Tolmie Barges

[Jeremy]

Was thinking of diving the Tolmie barges this weekend.

Does anyone know if this is a current sensitive site? My research seems to indicate no, but we were planning on splashing close to maximum current so I wanted to run this by you folks to see if that would be an issue.

Also, how far is it from the parking lot to the water? I've seen conflicting reports on that.

Thank you!!

[olyvtx]

there is a gated path to the beach that they allow you to open and drive down to unload your gear. You'll find a couple picnic tables there near the beach. if you dive at low tide you have a nice, long walk through mud to get to the water. But, your swim won't be as long to reach the barges.

[Jeremy]

Cool, that's good news!

Any idea if this is a current sensitive site?

[CaptnJack]

There's no current at all really - even at max flood or ebb. Some swirling maybe. Its a LONG LONG swim though. Be sure to have a dive flag since did I mention its a long way out there and near where the yachts moor?

[Jeremy]

There's no current at all really - even at max flood or ebb. Some swirling maybe. Its a LONG LONG swim though. Be sure to have a dive flag since did I mention its a long way out there and near where the yachts moor?

Yeah, that's what I've read! We're planning to scoot to the buoy and kick dive from there.

Thanks for the current tip...that's what I was expecting from Fischnaller but wanted to confirm.

[CaptnJack]

Last time I was there the one white + organge can buoy still existed. I think its the SE one.
The "line up this house with that point" triangulation directions in Fishnaller don't work. They might be spot on accurate bearings but repeating them is an exercise in futility.

You'll have fun on the scooters.

[Mortuus]

You'll have fun on the scooters.

Scooter*. Singular =P

Unfortunately we didn't pull 3 together in time, so we are just scootering (or being towed) out to the buoy, and then kicking the rest of the dive. Gives us something to do next time though

[Jeremy]

You'll have fun on the scooters.

Scooter*. Singular =P

Unfortunately we didn't pull 3 together in time, so we are just scootering (or being towed) out to the buoy, and then kicking the rest of the dive. Gives us something to do next time though

Hopefully the buoy is still there!

[CaptnJack]

Swim, in a wetsuit, in the snow, just like us old timers used to.

[Mortuus]

Well, Jeremy already has the wetsuit part covered ( )

[Jeremy]

Ahem...semidry.

[CaptnJack]

Ahem...semidry.

Its early march, and a long swim, unless you have a p-valve its definitely going to be semiwet.

[mz53480]

Was thinking of diving the Tolmie barges this weekend...

Ahhh...tolmie.....


[youtube]http://youtu.be/NYpA1k9CNEk[/youtube]

[Jeremy]

That was awesome, thank you!

[Waynne Fowler]

We always aim for the taller white can bouy with a bit of orange on it just as CaptnJack talks about... if your looking out at the water it'll be NNE if I recall correctly... It'll be that TEEEENNNNY TINY slender white bouy about 65 million miles away... We surface swim to that and drop on the NE corner of one of the barges right next to a small stack of tires. I've never had an AWESOME dive there but I have had many VERY nice ones. Well worth doing IMHO. And as long as you don't have to RUSH back to pee, the surface swims in/out are just a nice time to relax, kick slow and have a chat.

The best reason to do it at a higher tide is so you don't have to walk through the mud as it's painfully S L O W!... typically you'll be walking through a field of living sand dollars if you do it at low tide also... but if your careful you can probably pick your way through without killing too many critters.

Have a good dive...

[YellowEye]

Ooh, sand dollars! Have fun!

[LCF]

Oh, I hope you get to see sand dollars! I've only seen them once, and that was on a dive at Redondo Beach in California. We ran into a whole field of them, up on their sides. I thought someone had been playing with them, but apparently that's how they feed. I've never seen a single one up here.

[dwinslow1]

Thanks for all the great info.

[Jeremy]

Had a great couple of dives today. First was the barge at Seahurst park a couple miles north of TTN. Spectacular viz of 40 fsw made this dive incredibly fun. The barge itself is pretty massive and housed a GPO that we said hi to. Also saw a cool stubby squid, tons of nudis, and sea pens. Great dive...big structure with TTN viz...nice!

Then headed to Tolmie to see some more barges. We saw thousands of sand dollars in the shallows. The taller buoy says "artificial reef". We descended at this buoy into about 33 fsw and saw a collapsed barge and a bunch of tires. I knew this must be the shallow barge from the Fischnaller book so we checked it out and then headed deeper on a 36 degree heading. You can sort of follow the tires as you follow this heading. After awhile...bam! A huge shape emerges and you can see this enormous barge materialize. We circled this about three times at about 45 fsw (getting towards low tide at this point) and then headed WNW to try and find the third barge. There are some tires along this route but there are spots where you have to have faith and keep kicking. We stayed at the same 45 fsw depth the whole way and ran into the third barge! It was as spectacular as the other deep barge we had just came from. Lings, cabezon, rockfish, and sea pens everywhere. The barges are spooky and very cool! We headed back and called it a day.

[Mortuus]

Low tide..........never again...................

[Jeremy]

lol...doubles divers....

[Mortuus]

I dont think I would do that even with a single tank

[mz53480]

I dont think I would do that even with a single tank

Did you dive it today too?

[Mortuus]

I dont think I would do that even with a single tank

Did you dive it today too?

Yup! The dive was great. The tides....not so much. Not because of current mind you (although there was some minor current at times), but because of the damn WALK! And the doubles and the gavin scooter... :angry:

[CaptnJack]

Youth today, such slackers