Sitka 2017

[H20doctor]

arrived at the airport with my gear all packed up , 2 suit cases packed one 28lbs .. and the other 68lbs overcharged fee $75.00 cha ching . TSA was fine and i thought maybe they would throw a fit for my batteries , but this time he didnt even care , didnt sniff them or call the bomb squad..

the plane ride was easy no big upsets or crying kids ... no one sick next to me so that was a good thing .. i had a window seat so i spent most of the time looking out the window and seeing all the islands below and thinking , Man i want to dive that !! and I wonder what kinda dive would that be ? So many remote spots that probably No one EVER has been to or seen ...

got a great shot of the Mountain coming in also

I arrived at the airport in sitka , and there to greet me with a big hug and a smile was Mr Sikta Diver AKA , david Nelson.. and A Moose on the wall , along with a Giant Bear ...LOL

Here is dave driving me home ...

We Got back to the house and i unpacked my gear , double checked that everything was ok and not damaged ... i then put my gear rig together and got situated .. We went and got some dinner ... Yummy mexican , washed it down with some pop ... Delicious

Got back to the house and loaded up the Blazer for the traditional night dive in sitka .. This is mandatory when you arrive here , Always do a dive as soon as you land .. we headed out to the Harbor for a bottle hunt extravaganza.. and i found a couple of good ones

After that we Headed over to the P bar for a couple of shots and a Cold one ... went home and crashed out hard

[Gdog]

Hey!! Awesome! Gotta go with you one of these times

[H20doctor]

Day 2 ... was me and Herb .. alaska Herb , and Brady who is down from Juno for another round of diving , we loaded Herbs boat up with tanks for the day and decided to hit the water... its cold here and there is snow on the ground .. seems we get a bit of flurries during the day and then it open up with sun..

first place on the world tour was the break water in search of the resident wolf eel Cuddles , but he was no where to be found ... there is a wreck here also and i filmed a bit of it along with the rocks and Kelp Beds... the water here is blistering cold as usual in the winter time, my Puter is reading temps in the low 40's ....to 42 deg..

the water was pretty silty here at the break water and viz was about 20 ish or so id say ... not much life on it also as we were diving the inside of it .. it was mainly kelp, rocks , clusters of Tube worms and star fish ...

[H20doctor]

Dive number 2 for the day was out to a Place called the Cozway , this is where the old military base was and the Navy had the bug guns to shoot down the enemies.. this dive was to show Brady and Herb where to find Military dishes .. sitka dave and I had done a dive here last year and struck Gold, .. so we anchored in the bay and hit the place ... water viz was better id say 40 feet .. once down i found plates for Brady and he threw them into his goody bag ...

Herb and brady on the Boat

after that Dive we found a nice raft of otters and i got some pics of them Huddled together and feeding off of the sea life .. some were eating starfish, and others were eating clams and Mussels

After that we headed back home .. rested and I took a Long , long hot shower to get my core body temps back to normal...

Sitka Night shot ..

[Jan K]

Good show Chris,
You guys are definitely NOT warm water wussies

[ScubaJess]

It looks like a great trip so far. I hope you can have lots of nice hot coffee to keep you warm.
Safe travels my friend!

[H20doctor]

so last night we hit the Harbor again as a shore Dive because i wanted to film the dragons feeding on the tube worm anemones.. the best part on diving out in the channel is the large Nudis , they are Huge , and come in 2 colors .. bright red , and the common clear silver.. there were large groups of them last night Having a feast and i was treated with Many nice subject to shoot ..

after about 50 mins im done .. finger tips are numb and its time to get out...

[YellowEye]

the best part on diving out in the channel is the large Nudis , they are Huge , and come in 2 colors .. bright red , and the common clear silver.. there were large groups of them last night Having a feast and i was treated with Many nice subject to shoot ..

Bonafide!!!



Very cool! Enjoy the trip, sounds and looks epic!

