Holiday Improptu Club Dive, TTN

[Tom Nic]

Since Monday was a holiday Bnboly and I thought we'd throw our normal Monday dive on the board in the planning section. Can you say Improptu Club Dive? Fun times! Bill and I were joined by Diver C, ZenDiver, Selkie, Dusty2 (dry but welcome surface support and breeze shooter), Stevensjg2001, and 4 other folks whose names escape my poor addled brain. Hopefully they'll chime in with reports of their own.

I had been puzzled about reports of crummy (10-15') viz here - usually Winter viz here is 25' plus. As I pulled up to the site it was obvious why. When I was driving in from the South side the water was glass calm and the tide was high. On the North side however, it was a different story. We had strong winds out of the Northwest that had the waves pounding the shore. Whitecaps as far as the eye could see, and 2-3' waves (they were actually breaking over my head while I was putting my fins on!) that churned up the sand and made viz pretty marginal. Once you got down a ways it opened up to maybe 20', but there was lots of particulate in the water. The surf was as high as I've ever seen it here, and I dive this site year round.

We broke into buddy groups and braved the waves for two nice dives. The site is pretty Winter barren, but there is life if you look. A couple of items of note - we found two Ling Cod egg masses just laying in the open, one being snarfed by a Sunflower star and one just laying there. The one without the Sunflower star had clear indentations on it that matched the milk cartons that are in the tire piles. Somehow it had gotten torn off and ended out in the open. Ling Cod papas are really aggressive against other fish, but they'll just sit there and watch as a Sunflower Star helps himself to the next generation. We also saw a mass of Dogwinkles laying eggs, and of course a Sunflower Star in the middle of the party chowing down.

There were also a couple of TINY nudi's that I haven't identified - Flabellinas of some kind, need to look them up.

All in all two great dives, great company at the surface, a great day diving! Thanks to all who joined in.

No pics right now... perhaps I'll throw up one or two later on.

And speaking of throwing up, I might as well get it out in the open now. (They say that confession is good for the soul but bad for the reputation.) I had placed my camera in the pocket of my hoodie, and when I got home and was using the bathroom... umm... how shall I put this... the camera fell out of my pocket into the toilet.

I quickly fished it out, fumbled to try and turn it off (it turned itself on when it hit the water) broke the plastic battery holding latch as I pulled the battery and SD card out, and right now it's sitting on my dining room table while I contemplate my idiocy and the expenditure of a couple of scuba units on another camera.

Oy... Somebody stop me... please...

[Joshua Smith]

Tom- I'm trying not to laugh while I search for some heartfelt words of condolence.....but I may have a proposition for you- PM sent.

[Dusty2]

Sorry to hear that Tom. I wish you the best but I think maybe there is a new G10 on the horizon. It would serve well on those trips you were talking about :occasion5: :occasion5:

[Zen Diver]

Well, sounds like I got off cheaper than you did then....

After you guys left for Denny's I discovered my car was dead, dead dead. When I turned the ignition the only sound I could coax was a "click click click." When I called AAA, on my phone that was dying, I got a message saying the number was no longer in service. Pulled my AAA card and dialed again, this time I got through. Explained my situation and settled down to wait. Thankfully Bill (bnboly) was still around and he made sure they were on the way before I waved him off, assuring him I was fine.

The winds were indeed blowing and despite the sun shining I was soon chilled. Did I mention that I'd already changed out of my Weezle, as I was going to stop at Starbucks? Did I mention that I'd forgotten both a jacket AND sweatshirt at home? I could picture the carefully folded hoodie, lying on my bed, (right where it was when I got home) and somehow that didn't help me feel one smidge warmer.

I entertained myself by filling in my log book and soon the AAA guy was there, quickly taking care of me and getting a new battery installed (the old one, the original battery as it happened, was quite moribund). We talked about diving while he worked; turned out he'd taken classes 15 years ago but had never been in the water since. I, of course, tried to persuade him to recertify, but he seemed content with his kayaking activities instead.

I finally did get to Starbucks and sat in front of the fireplace while I warmed and enjoyed a beverage. Not quite the end to the diving adventures I'd planned, but not a bad day at all and it certainly could have been quite worse.

Thanks guys for some fun dives and great parking lot dive chat!

