Howe Sound Boat Dive - 06/06/2010

This boat dive with the Topline was very good. I was out with Mihai and Vince, and we were all on single steel 100s.

The previous week, I had tried to get out on a boat dive and there was a problem with the Topline, and we had to turn back. So, I was raring to go for this one! Also, I had to remember to lash down my cylinders better during transport. I had my doubles slide in Vince's truck bed, and they got a nasty knock. Fortunately, everything checked out ok with them and there was no damage.

Anyway, we went on two new dives today.

First was the Colingwood Day Marker, on the east side of Bowen island. Normally there are too many fishing boats here as it's a popular place to fish. But there were none around today, and we got to check it out. There were indeed a tonne of rockfish, lingcod, and several swimming nudibranchs. A very nice dive.

Second was Hutch Reef, where there had been a study on the chimney sponges that lived in water much shallower than normal. The study was to find out why. There were indeed a lot of big chimney sponges at the site, as well as a huge log that was on the bottom. The log was shot through with white worms slowly chewing it all down. I popped my SMB at the end of the dive for practice, and a good thing too, since there were several boats in the area.