The logistical difficulty of diving on the Western side of Vancouver Island was what I learned most, especially coming from Vancouver. First contending with the ferry ride, then the 2-3 hour drive across the island along narrow winding roads, and weather that changed on a dime. It was worth it because of the huge variety of diving opportunities, though.
The UASBC used the Michelle Diana, a 32 foot Water taxi/dive boat captained by a fellow named Brian. It was a versatile boat, but in that versatility it lost out on features that folks who dive doubles can appreciate. Namely, a lot of bench space and ways to secure your rig in your space. We made it work, but there was a lot of man-handling of gear needed. If I had to handle my doubles on this boat while in rough weather, I'd be pretty nervous!
Everyone met up in Tofino on Saturday at about 10:30am. Jacques Marc was the trip leader, and we had Chris, Kim, and me as the GUE contingent, along with Keith, Alexa, Holger, and Jiri. We departed Tofino in good order for the 1 hour and 15 minute boat ride north to Sydney Inlet. I think the approximate Google Map location of the Lord Western was:
http://goo.gl/maps/nce8
I was surprised at the poor quality of the satellite view, but what can you do!
On the trip up, we were lucky to see several humpback whales. One dove quite nicely and showed it's flukes in the classic whale-diving pose.
Arriving at the dive site, Jacques briefed us on the Lord Western. The UASBC had a publication on this wreck which I had read as well. It was the oldest located wreck in BC, having sunk in 1853. It was a three masted barque, carrying fir piles and canned salmon. I forgot to take notes on more details! It was a pretty big ship, though.
Jacques dropped a shot-line down on where the sounding showed the ballast pile. The ship had a large amount of small rocks in the hold as ballast, and that gave a very nice landmark running the length of the wreck site. Unfortunately, the shot-line was off, and when we got to the bottom, we were greeted with nothing but muddy bottom. However, it didn't take long to come across the debris and the wreck site opened up around us. Silt was a real problem here. Most of the wreck was between 60 and 40 feet. There was a surprising amount of the wreck left. A large section of wooden deck planking remained, copper pins from the keel jutted up from the bottom at regular intervals, and timbers lay tangled everywhere.
I took some shaky video on this trip. I had not done underwater video before, so please forgive the camera-work.
Lord Western debris field
Lord Western debris from Anton North on Vimeo.
Lord Western ballast pile
Lord Western ballast pile from Anton North on Vimeo.
A picture courtesy of Alexa. Note the line running through the shot, left over from the UASBC survey work.
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| From scuba tofino uclulet 2010 not mine Alexa Councell |
Next, we headed North to the wreck of the Favorite. Jacques told us that it provided floating accommodation to female cannery workers. The other rumour was that it was a floating brothel. It sank in 1920 quite ingloriously. The crew took leave for a weekend, and upon returning found the vessel had sunk!
I was not quite sure where the wreck was geographically, but I believe this was it:
http://goo.gl/maps/e9LX
The Favorite was very close to shore, right at the mouth of a small freshwater creek. Again, the bottom was very muddy and silt was a problem. The wreck was small, but more recognizable. The bow and stern jutted up from the bottom, and were still joined together by parts of the hull. Copper hull plates had been helping to keep these parts intact. The wreck was shallow, between 30 and 15 feet. Because it was small, we kind of ran out of things to see after about 20 minutes. There were some iron capstans encrusted with rust which were interesting. They looked like cones made of very thick metal lattice work. We stretched the dive out to about 40 minutes by going up and down the hull 4 times, but I think it would have been more interesting if we had some specific tasks to do while on the wreck. There was nothing else around the area to see unfortunately.
Favorite bow
Favorite bow from Anton North on Vimeo.
Favorite capstan by Alexa
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| From scuba tofino uclulet 2010 not mine Alexa Councell |
Favorite bow by Alexa
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| From scuba tofino uclulet 2010 not mine Alexa Councell |
On the trip back to Tofino, we stopped in at the Lord Western to retrieve the shot-line that we had forgotten. The ride back was a bit rough as the swells had increased, but it wasn't bad. We had to be back quickly to make it to Ucluelet and drop our cylinders off at Subtidal Adventures for fills. This was not advertised as a dive shop as far as I could see. However, the owner seemed to have a compressor that was available. You may want to call ahead to confirm if you want to use him. Originally Chris, Kim and I were going to blend some 32% nitrox in the field, but that plan was abandoned. Chris and Kim decided to burn up some trimix on the next day's dive of the Nika. Limited fill ability was something to keep in mind on future trips.
