Fantastic Trip in Northern Pacific

[scubapolly]

I just completed an amazing trip too great not to share with those of you on SCUBA board. A friend of mine (Shawn) had a twelve day job delivering a 70 foot motor yacht from Tacoma, Washington to Channel Islands, California and asked me along for the journey to serve as his deckhand and dive buddy. We meet some really cool people and stopped in some great dive shops along the way. I am providing the details for some of these shops for those of you that are local, or those planning a trip in the area.


We flew into Seattle on May 2nd and took some of the required tourist photos in front of the space needle, then to Tacoma to spend the evening on the boat. The next morning we went off to get supplies for our journey. First on our agenda was to get our hands on some SCUBA tanks. For that we had to head to Seattle. We stopped first at Discount Divers Supply where we were able to pick up 2 AL 80s and some weights, Karen at this shop was very helpful, and even was able to hook Shawn up with a bleeder screw for his Spare Air that had disappeared during the flight. For those of you guys with boats in the area, the guys at the boat marina at Point Defiance are excellent. Dave and Kevin are two in particular that stood out as going above and beyond.

We left Point Defiance at 5:50am heading to Port Townsend, WA. We went to Townsend Bay Dive Shop (2200 Washington Street; Port Townsend, WA; 360-379-3635; www.townsendbaydive.net), to see about getting some more SCUBA tanks. Jennifer, one of the owners of the shop was helpful in setting us up with 2 more tanks and in finding a bulb we needed for one of our lights. She then loaded us up in her truck and drove us through town to point out some good dive sites. Then she swung by the boat so we could drop off our tanks and took us back into town for lunch. Back at the boat, we suited up for a dive and launched the dingy. We headed to one of the site’s Jen had suggested to us near the ferry dock. On this dive we saw tons of anemones (Metridium), huge starfish, and quite a variety of crabs. We took the dingy over to the shore near the dive shop, Polly hopped out and took the two tanks over for a refill while still in her drysuit. One of the customers offered to haul Polly and the tanks back to the boat. Also Grant, the other owner was nice enough to give us some info on some good local dive sites. Back on board we headed to Port Angeles for the night.

Thursday morning we headed to Neah Bay and arrived just after noon. We met a guy in the local fishing shop named Neil that took us fishing for the day since neither the dingy nor the big boat were very practical for the area we were in. We loaded supplies for the day onto Neil’s boat and headed off to the fishing grounds. Along the way we came across a pod of Orcas. We watched them for a while and snapped several pictures. After a successful day of fishing, the three of us headed back to the yacht to clean and cook up part of the day’s catch.

The next day we headed back to some of the sites we had fished the day before to check them out on SCUBA. Polly hopped in with the spear gun for a dive and tagged herself a good sized black rock fish. Next we headed to Westport, WA. Shawn got talking to some of the local crabbers and suggested Polly see what kind of luck she could have diving for the crabs. She caught a lot of crabs, but all were undersized so we didn’t get to eat any for dinner.

The next morning we headed off for Yaquina Bay in Newport, OR. On our way out we spotted a number of boats fishing one particular spot, and a look at the depth finder convinced us that that this would be a dive site not to be missed. We suited up and headed in. Shawn took the spear gun, but all three bands snapped making it useless, so he went scallop hunting instead. Polly collected several pieces of discarded fishing gear. All and all it was an excellent dive. The site consisted of a series of rock pillars which extended from about 110feet to about 40 feet. The sheer walls of these pillars were covered in Metridium. The tops of these pillars were covered in kelp. We also found a wolf eel hiding back in one of the crevices, and a small yellow nudibranch. The fish life at this site was abundant, but pretty much the same species we had seen on our previous dives. Back in the boat we got the gear settled and got underway. We arrived at Charleston Harbor near Coos Bay, OR did some laundry and picked up a few amenities.

To be continued

 

[scubapolly]

We pushed off in the middle of a pretty good rain, the next morning. We were visited by quite a bit of wild life during today’s trip. We think we might have even seen a humpback whale, but it didn’t get close enough for us to know for sure. We were visited by a pod of dolphins that swam along the bow of the boat for a nice photo op. We also saw several groups of sea lions and several places where the sea was covered with ½ dollar sized jellies. We arrived at Eureka California on the north side of Humboldt Bay just before dark.

