Nice vis scooter dive to pipeline and boat island towing buddy on Piranha P2 scooter. Saw big octo who wanted a gopro and would not give it back for a while. Eventually got it back and scootered home. Excellent dive.
Chemainus VideoAwesome Tyee dive with excellent visibility.
Tyee VideoDove today in low tide and the vis was absolutely terrible. Almost could not see the pipeline, so headed to the star and swam the rocks for a while, then scootered back to the pipeline and home. Better than no dive, but not a great dive.
Headed out for boat island and the 737 again, this time at high tide. Visibility wasn't too bad until near boat island where it just went kind of 'sandy'. Missed boat island and so headed north until found the shallow wall and over. This time was further right (E) so took longer to scooter on the 737 wall until saw the green tank. Vis was now awesome, so a quick trip W to the silver tank and N to the airplane. Swam inside from front to back and then back to front with gopro running, then out starboard front door and down the side to the tail. Dropped down to the bottom and saw all the support superstructure. Headed N to the edge of the abyss and down a bit to see if my big light would illuminate the bottom... NOPE. Headed back up the wall to the superstructure then S and up, past the front of the plane and back to the silver tank. Then back along the wall (no octos home today), then 150 bearing to the pipeline... but somehow missed the pipeline (near some rocks) and continued 150 for a long time until it got shallow. At that point saw the truck differential indicating path to dry dock #1!!! Reversed course and headed back W to the boat ramp and back in. An excellent dive with a somewhat unexpected ending, but still awesome.
Chemainus VideoHeaded out today at super low tide for a scooter dive to boat island and beyond, using the P2 scooter and rebreather. Visibility between 0 to 36ft was total crap, but was able to find the pipeline and follow it to the boat island turnoff. Missed boat island due to the visibility, so headed north after the appropriate interval. Deeper than 40 ft the visibility was decent, and continued north until meeting the wall that today went to 18ft! Of course visibility at that depth was total crap and some fun trying to avoid big rocks heading over the top. The other side was a sheer wall to 50ft, so went down and headed left (west). Quickly found the green tank, so headed further west and found silver tank, so headed over to the 737 airplane. It was 74ft at and in the plane, so visibility was quite decent. After the plane headed back to the wall and into the higher crap vis to get over the top and head back SW. Eventually ran into the pipeline again (not literally!!!) and then back in along the pipeline, again in crap vis. Overall a very good dive on the plane, and not too bad even with the crap vis shallower.
Chemainus VideoAwesome Tyee dive with excellent visibility.
Tyee Wolfie Video
Tyee Little Octo Video
Tyee Big Octo VideoTried diving to the dry docks, but current was incredibly fast coming from E to W so that swimming against it was very difficult. Visibility was also really poor, so after reaching dock 1, going around once and over the top, we called the dive and swam back.
What a day! Managed to forget my suit-up bench, my camera macro lens, and the heated vest controller. After gearing up we headed in and swam over to grandpa, with misses also evident. We tried to give them a green urchin but he kept picking it up and spitting it back at us! Finally I opened it with my light and the misses lept ahead to get some. Then back to the right wall to have a look around before heading in. Overall an excellent dive with excellent visibility.
Tyee Video
Tyee Grandpa VideoAnother dive to boat island, but with less visibility. Very low tide caused some issues getting in, but the dive went well. Sadly a faulty camera setting resulted in no usable photos. Otherwise a very good dive.
Chemainus Octo VideoFirst scooter dive with Meredith's newly maintained gavin scooter and my P2 with new 6Ah batteries in the front. Scootered to boat island in fairly poor visiblity for the most part, but lots to see and photograph. Awesome dive.
Chemainus Video
Chemainus Octo VideoVery good swimming dive down the pipeline to the 737 line, then back towards shore swimming along the reefs. Excellent dive with excellent visibility.
Chemainus VideoScooter dive with Phil, Nancy and Monica. We scootered along the pipeline to the deep turnoff, then followed the line to the airplane wall, over the wall and over to the yellow (left) tank. Scootered right to the silver tank the north to the airplane. I swam thru the airplane body and found a large rock cod in the cockpit, plus a good size lingcod inside the body. We then scootered back along the line to the pipeline, then E to the small wall and along to the cleat. My scooter hasn't been run in a month so batteries died at the line. I swam along to dock 1, then up on top for a few photos, then along the line to the diff and then home. A very excellent long dive with decent vis (especially good on the plane).
Chemainus VideoAnother swimming dive today. Swam to the first dry dock, then to the small wall and all along to the end and back. Headed back to the dock and then home. Overall an awesome dive with good visibility.
Chemainus VideoAnother swimming dive today. Swam to the pipeline, then down to the deep turnoff and back along the fingers. Great dive but not the best visibility.
Awesome dive today. Swam to dock 1 then to the small wall. Along the length of the small wall to the end, then back to the line, back to 1 and home. Good visibility, wonderful summer weather on land. Awesome dive.
Chemainus VideoGreat swimming dive today on pipeline. Swam all the way to deep turnoff, then along reefs coming back in. Overall a nice dive.
