GearHead
Contributor
I'm just back from a great weekend of wreck diving off of the East coast of Canada's Vancouver Island and I thought I'd chime in about the two ships we explored.
We dove out of the city of Nanaimo (2 hour ferry ride from Vancouver), with Ocean Explorers. They took me and the rest of our group (a few wreck-diving newbies plus a separate group of experienced divemasters), out to the two artificial reefs which have made Nanaimo the self proclaimed "Whistler of Diving." As an avid skier, I can't put this experience on the same level as a Whistler/Blackcomb ski-trip, but I can say that we all had a great time and are planning to return. We stayed at The Buccaneer Inn, which is just a couple of blocks from the Ocean Explorers Dock, and I can happily say that they're a very dive friendly place. My only complaint is that the inn is close to the main road in town, and from the main room in our 1 bedroom, it was a bit noisy at times.
Back to the dives. The point of the weekend was to perform a number of dives on the HMCS Saskatchewan, (Navy Destroyer), sunk intentionally in in 1997 by the ARSBC, and one dive on the much larger HMCS Cape Breton (Navy FMG ship), sunk just over a year ago. The Saskatchewan lies upright in about 130 fsw, though most worthwhile exploration was between 110' and 70'. The Cape Breton is also upright in about 140 fsw. Visibility was excellent all weekend, at least 60 feet, which is considerably better than what we typically experience in Puget Sound. Both ships were quite "wreck sanitized" before they were scuttled, and a number of access holes were cut along the sides and decks for added diver exit points. The ships are just about 100 to 150 yards apart, and depending on how fast your charter is, between 10 and 30 minutes away from the dock.
We performed 2 external survey/mapping dives of the Saskatchewan on Friday to familiarize ourselves with the 366 foot ship. After practicing the use of our wreck reels on the outside of the ship Saturday morning for one dive, we followed a pre-set wreck line for a light penetration dive which was a disappointing 30 feet at most. It was just enough to whet our appetite for what was to come next: a deep penetration dive, laying some fresh line! On the third dive of the day, I got my opportunity to do just that.
I tied off outside and dropped in feet-first down an air shaft just ahead of the mortar bay stopping at 107'. After trimming out above two huge turbines and moving ahead, I wandered through the galley, and up "Burma Road", the main passage leading to the bow. I exited underneath the foregun with only a 20 or so feet of my 250 foot Manta Jr. reel left, and did the final tie-off. It was a lot of fun, but there was a high "pucker factor"
being the first one through, not knowing precisely where I was, where I would end up, etc. Not to mention the pressure of maintaining good trim, buoyancy, and fin technique so as to not stir up the silt for the guys following me. Another student reeled up the line as my buddy and I watched and followed them from the outside the ship where I saw the largest lingcod of my life resting in 130 fsw next to the ship. It was over 4 feet long and I can't even guess how heavy.
Sunday consisted of one more penetration of the Saskatchewan running a similar route to the day before, and I was able to really relax and just follow the line at a leisurely pace.
A real bonus was spending our final surface interval swimming with the seals and sea-lions of Snake Island, just two to five minutes from the dive sites. They must get a lot of divers coming by to snorkel and visit because we didn't seem to bother them one bit. In fact, Brian, one of our Divemasters, developed a pretty special relationship with a seal, or at least his leg did. :1st:
The capper on the day was a single survey dive of the gargantuan Cape Breton. After just a year, this ship is still extremely clean in regard to the amount of sea-life inhabiting it. Not much buildup yet. We stayed above the deck between about 85 fsw and 100 fsw, and observed most of her 400 plus feet by 57 feet of deck. According to Ian Hall of Ocean Explorers, you could almost fit 4 destroyers into the Breton. Next trip, I'd like to see some of the innards.
After seven tech dives in two days, I've come to 3 conclusions, 2 of which I'll share: 1. I absolutely love my Jetfins w/Spring Straps. Any type of kick, they do they job and well, plus there's no entanglement hazard. 2. I am not going to spend any more time trying to like my ACBs. For me, they just don't enhance the diving experience I'm going with a plain old weightbelt and stashing these boys in the garage somewhere, unless somebody wants to make me an decent offer.
As far as Nanaimo, I'm going to look into flying up there via seaplane from Seattle for my next trip (1.25 hours vs 6 hours driving). But whether that works out or not, I fully intend to go back.