The next morning our plan was to head to San Francisco. We used our travel time to get some work done on the boat including the desperately needed vacuuming. We saw some sea lions chillin’ out on one of the marker buoys. Later we came across a pod of about 200 dolphins, some of which swam along with the boat a ways. For most of the day we had nice calm seas. However, around 8pm things started getting rough with 8foot seas that threw around some of the stuff on the boat we thought was secure. The camera also ran out of juice so we need to see what we can do about finding a new battery or a charger. As the conditions continued to worsen we decided to stop the day short in Bodega Bay. We pitched really hard a couple of times, hard enough to empty out some of the drawers on the boat. The channel into the harbor at Bodega bay was very narrow and quite long.

We passed by San Francisco mid-afternoon of the next day but didn’t have time to stop. The camera still was dead, so we weren’t able to snap some tourist photos of the Golden Gate Bridge. We continued on to Monterey CA, our destination for the night.

In the morning we went out for a dive. We dropped the anchor and Polly hopped in. The dive site, was pretty nice, but due to fighting with the anchor she didn’t get to see much of it. After we freed the anchor we headed over to the public dock to get our cylinders filled. We walked up the dock to Glenn’s Aquarius II (32 Cannery Row; Montgomery, CA; 1-866-375-6605; www.aquarius2.com) , where we met Mike, one of the shop employees who filled our tanks. We invited him to go out on the boat, but he said he had to work. While we were still at the shop, Glenn, the owner showed up. We also invited him to go diving with us, but he too said that he had a lot to do at the shop and had a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon. Finally, we told them they ought to at least come down to the dock and check out the boat. They grabbed the portable phone for the shop and headed down with us. After they took a nice tour of the boat, Glenn looked at Mike and said “Put a sign on the door ‘Gone Diving’ and bring our gear”. The guys loaded all of their stuff on to the boat. Mike called his wife Carmen, and she joined us for the journey as well. With all aboard we headed out to the dive site. All but Carmen, who wasn’t certified, geared up and headed in for a dive. We had fantastic vis (70-90 feet). Back at the dock, the boys carried the tanks back to get filled. Polly made a mad dash for Backscatter (225 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA; 831-645-1082; www.backscatter.com), a huge underwater camera shop, to buy a new battery for the camera. They had the battery we needed in stock ($59) but said that they don’t come charged, so instead took the battery from my camera and put it on a charger. Then it was time to run the boat as we had a long journey to make and were getting a late start on the day. Of course this would be the time the Autopilot would chose to go out. So we had to manually steer, and therefore took turns. Because of our late start on the day we needed to run through out the night. During the evening we passed some of the oil platforms which looked pretty neat on the horizon.

We arrived in Santa Barbara around 7am and anchored the boat in the harbor. Shawn launched the dingy while Polly cooked up some breakfast. Shawn returned with some friends of his who lived in town, to join us for breakfast. After they left we headed to the drop off point to deliver the boat. I was able to squeeze in two dives on the Yukon in San Diego the next morning before heading back to Ohio.

Polly

 

[archman]

After they took a nice tour of the boat, Glenn looked at Mike and said “Put a sign on the door ‘Gone Diving’ and bring our gear”.

ha ha.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

sweet trip! sounds like some excellent diving at some spots that are tough for most to hit. thanks for sharing.

Doc

 

[Dean810]

You mentioned this trip at Haigh today, but I check it out here. Sounds great! I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, but that was all pre-scuba days-this gives me a reason to go back home! Did you, by any chance, see the mound of Stellar Sea Lions that congregate on the foating docks behind one of the restraunts in Newport, OR? It is very illegal to feed them, so they hang there just because they like it. You can hear them barking several blocks away!
Now, if I could get a job like that!

 

[scubapolly]

Dean,
I remember the dives of Newport, but I don't remember the town. I guess just one more sign of the addiction. The entire trips were truely some of the best dives I've done in the contential US.

Polly