Great dive today on pipeline. Explored deeper section NW until sandy bottom, then headed back and found cave line roughly E from reef back to pipeline. Overall awesome dive with very good visibility.
Chemainus VideoWeird nav today. Scootered toward drydocks due E. Landed on big block with cleat, thought was middle #1 but could not find dock. Scootered more E and found a drydock... #1??? swam along front and found the 3/4 jog, so had landed in front of #2. Around 3/4 and up crack-o-doom to top, same around top of 3 and then swam back from corner to #2. Around 2 and down to line back to #1. From #1 to cleat at back and line to small wall. There was a lot of current pushing W on that swim. Then swam on top of small wall to end past tree and then headed due W on scooter until found pipeline at turnoff to 737 (double pipes & rocks). Scootered back past alum star and then over to home. Shallow tide at start, even shallower at end. Overall a nice long dive. Overall the vis was crappy everywhere. Maybe 5-10 ft for nav but much less for photos.
Scootered to pipeline and along to deep turnoff, then back and along rocks at various places. Headed NW along rocks at aluminum star but strong E current anytime there was swimming. Finally headed back to pipeline and home. Crappy visibility the entire dive, but good to get the scooter out again. Gopro crapped out again underwater.
Chemainus VideoAnother swimming dive today. Swam to the differential, then dry dock #1 using big reel to get compass bearing direct to dry dock. Then swam to the small wall then along the small wall, and back at 210 to shore. It should have been about halfway to the boat ramp, but current returned us at 20fsw to the differential near the first dock. Swam home in the shallows. Total dive 128 minutes, making it the longest dive ever for either of us!
A swimming dive today. Swam to the differential, then dry dock #1 (weird line arragement now), then to the small wall (more weird lines) then along the small wall, over to the deep wall, then sw to the pipeline and back to the boat ramp. A very long dive and a very long swim. Still, awesome dive with good visibilty.
Chemainus VideoA very nice dive up the pipeline today. Visibility was not bad and it was a nice day.
Chemainus VideoA very nice dive up the pipeline today. Visibility was not bad and it was a nice day.
Chemainus Jelly VideoVis reports indicated much improvement so we intened to dive the dry docks. Sadly me managed to miss them entirely in spite of great vis, and ended up at the pipeline after some 50 min of swimming, mostly in 50fsw. After the pipeline we explored the rocks and had a nice long dive.
Nice long dive today at high tide along the east flank of the beacon island left of the boat ramp. Vis was pretty good. Then straight north to about 40ft where the vis turned really bad. Headed east to the pipeline and home. Overall an excellent long dive in improving vis.
After last week's bad vis and continuing reports of herring run bad vis up and down the island, we decided to swim around the 'lighthouse', the red and white marker buoy on the island beside the boat ramp. Vis was terrible and we ended up very shallow. We got about 2/3 the way around the island before shallows made us turn and retrace our route around the island and then back to the boat ramp. OK dive - most important we got to dive.
Tried to swim to dry docks but vis was so very, very bad that we abandoned plan and swam along in shallows, then returned to ramp. Long-ish dive with OK visibility above 17ft and at least something to see.
Chemainus VideoScootered with tether to pipeline and along to wall off-point, then swam around in crappy viz for a while then scootered back in. OK dive except for hurting back and crappy vis.
Swam to the dry dock #1, then over to #2 and around, over to the small wall and along, then back to dock 1 and home. Excellent dive.
Once again we scootered up pipeline to turnoff (wheel) then NW to boat rocks. Toured boat rocks then scootered back SE to pipeline and home. The replacement battery I built for the heated vest worked well and kept me warm. Awesome dive.
Chemainus VideoScootered up pipeline to turnoff (wheel) then NW to boat rocks. Toured boat rocks then scootered back SE to pipeline and home. One battery on the heated vest was dead this morning so it was a cold and shorter dive. Otherwise an awesome dive.
Chemainus VideoScootered up pipeline to turnoff (wheel) then NW to boat rocks. Toured boat rocks then scootered back SE to pipeline and home. Awesome dive.
Chemainus VideoScootered to the lighthouse then NW and found the boat. It's a really great wall by the boat, and we found a few lingcod on egg masses. Swam around the wall and returned to the boat. Then then scootered back to the pipeline and home. Overall a great dive!
Chemainus VideoScootered to the lighthouse then NW and found the boat. It's a really great wall by the boat, and we found a few lingcod on egg masses. Swam along, then scootered back to the pipeline and home. Overall a great dive!
Chemainus VideoExcellent dive today. Splashed and scootered to lighthouse, then NW until we found a wall, missing the boat. Swam E along the wall before turning and scootering back to pipeline and back home.
Excellent dive today. Splashed and scootered to lighthouse, then NW until we found a wall, missing the boat. Swam E along the wall before turning and scootering back to pipeline and back home.
Chemainus VideoExcellent dive today. Splashed and scootered to lighthouse, then kina-sorta NW (scooter compasses acting up) and found airplane wall. Swam to debris field then scootered to pipeline and back home.
Chemainus Video