-Valerie

[cardiver]

And the curse of 3TN continues.........

[Zen Diver]

Actually tho, it could have been far worse. At least I had enough juice in the phone to call for help, Bill hung out as a backup/safety net, I didn't have any time lines for the day, and I got a new battery before finding out tomorrow AM when I HAVE to be at meeting for the day.

It's all good.

(and, I saw a ratfish with it's tail bitten off).

-Valerie

[Dusty2]

(and, I saw a ratfish with it's tail bitten off).

-Valerie

Must have been a catfish down there! Bad pun Sorry

[Tom Nic]

Tom- I'm trying not to laugh while I search for some heartfelt words of condolence.....but I may have a proposition for you- PM sent.

Josh - Please laugh! I appreciate the sympathy, but you might as well get a chuckle out of it. I'm sure it looked hilarious...

...and thanks for your more than generous offer. PM on the way...

[spatman]

tom - SO sorry to hear about your camera. what a way to go! i hope your camera recovers. we'll miss your pics in the meantime.

[jackieg]

Tom - sorry about your camera, but I appreciated the shore diving report. I might have been motoring by on my boat, enroute to Poulsbo, while you all were diving. And yes....2-3 foot waves were abundant. Actually managed to bury the bow of my 41 foot boat in a couple of 5 foot troughs that were "hidden" in there. Icky day.

Zen Diver - I feel your pain with the battery....I replaced three on my boat this week in preparation for leaving...

jackie

[Tom Nic]

Some of my pics from the dive are here. I hope that they are not the last pics from my camera, but I don't have much hope.

Even though it was a "barren" Winter dive, when I review my pics I realize just how much life there was... We really live in an amazing place to get to dive.

[cardiver]

Nice pics, Tom! I wish I could have been there this morning.

[Tom Nic]

Thanks Loretta. I am going to try and let it dry out and see what happens. Here's hoping!

[coachrenz]

If you have an old school non-flat monitor you can place the camera on top, the heat works wonders to dry wet cameras out.

[Zen Diver]

Beautiful pix Tom!

Good idea about the monitor Tim, I never thought about using it in that way.

-Valerie

[selkie]

Tom, I am sorry to hear about the camera. It was great to put faces to the names of people here on NWDC. Like Tom said the surf was braking over us both entering and exiting the water. We did our dive on the north part of TTN going out from the antler house. The site or at least the part we explored was pretty barren of life. However we did see Valerie’s rat fish and a small octopus that was using a 3x6 jar as his home. The visibility was about 10’ before we dropped over the ledge to deeper water. By 70’ the visibility cleared up to maybe 15-20’.

After our fist dive at TTN we picked up and moved to Redondo incorrectly thinking it might be an easier entry. Again we were donning our fins with waves braking over us. After doing the surf gauntlet we dropped to about 60’ and worked our way north to the swing and geodome then did our turn and explored the reflectors, pipe boat and another boat on our return. The visibility at depth was a good 20’.

We had planned three dives for the day but after two dives at Three Graces in Tillamook the day before that were kind of like diving in a washing machine and two dives entering though the surf on Monday I was spent. Besides, the currents predicted for our third dive were marginal to begin with. We didn’t think the northerly exposure and long fetch would help diving on a marginal current at Titlow so we went to Salty’s for a scone and mocha then headed back to Oregon.

It was nice to meet people and cool that Dusty showed up for meeting, greeting and general moral support.

[bnboly]

Here's a few more pics from the dive. One of them shows just how small those little nudis were.....

[Zen Diver]

Beautiful shots Bill! I especially liked the close up of the Harbor Freight texturized glove

-Valerie

[Pez7378]

And speaking of throwing up, I might as well get it out in the open now. (They say that confession is good for the soul but bad for the reputation.) I had placed my camera in the pocket of my hoodie, and when I got home and was using the bathroom... umm... how shall I put this... the camera fell out of my pocket into the toilet.

I quickly fished it out, fumbled to try and turn it off (it turned itself on when it hit the water) broke the plastic battery holding latch as I pulled the battery and SD card out, and right now it's sitting on my dining room table while I contemplate my idiocy and the expenditure of a couple of scuba units on another camera.

Oy... Somebody stop me... please...

http://www.switched.com/2007/08/15/how- ... ell-phone/