The trip was a mixed bag, actually. It started out on a rather low note when the boat from the lodge didn't come to pick me up in Port Hardy until 27 hours after it was supposed to. After spending the afternoon trying, unsuccessfully, to find out what was going on ... and trying to rent another boat to take me out to the lodge (which would've been prohibitively expensive) ... I ended up getting a hotel room in town for the night. The next morning, when there was still no word about when I would be picked up, I decided to just drive back home (900+ miles round-trip, plus 2-hour ferry rides in each direction). I was about a third of the way back when I finally received a text message that the boat would be in that afternoon to get me. So, deciding to make the most of what was left of the trip, I turned around and went back to Port Hardy. The trip was supposed to start on Monday ... it was Wednesday before I got in a dive.
Once there, things went reasonably well. The lodge has made some significant improvements ... particularly with guest quarters. And the walls in Browning Pass are world-class ... although with the large tidal exchanges we ended up doing more "filler" dives on the off-slack than I would've liked. But the dives featured in my pictures really did do justice to the reputation of Browning Pass. Going up there alone, I opted to dive solo on all but one dive (Browning Wall) ... and the dive boat was really difficult for managing sidemount. I had a lot of frustrations getting my equipment set up, and ended up losing some weights on one back-roll entry ... which made for an interesting dive.
And the final dive was witness to one of the more amazing acts of stupidity I've ever witnessed underwater. I was swimming along behind another couple when we encountered a very large octopus laying out in the open ... apparently sleeping off a Happy Meal. The other couple swooped in, and I hovered above them, waiting my turn for some pictures. The wife took 30-40 shots, taking several minutes, and finally appeared to be satisfied. As I prepared to go down for my turn, the husband took it in his head that he wanted his wife to take some pictures of him ... er, interacting ... with the octopus. So he grabbed a tentacle and gave it a tug. The octopus reacted sluggishly at first, so he grabbed some more tentacles, and then tried to "embrace" the creature in a bear hug. At this point the octopus attempted to get away. The guy finally let go when the octopus relieved him of one of his dry gloves ... at which point the octopus took off and tried crawling under a rock. I was incredulous ... not just about the fact that someone would do that to the creature, but because they both knew I was hovering above, waiting for a turn to get a picture. I took off in disgust. Back on the boat, he was telling everyone the octopus initiated the contact ... but having been directly above him I knew that wasn't the case. When I told him I was upset about what he did, he said I should've stuck around, because the octopus wasn't able to find a hole to hide in and stuck itself to a rock. But the fact is that once the animal is that stressed out, I ain't gonna stress it further with a camera anyway. It was one of the more inconsiderate things I've ever seen a diver do ... and that covers a pretty fair range of stupid diver tricks. At any rate, seemed like an appropriate ending to a trip that started out badly.
Overall I had a pretty decent time ... the crew at the lodge were fantastic, and on Thursday one group got dropped off in town and another group picked up, so I had the whole place to myself. Two of the crew took me out diving, and after the dive we went sightseeing ... which is when we found the otter, eagle, seal, and humpback. It was definitely the best day of the trip.
I won this trip in a photo contest ... so everything I got out of it was bonus, to my concern. But had I paid the usual price for the trip, I'd have been seriously upset about how it turned out. No matter what, there's few excuses for leaving people stranded ... and none for not making an effort to at least let them know what's going on. I'll certainly return to Port Hardy ... but I doubt I'll ever go back to that particular dive op. My vacation time and resources are just too valuable to risk having something like that happen again.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