We had dinner at the Eagle's Nest Pub, but not after some problems with directions! You wouldn't think you could get lost in a small town, but we almost managed it. But, because it was a small town, a bit of driving around allowed us to discover Jacques's blue pickup in short order. We stayed at the Little Beach Resort, which had small cabins for rent. They had free wifi too! Good for me, since my phone was on the Rogers network, and that didn't work in the area. We had a good meal talking diving, but packed it in for an early night's sleep.
In the morning, we had breakfast at the Blue Water cafe. At least, I think it was called that. It's address was approximately 1636 Peninsula Road. It used to be a shop called “Big Swell”. Anyway, it's not hard to find. It seemed to be one of the few places open for breakfast early.
After picking up cylinders, we were out on the water with Brian again. The Nika dive site was near Francis Island, but my memory of the location was vague. It was not far from the harbour, though, only 10 or 15 minutes. It was near a pretty exposed rocky outcropping, and the swells were breaking vigorously on it. But apart from the rough water the day was ideal. Clear and sunny with no fog or rain. We all got geared up in a sheltered bay, then we motored to the site and did a live boat drop. Jacques would lead the main group so as we'd not miss anything. Kim and Chris were on trimix and they planned a much longer dive so they were able to go off on their own. The rest of us were on air, and were constrained by bottom time. The Nika was in about 80-90 feet of water, and was a very square-profile dive. It lay pretty much completely in that depth range on a flat sandy bottom. We descended down the rock wall of the outcropping, and landed smack on top of the prop area. A very long drive shaft connected them to the steam engines. A huge cabezon was hanging out on them. Beyond that, Jacques took us out to some more of the wreckage, then around to the boilers which had slid off to the side. All in all, this was the best dive of the trip. The high-flow area meant that there was very little silt. The sunny day made for quite a bright dive, too. And the wreckage was just cool. Alas, our bottom time ran out far too quickly and we had to surface. It really made me look forward to Tech 1! Jacques was quite the speed-demon too, which made good use of our limited bottom time. We ended up seeing everything of the wreck, I think.
Nika prop area
Nika prop area from Anton North on Vimeo.
Nika boiler area
Nika boilers from Anton North on Vimeo.
Unfortunately the Pass of Melfort was not doable. The swells were just too large in the area of the wreck.
Instead, we went back into the harbour area and went looking for wreckage from the MV Ganges a former RCMP launch wrecked in 2008 and an unknown wreck that Jacques had heard about that morning from a local. Jacques handed out marker floats so that if we came across anything we could mark it. The dive itself was shallow, (25 feet) and the surge was quite pronounced. Keith and I dropped in right on the fuel tank from the Ganges. Jacques marked it so that we could get the GPS coordinates. We found another square tank, this one newer and made of aluminum. Others found the Ganges stack, engine bed plate, battery cases etc. There was also a lot of life, many nudibranchs and jellies, and best of all, a Puget Sound King Crab. Also a few rubber tires!
Puget sound king crab from Anton North on Vimeo.
Back on the boat, we waited for Jacques. Holger had found the sailing ship parrel that we were looking for in 13 feet of water. Jacques swam in to photograph it and recover the marker. The surge made it very challenging at one point washing him over a rock. In the end he abandoned his efforts and we sacrificed another float. Thankfully we didn't have to mount a rescue dive for him! Once he was back on the boat, he was very very tired.
Another highlight was before this dive, a California sea lion gave us a show eating a salmon near the boat. Alexa got a great picture of him gulping down the entire tail section!
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| From scuba tofino uclulet 2010 not mine Alexa Councell |
Finally, we were back in the harbor and all packed up. Here is the group of us, after a successful and fun trip!
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| From scuba tofino uclulet 2010 not mine Alexa Councell |
Please note: I have corrected some of the details above, but there still may be some errors. I will do my best to correct them! I wanted to post this quickly so as not to have it fade too much from memory. Jacques was kind enough to do some editing and updated some of the details. Thanks, Jacques! The edited article will be going in the UASBC publication, the Foghorn soon.
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