- Messages
- 94,296
- Reaction score
- 93,288
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
Today I had one of my better diving days of the year. I picked up TSandM at around 8:30 and headed north for about 90 miles to one of the area's more interesting dive sites ... Skyline Wall. This site can only be dived during certain conditions ... slack before ebb on a moderate exchange ... because any other condition results in you getting flushed out of Burrows Pass, and at that point you'd better have your passport, because the next stop is probably some little island off the Canadian coast. We met up with another friend, Sandra, and the three of us would be bringing cameras and scooters ... the former because the wall is usually packed with life and the latter for "insurance" ... just in case the current didn't read the same chart we did.
The dive started in a rather unusual way ... in fact, I can honestly call this a first ... we're in the water, doing our buddy checks. Sandra ... who is on a rebreather ... is doing a bubble check with Lynne, and I'm waiting my turn. Suddenly I felt something move on my head ... and then again ... it felt like little feet! "Hey guys ... is there a bird on my head"? Sandra and Lynne looked at me and both of them immediately reached for their camera, laughing hysterically. This silly little bird had found a nice perch on top of my hood. If the pictures turn out, I may have a new avatar. The bird then flew over to Lynne and landed on her hood ... but only stayed long enough to make a deposit, and then flew off. Uh ... Lynne ... I think we'd better get in the water and wash that off.
We scootered out to a kelp bed in about 20 feet of water at the end of the beach and dropped down to the base of the wall. Hmmm ... it appears we got there a bit early ... there was still a bit of current. But the visibility was awesome ... easily the best I've ever seen at this site. Dappled sunlight was filtering down through the kelp fronds above us, and we almost didn't even need our dive lights to bring out the colorful reds and oranges of the creeping pedal sea cucumbers or the spectacular yellows and ivorys of the sponges that filled just about every available space on the wall. So we clipped off the scoots and let the current take us for a ride out along the wall. Problem is, as we got further along the wall, the current only got stronger. Hmmm ... this ain't supposed to happen. Fifteen minutes later, we've been turned every which way but loose, and when we hit a sudden downwelling, the three of us looked at each other and almost simultaneously tossed a thumb skyward ... this wasn't working for us.
Even with scooters the ride up the wall proved interesting, between what was now washing machine current and trying to avoid getting tangled in the bull kelp. But up the wall we went ... Lynne in the lead, me slightly behind, and Sandra behind me. Or at least ... I THOUGHT Sandra was behind me. I could hear her scooter ... but when I turned around, she wasn't there. We surfaced, and a few seconds later she surfaced about 40 feet away. Some fishermen on shore hurriedly reeled in their lines so that we could reconnect without having to worry about hooks and fishing line (thanks guys, that was considerate). Turned out Sandra had an issue with her rebreather that had resulted in her O2 bottle freeflowing into her loop, and she was on her bailout and done for the day. Lynne and I wanted to try again ... convinced that we'd just mistimed the slack, because by now there didn't seen to be any current. We stayed on the surface and watched Sandra scooter back to shore, and when she stood up we went back down to try it again. This time was completely different ... the current had died completely. We had got in about 30 minutes too early. Oh well ... that's why they call 'em "predictions". Our dive was short ... only about 25 minutes on the wall ... but absolutely stunning. We kicked the whole dive ... both ways ... no need for the scooters whatsoever. And with the vis and sunlight, the best views were beyond the ability of our cameras to capture ... but they were memorable. Best Skyline dive ever.
We came back playing in the shallows ... sunlight in the eel grass, which was absolutely covered in what looked to be some kind of eggs (eel grass is always a nursery). Sandra was waiting on the beach when we came in ... and informed us that she was done for the day ... no second dive ... which was disappointing, because we were planning to hit one of my other favorite dives later in the afternoon ... Northwest Island.
(more to follow in part 2)
The dive started in a rather unusual way ... in fact, I can honestly call this a first ... we're in the water, doing our buddy checks. Sandra ... who is on a rebreather ... is doing a bubble check with Lynne, and I'm waiting my turn. Suddenly I felt something move on my head ... and then again ... it felt like little feet! "Hey guys ... is there a bird on my head"? Sandra and Lynne looked at me and both of them immediately reached for their camera, laughing hysterically. This silly little bird had found a nice perch on top of my hood. If the pictures turn out, I may have a new avatar. The bird then flew over to Lynne and landed on her hood ... but only stayed long enough to make a deposit, and then flew off. Uh ... Lynne ... I think we'd better get in the water and wash that off.
We scootered out to a kelp bed in about 20 feet of water at the end of the beach and dropped down to the base of the wall. Hmmm ... it appears we got there a bit early ... there was still a bit of current. But the visibility was awesome ... easily the best I've ever seen at this site. Dappled sunlight was filtering down through the kelp fronds above us, and we almost didn't even need our dive lights to bring out the colorful reds and oranges of the creeping pedal sea cucumbers or the spectacular yellows and ivorys of the sponges that filled just about every available space on the wall. So we clipped off the scoots and let the current take us for a ride out along the wall. Problem is, as we got further along the wall, the current only got stronger. Hmmm ... this ain't supposed to happen. Fifteen minutes later, we've been turned every which way but loose, and when we hit a sudden downwelling, the three of us looked at each other and almost simultaneously tossed a thumb skyward ... this wasn't working for us.
Even with scooters the ride up the wall proved interesting, between what was now washing machine current and trying to avoid getting tangled in the bull kelp. But up the wall we went ... Lynne in the lead, me slightly behind, and Sandra behind me. Or at least ... I THOUGHT Sandra was behind me. I could hear her scooter ... but when I turned around, she wasn't there. We surfaced, and a few seconds later she surfaced about 40 feet away. Some fishermen on shore hurriedly reeled in their lines so that we could reconnect without having to worry about hooks and fishing line (thanks guys, that was considerate). Turned out Sandra had an issue with her rebreather that had resulted in her O2 bottle freeflowing into her loop, and she was on her bailout and done for the day. Lynne and I wanted to try again ... convinced that we'd just mistimed the slack, because by now there didn't seen to be any current. We stayed on the surface and watched Sandra scooter back to shore, and when she stood up we went back down to try it again. This time was completely different ... the current had died completely. We had got in about 30 minutes too early. Oh well ... that's why they call 'em "predictions". Our dive was short ... only about 25 minutes on the wall ... but absolutely stunning. We kicked the whole dive ... both ways ... no need for the scooters whatsoever. And with the vis and sunlight, the best views were beyond the ability of our cameras to capture ... but they were memorable. Best Skyline dive ever.
We came back playing in the shallows ... sunlight in the eel grass, which was absolutely covered in what looked to be some kind of eggs (eel grass is always a nursery). Sandra was waiting on the beach when we came in ... and informed us that she was done for the day ... no second dive ... which was disappointing, because we were planning to hit one of my other favorite dives later in the afternoon ... Northwest Island.
(more to follow in part 2)
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