Just a quick report on my outing last Saturday (25-January-2025) to Norrander's (also spelled Norriander's) reef near the SE corner of Bainbridge Island with Marker Bouy Dive Club. The organizer's name was Drew and it turns out I Dry-Suit certified with him about a year ago - we were in good hands.
The entry point was Rockaway Beach Park which has no facilities and barely any parking (3-4 vehicles parked on the shoulder). I got there early (see photo below to notice how early) and dumped my gear, then met most of the others back at Pritchard Park (about a mile away with a PortaLoo and much more space for parking), and ferried gear and people in to Rockaway. Shore entry was via wooden stairs down onto large-ish slippery rocks. Gentle slope into the water to gear-up.
It's pretty much straight out one side of the reef (due east) and straight back the other - tough to get disoriented. Visibility was good for the Sound - 20-25 feet. The reef is really rocky and craggy with splits and crevices and little hidey-holes galore - this makes for a nice sense of critter-hunting.
The reef itself has tons of life - the Ling Cod are coming to the end of their egg-sitting but there were still a couple giant dudes sitting on their styrofoam-pellet-looking egg clutches - very reluctant to move away from their eggs, so you could take your time and get a really good look. The shrimp... oh lord, the shrimp. In any of the large crevices, both sides were lined with shrimp. It was creepy because they were all facing the same way, and all of them turned toward you as soon as you rounded the edge of the crevice. Very The Shining vibes.
I love that I have a low enough number of dives that I'm still seeing one or two things for the first time on every dive. On this dive at about 40ft, I caught some motion to my right. I turned to look and my first thought was, "That is the funkiest looking fish I've ever seen and wow does it move weird!". As this "fish" traversed my field of view, I realized that it was, in fact, a cormorant. I certainly have seen plenty of cormorants from above and below the surface, dive bombing for their supper, but this was the first time I've seen one swimming horizontally, just... be-bopping along, presumably looking for a snack. Cool.
We were down for right at 60m, and although I brought two tanks - as did several other dry-suit divers - no one was really feeling another dive - too cold. We wrapped it up, hauled people and gear back top Pritchard Park and headed for the ferry terminal back to Seattle. It was a good day.
Looking west from Rockaway Park. One of those really fuzzy pokies there in the middle is the Space Needle, I promise...
The entry point was Rockaway Beach Park which has no facilities and barely any parking (3-4 vehicles parked on the shoulder). I got there early (see photo below to notice how early) and dumped my gear, then met most of the others back at Pritchard Park (about a mile away with a PortaLoo and much more space for parking), and ferried gear and people in to Rockaway. Shore entry was via wooden stairs down onto large-ish slippery rocks. Gentle slope into the water to gear-up.
It's pretty much straight out one side of the reef (due east) and straight back the other - tough to get disoriented. Visibility was good for the Sound - 20-25 feet. The reef is really rocky and craggy with splits and crevices and little hidey-holes galore - this makes for a nice sense of critter-hunting.
The reef itself has tons of life - the Ling Cod are coming to the end of their egg-sitting but there were still a couple giant dudes sitting on their styrofoam-pellet-looking egg clutches - very reluctant to move away from their eggs, so you could take your time and get a really good look. The shrimp... oh lord, the shrimp. In any of the large crevices, both sides were lined with shrimp. It was creepy because they were all facing the same way, and all of them turned toward you as soon as you rounded the edge of the crevice. Very The Shining vibes.
I love that I have a low enough number of dives that I'm still seeing one or two things for the first time on every dive. On this dive at about 40ft, I caught some motion to my right. I turned to look and my first thought was, "That is the funkiest looking fish I've ever seen and wow does it move weird!". As this "fish" traversed my field of view, I realized that it was, in fact, a cormorant. I certainly have seen plenty of cormorants from above and below the surface, dive bombing for their supper, but this was the first time I've seen one swimming horizontally, just... be-bopping along, presumably looking for a snack. Cool.
We were down for right at 60m, and although I brought two tanks - as did several other dry-suit divers - no one was really feeling another dive - too cold. We wrapped it up, hauled people and gear back top Pritchard Park and headed for the ferry terminal back to Seattle. It was a good day.
Looking west from Rockaway Park. One of those really fuzzy pokies there in the middle is the Space Needle, I promise...
