Mile Buoy

Friday afternoon rolled around, and once again, we had to have a discussion about whether to cancel the boat on Saturday.  Here's what the forecast looked like:

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE SATURDAY NIGHT...
 
 .TONIGHT...NW WINDS 20 TO 30 KT. WIND WAVES 5 TO 8 FT. NW SWELL
 3 TO 5 FT AT 9 SECONDS. PATCHY FOG AFTER MIDNIGHT. 
 .SAT...NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 4 TO 7 FT. NW SWELL 3 TO

 5 FT AT 8 SECONDS. PATCHY FOG IN THE MORNING. 
 .SAT NIGHT...NW WINDS 20 TO 30 KT. WIND WAVES 5 TO 8 FT. NW
 SWELL 3 TO 5 FT AT 8 SECONDS. PATCHY FOG AFTER MIDNIGHT. 

I really love it when there are 5 to 8 foot wind waves.  I mean, really, who doesn't?  For some bizarre reason, despite this forecast and the promise of at most a dive in the bay, no one voted to cancel.  On Saturday morning, the prognosis had not changed, and we were so certain that we wouldn't make it out of the bay that we didn't even load scooters onto the boat!

This weekend, we made it all the way to Mile Buoy.  I was diving with Team Kitty Plus (prime?  plus plus?) again.  It may surprise you, given my general whininess up until this point, but we actually had an excellent dive!  First of all, the viz was great for Mile Buoy.  There was some debate about exactly what the viz was, but I think the numbers that were argued were all in the 40 to 60' range... so whatever it was, it was really good for the bay.  And it was quite bright, which you can sort of see in the video.  It's unfortunate that no one was shooting wide angle (not that I blame them, at all).  Then, there was the super fun wolf eel encounter, with a wolf eel that was out in the open, and totally cool with us being there (or maybe he was just paralyzed with fear).  And last, but not least, we found a slug.  A Tritonia diomedea.  I was looking at it, like "is that what I think it is?" and Rob gave me the most hilarious hand signal.  He signaled that it was the remote-controlled slug.  We went to a talk about this slug several years ago, and one of the things we learned is that they have huge (and few) neurons, so it is easy to map their brains, and hook up electrodes, and basically trigger the neurons one by one... so the idea of a remote-controlled slug was born.  Anyway, it was a pretty funny hand signal.  There was also at least one sea lions swooping down along the bottom to visit from time to time.  Of course he was always too fast to try to video.  I was hoping for some sea lion fun on deco, but it was not to be :(

Given the conditions, there was interest in a second dive.  We ended up back at Shale Island.  While I was tempted to get back in the water, since the viz had been so good at Mile Buoy, after last weekend's quease-inducing dive at Shale Island, I just couldn't get myself interested in it.  So we stayed on the boat and chatted while the others went for a dive.

Kawika's and Shale Island

Photo by Clinton Bauder

I had to take two weekends off from diving, due to a rebreather-related back injury.  Rebreathers are a lot like cats, in that they apparently spend their free time plotting to kill their people (or that's what Clinton tells me anyway :P).  So after two dry weekend, I was back in action for a tech boat on Saturday.  And of course, my triumphant return was greeted with a horrible forecast.  It was supposed to be windy, really windy, and Jim didn't think that it was too likely we'd make it outside of the bay.  Sigh.  But, I'd been dry for two weekends, so I wasn't voting to cancel the boat!  As it turns out, Jim's read on the forecast was not wrong, and we ended up at Kawika's Garden.

Photo by Clinton Bauder

I was diving with Rob, Kevin, and Matt (the new Team Kitty, perhaps?).  The dive was... a dive.  The viz was pretty good for Kawika's, but it was pretty much the usual suspects.  I saw at least one wolf eel, and some brown rockfish.  I guess at this point, brown rockfish are pretty standard for bay tech dives (and maybe you could say the same thing for wolf eels!), but I still find it a bit exciting whenever I see one!  And also as usual for Kawika's, there were plenty of lingcod, including one or two giants.  It was a nice dive, with nicer than expected viz, but there wasn't really much that stood out to report.

Photo by Clinton Bauder

Given the good (for the bay) viz, and the early hour, there was plenty of interest in a second dive.  We decided to go to Shale Island, since it seemed like no one had been there in a while (which was probably preceded by a period where we went there all the time and everyone got sick of it!).  Rob and Matt decided to sit out the dive.  I think Rob had a leak or something, so he was wet/cold; I don't remember Matt's excuse.  Kevin and I got back in though.  It was a somewhat short dive, we just followed the ledge out in one direction, got a bit past the big anchor, and then turned and headed back.  The most entertaining critters we found were some crabs, not because they are entertaining on their own, but because of Kevin's habit of molesting the crabs.  He just can't help himself.  And sometimes I egg him on, since I know he can't help himself :P  I'm sure there were a lot of more interesting little critters to see, but I didn't really bring my critter-peeping A-game, because I was feeling kind of seasick on the dive.  It was a little surgy, but not really enough that that made sense.  But by the time we happened back past the anchor, I thumbed it, because I felt like I'd had it!  Once back on the boat, I actually felt a bit better.

Rob wasn't taking pictures, he's still working out the kinks with his camera housing (ever since the big flood, it just hasn't quite been behaving, so it went back to Backscatter again).  So I've snarfed some Clinton pictures from the day, of critters that I may or may not have seen on the dive :P