Dove out towards the end of the cape along the wall on the first dive. Lots of Green Anenomes and Red Urchin on the wall along with a large assortment of sponges and even some Plumose. The water was completely infested with tiny invertebrates (krill?) in multiple areas which dropped the vis down to about 5' from the normal 15' to 20'. The bottom (about 30' max) structure in this area consisted of an assortment of medium to large size boulders with a decent amount of encrusted invertebrate life on them. A lot of fish out towards the end of the cape with an assortment of lings, black rocks and big kelp greenling further in. Nice dive with cool structure. It was kind of fun riding along with the surge in some areas.
Decided to dive straight down from the boat about 150' off the wall for the second dive and make a square pattern in towards shore then north to the wall and back. This area was quite impressive. It bottomed out between 50 and 60' with huge boulders completely encrusted with life. Lost count of how many urchins and anemone there were along with huge gumboot chitons, opalescent, yellow margin, and leopard nudis, a large assortment of syphons and sponges, tons of tiny to large crabs, one octo (that we saw) and a bunch of sculpins, black rocks, lings and one angry cabezon. The wall seemed to be much livelier a bit further in towards shore too. This "marine garden" area was definitely the better of the two areas to dive and should be really amazing later in summer when the bull kelp is full size. Great dive.
The wind picked up and the ocean got a bit wilder for the trip back to Tillamook and we had a fun time bouncing back through the 5 to 6' swell with some nice white caps. We arrived back at the dock a little won out from diving in the surge and holding on to the boat on the way back but with smiles all around. Good time.
