The trip photo album: https://plus.google.com/photos/+AntonNorth/albums/6070272054557761105
Almost all of the underwater photos were courtesy of Heather. They turned out great! Here is a compilation of the video she took as well, showing a very large hermit crab, a cute grunt sculpin, a puget sound king crab, a group of snails feeding, and a rhinoceros crab. Read on below to find more details!
I got some video using my GoPro as well, showcasing Maeve and Roz and Salo waving happily, Jason and Heather ascending, a group shot of Maeve, Roz and Salo again, a moon jelly looking like it was bigger than Heather, a spectacular kelp forest with Jason in the foreground, several kelp forest panorama shots, a steam donkey gear, the descent onto the Chaudiere wreck, a pan shot back up to the dive boat from the Chaudiere showing just how great the visibility was, ending with some more footage from the wreck itself.
Kal and Anne have always run a first-rate operation with excellent accommodations and a great dive boat. Did I mention turkey dinner? That too! You had the option of staying in yurts for a "glamping" feel, or in a guest house. I much preferred the double-walled yurts. They were always warm and comfortable, with the added bonus of being able to hear the rain on the roof and the sounds of nature around you. Kal has had for a while an industrial strength dehumidifier in a dedicated drying room that would get the wettest gear bone dry in a few hours. His dive boat "Devilfish" could accommodate over 10 divers, was covered and heated. It also had a flexible drier hose attached to the heating system which you could direct into your suit for those really cold days. The boat ladder had small spaced steps, so you could easily climb up even in the heaviest of gear. I could not forget to mention the hot tub and kayaks for apres dive activities if you so desired!
Our intrepid group consisted of Jason Kolba, Heather and myself, Maeve, Roz and Salo. Pia, Jason's better half came along as a non-diver as well. Jason and Pia caught the first ferry, so they were up very early. But they had a chance for a hike and a leisurely drive up. When Heather and I arrived, Roz and Salo were napping, as they also had to get up quite early as well. BC Ferries on a long weekend made for some logistical travel problems, but we all knew it would be worth it. Here is our group photo!
On the way up, we stopped at the Halfmoon Bay historic general store. They had some first-rate thick cut locally produced bacon that was well worth the detour.
We all met at the Government dock in Egmont, and soon started loading up our gear onto Kal's boat. I got a funny picture of Roz. My joke was that she was holding some very important supplies, beer and oxygen!
Kal got us settled, and we all picked out our yurts. The weather forecast had been for rain, but it was an excellent evening. We would end up lucking out for two days of clear weather. We also made our acquaintance with Nanook and Nemo, Kal's two dogs. They were always a big hit.
We put down our dinner requests and headed out that evening for a check-out dive at Nemo's Leap. Visibility was excellent, and we saw a stunning golden dirona and a beautiful tiger rockfish!
At dinner, everyone was brimming with enthusiasm. We made some general plans for the weekend, had some great burgers and sausages, and looked at some previous dive photos. The night was beautiful, but we all turned in early in order to be well rested for a busy next day.
After a great breakfast courtesy of Anne, we headed out to Agamemnon Channel to dive the famous Power Lines. This was the same site where we had dove the Gorgonian Coral with GUE-BC. I was very excited to see the cloud sponges there again. The sponge fields were truly amazing, not to mention their size and intricacy. It did not disappoint!
Once finished there, we were off to Swede's Reef. This was a favorite site of both Heather and I. It was so named due to a dive group from Sweden just wanting to dive it over and over. I knew why, because it was a sea mound packed with crevices and critters. We saw a huge amount of life, and Heather got some great pictures of all of it:
A fabulous nudibranch that we'd not seen before, probably a Dendronotus diversicolor.
An amazing octopus.
A moss-headed warbonnet. Look carefully!
A Cockerell's nudibranch.
There were also many copper and quillback rockfish and large ling cod. During our ascent, a moon jelly posed for a picture!
On the dive site Urchin City, we came across one of the best and cutest encounters with a grunt sculpin we've ever had. He was big, maybe the size of an apple. Heather got a great picture, and some great video.
Urchin city was aptly named for the large numbers of sea urchins encrusting the rock.
Kal said that people wondered why it was called Urchin City, when all the other dive sites had so many urchins. There was a time when the urchin population had been severely depleted by fishing and this had been one of the few locations where they could be found. They had made a come-back, but the name Urchin City stuck. We also came across a giant gumboot chiton.
