Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

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Grateful Diver
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Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Grateful Diver »

Yesterday's dives were classic springtime in the P N Dub ... gorgeous weather, lousy vis. I hooked up with Uncle Pug at the Lowe's in Everett at 9:30 in the morning and headed for Rosario Beach, just a couple miles northwest of Deception Pass. Our destination ... Northwest Island ... a tiny island about a quarter-mile offshore from the beach. We had four 130's, a pair of Sierra's, and a plan ... and the weatherman had promised us a beautiful, sunny day with highs in the low '70's ... perfect.

Got to the dive site around 10:30 ... reconnoitered the area, and got ready for our first dive ... which we'd decided would be Urchin Rocks, a small spit of boulders that juts out into the south part of the little bay formed by the arc of the beach. Neither one of us had done this dive before, so it was a bit of an exploration dive. The Northwest Shore Dives book described it as a shallow reef.

Geared up, took a heading, and dropped down right off the beach for what should have been a scant few minutes run across the bay to the rocks. Vis was on the order of maybe 10 feet, but we had no difficulty seeing where we were going. After about 9 minutes I was beginning to get the idea that maybe we missed it ... by now we were at 45 fsw, and according to the book it wasn't supposed to be that deep. So I stopped and signaled to Ron that we should ascend to see where we were. Two minutes later we were on the surface, looking back at the bay ... and Urchin Rocks ... we'd skimmed right past the end of the reef and were on our way to Lopez Island. No problem, take a heading, drop back down and ... about 30 seconds later stumble onto a submerged reef that was just covered in clown dorids and vermillion and white sea cucumbers ...

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We spent the next 40 minutes or so slowly making our way back along the boulders and ledges that comprise the reef. I also found out how the reef got its name ...

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Just before heading back I discovered what I at first took for a nudibranch ... but what proved to be some kind of flatworm ... or is that two flatworms? Or is it just some kind of confused worm with his head up his ... ???

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Ron's suit was leaking, so after a while he signaled it was time to go ... and off we went, back to the beach. Oddly, we didn't have any trouble navigating back ... we surfaced right in front of the trail we took from the car to the beach.

Surface interval ... a time to dry out, lounge around in the sun, eat lunch, kibbitz with some friendly people, and thoroughly enjoy being in the PNDub on a perfect spring day. Life is definitely good. But tides wait for no one, and before long it was time to head out to our prime destination of the day ... Northwest Island ...

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The bay going across in this direction is a bit more interesting than on the previous dive ... crabs, sea pens (LOTS of sea pens), and other critters made for an interesting 10-minute scoot out to the island. We arrived on the north side, which is shallow and rocky ... clipped the scoots off, pulled out our cameras, and started kicking out along the east side of the island, getting progressively steeper and deeper as we went.

This is a gorgeous reef, that gets prettier as you approach the south end of the island ... which is exposed to the currents that flush daily into and out of Deception Pass. I could feel the tug of current increasing as we got closed to the island's south end, and before long it was work to be able to stop and take a picture. But I was looking, in particular, for the colorful snakelock anemones that, in this region, often provide a home for candy-striped shrimp. And although the anemones were in abundance, I only found one candy-stripe shrimp ... and it was far too small for a picture in those conditions.

I did, however, find a rather large scaly lithodid crab guarding one of those anemones ... and it didn't seem interested in letting me in for a closer inspection ...

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But the prize of the day ... for me, at least ... was an abundance of tiny white dendronotid nudibranchs ... barely a centimeter or two in length ... clinging to the tips of hydroids waving furiously in the current.

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At about 50 minutes, Ron signaled he was getting cold. Ah, I thought .... his suit's still leaking. We put away the cameras, unclipped the scoots, and headed back across the bay ... this time dead-reckoning mid-water as we stepped slowly shallower ... 3 minutes at 40, 3 minutes at 30, 3 minutes at 20 and suddenly there's the bottom. We followed the contours in only to discover we'd overshot our entry ... ah, but there's another trail. Hiking back up it proved more effort than we bargained for, but we managed to make it back to our picnic table, unload the gear and go back for the scooters.

Turned out Ron had a bit more than a leak ... he took off his suit, dumped the water out, peeled out of his Weezle, squeezed about two quarts of water out of it, and gave thanks for the fact that it was a warm, sunny day.

Overall though, a great day of diving ... and although I had done Northwest Island from a boat before, this was the first ... and definitely not the last ... time from shore by scooter. I can see a bunch of trips to Rosario in my future. All I'll need is a buddy with a scooter ... this has become my new favorite scooter shore dive in the P N Dub ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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nwscubamom
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by nwscubamom »

California Berthella!!Your weird "worm" is a nudi.
Their branchial plume goes out to the side, instead of poofing out the top of this nudi. Great sighting!

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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Grateful Diver »

California Berthella, you're one of us ... a little different ... :bday:

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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Tom Nic
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Tom Nic »

Great report, great pictures, as always Bob! Thanks for taking the time to post.

Except... :angryblue:

**This continual peddling of scooter crack on the board is starting to make me crazy! Just when I have myself talked out of remortgaging my house and selling my kids into slavery to pay for more dive equipment on comes a post like this... sheesh, what's a poverty stricken PNW diver to do?

:pills:

**Which brings me to my last beef. Just when I think I have a little bit of diving cool down you spring a new one. PNDub?!? You're kidding, right? I got used to calling Redondo "The Dond", and now I have to go from PNW to PNDub?!? Next thing you know I'll be all like BTDub instead of BTW, and I'll have to get a whole new set of literature or do more research just to say somewhat current with the communication skills of the time.