Rick
We dove out of the city of Nanaimo (2 hour ferry ride from Vancouver), with Ocean Explorers. They took me and the rest of our group (a few wreck-diving newbies plus a separate group of experienced divemasters), out to the two artificial reefs which have made Nanaimo the self proclaimed "Whistler of Diving." As an avid skier, I can't put this experience on the same level as a Whistler/Blackcomb ski-trip, but I can say that we all had a great time and are planning to return. We stayed at The Buccaneer Inn, which is just a couple of blocks from the Ocean Explorers Dock, and I can happily say that they're a very dive friendly place. My only complaint is that the inn is close to the main road in town, and from the main room in our 1 bedroom, it was a bit noisy at times.
Back to the dives. The point of the weekend was to perform a number of dives on the HMCS Saskatchewan, (Navy Destroyer), sunk intentionally in in 1997 by the ARSBC, and one dive on the much larger HMCS Cape Breton (Navy FMG ship), sunk just over a year ago. The Saskatchewan lies upright in about 130 fsw, though most worthwhile exploration was between 110' and 70'. The Cape Breton is also upright in about 140 fsw. Visibility was excellent all weekend, at least 60 feet, which is considerably better than what we typically experience in Puget Sound. Both ships were quite "wreck sanitized" before they were scuttled, and a number of access holes were cut along the sides and decks for added diver exit points. The ships are just about 100 to 150 yards apart, and depending on how fast your charter is, between 10 and 30 minutes away from the dock.
We performed 2 external survey/mapping dives of the Saskatchewan on Friday to familiarize ourselves with the 366 foot ship. After practicing the use of our wreck reels on the outside of the ship Saturday morning for one dive, we followed a pre-set wreck line for a light penetration dive which was a disappointing 30 feet at most. It was just enough to whet our appetite for what was to come next: a deep penetration dive, laying some fresh line! On the third dive of the day, I got my opportunity to do just that.
I tied off outside and dropped in feet-first down an air shaft just ahead of the mortar bay stopping at 107'. After trimming out above two huge turbines and moving ahead, I wandered through the galley, and up "Burma Road", the main passage leading to the bow. I exited underneath the foregun with only a 20 or so feet of my 250 foot Manta Jr. reel left, and did the final tie-off. It was a lot of fun, but there was a high "pucker factor"
being the first one through, not knowing precisely where I was, where I would end up, etc. Not to mention the pressure of maintaining good trim, buoyancy, and fin technique so as to not stir up the silt for the guys following me. Another student reeled up the line as my buddy and I watched and followed them from the outside the ship where I saw the largest lingcod of my life resting in 130 fsw next to the ship. It was over 4 feet long and I can't even guess how heavy.Sunday consisted of one more penetration of the Saskatchewan running a similar route to the day before, and I was able to really relax and just follow the line at a leisurely pace.
A real bonus was spending our final surface interval swimming with the seals and sea-lions of Snake Island, just two to five minutes from the dive sites. They must get a lot of divers coming by to snorkel and visit because we didn't seem to bother them one bit. In fact, Brian, one of our Divemasters, developed a pretty special relationship with a seal, or at least his leg did. :1st:
The capper on the day was a single survey dive of the gargantuan Cape Breton. After just a year, this ship is still extremely clean in regard to the amount of sea-life inhabiting it. Not much buildup yet. We stayed above the deck between about 85 fsw and 100 fsw, and observed most of her 400 plus feet by 57 feet of deck. According to Ian Hall of Ocean Explorers, you could almost fit 4 destroyers into the Breton. Next trip, I'd like to see some of the innards.
After seven tech dives in two days, I've come to 3 conclusions, 2 of which I'll share: 1. I absolutely love my Jetfins w/Spring Straps. Any type of kick, they do they job and well, plus there's no entanglement hazard. 2. I am not going to spend any more time trying to like my ACBs. For me, they just don't enhance the diving experience
I'm going with a plain old weightbelt and stashing these boys in the garage somewhere, unless somebody wants to make me an decent offer.As far as Nanaimo, I'm going to look into flying up there via seaplane from Seattle for my next trip (1.25 hours vs 6 hours driving). But whether that works out or not, I fully intend to go back.
Rick
