Advice for Cove 2 beginner

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carlk3
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Advice for Cove 2 beginner

Post by carlk3 »

What's a simple dive plan for Cove 2? (It will be our 15th dive and our first time in Cove 2 since our OW certification.)

Looking at http://seattledivetours.com/wp-content/ ... Cove-2.gif
it seems that people usually go down on the white buoy with the red strip and follow the correct line to the Honey Bear. (How about the yellow buoy instead and the other line to the Honey Bear?)

After that where is a good place to go and later go up?

Open to any suggestions for a simple dive plan there.

Thanks!
Carl
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YellowEye
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Re: Advice for Cove 2 beginner

Post by YellowEye »

For a shallow dive, I like to go out, hit 40', and follow the depth line to the honey bear. Check out the pilings along the way. Especially check out the pilings sticking way up off the bottom, just near the honey bear, they are the best. They are labeled "elated jackstraw pilings" on your map. Look in the ends and all around and underneath for warbonnets! Go slow and close, bring a good light, and you should see lots of stuff! That tour should keep you busy for the whole dive. There are a couple other pilings just past the honey bear too that are pretty good too. High off the bottom is better, but watch your bouyancy. When low, head shallow and check out the "rip rap rock wall" near the shore and head back.

Others may have other suggestions!

Have fun!
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LCF
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Re: Advice for Cove 2 beginner

Post by LCF »

To make navigation easy, you can stay on the lines that are on the bottom. I like to swim out to the last white buoy, or the first yellow one, and descend onto the boundary line. If you swim down to about 40 feet, you will encounter a line going off to the right, and you can follow that line over to the can buoy. From there, you can follow the line to the Honey Bear and the pilings. From the Honey Bear, a heading of about 240 degrees will take you back to the shore, or you can just keep working your way shallower with shallow on your left, and it will do the same thing.

A lot of stuff can be seen in Cove 2. Dive slowly, and work on your hovering. Look into the bottles and underneath things. Lots of critters to be found!

BTW, here is a site map of the cove (although the cross-cove line was installed after this was done): http://pnwscuba.com/sitemaps/cove2.gif
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seattlepaul1975
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Re: Advice for Cove 2 beginner

Post by seattlepaul1975 »

I 2nd/3rd what YellowEye and LCF Said. Cove2 is an easy site for a beginner. I would go out to the yellow buoy and drop down on that line. You will find a line that heads straight out towards Seattle. You will see some cool stuff along that...There is a gloved hand looking thing in one of the concrete pilings on the way down. As you follow that line you will reach 40-50ish feet depending on the tide and will see a line going 90degrees from the line your on going off to the right. Follow that line and it will lead you over to the Honeybear. The line will stop and the honeybear is probably 20-30ft from the end. It's a fun site to dive and easy to find your way around.
I dive Cove2 often and always willing to take out divers learning the cove. Feel free to PM me if you ever need a buddy.
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carlk3
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Re: Advice for Cove 2 beginner

Post by carlk3 »

Thanks everyone! We dove on Sunday and had a great dive. We have been diving exclusively at Edmonds, but now realize the benefit to getting experience in 50" of water instead of always being in 25" of water.

I have some follow up questions if you're game:
  • If the map says that a buoy is 30fsw and the tide is +10 feet, then is the water under the buoy 40 feet deep? In general, when someone mentions a depth, do you add the tide to it?
  • I'm enclosing a photo from Sunday. To my eye, looking from left to right, there are two white buoys, two yellow buoys, and then two white buoys with red stripes. Right?
  • So the newish "cross-cove line" starts on the boundary line, between the two yellow buoys, and goes almost to the Honey Bear?
WP_20141102_12_34_32_Pro__highres Stitch.jpg
Thanks much,
- Carl
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Rooinater
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Re: Advice for Cove 2 beginner

Post by Rooinater »

The junction that heads to the honey bear is about the second yellow buoy, which cuts by the cigarette buoy, and continues past across the site.
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CaptnJack
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Re: Advice for Cove 2 beginner

Post by CaptnJack »

In general people will never correct a depth to a zero tide because that's pretty counter to how everyone actually dives. The better site descriptions will provide a range of depths for an objective because that's realistically where you will expect to find it. In this case you can expect to find a "30ft" buoy between about 25 and 35ft depending on the gauge used. If you are at 35ft in reasonable vis and ynot seeing it, you have probably overshot it. Retrace your kicks a little and look around. If the tide was lapping at your car bumper when you entered you might want to check a little deeper.
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