Yesterday was cool, overcast and calm, which imo is perfect diving weather. Steve and I hit McAbee early, planning to meander North towards the Aquarium. On the way there, we ran into just about everything - rafts of up to a dozen otters, a dive-bombing sea lion and playful harbor seal, a monkey-faced eel, tons of crabs and schools of rockfishes of all sizes...all with some amazing, 30-35ft viz.
It's when we hit Hopkins that things started getting weird. We ran into two huge pipes (very much like the old, encrusted sardine pipes all around McAbee running to the canneries) that had regularly spaced collars with brand new, shiny nuts and bolts fitted to them. Following the pipe led us to two huge cylindrical towers sitting on rocks at the bottom. We figured they were either inlets or outlets for the Aquarium's sea water filter/feeding system, and it was quite amazing seeing these strange, looming structures appear out of the mist.
Once I got home, a quick Google search seemed to confirm the ID, and showed that these are sometimes dived. First I've ever seen or heard of them before though, which made this one of the most exciting dives of the year for me.
[youtubehq]puQPz3KVHfw[/youtubehq]
It's when we hit Hopkins that things started getting weird. We ran into two huge pipes (very much like the old, encrusted sardine pipes all around McAbee running to the canneries) that had regularly spaced collars with brand new, shiny nuts and bolts fitted to them. Following the pipe led us to two huge cylindrical towers sitting on rocks at the bottom. We figured they were either inlets or outlets for the Aquarium's sea water filter/feeding system, and it was quite amazing seeing these strange, looming structures appear out of the mist.
Once I got home, a quick Google search seemed to confirm the ID, and showed that these are sometimes dived. First I've ever seen or heard of them before though, which made this one of the most exciting dives of the year for me.
[youtubehq]puQPz3KVHfw[/youtubehq]
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