West Point Sand Bar
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 2:04 pm
Dive Site Name: West Point Sand Bar
Current Sensitive: Yes: I would use Bush Point
Location/Address: Large point between the Shilshoal marina, and the Elliot Bay marina.
Directions: Boat Dive. Launch at Golden Gardens Marina. It is the large point with the light house to the South (on the East side of the Puget Sound)
Free Parking: N/A. (I suppose you could do this from shore as there is a park on the point, but I am not sure how far the walk is, nor would I recommend it as the currents could easily sweep you out into the heart of the Sound if you mess up timing.)
Staging Area: N/A
Surface Swim: N/A
Nearby Facilities: N/A
Special Considerations: Not really any other than I would run this as live boat and at slack.
Maximum Depth: Interesting stuff is between 20 feet on down to as deep as you would like.
Dive Site Description:
For some time I have wanted to dive the steep drop off on the North side of West Point. On the fish finder, the bottom just falls away from 10 feet to well below 100 feet. I was assuming that it was a really steep sandy slope, but thought it might be worth checking out just to be sure it was not a wall. We finally did it on 1/28/07 with a live boat. We ran the dive with scooters so we were able to cover quite a bit of the area at multiple depth profiles. Pretty much a bust for dive. The topology was interesting, very steep in places, more so than the Mukilteo light house area, but not quite steep enough to be a wall. There were a few ledges that were maybe 2 feet tall scattered around, but that was it. There were some sand ridges running perpendicular to the sand bar that rival the dips at Alki, and I found those interesting. There were two huge (8 feet tall) tires sitting on the bottom in about 90 feet slightly West of the light house that were kinda out of place. What was interesting however was the quantity of limbs, driftwood and general debris that was piled up-in some spots it was more than 6 feet thick. It guess it collects here due to wind, currents and/or eddies. Very odd looking at any rate. I would be willing to do it one more time to check out the area further to the West, but over all there are probably better dives out there.
Current Sensitive: Yes: I would use Bush Point
Location/Address: Large point between the Shilshoal marina, and the Elliot Bay marina.
Directions: Boat Dive. Launch at Golden Gardens Marina. It is the large point with the light house to the South (on the East side of the Puget Sound)
Free Parking: N/A. (I suppose you could do this from shore as there is a park on the point, but I am not sure how far the walk is, nor would I recommend it as the currents could easily sweep you out into the heart of the Sound if you mess up timing.)
Staging Area: N/A
Surface Swim: N/A
Nearby Facilities: N/A
Special Considerations: Not really any other than I would run this as live boat and at slack.
Maximum Depth: Interesting stuff is between 20 feet on down to as deep as you would like.
Dive Site Description:
For some time I have wanted to dive the steep drop off on the North side of West Point. On the fish finder, the bottom just falls away from 10 feet to well below 100 feet. I was assuming that it was a really steep sandy slope, but thought it might be worth checking out just to be sure it was not a wall. We finally did it on 1/28/07 with a live boat. We ran the dive with scooters so we were able to cover quite a bit of the area at multiple depth profiles. Pretty much a bust for dive. The topology was interesting, very steep in places, more so than the Mukilteo light house area, but not quite steep enough to be a wall. There were a few ledges that were maybe 2 feet tall scattered around, but that was it. There were some sand ridges running perpendicular to the sand bar that rival the dips at Alki, and I found those interesting. There were two huge (8 feet tall) tires sitting on the bottom in about 90 feet slightly West of the light house that were kinda out of place. What was interesting however was the quantity of limbs, driftwood and general debris that was piled up-in some spots it was more than 6 feet thick. It guess it collects here due to wind, currents and/or eddies. Very odd looking at any rate. I would be willing to do it one more time to check out the area further to the West, but over all there are probably better dives out there.