Re: Something dive related! A trip report

"Bryan Heit" <bjheit@NOSPAMucalgary.ca> wrote in message
news:f2fadu$pv1$1@news.ucalgary.ca...
> Last week I picked the lock & unchained myself from the lab bench, and
> finally got out for a bit of diving. A 2-day (well, 2 half-days) drive to
> us to Powell River, located on Canada's sunshine coast. Due to poor
> planning on our part (no one bothered to take into account that the only
> dive shop was closed on Mondays) we spent the first day drinking and
> playing mini golf. Apparently we also bowled; but I have no memories of
> the events in question...
>
> The next day we grabbed some tanks and headed off to the most "famous"
> site in Powell River, Mermaid Cove. The cove isn't known for its life,
> but rather for a statue of a mermaid sunk there by a local artist.
> Normally the site has a buoy making the mermaid, but winter storms had
> destroyed it (along with the entry ramp and a small wreck). Going on a
> set of old notes we managed to find the mermaid. Unlike the first time I
> visited I didn't find the site particuarily interesting - you've got a
> statue, a small (15') ship wreck (nothing much left but a keel) and not
> much else. A few photo's and we surfaced. After surfacing we realized we
> had made yet another idiotic bit of planning - we'd paired our two newbies
> together, and they completely missed the site.
>
> Ooops.
>
> We then headed 1km down the road to "octopus city". This time we hooked
> up the newbies with an experienced partner and headed off. Unfortunately
> we didn't spot any of the sites namesakes, but the dive was not a
> disappointment - sea fans fringed the outer edge of the reef, and within
> the reef their was an amazing number of sponges, anemones, etc, to keep us
> interested. All to soon the newbies sucked down all their air, so we
> returned to shore.
>
> First day done - steak & beer rounded out the day.
>
> The next day we headed north, to the Okenover arms. Our goal was to hit
> two small wrecks. I'd write more, but this is all the mention this site
> is worth - there was two small wrecks, but vis was crap, so not much else
> was seen.
>
> We then headed to the Malahat, a wreck of a schooner that used to run
> booze into the US during prohibition. The wreck now sits in 40-80' of
> water; half-buried on its side. We'd tried to hit this on a past trip,
> and missed it completely. This trip we got proper instructions and found
> the site right-off. This site is now in my top 10. Much of the wreck has
> disintegrated, but the ribbing is still intact, as is some of the siding.
> In among the wreckage is an intense amount of life. Some of the biggest
> lingcod I've ever seen were in among the wreckage, along with rockfish,
> greenlings, anemones and pretty much every other prototypical west-coast
> life you'd expect. Beside the wreck was nudibranch heaven - millions of
> the little buggers surrounded the wreck. Near the stern several large
> tanks were found, each filled with fish. After exhausting the batteries
> in my camera, and my air, I returned to shore. I'd love to have come back
> for a second dive at the site, but it was time to pack up and move down
> the coast to Sechelt. A short drive, and ferry crossing later, we were in
> our new home.
>
> The next day we did three dives - two at a site called tuwanek; basically
> two small islands with extensive underwater cliffs. Unfortunately vis
> wasn't stellar, but the dives did not disappoint. Both walls were covered
> in anemones and sea vases. Lots of fish were found around each island,
> along with the usual selection of nudibranchs and other invertebrates.
> One of the walls goes down quite deep, giving me the only opportunity to
> go deep (gotta love diving with newbies). I was on the prowl for cloud
> sponges. Unfortunately only one small sponge was found. There was
> probably more, but it was so dark at that depth as to make anything past
> 5' to dark to see. Of course this was the one dive where I forgot my
> light...
>
> The third dive was done at a place called sandy hook. It's well named -
> nothing but an endless plane of sand broken only by the odd tuft of eel
> grass. The only reason we dived this site was crab - we had a 1-day
> crabbing license in hand, and tuwanek didn't offer up any worthy of the
> pot. We spent an enjoyable 45 minutes chasing the buggers back and forth
> across the sand, eventually getting 4 huge males for the dinner pot. One
> was rather feisty, and pretty much jumped out for the kill every time the
> cooler lid was opened. He also ripped the arms off a few of the other
> crabs.
>
> He was mighty tasty - crab stuffed crab.
>
> We spent our last day doing two rather tame dives - we had three mountain
> passes to drive over the next day so we wanted to take things easy. The
> first was in a palce called seargent bay. My advice - don't go there.
> The second was in another bay, at a park called coopers green. Basically
> you circle a small pinnacle. For a dive that was supposed to be boring,
> it ended up being a great dive. A large (40-pounder, I'd guess) octopus
> made an appearance. He wasn't too playful, but did ink one of us right in
> the face. After scaring him into a crack we spent the rest of our time
> searching for wolf eels along the base of the cliff. None made an
> appearance, but caves full of shells made it obvious they had recently
> been in the area.
>
> We finished off the trip with a big BBQ, featuring three kinds of animals,
> along with a lot of beer. Early (far, far too early, IMO) the next
> morning we were up and off for home. The drive went pretty much as planed
> until we got ~4hrs from home. Sometime that morning a mountain decided to
> drop 2km of mud along a stretch of the highway. After a long time waiting
> on the highway we were informed that the highway would be opened at 10AM
> the next day - if we were lucky. So we found a cheap motel (i.e. one step
> above those that charge by the hour) and crashed for the night. Early the
> next morning we found that the closure was extended - until 4 that
> afternoon (if we were lucky). Rather then spending another day with the
> fleas we decided to go the long ways home. 3 hours south, almost into the
> US, followed by a painfully slow drive on a single-laned highway got us
> home. In 13 hours. Home to snow. Apparently we should have stayed on the
> coast...
>
> Overall a good trip. Hopefully a few more dives will get our newbies into
> condition to do some harder stuff - I'd love to head back and do some of
> the more challenging dives the area has - Texada island, the scoochumchuck
> narrows (spelling is wrong), and the Chaudere would have been nice to hit
> this trip.
>
> Bryan

Thanks Bryan. Really enjoyed the report. Am planning on heading up that
way again with my boat next fall. I agree with Scott on the Chaudere--not
worth the effort. I do use my 7MM on some shallow dives, but mostly stick
with the dry.
Even went to dry gloves.... Dan