Jim, Chris Fenton and I dove Madrona as part of our regular Sunday dive series. Greg and Shawn could not make it this time around.
On my way out, I had to turn around and pick up the wing nuts for my back plate that I had forgotten at home. I figured someone would have spares, but on the off chance, I didn't want to be stuck not diving! My GPS crashed on my phone, and me being silly, did not rely on my brain instead. I got a bit turned around, but made it to Madrona not too late.
It was a cloudy, but not rainy, day. There were two other groups of divers at Madrona, and they reported pretty good visibility and at least one nice big octopus in a crack. I was looking forward to seeing what we might find!
On both dives we did the same plan, entering at the big V and swimming out to the long wall to the north. We weren't planning anything special, just go out and have some fun. Jim and I did bring stage bottles along just for practice, and did a gas switch drill and a valve drill, so it wasn't all just fun!
On the first dive, we did indeed find a nice big octopus in a crack. Why do they always have to be sleeping so much! Jim tried to get it to come out to play, but no luck. Chris found a baby puget sound king crab as well, orange and red in all its glory. I always liked them like that. We also found a giant nudibranch and got it swimming, as well as an orange sea lemon (another nudibranch) and a very strange deformed sea squirt. There was a nice sea pen, and a sea lion buzzed past us quickly. At the end of the dive, I spied a stark silvery shape on the bottom. It was a dead rat fish in the shallows. It wasn't dead very long, and there was no sign of why it died. It was very interesting to see up close, even though the poor thing had perished.
Chris didn't come along for the second dive, but Jim and I did the same thing again. We visited the same octopus, but didn't see much new. It was a very enjoyable dive, though with the visibility so good.
We talked later how there seemed to be a lack of wolf eels at Madrona. Chris said he hadn't seen them for a long time. The last time I saw them was at least a year and a half ago. The folks at Nanaimo Dive Outfitters said that the sea lions eat them, and might clear them out every so often. I hope they come back sometime!
Here is a bit of video:
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