jeffkruse2000
Contributor
Vis is good again. Get out and dive.
This weekend started off with a dive for crab on Friday evening. Dave and I both got our limits under the oil dock. It took us 75 minutes. Vis was very good at certain depths. It was bad right near the bottom of the mud flats and it was bad near the surface but in between it was 25'.
Saturday was an adventure. My boat the "Stroke" is aptly named. I met up with Gray at the Alki boat launch for a dive at Waterman Wall. The currents were very nice this weekend so we had to take advantage of them. At the boat launch the vis looked great. We were excided for the up coming dive. We packed the boat and headed over to Waterman wall. Weather was good and we cruised at about 22mph. We just passed Orchard rocks and we saw the Bremerton ferry in the distance heading to Seattle. I wanted to give us plenty of room so I started to cross over.
As I started the turn in to the path of the ferry my motor just about quit! I very quickly did a 180 and limp away at about 3 mph! The ferry had plenty of room and did not have to alter course. After the ferry passed Gray and I discussed our next move. Go about 1/2 mile to the dive site at 2 or 3 mph and do the dive or turn back and hope the motor will get us back the 8 miles we just crossed. We went for the dive.
The dive was awesome! Vis was 30+'. Almost no current on the wall. Color, sponge, fish, inverts, ect. To much to write about. I think it's the best dive in Puget Sound. We anchored in 40' and dropped down to 115' (I was on 30/30).
We got back in the boat and just for fun I pulled a spark plug. In the plug was a welded piece of metal shorting it out. Where did that come from! After that I had some hope that we would get back. Maybe we should push our luck and do a second dive.
That was not to be. Grays new wrist seal ripped off. Ok back to the boat launch. The engine started and away we went at almost full speed. We got about 3 miles and just as we were going to cross the sound the engine started acting up. I pulled the plug again but it was fine. I started the engine again and crossed my fingers. We limped along, faster than before but still not on a plane. It was going to be a long ride back. But then after a few minutes it started to work again and it worked the rest of the way back. Anyone know how to fix a 30HP Tohotsu outboard?
Sunday we dove from another Jeff's boat. Thanks Jeff. We dove the Possession Pt fingers and Ferry wreck. Vis was 30 or 40'. The fingers were very nice. A very large octopus had pulled a 8 - 10# dead lingcod into its den and was blowing huge clouds of silt into the water. All four of us dove at once on this dive.
The second dive was at the Ferry wreck. We did two down two up because of currents. Surface current was running at least a knot just like on the fingers. Like the fingers once we got below 10' it was still. Vis was good and you could see a lot of the wreck. We didn't drop down on the wreck but we found it. We dropped down on the big rock piles and headed east. After the rock piles cement slabs start. Those cement slabs lead us right to the ferry. It was 75' deep. I saw a couple juvenile yelloweye rockfish. There were lot's of big ling cod and thousands of shiner perch.
The last dive of the day was to see if we could catch spot shrimp during the day. We figure it's just a matter of time before shrimping becomes day only. With 21/35 and 50% we planned on a avg depth of 170 for 15 to 20 minutes. We bumped 180 and with 30' vis still saw only 2 spot shrimp. Rob wants to do tech 2 so we can go to 240 and catch shrimp. No thanks.
Jeff
This weekend started off with a dive for crab on Friday evening. Dave and I both got our limits under the oil dock. It took us 75 minutes. Vis was very good at certain depths. It was bad right near the bottom of the mud flats and it was bad near the surface but in between it was 25'.
Saturday was an adventure. My boat the "Stroke" is aptly named. I met up with Gray at the Alki boat launch for a dive at Waterman Wall. The currents were very nice this weekend so we had to take advantage of them. At the boat launch the vis looked great. We were excided for the up coming dive. We packed the boat and headed over to Waterman wall. Weather was good and we cruised at about 22mph. We just passed Orchard rocks and we saw the Bremerton ferry in the distance heading to Seattle. I wanted to give us plenty of room so I started to cross over.
As I started the turn in to the path of the ferry my motor just about quit! I very quickly did a 180 and limp away at about 3 mph! The ferry had plenty of room and did not have to alter course. After the ferry passed Gray and I discussed our next move. Go about 1/2 mile to the dive site at 2 or 3 mph and do the dive or turn back and hope the motor will get us back the 8 miles we just crossed. We went for the dive.
The dive was awesome! Vis was 30+'. Almost no current on the wall. Color, sponge, fish, inverts, ect. To much to write about. I think it's the best dive in Puget Sound. We anchored in 40' and dropped down to 115' (I was on 30/30).
We got back in the boat and just for fun I pulled a spark plug. In the plug was a welded piece of metal shorting it out. Where did that come from! After that I had some hope that we would get back. Maybe we should push our luck and do a second dive.
That was not to be. Grays new wrist seal ripped off. Ok back to the boat launch. The engine started and away we went at almost full speed. We got about 3 miles and just as we were going to cross the sound the engine started acting up. I pulled the plug again but it was fine. I started the engine again and crossed my fingers. We limped along, faster than before but still not on a plane. It was going to be a long ride back. But then after a few minutes it started to work again and it worked the rest of the way back. Anyone know how to fix a 30HP Tohotsu outboard?
Sunday we dove from another Jeff's boat. Thanks Jeff. We dove the Possession Pt fingers and Ferry wreck. Vis was 30 or 40'. The fingers were very nice. A very large octopus had pulled a 8 - 10# dead lingcod into its den and was blowing huge clouds of silt into the water. All four of us dove at once on this dive.
The second dive was at the Ferry wreck. We did two down two up because of currents. Surface current was running at least a knot just like on the fingers. Like the fingers once we got below 10' it was still. Vis was good and you could see a lot of the wreck. We didn't drop down on the wreck but we found it. We dropped down on the big rock piles and headed east. After the rock piles cement slabs start. Those cement slabs lead us right to the ferry. It was 75' deep. I saw a couple juvenile yelloweye rockfish. There were lot's of big ling cod and thousands of shiner perch.
The last dive of the day was to see if we could catch spot shrimp during the day. We figure it's just a matter of time before shrimping becomes day only. With 21/35 and 50% we planned on a avg depth of 170 for 15 to 20 minutes. We bumped 180 and with 30' vis still saw only 2 spot shrimp. Rob wants to do tech 2 so we can go to 240 and catch shrimp. No thanks.
Jeff
