A Howe Sound Weekend

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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YellowEye
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A Howe Sound Weekend

Post by YellowEye »

Howdy Folks!

Last weekend ScubaJess and I went up to Vancouver BC to dive some of the local shore dives. Kay Ree from PNW Diver magazine, and Dale, another local diver were our guides...

We hit Porteau Cove, Whytecliff, and Kelvin Grove.

It was a super-soaked dark rainy weekend, but we managed to get in some nice diving! Each of the three sites are on a surprisingly remote section of highway just north of Vancouver. Whytecliff is near the Horshoe Bay ferry terminal, the others are further down the narrow, winding highway. It's a beautiful waterway, with tall majestic mountains on the sides. There are no eateries or dive shops near by, so plan accordingly.

The first site we did was Porteau Cove. It is in a beautiful, somewhat protected bay. The diving is reminiscent of Edmonds. A lot of swimming and wrecks. Life was a bit sparser though, but viz was EPIC. The life was mostly plumose anemones growing on the wrecks.

Plumose life at Porteau Cove
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Here's ScubaJess and Kay Ree near one of the wrecks. Some of the wrecks were huge! This was the smallest one.
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Next, we did Whytecliff. This is the only of the 3 dives I've done before. Its a pretty good dive -- kind of a mix between sund rock and snake island wall, but it also has cloud sponges. The sponges start at 85 feet, but be careful, you can easily go much much deeper here being lured from one sponge to the next just deeper.

Here's a view of one of the cloud sponges at Whytecliff:
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Other attractions at the site are feather stars, seapens, golden dironas, etc. I got SUPER COLD on this dive cuz my suit had gallons of water in it due to a faulty zip closure! So it wasn't too enjoyable. But the site has potential :) Be warned it is a bit of a hike to the site.

This concluded day 1. We spent the night at Kay Ree's and enjoyed the evening, getting a few more fills, eating dinner, charging up cameras etc.

Day 2 we hit Kelvin Grove. This was my favorite dive of the three.
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This site requires an even bigger hike and swim to get to, but it is well worth it. The wall starts at the point in the right of the picture above. Go down to 80' on that wall and you start seeing bootsponges, often with warbonnets in them :)

Also to be seen are feather stars, and lots of nudis. I saw at least 3 speicies of nudi. Here is a pic of one of my absolute faves, the cockerel's dorid.
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The cockerel's dorids here look different than they do at Keystone. They also behave a bit differently, they furl and unfurl their gills more. I want to go back just to photograph the nudis more here again soon!

Life is about as dense here as it is at sund rock. And like sund, the rock surface is a burgundy color, with a bit of silt on it. No barnacles to be found at the site.

Kelvin was my favorite site of the three. Next time I'd pack a great lunch and just go there and spend the day :)

And look, see how awesome suits with weezle extreme plus undergarments vent? :)
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What a great weekend! I definitely recommend you check out some of these sites!
Visit pnwdiving.com for viz reports, slack planning, galleries and more!
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ScubaJess
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Re: A Howe Sound Weekend

Post by ScubaJess »

Beautiful snaps YellowEye!!!
It was great fun diving with you guys in BC it's so pretty up there!!! :eric: :luv:

Here are a few of my shots. :popcorn:
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Live Long And Prosper!!!

Stay Warm underwater with the Weezle Extreme Plus undergarment! Please let me know if you would like to order one or have any questions. :luv: :partydance: :eric: :taco:
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Vjw
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Re: A Howe Sound Weekend

Post by Vjw »

Beautiful pictures and recap of the entire trip! I’d like to go up there sometime soon too.
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Gdog
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Re: A Howe Sound Weekend

Post by Gdog »

Nice work guys!!! Great shots!
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stphnmartin
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Re: A Howe Sound Weekend

Post by stphnmartin »

Looks like a great trip. Love the winged slug and cockerels dorid. Bring a few of those back with you next time.
:popcorn: View dive videos on my youtube channel. GH5, Nauticam housing, Big Blue 9000s, Sola 500, 1200, Scuba Lamp Snoot, Mavic 2 Pro, Osmo, Final Cut Pro X
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