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9/27 Alki Cove 2

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 7:46 pm
by xBabyJesus
I'm just going to write this up the way I saw it. I dunno if anybody reads these without pictures. Consider it a blog post. This is about dive 25 for me, FWIW.

This is Ali and my first trip to Cove 2, and Ali's first dive since January (She says March, but I have the logs in my computer :nutty: )

We packed last night and got up "early" since she works tonight, and there was an afternoon Hawks game! Unfortunately, we were not early enough as there were two classes in the water already. Oh well. We did a quick recon, a dive plan to surface swim around the class inside the buoy line and descend between the small wall and the yellow buoy ~30-40fsw (or, where someone conveniently dropped a dive flag and descent line), and head south towards the honey bear maintaining depth.

Ali was having a hard time descending with 26lbs of lead, which is her normal weight, and the same I'm running, although she's an XSmall and I'm a Med. I dropped 2 lbs from 28->26lbs for this dive as I stripped some extra padding, and I had no problem getting down. (Open to suggestions?)

At depth, we OK'd, and oriented compass to head out as I realized we are way to shallow, just inside the small wall. Going over the back side of the wall, I spot an Octo, about 14" diameter (?) totally splayed out. I pointed it out to Ali, but the Octo immediately got shy and contorted into a "rock" and blended in. Ali looks at me like I'm retarded and swims pass, but I turn my light on and point it at the shy little bugger and make underwater noises like bloooo, bloo bloooo!! which is Poseidon for "Dude look at that octopus!" :eek: until she gets the hint and circles back. Finally the octo wakes up and kicks a couple legs out, at which point Ali freaks out and does the hand dance :supz: This is our first Octo spotting in the wild since we starting diving last October!!!!!

We head out to about 40ft and turn East, just sort of dorking along looking at fish, crabs, cucumbers and anemones around the stacked/sunken pilings.

Right around 2200psi air check, Ali notices that her SPG needle is dropping to 1000psi and recovering on each breath. I check it out, and signal thumb-up since she just got her first stage serviced and neither of us know why it's acting weird. Her breathing is normal and We both have plenty of air, so we pair up and point 50deg for shore ascent. We come across a buoy chain and decide to use this for safety stop as Ali is still having a hard time with buoyancy/weight. We clear safety stop and surface a little past the rip-rap wall, then otter up and back-swim in against the current to the beach. Ali is having trim issues and keeps getting her head dunked, but we make it in ok.

We de-brief at the steps while kitting down, and check out her first stage which performs perfectly on shore (of course). We high-five over seeing the Octo :taco: load up gear, and head to Luna Café for brunch. :partyman: Ran into Rory and two other gents in line talking about giant wolf eels and had picture books -- are you on the board?

Back at the ranch, we store gear, and I do a little google foo, turns out the bouncing SPG needle is indicative of not having the tank valve open all the way, and only manifests when the volume demand is high, e.g. at depth, when tank gets lower pressure. We both get a red mark for not checking gear well enough :smt064 and won't make that mistake again.

TLDR: Sun was shining, water was fine, viz around 25ft, saw an Octopus, surfaced with half a tank.

Re: 9/27 Alki Cove 2

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 9:16 pm
by YellowEye
Glad you guys went out, and got to see some nice octopus!

Re: 9/27 Alki Cove 2

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 10:01 pm
by xBabyJesus
Thanks Eric. I hope we can come out for ThThTh again soon!

Re: 9/27 Alki Cove 2

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 10:23 pm
by fmerkel
Not turning air on all the way is a classic mistake most folks make......me also. Difficult to detect on shore since it will act pretty 'normal' if the air is on at all. It's only at depth it shows up. What depth depends on exactly 'how' open it is.

Ali (and you) need to get in the water a bit more often. If you go much beyond once every 2 months you actually lose skills. It takes about at least 1 dive/month to improve.

Great report and well done adventure. You had fun and you learned some important things. :supz:

Re: 9/27 Alki Cove 2

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 10:54 am
by Tom Nic
xBabyJesus wrote:IBack at the ranch, we store gear, and I do a little google foo, turns out the bouncing SPG needle is indicative of not having the tank valve open all the way, and only manifests when the volume demand is high, e.g. at depth, when tank gets lower pressure. We both get a red mark for not checking gear well enough :smt064 and won't make that mistake again.
Yeah, that was going to be my thought - air not all the way turned on. Glad it was caught and that you easily resolved the issue. Good lesson learned!

Great dive report, btw, enjoyed it even without pictures!

Re: 9/27 Alki Cove 2

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 2:43 pm
by Desert Diver
Classic way that happens is someone checks your air and turns it all the way off and 1/4 turn back on, cause they never learned "Righty tighty, lefty loosy"

Re: 9/27 Alki Cove 2

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 3:04 pm
by Tom Nic
Desert Diver wrote:Classic way that happens is someone checks your air and turns it all the way off and 1/4 turn back on, cause they never learned "Righty tighty, lefty loosy"
Yeah, that happens.

I've had a buddy several years ago check my air and turn it off. Twice.

Sometimes a friend just tries to kill you.... :pirate:

Re: 9/27 Alki Cove 2

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 6:04 pm
by xBabyJesus
Thanks guys.

Yeah, more dives would be nice, I'm only getting about 2 a month and the other 3 (soon to be 4!) divers in the house are getting substantially less, despite having basically a dive shop in the garage. Ali and I have been on opposite shifts which makes it hard.

Btw, she did a huge face palm when she realized the tank valve thing. Major embarrassment.