A REALLY cold day, but decent visibility and an awesome dive on the rebreather at Chemainus.
Chemainus VideoAnother cold day, but decent visibility and an awesome dive on the rebreather at Chemainus.
REALLY, REALLY COLD today! Air temp was around 0C, water temp 48F. Did all four dry docks, boom boat, small wall to the leaning tree, then back to dock 1 and home. Nice dive, but cold.
Chemainus VideoNotes
Maple Bay VideoREALLY COLD today, in and out of the water. Lowest temp so far this year, 48F at depth. Did all four dry docks, boom boat, small wall and deep wall before heading in from the deep wall. Nice dive, but cold.
Chemainus VideoCold and rainy, but excellent visibility. Dove to dock #1 and had a great time diving with Meredith.
Chemainus VideoIt was time change day (fall back) plus very rainy. However the visibility was awesome; easily 25ft or more. Swam to the line, then to the first dry dock and over to the second before returning to the top of dock 1 and then home. It was raining so bad on exit that I drove home in my drysuit!
Headed out today in sunshine but cold temperatures to see about fixing the line from shore to dock #1. Visibility was quite good, approaching 25 feet in spots, especially around dock #4. Instead of fixing the line, found a cave line patch in place from the truck back end to the G&K line off the side of #1.
Did the rounds of all the docks as well as the boom boat and the small wall. Overall an excellent dive.
Chemainus VideoMeredith and I dove Chemainus today, and it wasn't as much fun as prior dives. Since Sep 26, BOTH lines have been severed fairly close to shore - ours right by the truck rear suspension, and the first line just on the rise. Still lots to see in the shallows but visibility was pretty silty again.
Chemainus VideoMeredith and I returned to Maple Bay for one of the best visitility days I've seen in months. It's really great to be able to see so much at one time. Overall a great dive.
Meredith is back on Vancouver Island for the winter, and so we dove Maple Bay as a 'get reaquainted with the West coast' dive. OK visibility, but a lot of silt in the water. Still we got to see a small octo so it was a great day.
Maple Bay VideoOnce again poor visibility for most of the dive. Both lines were in place from shore to the dry docks as I used one going out and the other coming back. Nice life on the ramp side of dock #1 but otherwise just nice to get wet.
Chemainus VideoDecent vis today, though there was zero vis between 4 and 20 ft in a lot of places, especially at the start. Nice vis (10-15ft) on the actual dry docks and even on the top of the small wall. Overall a great dive.
Chemainus VideoGood dive today. Visibility wasn't as great as I'd hoped, but still good enough for a few photos. Tested a new reg secondary and it worked A-OK. Overall a very good dive.
Maple Bay Video
Chemainus VideoAnother crappy vis day in paradise. Super low tide the whole dive, with less than 2ft vis most of the dive. Still managed to tour all four dry docks, the boom boat and the small wall. Headed off the end of the small wall and found the deep wall, but even there vis was bad. All gear worked well so overall a good dive.
The beaches were open today, but it was a rather bizarre dive. Visibility on the surface looked great, but underwater it was really poor, with waves of even lower visibiliyt. Max vis was maybe 5 feet. Vis was so bad I managed to get only one photo, and gave up the video pretty quickly as well.
The bizarre part was I managed to leave my weights in the truck, so I was diving 16lbs light (4 x 4lb weights)! Even so, I was able to make the entire hour dive without any real problems, though I had to be quite cautious with my buoyancy above 30fsw. Overall a decent diveand nice to get wet again.
All the local beaches were closed this weekend due to high bacteria counts, so no diving.
It was another sunny day, but not as hot as during last week's heat wave. Still bright and sunny with a low but incoming tide.
Headed out to find 1ft visibility in the shallows all the way to the line, and worse (if possible) following the line to dock #1. However as the line dove down towards the dock, visibility improved to 10ft and remained around 10ft for most of the four docks as well as the boom boat. The top of 3/4 and 2 were also not bad. Coming around the back of 2 the visibility was 25 ft, but dropped to 10 rounding the corner. It was that kind of day.
