueless in Seattle

[geoff w]

I've been to Seattle lots of times for work and pleasure over the years, but am totally clueless about diving in the area. Our niece is going to be doing a University of Washington marine biology program for two months starting in mid-July right by Friday Harbor and probably diving her brains out the whole time. I'm trying to figure out a good long weekend to go up and go diving with her, and hopefully drag my wife kicking and screaming into the frigid waters. Where would be the best place, and is any time of the summer better than others, as far as currents, visibility and sea life? Ideally, we'd like to have whales cruise by us during our dive as they're heading south (not orcas), 100+ ft viz and no current. And see lots of Giant Pacific Octopus too. Anything on top of that would be a bonus. Any suggestions or references we should look at? From looking at the tide calendar, it looks like the best tidal conditions are around the first and last quarter moons, and worse around the full and new moons

Also, any suggestions for sailboat bareboat charters around Friday harbor for a long weekend while we're there? We looked at a charter a few years ago, but I can't find the name of the place we were planning on using

 

[WestCoastDivr]

I can't answer all of you questions but as far as seeing GPO, few places beat the octo trail at Redondo beach. Last time I was there we saw 5 large octos in a short, 0 viz dive

 

[dwashbur]

Agreed. Your best bets for critters - no whales, but GPO and lots of others - in places that you can dive any time and not worry about current etc. are Redondo, and Alki Cove 2. Both deliver and both are easy dives. Cove 2 is a little more complex because of where things are, but worth it. And our diving family motto is, "Redondo delivers."

 

[drbill]

Ha, Geoff... everyone knows Dr. Bill is a warm water wussie and won't dive anywhere north of Pt. Conception. I'm sure you'll get plenty of solid advice from the PNW members here. Enjoy the monster critters there and the abundance of nudis.

 

[cmulvaney]

Dr. Bill, I am a spoiled wuss. I am an 80/80 diver. 80 degree water with 80 foot Viz. I wouldn't call anything on the West coast of the USA a warm water dive. ;-)

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[TSandM]

The weekends of the 9th and 23rd of August, and the 7th of September, have bad tides. None of the weekend tides are utterly fabulous, but the others are much better.

I'm not very familiar with the shore diving up in the San Juana. Currents can be very strong up there, and all the diving I have done has been from boats. There used to be a very nice charter that went out of Friday Harbor, but they shut down a couple of years ago. The only regularly scheduled charter up there that I know of is LuJacs's Quest, which goes out of Anacortes.

As you go down into the Sound proper, you can get to sites that are much more sheltered from the current. There is a lot of good shore diving between Seattle, Tacoma, and the Hood Canal. Much of it is not as pretty as the San Juans, because low current means more silt, but the density of life is still very high.

 

[geoff w]

I can't answer all of you questions but as far as seeing GPO, few places beat the octo trail at Redondo beach. Last time I was there we saw 5 large octos in a short, 0 viz dive

WestCoastDivr - that sounds good to me, but I'm not sure if I'm going to entice my wife to get wet if it's advertised as a 0 viz dive

Agreed. Your best bets for critters - no whales, but GPO and lots of others - in places that you can dive any time and not worry about current etc. are Redondo, and Alki Cove 2. Both deliver and both are easy dives. Cove 2 is a little more complex because of where things are, but worth it. And our diving family motto is, "Redondo delivers."

If Redondo delivers, hopefully I can get my niece to dive there.

Ha, Geoff... everyone knows Dr. Bill is a warm water wussie and won't dive anywhere north of Pt. Conception. I'm sure you'll get plenty of solid advice from the PNW members here. Enjoy the monster critters there and the abundance of nudis.

Dr Bill - I'm sure if you wore suitable exposure protection, even you would dive up there. My niece Ruth you met with me at the Avalon harbor cleanup is the one going up there, and I told her to contact you about marine biology programs. Maybe she can entice you to dive cold water

Dr. Bill, I am a spoiled wuss. I am an 80/80 diver. 80 degree water with 80 foot Viz. I wouldn't call anything on the West coast of the USA a warm water dive. ;-)

Our water does get to the low 70s on the surface here in late summer, and we do get days with well over 80 ft viz at times. Not exactly tropical, but certainly easy to do several long dives in a day and still function. I've never seen a hot tub on a dive boat where there is 80 degree water!

The weekends of the 9th and 23rd of August, and the 7th of September, have bad tides. None of the weekend tides are utterly fabulous, but the others are much better.

I'm not very familiar with the shore diving up in the San Juana. Currents can be very strong up there, and all the diving I have done has been from boats. There used to be a very nice charter that went out of Friday Harbor, but they shut down a couple of years ago. The only regularly scheduled charter up there that I know of is LuJacs's Quest, which goes out of Anacortes.

As you go down into the Sound proper, you can get to sites that are much more sheltered from the current. There is a lot of good shore diving between Seattle, Tacoma, and the Hood Canal. Much of it is not as pretty as the San Juans, because low current means more silt, but the density of life is still very high.

Lynne - thanks! This helps narrow down the times we shouldn't consider. I think I'm going to have to go for boat dives to have any chance of getting my wife in the water, and maybe Labor Day will work. I'll start by checking out LuJacs's Quest to see what they have to offer

 

[WestCoastDivr]

Redondo usually has horrible viz in mid April. From what I've heard it's started to clear up a bit


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[TSandM]

The worst viz of the year tends to be around this time in the spring. As we go on into summer, visibility falls into a pattern of algae blooms which slowly die off, giving us a few days of really nice visibility before the cycle begins again. Unfortunately, the length of the cycles is unpredictable, so there's no way to say any particular day or weekend will have good or bad viz. But the average "bad" in the summertime is 10 feet or better, except for the top 20 feet, which can sometimes get almost opaque in the worst blooms. Below that, the water can be quite clear but very dark.