Drift Diving Port Townsend

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60south
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Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by 60south »

McGlencoe and I did a fun little drift dive through Port Townsend today. It was on a flood tide, with a predicted current in excess of 1 knot, but the actual current was barely a sneeze in the right direction (we're seeing this a lot -- the flood-tide current predictions are way too high).

Entry was at the Maritime Center at the far end of Water Street, and exit was at the Quimper Mercantile strip mall at the other end of town. The big concern, of course, was not over-shooting the exit and ending up in the ferry terminal. (See attached photo.)

The dive profile was about 55 ft at entry (low tide), gradually ascending farther in town: A very gentle ascent. We surfaced once near the end of the dive to get our bearings.

You'll see a lot more critters at the Point Hudson jetty; our objective was bottle hunting. My booty was a 1900's Tournades Kitchen Bouquet bottle that looks like it's been sand blasted for the last century, and a rare specimen of a Tabula rotae (common name: skate board) we found off one of the docks. :partydance:
drift-dive-PT.png
skateboard.jpg
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by Tangfish »

Wow, that is so cool!
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Gdog
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by Gdog »

Haha. Love it!
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60south
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by 60south »

Hero shot with the found skateboard. (Scuba boarder? Ha.)
boRder2.jpg
Photo by McGlencoe
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Tom Nic
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by Tom Nic »

So cool!!
More Pics Than You Have Time To Look AT
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by Nwbrewer »

Very cool find.

Does anybody ever dive the kelp beds out off of Ft. Warden? Seems like it would be an interesting, if not very deep, dive.
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60south
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by 60south »

Nwbrewer wrote:Does anybody ever dive the kelp beds out off of Ft. Warden? Seems like it would be an interesting, if not very deep, dive.
Ya. There's a channel of sorts at the north end of the park. Shore access is difficult; we used sit-on-top kayaks.

It's a beautiful dive, if you can get there. Lots of kelp, big rocks, zillions of urchins, fish, a different ecosystem than the bay, with better vis. But the currents are gnarly -- the rocks are scoured out on one side, with sand drifts on the other.
chart.png
One place I haven't dove yet... On the SE side of Pt. Wilson it looks like there's a small wall. I wanna do that! But kinda worried about getting swept into the shipping channel... Need a live boat, methinks.
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by McGlencoe »

It was a fun dive, first time I've done the waterfront from one end to the other.

Thanks for the dive Glenn!
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

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60south wrote:
Nwbrewer wrote:Does anybody ever dive the kelp beds out off of Ft. Warden? Seems like it would be an interesting, if not very deep, dive.
Ya. There's a channel of sorts at the north end of the park. Shore access is difficult; we used sit-on-top kayaks.

It's a beautiful dive, if you can get there. Lots of kelp, big rocks, zillions of urchins, fish, a different ecosystem than the bay, with better vis. But the currents are gnarly -- the rocks are scoured out on one side, with sand drifts on the other.

chart.png
One place I haven't dove yet... On the SE side of Pt. Wilson it looks like there's a small wall. I wanna do that! But kinda worried about getting swept into the shipping channel... Need a live boat, methinks.

It looked like you could get in right by Battery Kinzie parking, a little way across the beach and scooter from there. I may need to try this if I can find a day where the currents look slack enough.
"Screw "annual" service,... I get them serviced when they break." - CaptnJack (paraphrased)


"you do realize you're supposed to mix the :koolaid: with water and drink it, not snort the powder directly from the packet, right? :smt064 " - Spatman
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by Scubak »

Whats your availability in the next several days?
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60south
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by 60south »

Scubak wrote:Whats your availability in the next several days?
Kirsten
PM sent.
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Jeff Pack
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by Jeff Pack »

Nwbrewer wrote:
It looked like you could get in right by Battery Kinzie parking, a little way across the beach and scooter from there. I may need to try this if I can find a day where the currents look slack enough.
I'd asked about this sometime ago, and Capt Jack currents get really sketchy as you near the point. Kind of the same if you dive Alki Junkyard and head for the point. We hit some pretty solid current there. Only time I'd ever wished I had a Cuda.
=============================================

- I got a good squirt in my mouth
- I would imagine that there would be a large amount of involuntary gagging
- I don't know about you but I'm not into swallowing it

CCR discussion on Caustic Cocktails.
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by McGlencoe »

60South and I dove the waterfront again on this past weds., believe or not Glenn came up with another skateboard, LoL!
He wouldn't let me take a pic, saying that twice in a week is just bragging.

On a side note, I guess the in-thing to do in PT is to throw your skateboard off the local dock.
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60south
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by 60south »

Port Townsend Score Card:

Derelict crab pots: >6
Phones: 6
Sun glasses: 4
Bicycles: 3
Anchors: 3
Safety cones: 2
Fishing rods: 2
Car keys: 2
Skate boards: 2
Dope pipes: 2
Wallets: 1
Desktop PCs: 1
Boats: 1
GoPro cameras: 1 (still worked after 6 mos. on the bottom)
Drones: 1
:pirate:
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by ScubaJess »

LOL nice finds!!
3 bikes sounds like a lot! :)
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Re: Drift Diving Port Townsend

Post by Tangfish »

Dope pipes and sunken drone probably go hand in hand.
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