However....I've been wanting to dive Three Tree South for over a year now. It is one of the remaining 7 out of 55 dive sites from Fischnaller's Northwest Shore Dives that I have yet to do. And for me, the site is the most jinxed dive location since Titlow. I've had to call/cancel no less than 6 attempts on Three Tree South due to current, conditions, and failures of one type or another.
Today would be different.
Drove through the frosty air down to TTS and met up with Seattle Aquarium diving extraordinaire Jeff Christensen and teammate dwinslow1. TTN was looking bad, water was very choppy. But TTS......glass! We set up on the bench at the little parking turnout (where you can't park) and entered the still and clear water. A couple of sea lions swam by....a positive omen!
We dropped down to 45-65 fsw and picked up the remains of an old Fiat. Not much was left of the car, sort of like the bug at Redondo. Continuing to the east we passed over ravine #1 which was filled with interesting debris. We swam down the ravine, then up the ravine and continued East. Then we passed ravine #2....same debris type.....we swam down the ravine, then up again and continued to the east. Next we came upon a collection of boat wrecks at 45 fsw. The prop on the large boat was well preserved. Lots of octo indicators around....the largest boat was bigger than the golf ball boat for sure. Continuing east, we came upon the SSR area (Seldom Seen Reef), an artificial reef filled with interesting things to look at including some humorously outlayed porch furniture, tires reefs, and another boat. There was an occasional engine block and toilet as well. We continued east looking for another boat but turned around and headed back west. Passed the SSR, the collection of boat wrecks, ravines 1 and 2, and the Fiat car wrecks.
We decided, what the heck, let's go around the point!
We began to see more tires and other odd debris. Then came upon a "beauty bark zone" where currents tend to dump underwater debris....and it does look like beauty bark! The muddy bottom began to change composition to cobblestone consistent with high current dive sites. The types of seastar also began to change and we were at the point! Knarly currents were trying to push us down the slope toward a giant plateau at 70 fsw but we maintained our depth and heading as we swung around the point. After a moment we began to zoom zoom east towards TTN!! Fast! Soon we came upon the cabin cruiser and hung out a bit. Then finished up at the tire reef and made our ascent. Current was really blowing for TTN! Saw a class and they were clearly struggling just to stay in place. We popped out right at the TTN entry with gigantic grins on our faces!
That was a frigging adventure dive and major fun!!!
Thanks to Jeff and dwinslow1 for being excellent and entertaining buddies! Also was great meeting fellow NWDC member fnerg at the site. Can't wait to do it again! About the best 90 minutes of breathing 32% I've had in a while....and another Fischnaller dive off the list.
