Oregon divers storm Washington!!!

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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sekhmet
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Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:13 pm

Oregon divers storm Washington!!!

Post by sekhmet »

Ok, well it was only three of us... however...

If you work for the State in Oregon you have 14 [sarcasm]delightful interludes[/sarcasm]over 2 years called "furloughs"- usually on Friday, and it's a day where the State can't afford to pay you- so it's a mandatory day off. So why not dive on Furlough Friday? So all three of us squeezed in my Scubaru and made the I-5 shuffle northbound Friday. After hitting a weird pocket of snow and slippery roads in Wilsonville outside Portland (totally clear elsewhere) and picking up the third buddy in PDX we beat feet to join Tom Nic who generously offerred to guide us at Fox Island to dive the west wall as the current was not conducive to diving east wall. The viz was great until we got to about 60 feet and then it fell apart fast into maybe 10 feet. Being Oregon divers we were happy as clams with that kind of viz :partydance: and proceeded to enjoy the wall. I saw a pink tritonia (my first!) lots of really nice giant nudibranchs, Dendronotatus rufus mating, an octo squeezed way under the wall, and a strange helmet snail that looks like a nudi, and slender cockscombs, sea lemons... I was hoping for some stalking action by giants but it didn't happen that day.
We then parted ways with Tom and jetted over to Redondo and had a nice twilight/night dive there with about 15-20 foot viz and the tide was really low. We went down and looked at the boat, and then swam over towards the shades. It was defintely fish meat market in the eelgrass. We spent 45 minutes pawing through eelgrass looking for the Lumpusucker in vain but saw Hooded nudis, snailfish, flatworms, tubesnouts pecking at us, starry flounders, rock soles, and my new favorite cutest thing ever: red octopus. I have never seen them and they were out in force. I put my hand down to show scale as I was taking a picture and it crawled up on my hand. I was in love! I want one as a friend!
So, another 7 hour round trip dive to savor the flavor of the south sound but well worth it as it usually is. See you again in February!!! So much to dive and so little time to do it...
Attachments
infrared giant nudi
infrared giant nudi
Brittains head snail?
Brittains head snail?
High cockscomb
High cockscomb
"Fish Worship: Is It Wrong?"
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Tom Nic
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Re: Oregon divers storm Washington!!!

Post by Tom Nic »

Nice report, and great to meet and dive with you all!
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LCF
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Re: Oregon divers storm Washington!!!

Post by LCF »

Sorry I missed you this time, but maybe I'll see you in February!
"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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Dusty2
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:04 pm

Re: Oregon divers storm Washington!!!

Post by Dusty2 »

Cool, A day off is good payed or not!

Your head snail is a California side gill and they do have a small shell inside but it is never exposed to the outside world. Glad you had a good guide for FIWW. It is real easy to miss that wall entirely. Next time your up do the south side of the launch ramp at Redondo in the eelgrass at night or early am. If you can get a hold of Bob to guide you you will see Lumpies.
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