Met up with a local on Thursday at Whytecliff for two dives. The first was at the Daymarker or Anemone Gardens. Excellent dive. The top 10-20ft had quite the halocline, as in I was almost convinced I was going blind since it seemed to last for a good 10ft in the vertical column. I guess there must have been a lot of rain before I came? After about 20-25ft however it just OPENED UP.
40 feet of visibility easily, as we swam around the wall to the anemone gardens. Beautiful site, and it was fun to dive a pseudo-wall for a change rather than the sloping bottoms I mostly dive around Seattle.
After that dive we decided to dive The Cut, again at Whytecliff. Very fun dive, the viz was again excellent, well over 40ft and this was a much more prominent wall feature so it was a blast to swim around the wall, check out the cloud sponges and anemones in abundance. Hit 103ft at this site and the viz and light penetration were still going strong.
Video to come probably, but again, GoPro was acting up. :-\
Overall Whytecliff proved to be a fun series of dives, the halocline made for an interesting visual experience and the great viz and wall features were a lovely change of pace from the soup we've been seeing in the Sound!
Today I just had time for one dive at Porteau Cove. This is hands down my favorite site so far, and conveniently happens to be where I'm camping! As an aside, excellent campgrounds. Worth a visit even if you aren't diving; close to the Britannia Mine museum which was a great little tour, within 10 minutes of the Stawamus Chief, the second largest granite massive in the world and climbing/hiking heaven, and 20 minutes from Horseshoe Bay and Whytecliff.
At this point I decided to come back for the Grant Hall and the rest of the site another day, since this dive was merely meant as a reconnaissance dive anyway. Satisfied with my little adventure I returned the way I came and surface at almost exactly the 40min mark.
One point I will add, there was again what seemed to be a sort of halocline present at Porteau. Though not as obvious as Whytecliff, below 20ft and looking upwards there was an ever-present white cloud-like layer above my head. Reminded me a little of the H2S layers in some of the cenotes down south. I suspect it's just a different manifestation of the halocline, but it was trippy to see at times. As I ascended past 20ft or so I could distinctly notice the difference as I passed through the layer. I heard that the water pollution from mine runoff has only recently been improved significantly through treatment to healthier levels and some part of me thought that perhaps it was a chemical layer left-over from the mining days. It was a very small part and I never took it seriously. :-P
Anyway, that's my report for you. If you're up in the area on Saturday or Sunday I'll be diving off the Topline (Sea Dragon charters) and the more the merrier. :-) Not a bad work trip so far!
I'll upload video next week most likely once I've been able to process it all.
Happy diving!