I was using only the GoPro Hero 8 today, but tried a new attachment to the scooter using a 3in aluminum extension between the housing and the clip. It pushed the GoPro up so my hand was free, and also served as a nice handle when I took it off the scooter on the deep wall. I really like this compared to the rather large tray I'd been using. It's like the regular scooter mount, but the extension serves as a great handle for hand-held video.
Did the crack-o-doom on 3/4, and swam some of 3/4 as well as some of 2. Did not head from 2 to the wall, but used the line back to 1. Tried the top of 1 but viz was 0 or worse, so headed to the small wall.
The bottom of the small wall as 10ft, but the top was like the top of #1 with zero vis. Scootered the bottom of the wall to the fallen pole, then down and back up the rock field. Then headed over to the deep wall (had to use some nav tricks to find it!) before finally heading back using the 210 bearing. Overall an excellent dive!
Chemainus VideoToday was predicted to be a scorcher, perhaps 40C and sunny. Arrived early to beat the worst of the sun & heat. Visibility looked great from shore but was again pretty poor - maybe 5-10 feet max with lots of particles in the water. Overall a very good dive to all four dry docks, the boom boat and the small wall.
Chemainus VideoToday was the first day of summer, also the longest day of the year, and one of the hottest - the first in a projected week-long hot spell. It was sunny and hot when I arrived, and gearing up was done with plenty of water consumed.
This was the first dive on my Prism Topaz rebreather since March 24 as I've been waiting for a new O2 sensor since April. It came last week and hence this dive today. It was nice to get back into the rebreather.
The dive itself was a pretty classic rebreather dive; swimming all four dry docks plus the boom boat. Buoyancy was a small challenge as I've been out of the rebreather for 3 months, but otherwise no issues except typical poor visibility (2-5ft). The top of the dry docks was especially bad, and there was no point even trying the reef. The shallows were terrible on the return as well. Still, overall a great dive.
Chemainus VideoAnother cloudy day, with reports of low visibility all up the island. The visibility was a bit better than last week, with between 2 and 10 ft visibility depending on location. The wall was bad enough to prevent a scooter trip to the log. Overall a good dive.
Chemainus Octo Video
Chemainus VideoA cloudy day, with reports of low visibility all up the island. The dive did not disappoint - 2ft visibility maximum and some current on top of the wall. Still, nice to get wet.
Another cloudy day, but not windy and a decent tide. Checking the water before gearing up suggested really good vis. Indeed visibility was excellent the entire dive - between 15 and 20 feet everywhere. It was another great trip to all four dry docks and the boom boat, as well as over to the small wall and skimming the top and back sides. Instead of following the line home, headed W from the bottom front of dock 1 where Gord's line was tied. Not much to see as it's pretty much a mud bottom all the way in. Since West does angle towards shore, the eel grass at 20ft was visible after 4-5 min scootering, and ended up pretty much at the boat ramp. Overall an excellent dive.
Cloudy day, and windy & choppy water on low tide. Checking the water before gearing up suggested really bad vis. In fact, reports of bad vis everywhere caused me to just take the Gopro on a tray mount. However, as soon as I got in the water it was actually pretty good vis; much better than last week and maybe 10-15ft everywhere. Nice trip to all four dry docks and the boom boat. The bonus was a great time scootering the top of the small wall in the good vis. Overall a great dive.
Sunny day, crappy vis. Still managed to navigate all four dry docks, the boom boat and the small wall. Just could not see much at any location. Still, getting a dive is always great.
Really great dive today. Cloudy on the surface, and visibility good but not quite as good as last week. Still was able to visit all four dry docks as well as the boom boat and the small wall.
Chemainus VideoGreat dive today. It was sunny and the visibility was better than 25ft. The water was teeming with small (about 1 1/4in) jelly fish, both moon jellies as well as baby fried egg jellies. Dove all four docks as well as the full small wall. Very cool to see my shadow on the bottom as I was coming in over the eel grass in the sunlight.
Chemainus VideoGood dive today. Rainy on shore but decent underwater. Better visibility so could visit all four dry docks as well as the boom boat and the small wall.
Chemainus VideoExcellent dive today. Warm and sunny on shore, and decent visibility underwater.