By far my favorite part of the Urchin City dive was ending up in the kelp forest beyond it in the sheltered bay. The pictures and video didn't do it justice. It was magical!
That evening Anne prepared another amazing dinner. There was pumpkin beer, and the hot tub under the stars. We had really lucked out in terms of weather.
The next morning we got up before the crack of dawn. The plan was to do a sunrise dive, where you started the dive when it was dark, and watched the transition from night to day during the dive. Hopefully we would witness the change in marine life. Steve Redding had suggested this kind of dive on this same trip 4 years ago. It didn't quite work out that time, because of some tardiness. This time, we were determined to make it happen! We chose Swede's Reef again, and it didn't disappoint. It was very much a night dive, and it was very interesting to experience the water lighten as the sun rose. We all agreed that it was worth getting up early for the experience.
We came across several tiger rockfish such as this one, trying to hide.
One of the highlights was a small puget sound king crab. Check out the video for some footage of him walking around.
We found yet another beautiful nudibranch which was probably the Japanese Aeolid. This picture of it turned out very well, with the small hydroids looking like Doctor Seues Truffula trees.
The Vancouver Aquarium folks had mentioned in their Citizen Science Diver course that sea urchins would put things on their heads. Many research papers had been written on the topic if you could believe it. This picture showed that they didn't just put things on their heads, but also each other!
On Egmont Point, we got another excellent encounter with a giant pacific octopus in a crack. Heather got the credit for finding this one. Jason and I had went right by!
In the video clips, there was also a section with a large gear. This was from an old steam donkey, from the original settlement of Egmont. Kal said that it had been there forever. It was a very cool piece of history.
After a rest and some lunch, we were off to the Chaudiere. This dive was one of the high-lights of the trip. The visibility was truly amazing. From the ship more than 70 feet down, you could clearly see the dive boat and divers descending. It was easily the best visibility all weekend (and the vis had been consistently good!). Check out the video clips for the footage. On the descent, you could almost see from one end of the ship to the other. There were some amazing frosted nudibranchs on the wreck, along with a very cool decorator crab.
Also, the Vancouver Aquarium had mentioned about an invasive tunicate species. We saw these all over the Chaudiere. They were certainly pretty though.
Boom Islet at the mouth of the Skookumchuck was another great dive site. It was so named because log booms frequently crashed on it. We saw one of the smaller log booms being steered through the Skookumchuck Narrows, and you could easily see why. The booms did not steer well, and there was little room to manuever!
On Boom Islet, we saw huge fields of anemones in the first portion of the dive. It was truly amazing.
We ended up in another kelp forest at the end of the dive, and found two very large Red Irish Lords. Look carefully.
As if the diving wasn't good enough, Anne treated us all to a full-on Thanksgiving Turkey dinner on Sunday. The evening was filled with good food, wine, and lots of great conversation. It could not get much better.
Too soon, the trip was nearing to a close. But we did manage to squeeze in two more dives on the last day. Captain's Light was first, and it was another signature dive. It was well known for its cloud sponges, much like Power Lines. But, we all agreed that while Power Lines may have quantity, the sponges here were more intricate and beautiful. It was a site not to be missed.
There were many beautiful anemones, and a great rhinocerous crab too.
We also came across a very strange phenomenon with a finger sponge that was partially bleached. I asked the Vancouver Aquarium about it, and they said that there was a species of poacher that would lay their eggs inside of sponges which could have impeded water movement causing it to partially die. But they were not sure. It certainly made for a cool picture.
We also saw a very pretty leopard dorid.
The last site was Jaggy Crack. The sea was getting pretty rough, and our exit back onto the boat was a bit dicey. But we all made it. The dive was worth it, because Salo, Maeve and Roz had an incredible interaction with a giant pacific octopus. It climbed all the way up Maeve's arm! I hoped that their video would turn out well. We saw another great rhinoceros crab, a large hermit crab and had a generally fun time poking around in the rocks and crevices for critters.
Heather also came across some very odd little tunicates that we would have to follow up on later.
An so the trip came to a close for another year. Many thanks to Kal and Anne of Porpoise Bay Charters for another exceptional dive trip! We would be back again for sure!
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