Date: 2/24 Mo2vation February Bo2vation
Dive Location: Yukon/Ruby E
Buddy(ies):Rick G/ Rick G and Kim
Time: 8:21 AM/10:27 AM
Bottom Time: 53/45
Max Depth: 99/77
Vis: 10-12/15-20
Wave height: 4-5' swells
Temp at depth: 55°
Surface Temp: 56°/57°
Tide information: on a boat?
Gas mix: 32%
Top reason Pasley should hurry home: The water is wet and the desert is dry
Comments: My first Yukon dive. Met up with Rick in the early AM and caravan-ed down to Mission Bay. Loaded the doubles on the boat and changed into the drysuit. Everyone finally showed up (I think we had a total of 11 divers on board so there was plenty of room,) signed in and we headed to the wreck site.
The captain placed us on the forward guns and we dropped down the line to 70'. The plan was to head towards the stern along the sand and make our way around to the screws and then finish up by heading back along the top (side) or the ship. I found a nice new titanium dive knife that was conveniently dropped on a shelf. By the looks of it it had not been there long but no one from our boat lost a knife. The surge was pretty heavy as we passed along the access holes. Coming around the back of the ship towards the bottom where the screws are was also very surgy. We passed over the screws and made our way back over to the deck. I spotted a crab hiding out on a davit that had the body shape of a sheep crab but was much smaller and a bright orange (any ideas?)
Stopped by the Donothan plaque and gave a wave for Steve then we made our way back to the surface along the mooring line with stops at 50,40,30,20 and 10. When we got back on the boat they had hot soup waiting for us.
We had a few people that decided to sit out the second dive (some soup went over the side
) so we made the decision to run over to the Ruby E for our second dive. Good choice!
After a 1:45 surface interval we were dropping down on the Ruby E. Visibility was a bit better here but the surge was worse. Rick and I were getting tossed from one side of the deck to the other once we got to depth. We saw some clever lobster hiding out in some pipe holes on the deck. We passed the wheel house and I happened to glance into the engine room and saw the famous toilet that keeps getting relocated, sitting in top of the port engine.
We headed to the stern and dropped over the side to check out the side of the ship and make our way back to the upline. as we got to the bow, we were buzzed by a sea lion doing flips and spins. I gave her a roll and she gave two more in return before swimming up to my face and heading to the surface.
While we were moving from our 30' to our 20' stop I happened to gaze out into the blue and saw a fairly large Mola mola swimming past us. I excitedly waved and yelled to Rick, pointing to the fish who was slowly swimming about 10-15' form us, checking us out. We got Kim's attention and pointed it out to her, but as it was now almost to the edge of visibility it took her a few seconds to register what it was. She said later that, at first, she thought it was a shark.
When we broke the surface, the sit outs were on the bow and were greeted by "Mola, mola, mola!!!"
Great morning of diving, but it was COLD!!!
