Our goal: to explore near the Lopez Pontoon. We saw this area very briefly at the end of our last dive, two weeks ago. This dive, we surface swim (and swim and swim) to the south most blue buoy and start where the action is. The surface swim isn't hard, just long.
We swim around the Lopez Pontoon. These massive ropes hold it in place.
Near the pontoon, a crab (foreground) and lingcod (background) watch us.
Lingcod can grow up to six feet long. I think we see some 3 to 4 feet long.
Another lingcod hides in my picture of "anemones on the wreck of the Triumph".
Near the pontoon, we feel light current and must paddle to avoid going back. A park-related web site gives the pontoon's dimensions as 100' x 20' x 13' tall. "In 1962 this pontoon was a fender or bumper for one of the pillars of the 520 bridge. Later on it became a fender for the ferry terminal at Lopez Island."
Nanci, hoping to see octopus, peeks a little under the Lopez Pontoon. The result? More lingcod.
We leave the Lopez-Pontoon-and-Triumph area and swim one block east on Cathedral Way, one bock south on Northern Lights, and one block east again on Jetty Way.
A Rockfish (Copper?) follows the trail, too.
We see bits of smaller boats along the trail and then ascend on the line of "Yellow Buoy #3" and surface swim back to the beach (not as far as on the way out).
Our best cold water dive!