[Gdog]

Sweet!! Very cool! Keep em coming....

[stphnmartin]

Super beautiful!

[H20doctor]

like any dive vacation the motto is dive rinse repeat , that seems to be true for this trip , load the gear , go dive and come home and rinse the gear .. it snowed again all day yesterday and the winds were not co operating for outside diving... 15 to 20 knots , swell 6 to 8 feet .. not good , so we opted for a night dive just outside the north break water ..
getting Double hose gear ready to dive... all of us dove on our double hose regs last night

getting gear onto the boat

heading out to the breakwater

we hit the Kelp bed and swam around looking for stuff and there we found abalone , lotsa snails on the kelp stalks , baby rockfish , and large plating coralline algae on the rocks ..

we all managed to get in about 50 mins for the dive and then headed back in to warm up and get some food and BEER !!!

we are hoping for the wind to die down so we can get to some of the far off dive sites that are exposed and hit some walls .. looks like fri and sat are going to be our best days for that ...

[Gdog]

Looking forward to seeing more photos and report!

[Tom Nic]

Love Sitka! Thanks for taking us on the journey!

[H20doctor]

Greetings from sitka .. todays adventure was driving south to the end of the road and hitting a spot called whale Point .. here they have a park with 3 look out points to see whales when they come into the Bay

today there were no whales out and about ... But there was a pack of sea lions hunting in the water about 75 yards off the shore , also a pair of eagles sitting up in the tree behind us .. they were talking and flying around us during the whole visit at this park .. i had to switch between my regular lens and my Zoom lens for shots today ..

stellar sea lions

Here is My bald sitting up in the tree ..

and some sitka Views ...

After that we went for a quick hike up the trail and enjoyed the snow ... this morning has been snowing Hard up here and it looks like david and I are just going to shore dive a couple of spots ... then tonight enjoy St patty Day at the P bar ...

[Gdog]

Epic eagle shot!!

[stphnmartin]

Dang, Sitka is looking better than Cozumel! If the water was only 80F!

You're having a great time. Hope the weather cooperates!

[H20doctor]

https://youtu.be/CU8OkGx555Q

[RoxnDox]

Great photos, what a fantastic trip! The best shot was that amazing raft of otters - jaw dropping dude!!!

[H20doctor]

thanks everyone ... but im here still for 4 more Days ...

[Gdog]

Awesome. I wanna go get a plate!!

[H20doctor]

So the other Day was a No Bueno .. its snowed and snowed and snowed , so we decided to take david's kids to the hill and hit some sled action.. it was the bomb diggity , you are never to old to sled and fly down a snowy hill ... Yesterday sat was the fo shizzle nizzle dizzle .. the sun was out and the sky was a blue , forcast called for low winds and low swell , so we were able to get out to some exposed sites.. we hit a place called crow island .. it was a quick 35 mins from the harbor .. once there we anchored in about 30 feet of water a did a dive around this exposed rock ...

during the dive we saw large fish eating anemones that varied in colors from white, to purple to red ... there was a nice shelf here with deep cuts and ridges to swim through and explore.. not a one fishy here to see , but plenty of snails on the kelp leaves and stalks ... After the dive here we did our S I and watched a large raft of seals .. and way back in the distance was a large group of hump back wales ... at one point 2 of them came faily close to the boat ...

and some seals

for dive 2 David did a live boat for me and i hit a Pinnacle that was south of crow island.. the site was very nice with the short bull stock kelp at the top and life really nice in the 20 to 30 ft range .. Here i saw the anemones again , i swam around it exploring some deep cuts and groves in the rock looking for wolf eel and octos , but i didnt see any ...

and a selfie

[H20doctor]

https://youtu.be/Yzv4Q10ic3o

[Gdog]

Good stuff, keep it coming. How many more days are you there?

[H20doctor]

Im here for 2 more Days .. Then back to good ole puget sound

[H20doctor]

last dive of the Day ... it was Ok .. kinda Meh