Sunday, October 18, 2015

Topline Exploration Dives 12/10/2015

Heather and I went along with Sea Dragon Charters to do some exploration dives. It was a perfect way to spend a Thanksgiving Monday.

Unfortunately there was a delay to the day. When we arrived at Horseshoe Bay, I realized that I had forgotten my backplate at home. Oops! Thankfully we arrived early and I was able to get home and back before the boat left. It was raining pretty hard, and we hoped the visibility wouldn't suffer. We had been up to Squamish the day previously, and noticed a great deal of cloudy water from runoff from the Squamish river. Visibility in Horseshoe Bay looked pretty good though (but it was no guarantee).

Once on board, we were under way quickly. The boat was not very full, with only four other divers. Kevin was captaining that day. The motor out from Horseshoe Bay was quite rough, with a lot of maneuvering to avoid logs and debris. The heavy rains of late had really clogged the waters.

Soon we were up near Gambier Island and things got more sheltered and calm. The visibility was excellent too. The plan was to visit a pinnacle between the West and Center Bay. Before we did that, a shot line was dropped to give a visual reference. Unfortunately the rope got caught in the prop of the Topline, and it had to be cleared. I jumped in the water to do that, and it was fun and challenging.

With the prop cleared, and the shot line down, we jumped in and started to check out the new site. It was a very large pinnacle, with a great wall bordering it.

There were many pretty swimming anemones.


There were quite a few small cloud sponges that were very shallow, about 60 feet. In those sponges were the usual squat lobsters taking shelter.


We saw many giant white dorids.


And a lot of pretty orange finger sponges, which the nudibranchs were often eating.


The top of the pinnacle was vast, with rolling smooth granite rock frequently covered in green urchins. It was a very interesting site! Back on the boat, we got reports from the other dive teams of a juvenile wolf eel, and a pair of wolf eels in a den at 100 feet. With the number of urchins around, it was no wonder that this was a good place for them! Later, the site would be christened "Wolfgang", which was Heather's great suggestion.

From there, we moved to the back side of Hutt Island. Normally we would dive the other side, but this time our goal was to check out the back side. Kevin put in three teams to cover as much ground as possible. We started at the south end and worked our way north. The dive was phenomenal! At the start were huge schools of perch and rock fields, with lots of octopus leavings. There was a sunken tree, and fields of feather stars.


A brown box crab was a highlight.


Along with the biggest giant nudibranch we had ever seen!


Another highlight were several umbrella crabs.


A cool beaded anemone, buried in the sand as usual.


We also came across what we thought was a saddleback gunnel.


The combination of sandy chutes, rock walls, boulder fields and varied topography made this dive site another winner. It was christened "Ferndale" by Kevin due to the large amounts of feather stars. The other dive teams carried on further down the island, making a second dive site named "Krakatoa", again by Kevin due to the large rock crack that marked the start of the site.

Have a look at this video compilation of both dive sites.


A great day, and a lot of fun to participate in naming and exploring some new sites. The fabulous visibility was a big plus!

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