Current Intensive Advice for Mukilteo?

[jim T.]

I've dived the Mukilteo (Hotel/Stairs side) about a half dozen times.
I never found this area to be current intensive to about 50fsw. Aside from new/full moon tides, etc. Is current ever much of a concern here?

We'd like to go down the buoy chain to about 90'-100fsw and would like to know if the
currents are much different or more severe at those depths at Mukilteo. Any entanglement hazards (old nets, etc.) near the buoy? (Just practicing buoyancy and stops no deco.)

I was just informed that in the recent past there was a big ball of cave line at around 90' and more line on the 2nd buoy below the surface buoy. Any updates on that would be appreciated.

Any advice/related experiences would be appreciated. PM me if you'd rather.


I do realize that the lighthouse/park side is a completely different tidal animal!

Thanks.

 

[Sebastes]

I have done a lot of dives at the T-dock. Reading the current there can be a little tricky. At this location on an incoming tide an eddy forms such that the current is flowing South not North as you might expect. Surface current is worse then the bottom current.

If you are talking about the orange buoy that goes down to a black barrel then the only entanglement that I know of at this time is a line at 110' that goes off to the NE towards the Troll. It has been awhile since I have been out there.

I would not swim out to this buoy on a large tide exchange since it is easy to get blown off and into the ferry.

Hope this helps and good luck.

 

[jim T.]

Hi Sebastes,
Thanks very much. Wish you'd seen my question earlier, but....I did dive at Mukilteo on Sunday and did experience just what you've described. I had a nice dive to 107' just south of the dock and out to "the log" (if it indeed was "the log" instead of "a" log No problems at all at depth
and things "behaved" themselves with the flood current heading Northward. But at the surface near the beach it did head Southward!
I ended up behind the Hotel rather than at the stairs
trying to compensate via compass navigation for the flood and ended up a bit south.

There was an OW class there as well and they had a downwelling and strong ebb at 20' which was a bit hard on the new divers-even though it was supposed to be slack.

I hadn't encountered this situation before at Mukilteo but now realize that the predictions may be only that, to some degree there. If you think of any other tips for diving there I be glad to hear more. I like the site for being able to get deep fast and to practice stops, etc. But would like to know ALL of it's idiosyncracies.

Thanks very much for filling me in. I appreciate it,
Jim

 

[nwbrewer]

A few of us dove the boat about two weeks ago, and the line at 110 that heads out towards the troll is now kind of a mess and is wrapped around the main line several times. Use caution descending the line.

Jake

I have done a lot of dives at the T-dock. Reading the current there can be a little tricky. At this location on an incoming tide an eddy forms such that the current is flowing South not North as you might expect. Surface current is worse then the bottom current.

If you are talking about the orange buoy that goes down to a black barrel then the only entanglement that I know of at this time is a line at 110' that goes off to the NE towards the Troll. It has been awhile since I have been out there.

I would not swim out to this buoy on a large tide exchange since it is easy to get blown off and into the ferry.

Hope this helps and good luck.

 

[Sebastes]

Thanks for the info on the line mess. I know who put it there and will let them know that the lines need to be cleaned up.

 

[jim T.]

Sebastes,
That would be great! Could you post here once you know it's been cleaned up?
Or have the person who does the job, post? Do you know what the intended purpose of their line was? Thanks again for your advice and especially help with trying to get the buoy/line cleared!

 

[Sebastes]

I think the idea for the lines comes from the fact that there is a lot of stuff to see deep (caution: only dive to the limit of your training and abilities) like the boat, the troll and a satellite dish. So I think that they wanted to make a circuit where you could descend down the buoy line then either go to the boat or follow the line at 110' to the top of the mound and see the troll then go from the troll back in and not get deeper then 110'. When you are on top of the mound it is very easy to become disorientated because you have to go down the mound before you start going back up. Some other people think that you should only rely on your compass and not have any guidelines so I think that they have taken upon themselves to police this area and cut the lines.

 

[jim T.]

Figured it might be something along those...lines.
Seemed like a good idea at the time... thanks for the explanation,
Jim