Saturday 2/21 James Island and Belle Rocks

[pensacoladiver]

Took the boat out today for a "scheduled" 3 tanker which turned into a 2 tanker.

Had my normal dive buddy with me and a "virgin" to cold water diving (he was in a 7 mil wetsuit)

Started out at James Island on the eastern side. Had the wife dump us out of the boat in approx 25 feet of water. If you have not dove James yet, I highly recommend it. It reminds me of Skyline wall but with 100% better visibility. Many rocks and crevices to peek around in. I could have easily stayed at 30 feet and explored for an hour, but I decided to head on down deeper. Decided to go down to 100 feet for a few minutes and all the way down, there was outcroppingof rocks to look around in. Several Kelp Greenling and Ling Cod would appear out of nowhere and take off in a hurry.

Coming up from 100 feet, the "virgin" gae me the "I'm cold" signal, so we took him back up to 20 feet, sent him on his way to his safety stop and the 2 of us continued (this was only 20 minutes into the dive, no way I was ready to get out that early).

We messed around for another 30 minutes and called it quits for that site.

Headed over the Belles Rocks next, which is simply a round cement pylon sticking 15 feet out of the water, but underneath is a different story. The "virgin" sat this one out, so only 2 of us. Again, wife dumped us in 25 feet and I noticed the current had picked up... no biggy, a live boat is a great thing!!! Saw the typical Greenling and Ling Cod and even scared a huge Cabezon. Truth be told, it scared me a bit too.

I had scanned the are with my sonar and knew it would drop off, but it seemed we were at 25-35 feet forever. It finally started to drop off some on the western part and I came across an amazing sight. As far as I could see and swim, the follor was COVERED with baby white Plumose Anemone's. None of them were over an inch tall. It reminded me of walking through a cotton field, except I was currently hovering over it. REALLY neat.

We then found a series of ledges that took us from 40 feet down to 90 feet. They were covered with Plumose Anemone's (normal size) and had a decent amount of fish hiding in them.

After a few minutes at 90 feet, my buddy says its time to go. I knew from the current there was no way we were going back to the 25 foot drop off point, but we did manage to work the rocks up to about 30 feet. No biggy, a free ascent from 30 feet with a nice safety stop at 15 feet. All sounds great until after 1 minute hovering at 15 feet, my buddy decides to start using his left arm as a wing to control his bouyancy??? He was all over the place. I was giving him the signal to relax (at least in my mind it was the relax signal), but he just kept flapping away. Finally, on the surface, he tells me his leg crampped up, so kicking with only one leg was causing problems... Hence the flapping to maintain positioning. I had a good laugh with that one.

I had planned one more dive, but with the virgin cold and my normal buddy cramping, I figured it was good to call it a successful day and head for the warmth of the house.

2 really great dives. Cant wait to get out that way again...maybe next weekend!

Chad

[LCF]

Nice report. Where is/are Belle Rocks?

[dsteding]

Nice report. Where is/are Belle Rocks?

Middle of Rosario, west of Fidalgo Head, south of James Island.

[pensacoladiver]

That's it. Here are the GPS coordinates:

N48 29.576 W122 45.199

The current took us from Belle Rocks straight to bird rocks, which are just over a half a mile to the south west. (Lots of dive sites very close to each other).

[H20doctor]

Welcome to the dive board!! ... Nice report for those dives, I'd love to do more north dives on camano and whidbey.. I've dove Ponell point, and then we tried to find the reef on camano but couldn't find it on the depth finder?.. The other problem is we needed a GPS and cordin. Sounds like you razzed the vigin pretty good on weathing the cold waters of puget sound LOL .. :smt038

[BASSMAN]

Welcome to the dive board pensacolaracer!

Great dive report!

Nice detailed description!
Was there any pictures?

[pensacoladiver]

Unfortunately, no pictures. The virgin had a camera, but was too cold to use it. I thought about buying a camera, but I doubt I'd get much use out of it as I like to move around a lot under water.

I think you are talking about the reef on Camano island, also know as "Onamac Point"??? If so, I tried to dive it back in August, but could not find it either and just ended up wallowing around on sandy bottom for an hour. Pete from Whidbey Island Dive Center recently dove it and gave me some better directions. I am considering heading back there this weekend.

Now that the days are getting a bit longer, my "plan" is to get the boat out every weekend. We will see if that holds true. I know its a long drive for you "southerners" down in Seattle and Tacoma, but if you want to do some diving up north here, give me a shout... it was only a 6 mile run from the boat launch to the dive site Saturday. I'm used to running at least 20 miles for a decent dive in Pensacola. Look at all the gas money I'm saving!!!! haha

Chad