Vis Report: Porteau Cove night dive - Feb 4

[BradnerBoy]

Last night Syntax808 (I moved him to Hawaii for the Olympics), Cram and myself braved the winds of Howe Sound and did a nice night dive on the Nakaya.

The tide was low(ish) and we walked the beach to the start of the rocks and entered, then swam from there. Despite some decent sized surf, we made it to the buoy and dropped down to a very clear bottom.

We found the Nakaya easily and made one-and-a-half circles around her, then ascended at the bow and swam over her decks. She's in pretty rough shape, but there is still plenty to see. Lots of crabs and giant nudis, etc.

We took a heading the Granthall and made our way there and as we got more shallow, the vis degraded very little.

I'd say it was a minimum of 30'', and maybe up to 50' (???). Regardless, it was a nice dive. No octos this time, but we did see a sea star finishing off the carcass of a fish, plenty of anemones, giant sun stars, etc., etc.

FYI if you're thinking of heading to Porteau, be aware that it's a little tricky getting into the parking lot. Those of us that abide by the law and didn't turn into the blocked off left turn lane into Porteau, you have to head to Furry Creek, then come back. The rest of you lawless bunch can do what Scott and Dustin did and just turned left and crash through the barriers and pylons into the parking lot.

 

[Slamfire]

Where you able to spot Big Ben in the bow of the Nakaya or had he already gone out for the night?

 

[Sintax604]

He he, any manoeuvre (wow, weird word) that can be successfully executed above 40kph must be legal. Just crank the wheel at the right time and you're into the park. Olympic road closures be damned!

Talking about illegal, I guess we shouldn't mention the video that was taken with a cell phone while driving...

We didn't see Big Ben... actually we saw 3-4 big egg masses but NOBODY was guarding any of them. Strange. Anybody want some roe?

 

[mustang_5l]

We were out there today (porteau) and did some scootering around the sailboat hull and found a large egg mass. No one was guarding it. We scootered towards the Nakaya and ended up at the point next to the road (far) in about 115ft of water. We found a rail car wheel and searched around the area for more evidence of the rail cars that went in several years ago. Couldn't find them but we think they are deeper. There was lots of fresh rubble from the last slide there so its quite possible that it has been covered over. We found a weight belt that had obviously been there some time... it was made with a rubber belt! We also found a line that was tied off to a large rock that entered what appeared to be a small cavern... were going to explore more on Sunday. The entrance was pretty tight but we'll see... Visibility was very poor and there was lots of sediment floating around. We're hoping for better vis and some pictures Sunday to share.