Of propwash and washouts

Tell us your tale of coming nose-to-nose with a 6 gill [--this big--], or about your vacation to turquoise warm waters. Share your adventures here!
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Blaiz
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Of propwash and washouts

Post by Blaiz »

Today I woke up to a typical grey gloomy June day in the beautiful Northwest. I drove to Keystone, where I met up with Pete and Karl to put Karl's freshly worked-on boat in the water. It started up great and we all settled in for the three hundred yard ride to where we wanted to do an exploratory dive beyond the bounds of Keystone. Karl once upon a time found a nice item there, and put a buoy on it, only to discover, for whatever reason, that the buoy never made it all the way to the top of the water. So he's been wanting to find the darn thing again. We dropped anchor at the approximate spot, and I, not wanting to be in the way, hastened to gear up, and dropped off the boat. Karl had dropped a [insert technical term here] line that floated off the back of the boat, which was good, because I dropped in and by the time I got back upright and sorted out, the current was whisking me very swiftly east. I snagged the quarter inch line, and was being pulled along against my two-handed grip. That was the end of that dive, and they helped me back on board.

We headed over to an area we hoped had less current, and maybe had a few glacial erratics. Karl has a depth finder, but not a side-scan sonar, so we quartered back and forth a bit, but couldn't find the perfect spot. Karl let me drive the boat, and gave me a bit of crash course on rules of the water. We got to dodge a bigger-than-us boat, and then a tug pulling a cargo barge as we headed across the channel to dive on a sunken barge, but the nice man in the boat with flashing blue and red lights suggested that now was not a good time for diving right there. I saw an interesting looking boat, kind of flat-topped, that reminded me of a river-boat, gambling kind of thing. I was interested because I didn't know Port Townsend had that sort of thing. I'm embarrassed to tell you how long it took me to realize it was the ferry.

So we turned and came around a headland to Port Townsend. We ended up in front of the wooden boat museum, and I was like, oooh! that's where Dusty dives! But we didn't know about mooring or anchoring in the area, or how the tides were running. So we backed out of Port Townsend and went over to Fort... something. There was a pier with handsome pilings, but we didn't figure it would be good diving. Pulling around the headland with the lighthouse, I noted with a mixture of amusement and disbelief that, although we were very close to the shore, the depth finder stated we were in 125feet of water. That's one heck of a drop-off. We went southwest along the shore, headed to an Island that they told me the name of and I've now forgotten. We paused once at a place where Chad and Karl had once dove, and Karl said it was quite a lovely dive. The water making sucking, gurgling sounds as current forces collided convinced us we would do best not to try it....

Halfway to the island ahead, I was confused when the guys started saying, turn around, go Northeast. Obediently, I did so, and then Karl mentioned that the gas tank was already at half. Ok, good point, I don't want to be stuck in the sea with no power. We motored back to Keystone where we began, dropped anchor in the area of Karl's item and dropped in. Around 45 feet, my sinuses began to bother me, and while distracted by my face, my hand slipped off the anchor rope. No big deal, I know which way we were headed (down), I will meet Karl on the bottom. Down, down, I'm feeling a narc coming on, I'm at seventy feet. Eighty feet. Ninety feet and I'm on the bottom. Hmmmm. I shine the light around, no Karl. At this point I can either swim up slope or do a free ascent. I orient my compass and head for shore, but shortly find that the current is strong enough that I'm worried about my air consumption, especially since I'm still pretty deep. So I go for the free water ascent. And that's the end of that story. Especially since I certainly don't know anything about anyone being pushed west from Keystone. And I emphatically don't know anyone who has ever surfaced and said Oh Shit, This is the Ferry Lane. And if I ever heard someone talking about a mad scramble to get on board and get the hell out of there, I'd have no idea what they were talking about.

We spent some time quartering in front of Driftwood, seeing if we could find a wreck someone told Pete about, but an exploratory dive revealed nothing but mud and clamshells. Pete once saw an old mooring block a ways down the beach, but an exploratory dive revealed nothing but mud and clamshells. Pete had us drop him off and swam back to the parking lot while we brought the boat around.

Having gotten the boat out of the water, both Karl and I were not ready to call it quits, so we geared up and walked into the dang water to get one good dive in. My sinuses protested at 14 feet, so I spent most of an hour moseying about the shallows.
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Of a side note, I was swimming along, do be dooo be dooo... and apparently my camera flash caught some kelp at just the right angle to bring it sweeping in front of me. I scared the daylights out of my self.

I had a great time. I loved the boat ride. It was great when the sun finally came out and the water was all pretty and stuff. But now my living room won't hold still, and I'm finding it kind of bothersome, since I have to keep clutching my chair arms to not fall out.
The student was ready.


it's nice to have low expectations, sometimes - lcf

I said keep going, not start whining -airsix
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LCF
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Re: Of propwash and washouts

Post by LCF »

Blaiz, vertigo post dive is NOT good -- it can be a marker for significant inner ear damage. If you wake up with it tomorrow, I'd head for an ER -- preferably one that is aware of diving issues.

On another note, I feel for your day. We have been having the same day, only on the telephone . . . going back and forth among three of us, trying to find ANYPLACE other than Cove 2 where one could dive and enjoy it tomorrow. I hate these huge exchanges!
"Sometimes, when your world is going sideways, the second best thing to everything working out right, is knowing you are loved..." ljjames
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Blaiz
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Re: Of propwash and washouts

Post by Blaiz »

Thanks for the heads up Lynn. I wouldn't really describe it as full out vertigo, just that my sea-legs haven't adjusted back to land legs :)

I did the cold water in one ear but not the other thing once, and my world spun out of control, making me really want to close my eyes, lie down, and puke, in random order. This is just choppy~
The student was ready.


it's nice to have low expectations, sometimes - lcf

I said keep going, not start whining -airsix
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Re: Of propwash and washouts

Post by Geek »

I just wanted you to know Blaiz, I always enjoy your dive reports :)
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Penopolypants
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Re: Of propwash and washouts

Post by Penopolypants »

Geek wrote:I just wanted you to know Blaiz, I always enjoy your dive reports :)
Me too! I just love your reports!


Sounds like it was a good day to be on a boat, even if you didn't spend a lot of time off of it. Sorry about the land/sea legs though, I hate it when that happens.
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Dusty2
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Re: Of propwash and washouts

Post by Dusty2 »

Cool report Blaiz as usual,
Sorry things didn't go as smooth as you had hoped. Not to be critical but it sounds like you need a bit more planning to go along with the boat trips. The island that you can't remember is protection island and I highly recommend that you never dive on that side of the point without VERY careful planning and consulting someone with experience at that site. :nutty: It can be a very treacherous area with very strong currents, eddies, down currents and allot of ship traffic and when I say ship I mean like huge container ships. The fort name is Fort Worden and the dive area there is like keystone and Pt Hudson very current sensitive. The only non current place to dive around there just is Discovery bay or deep inside the bay at PT.

Hmmm ferry lanes and divers and small craft? of course that wouldn't have anything to do with anybody we know. :smt064
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nwbobber
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Re: Of propwash and washouts

Post by nwbobber »

Yes Blaiz, you have a good way with the written word. I always enjoy your reports.
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading - Lao Tzu
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