Great dive. Terrible visibility (1-2 ft) and the wall was almost unnavigable, but saw a couple of dumbo ears squid on the way back in, which made all the difference!
Maple Bay VideoNice sunny day, but a bit windy. However, the visibility was total crap - one foot maximum. Scootered all four dry docks, but then bailed at 42 minutes. I'm glad I went simply because you don't always know the vis is bad until you try.
Chemainus VideoGood dive. Crappy visibility (5ft). Good for macro photos however. It was mostly dry until getting out of the drysuit when it poured rain. Overall a good dive.
Rainy day today. It was a 'big swim' dive with the rebreather and just my Canon G16. I took the Inon macro lens on the magnetic mount to get some macro shots. Overall a good dive, even though the visibility was pretty poor.
Sunny to start, but clouded over and started to rain while getting into the water. Again the water was very cold and visibility, while a slight bit better than last week was still rather poor. Overall a good dive.
Chemainus VideoCloudy and cold today. Even colder underwater; it was the coldest temperature so far this season (46F the entire dive). Visibility was maybe 5 ft. but still enought to see. Overall a pretty good dive.
Chemainus VideoIt was a nice day for diving. It was not raining, but nowhere near as warm as predicted. The water was clear and calm. Dove all four dry docks as well as the boom boat and the small wall as far as the big log. Overall a great dive.
Chemainus VideoNice dive today. It's always nice when it is sunny at the beach. Dove all four dry docks plus the boom boat and the small wall.
Chemainus VideoDove today with the rebreather and scooter, plus the Canon G16 and the gopro. I mounted the gopro on the handle in the gopro clip so that the magnets in the bottom of the gopro would not interfere with my scooter compass (they didn't). Normal dive of the dry docks; shore to line to #1, then to #2 and around the front to #3, then around the front of 3 along to 4 and then over to the boom boat. Back to #4 and around to the crack o doom and up to the top of 3/4. Took some photos at the gap between 3 & 4.
The gopro had been on taking video from along the shore (at the tree with squid eggs) until the top of 3 & 4. I then headed around 4 and back to 3 along the back, then over to the top of 2. Tried to restart the gopro but it would not turn on. Headed down the back of 2 and along the back, then over to the small wall start. Along the small wall to the angled telephone pole, then back to the line and over to #1. Toured around #1 but not much to see this time of year, so headed back to the wall and along to the end.
From the end along to the deep wall, and took a few more photos. Still no joy turning on the gopro. Finally came home @210 from the deep wall. Overall a really good, if cold dive. Note: after cleanup I found the battery in the gopro had not been fully seated when I set it up, causing the loss of power.
Chemainus VideoHorrible vis today. At most 5 ft, but really cloudy/silty so hard to really see anything well. I took the gopro in a new mounting tray that I fashioned from an older aluminum mount tray I'd used over the years. It worked OK but I had the handle on the wrong side so operating the buttons was more nuisance than usual. Otherwise not a bad dive. I'm very glad I didn't take the rebreather.
Maple Bay Video
Maple Bay skills VideoToday the dive was with two go-pro cameras on the scooter, and no hand-held camera. I had the gopro clone that I've been using for some time as well as a real GoPro camera.
Tide was in and high, water was flat and nice and weather was showers as usual. After gearing up and splashing, did the tour of all 4 dry docks as well as the boom boat (twice again). The the top of 4 to top of 2, down and over to the small wall. Ran the small wall to the leaning pole, then back to dock 1. Eventually headed back in for a nice dive.
My suit shoulder dump has been leaking badly in recent dives, so last week I swapped it for a newer one and then cleaned up the leaking one so it's again good. No leaks today. The gopro has a metal case that really interacts with the compass on my scooter, which was weird and will require some thinking to find a work-around. Otherwise an excellent dive.
Chemainus Video
Chemainus GoPro VideoThe first dive of 2021, and it was another long swimming one. Pouring rain on the drive, but it stopped once I arrived. Missed the line on first pass because it didn't look as expected. After another several minutes realized it had been missed, so went in toward shore and found it on the swim back. Swam all four dry docks plus the boom boat. Overall an excellent first 2021 dive.
Chemainus Video