Scubaroo
Contributor
Anyone dived here? There's a liveaboard trip coming up in September I have an opportunity to book on. Obviously drysuit territory, but what could one expect to see on such a trip?
San Juan Islands, WA
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We have done a bunch of diving there and spent plenty of time boating there too (every summer) ... beautiful area.
1) Current
2) Kelp
3) lotsa fish, crabs and stuff
4) maybe Orca
Who is the liveaboard with and what are the details?
BTW... we will have Uncle Pug (the boat) up there the second weekend in September and might leave it moored up there for a while to do some diving the rest of the month.
1) Current
2) Kelp
3) lotsa fish, crabs and stuff
4) maybe Orca
Who is the liveaboard with and what are the details?
BTW... we will have Uncle Pug (the boat) up there the second weekend in September and might leave it moored up there for a while to do some diving the rest of the month.
OP
Scubaroo
Contributor
Glenn's Aquarius II diveshop in Monterey is organising the trip in either Sep or Oct - they have just given a heads up with more details to come within a month. Michelle can be reached at dive@aquarius2.com - did a great job of organising the trip I did to the Channel Islands a couple of months ago. No idea what boat it will be on.
PNW diving is great!
I used to be Vice President of Seattle's oldest dive club,The Marker Buoy Dive Club Seattle *click here* and they have some good links to help you.
There is also an old, but good website with many reviews of local dive areas
Eric's SCUBA page - Univ of Washington - see SITE REVIEWS
Another helpful website
Although you can find good diving within minutes of some areas of Seattle (unlike San Fran), the San Juan's are the best for GIANT Octopus, LARGE (2000 pound) Sealions, Puget sound King Crab, lots of bull kelp, abalone, basket stars, urchins, plumose anenomes (aka metridium in CA), LOTS of Dungeness crab, shrimp, and more.
I used to be Vice President of Seattle's oldest dive club,The Marker Buoy Dive Club Seattle *click here* and they have some good links to help you.
There is also an old, but good website with many reviews of local dive areas
Eric's SCUBA page - Univ of Washington - see SITE REVIEWS
Another helpful website
Although you can find good diving within minutes of some areas of Seattle (unlike San Fran), the San Juan's are the best for GIANT Octopus, LARGE (2000 pound) Sealions, Puget sound King Crab, lots of bull kelp, abalone, basket stars, urchins, plumose anenomes (aka metridium in CA), LOTS of Dungeness crab, shrimp, and more.
cyklon_300
Contributor
and dived Patos, Sucia, Orcas, Skipjack, etc. frequently.
Excellent diving, as the others mentioned...rockfish, cabezon, lingcod, rock scallops, abs, octopus...but I never saw an orca...
Excellent diving, as the others mentioned...rockfish, cabezon, lingcod, rock scallops, abs, octopus...but I never saw an orca...
jbm
Contributor
possibly the nicest cruising grounds on earth.
About 15 years ago I dived around the San Juans. As I recall, there's a WWII bombing range out on a place called "White Rocks." Someone from the PNW will have to confirm that; I may be wrong with the name, but it's just a cluster of light colored rocks jutting up from the Sound a few miles off one of the islands. I can't for the life of me remember which island.
Four of us ran a Zodiac out to the rocks and dived on them. We collected some dummy bombs and .50 caliber slug. They were all in a terrible state of corrosion, and most of them simply disintegrated. It's one of my most memorable dives. The water was reasonably clear, not too cold, and the weather was pretty nice.
One animal that I remember well was the sea cucumbers--acres of them! And purple sea urchins. I remember swimming around a sheltered point and getting smacked in the face with the current which, predictably, started pushing me toward a wall of purple sea urchins.
Four of us ran a Zodiac out to the rocks and dived on them. We collected some dummy bombs and .50 caliber slug. They were all in a terrible state of corrosion, and most of them simply disintegrated. It's one of my most memorable dives. The water was reasonably clear, not too cold, and the weather was pretty nice.
One animal that I remember well was the sea cucumbers--acres of them! And purple sea urchins. I remember swimming around a sheltered point and getting smacked in the face with the current which, predictably, started pushing me toward a wall of purple sea urchins.
GearHead
Contributor
We may not have 100' of vis, but there's a lot of stuff to see up here as mentioned above.
Depending on where the Liveaboard goes, you could end up doing drift-dives, a wreck dive (The Diamond Knot is up there), and if you're lucky, you may well see a pod of Orca.
My favorite wildlife to see in our region, and I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet, is the Wolf Eel. They're not pretty in the traditional sense, but I find them beautiful! They love to eat Urchins and Crabs, and an instructor of mine is known to help them forage.
I hope you make the trip, you'd enjoy it.
Rick
Depending on where the Liveaboard goes, you could end up doing drift-dives, a wreck dive (The Diamond Knot is up there), and if you're lucky, you may well see a pod of Orca.
My favorite wildlife to see in our region, and I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet, is the Wolf Eel. They're not pretty in the traditional sense, but I find them beautiful! They love to eat Urchins and Crabs, and an instructor of mine is known to help them forage.
I hope you make the trip, you'd enjoy it.
Rick
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