Seattle Scuba Diving

No word yet on opening day for the water taxi that runs from Cove 2 but it usually starts in May. The city would like to see the taxi run year round and it will do so in 2010. And the city would eventually like to move the taxi from Seacrest to some other site on West Seattle. However, the neat news is that this summer they are building "...a wider, longer gangway to meet accessibility guidelines and floats would be replaced with concrete and the new docking area would be oriented to keep the boat away from the diving area." Do you believe that - the city wants to make it safer/better for divers!

Hi All,
Well, As many of you know I was supposed to have an AOW class go out on Saturday. At one time had 7 students plus the DMC's. After attrition I went from 7 to 0 for students and 5-4 on DMC's...go figure

I decided to take the group and do dives anyway so we stayed with Bandito and did our three tank dive.

North point wall was our first and it was amazing, the viz was great and the critters were out in full force. I saw the largest grunt sculpin I have ever seen. he was probably easily the size of 4-5 avg sized sculpins put together...I did not know they got that big

Then we did a drift of the Tacoma Narrows, one word AWESOME I actually got to se the blocks this time and they are something to behold.

Last dive of the day was Sunrise. That was a nice dive and a really really nice site. Octos all over and we saw at least one den of wolf eels. The male would not let the female out though, which was too bad as she wanted to come out and visit.

Overall, I am not sure one could have expected much better diving or conditions. The sun was out, the waters were calm, the current fairly non-existent.

Stay wet!!!!

The Possession Point ferry, aka Kehloken, is a great non-penetration wreck dive. As the name implies, it’s off the south end of Whidbey Island, a 2 minute ride from the Everett boat ramp – in Larry’s ski boat anyway. Larry has done it twice and I have done it myself with Larry. Besides exploring the wreck, there are tons of fish and interesting critters. The only downside is that it is a boat dive and the buoy marking the wreck (it may not even be there anymore) is not boat friendly because there are no fixtures on it for tying up. Don’t worry – the Washington Scuba Alliance (http://www.wascuba.org/) has plans to remove the old buoy and replace it with two new ones that mark the bow and stern of the wreck. This is being done so divers don't drop their anchors through the wreck and damage it. All of the permits are in place and they now just need to raise the funds. I have recently been in touch with Jim Trask (Project Head at WSA) and he has the funds for one buoy at Possession Point and told me that if we can raise the $2100 or so for the other one, all contributors get their names on the buoy. There at east 20 of us who dive regularly around Roy so if we each put in $100 …voila! I have three firm commitments now so if interested, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with Jim Trask. I only need 18 more of you.

Hi All,
The stubby squid are out in full force. They are so cool. if you approach them slow, and use your light, they will follow your light around. We saw two today at mukilteo that were 1/2-3/4 inch at most. Very very small and really cute. We also saw a larger one about a couple of inches long.
Remember, if you come across a critter DON'T touch unless you know what you are doing and you take your gloves off. Diving glove cause severe issues with the aquatic life and can potentially kill them.
Stay wet and have fun

Hi all,
As an fyi, here are some of what you can expect for conditions in the area:

Surface Temperature in the top 10-15 ft is in the high 30's; in otherwords, it is COLD
once you get below about 20 ft the temp rises to a balmy 46-48

Viz over the weekend was fair; about 15 ft or so making the dives better than they have been however the water is still "milky" even at depth.

Seems like lately the octos and stubby squid have been out and about. Dive slow and be aware.

Stay wet and see you below