It's entirely too much work to be cool now days... :rawlings:

Sigh... :bored:
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spatman
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by spatman »

awesome report, bob! thanks for the great description of the sites. i need to borrow a scooter someday and do those with you!
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by whatevah »

spatman wrote:awesome report, bob! thanks for the great description of the sites. i need to borrow a scooter someday and do those with you!
You don't need the scooter for Northwest Island. You can either surface swim out to it or if you have adequate breathing gas just venture on out underwater - take a bearing and be aware of current on the south and west sides of the island in particular.
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by gcbryan »

Nice report Bob. I've been to Urchin Rocks and all I can remember is that it was shallow and it had a lot of Urchins. With Skyline just around the corner I haven't been back. I have always wondered about Northwest Island however. Good to see a report.
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Nwbrewer »

Excellent report Bob! I've only gotten to meet Ron once, but he Lynne Fishstiq and I had a nice dive at Mukilteo. Is this still the suit that looks like it's more aquaseal than suit? I think one of the pockets was held on by 2 corners the day we dove with him. It's seen some bottom time for sure.
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by H20doctor »

Good stuff, I did that as a boat dive with Pensacola and the Dash Meister ... We did our safety in the kelp beds while hanging on ...
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airsix
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by airsix »

Great report & pics, Bob! :smt038
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Uncle Pug »

Nwbrewer wrote:Is this still the suit that looks like it's more aquaseal than suit? I think one of the pockets was held on by 2 corners the day we dove with him.
Not on this dive... I moved my exhaust valve over to the suit with the pockets held on by 3 corners and dove it instead. Less aquasel but more leaks. That wasn't a good choice.
I sure liked the looks of Bob's new Santi suit. From now on I'm calling him Santi Claus.

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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Pez7378 »

Uncle Pug wrote:
Nwbrewer wrote:
GratefulDiver wrote:Ron's suit was leaking, so after a while he signaled it was time to go

Is this still the suit that looks like it's more aquaseal than suit? ......

Not on this dive... Less aquasel but more leaks....

UP with a leaky drysuit?!?! Shocking!

Awesome report Bob!
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Ranbal »

Thanks for the nice report. My girlfriend and I did this dive from our kayaks yesterday. Anchored on the East side of Northwest Island. Nice and calm on this side. We ventured to the North side which was quite shallow but with lots to look at and then drifted along East side past the anchor point then on to the South side. Quite a nice dive. Vis was pretty good in the 15 to 20 foot range. Current was very mild (Ebb). Looks like this is home to a couple of nice size PGOs due to the clutter of crab shells all over. However, with the countless den opportunities here we were not able to actually see any Octopus. Great dive from a kayak. Could spend hours here with a camera.

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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Jaksonbrown »

I was actually on the shore watching you guys get in and out. I had my parents and grand parents in town and we were doing the tourist thing...

I watched a solo diver surface swim all the way out to Northwest Island and I thought that he had to be crazy... That is a LOOOOOONNNGGGG surface swim...

Id love to take the cuda and go do it though....
Last edited by Jaksonbrown on Mon Jun 07, 2010 12:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Ranbal »

I wish I had the $$$ to get myself a scooter. I would rather scoot over to these sites rather than paddle. Not that I mind the paddle that much (works great) but the thought of flying through the water would make the journey as cool as the destination.

( "my kingdom for a 'cuda" )

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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Dashrynn »

Bob anytime u wanna scoot in my area give me a call or pm
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Grateful Diver »

Dashrynn wrote:Bob anytime u wanna scoot in my area give me a call or pm
I'd love to scoot this one with ya ... but gotta warn ya that once we're out there, you're gonna be spending a lot of time waiting for me to take pictures. The outer side of this island has an impressive reef ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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Dashrynn
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Dashrynn »

I think I can manage, I have one of those picture taking things also :taco: !
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Tubesnout23 »

Dashrynn wrote:Bob anytime u wanna scoot in my area give me a call or pm
So I guess you must have a scooter now, Dashrynn...

Glad to read that you had a good time at Rosario Beach, Bob! Too bad that I don't have a scooter... I am not planning to get one any time soon. My only option to dive sites like Northwest Island would be to find a buddy who doesn't mind long surface swims...
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Grateful Diver »

Tubesnout23 wrote:
Dashrynn wrote:Bob anytime u wanna scoot in my area give me a call or pm
So I guess you must have a scooter now, Dashrynn...

Glad to read that you had a good time at Rosario Beach, Bob! Too bad that I don't have a scooter... I am not planning to get one any time soon. My only option to dive sites like Northwest Island would be to find a buddy who doesn't mind long surface swims...
There are two other options ...

1. Find a buddy with a scooter who doesn't mind towing you
2. Get a bigger scuba cylinder and kick across along the bottom ... it doesn't get any deeper than about 50 fsw, and there's a gazillion sea pens along the way

Personally, option #1 is very doable ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Threats and ultimatums are never the best answer. Public humiliation via Photoshop is always better - airsix

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Dashrynn
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Dashrynn »

I wouldn't mind towing you so long as I get some training first, some things I can't learn by myself
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Tubesnout23 »

Dashrynn wrote:I wouldn't mind towing you so long as I get some training first, some things I can't learn by myself
Thanks!

What about keep it simple for the time being and go diving at Langley tomorrow, Wednesday June 9 if you have time?
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Dashrynn
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Dashrynn »

Sadly work normally stops about 2 am and I work at 330pm so that leaves me with very little time to work with, so in short I can't sorry.
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Dusty2
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Re: Urchin Rocks/Northwest Island with Uncle Pug

Post by Dusty2 »

Nice shots Bob as usual. The next to the last white nudie is Dendronotus Albus, the last is dendronotus frondosus
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