Sunrise and Skyline

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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stphnmartin
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Sunrise and Skyline

Post by stphnmartin »

Hit Sunrise on Saturday and Skyline on Sunday.

The current was a bit stronger than I'd like at Sunrise, but got in a 100 minute dive. Towards the end it turned into a drift dive and I over shot the exit. There are 6 big GPOs on the wall mostly on the southern end. When I surfaced some people said humpback whales had cruised by while I was under. I didn't see or hear them unfortunately.

JPA joined me for a trip up to Skyline. There was another club there doing a dive and I met Joyce & Fritz to talk over the currents at the site. There were probably 8 divers there. The currents were timed right and we drifted out and back. My computer failed after getting on the wall. This was my second dive on this site. And, I still haven't quite figured out how to do video due to the abundant life. We did find the overhang around the time the current turned over. JPA spotted two wolf eels.

We were thinking of hitting Rosario head for a second dive, but after casing the joint and talking to some other divers who reported 5 feet of viz we opted to call it a day.

Here are a few grabs from the video:
sm-jp.jpg
nudi3.jpg
nudi2.jpg
nudi.jpg
greenling-eggs.jpg
gpo.jpg
gpo-arm.jpg
decorator-crab-on-leather-star.jpg
bloodstars.jpg
Last edited by stphnmartin on Mon Oct 24, 2016 10:49 am, edited 2 times in total.
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H20doctor
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Re: Sunrise and Skyline

Post by H20doctor »

good stuff .... was Skyline viz hazy , due to the rivers and the rain ?
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stphnmartin
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Re: Sunrise and Skyline

Post by stphnmartin »

It was a bit hazy, probably 15ft of viz.
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fmerkel
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Re: Sunrise and Skyline

Post by fmerkel »

Nice to meet you both. Saw you go by about a 1/3 of the way through the dive.
Yeah, lots of fresh water brought the viz down to 10-15'. They dumped the dams and brought the river up just shy of flood level just a few days ago. I didn't expect great viz.
All the sea cucumbers (oranges, reds, blacks, whites) were all pulled in which brought the color way down. They don't like that fresh bath. It was a couple degrees colder than a month ago too.
Joyce and I only saw one very small juv. wolf eel. Saw 2 in the open a month ago. Couple candy strip shrimp on Crimson An. Only 1 GPO, a big one but way back in a hole.
One buddy pair saw a couple king crabs.

Fritz
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Last edited by fmerkel on Mon Oct 24, 2016 8:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Scubak
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Re: Sunrise and Skyline

Post by Scubak »

Great photos and thanks for the report.
I have yet to get to Skyline.
Soon?
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Re: Sunrise and Skyline

Post by kalailyliani »

Yeah, the current at sunrise on Saturday surprised me. Nice photos!
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stphnmartin
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Re: Sunrise and Skyline

Post by stphnmartin »

fmerkel wrote:Nice to meet you both. Saw you go by about a 1/3 of the way through the dive.
Yeah, lots of fresh water brought the viz down to 10-15'. They dumped the dams and brought the river up just shy of flood level just a few days ago. I didn't expect great viz.
All the sea cucumbers (oranges, reds, blacks, whites) were all pulled in which brought the color way down. They don't like that fresh bath. It was a couple degrees colder than a month ago too.
Joyce and I only saw one very small juv. wolf eel. Saw 2 in the open a month ago. Couple candy strip shrimp on Crimson An. Only 1 GPO, a big one but way back in a hole.
One buddy pair saw a couple king crabs.

Fritz
Nice shots Fritz! I was hoping to see one of those juvi eels. I only saw one of the gray variety. Also nice candy stripe. Yes, saw you at the beginning of the dive taking photos. We were waiting a bit thinking you'd move on, then I got concerned we might be stirring up silt so opted to float above you in the current. Hope we didn't interrupt your scene! Great meeting you and thanks for sharing your knowledge of the site!
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stphnmartin
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Re: Sunrise and Skyline

Post by stphnmartin »

kalailyliani wrote:Yeah, the current at sunrise on Saturday surprised me. Nice photos!
I dived slack before ebb at Sunrise. What time were you there? If you were off slack I imagine that was a struggle of a dive!
Last edited by stphnmartin on Mon Oct 24, 2016 2:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Sunrise and Skyline

Post by Grateful Diver »

I was one of those Skyline divers yesterday ... the one with the scooter, going solo. Vis could've been better ... but given all the rain these past couple weeks it could've been a lot worse too. Not as much color on the wall as I'm used to seeing, but I did see most of the usual suspects ...

Image

Image

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Image

Image

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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H20doctor
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Re: Sunrise and Skyline

Post by H20doctor »

thanks for posting Bob !!! , great pictures fritz !! ... I will be at skyline this week filming so thats why i asked about Viz reports ..
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fmerkel
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Re: Sunrise and Skyline

Post by fmerkel »

Might get better. River has dropped a lot and the projections are to keep it that way, at least for now. I have no idea what the delay is between a big dump and Skyline viz being affected. Neither do I have a sense of how long it takes to clear things up. Burrows bay is a pretty big shallow area. It could contain a lot of sediment that could get stirred up. Burrows Pass itself does not have all that much but the current is pretty effective at mixing. I've never seen it stratify there, even a halocline.

Let us know what things look like when you go, and if the sea cucumbers come back out.
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H20doctor
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Re: Sunrise and Skyline

Post by H20doctor »

fmerkel wrote:Might get better. River has dropped a lot and the projections are to keep it that way, at least for now. I have no idea what the delay is between a big dump and Skyline viz being affected. Neither do I have a sense of how long it takes to clear things up. Burrows bay is a pretty big shallow area. It could contain a lot of sediment that could get stirred up. Burrows Pass itself does not have all that much but the current is pretty effective at mixing. I've never seen it stratify there, even a halocline.

Let us know what things look like when you go, and if the sea cucumbers come back out.
will do ... !!
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Gdog
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Re: Sunrise and Skyline

Post by Gdog »

great work guys! Bob, good to see you posting, very nice shots!
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Re: Sunrise and Skyline

Post by KeithBoll »

Bob,
Great job on the candystripe shot and the juvi wolf eel! Thanks for sharing your pics.
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Re: Sunrise and Skyline

Post by ScubaJess »

Sheesh you guys are awesome! Really nice shots all around!! :-)
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