Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

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WaGigKpn
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Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by WaGigKpn »

Dive Site Name: Harper (former) fishing pier & the Barbra G.

Skill Level: All Divers

Current Sensitive: No

Location/Address: Google maps puts this at 9921-9999 SE Cornell Rd. Port Orchard, WA 98366

Directions: Driving: Basically its at the sharp corner of SE Southworth Dr where it sharply turns to follow the water south

Free Parking: Yes, There is parking for about 5 cars or so right next to the dive site. Otherwise find suitable parking along side the road and walk down.

Staging Area: Good to Average

Surface Swim: Medium

Nearby Facilities: None, bring your potty bucket!

Special Considerations: There is a rock wall about 6ft in height to climb down/up but its easy enough.

Maximum Depth: on high tide you might get to 40 fsw.

Known Hazards: (tough entry, egress, known entanglement hazards, etc.)

Dive Site Description: two wrecks, the Barbra G. being 70' and a 17-20' fiber hull. Also artificial reef of the old pier.

Detailed description:
Dove this a couple times, most recently May 31st 2013. There used to be a fishing pier here until it was removed in December 2012. There is also two wrecks. The most prominent is the Barbra G. which is an old tug. It is 70 ft long and continues to stand 10 feet high off the bottom. There is a small fiberglass hull nearby but is relatively uninteresting. There is also a bottle field and brick field due to the brick factory that used to be here.

There are road reflectors on the shore marking where the pier used to be. It went out and a little to the left (north) from the road. The deeper pilings were broken off near the bottom when it was removed producing a pretty awesome artificial reef like setting. I caught this at the end of my dive and was bummed i could not explore it further. Seemed to have potential to have a lot of life.

To find the Barbra G. stand by the light pole and get a 60 degree reading on your compass (so i am told by Jim at Sound Dive). Not having a compass i had to rely on instincts. If you do not have a compass do not worry, stand at the light pole and look at Blake island. There is a Madonna (tree) that sticks out horizontally above the beach about 1/4 mile from the south end of the island. It's kind of small but you cant miss it. The Barbra G. is between you and this Madonna (about 100-150yds off shore). The 'G sits in about 23-27 fsw on a low tide. The other wreck is almost due south from the 'G and a little deeper. There used to be a line from the dolphins at the end of the pier to the wrecks but i was unable to locate this as of 5/31/13.

Both times i dove this site it was during an exchange and noticed little to no current. You an expect to see Cabaezon and surf perch on the dive. I am sure there is much more life but Viz was really bad my last time out. Oh, and lots and lots of crab!
Last edited by WaGigKpn on Fri Jun 07, 2013 10:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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CaptnJack
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by CaptnJack »

An octopus sometimes lives under the small rowboat wreck, if you're out there be sure to check!

The lines could be improved a lot. I can't find them with summer growth.
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spatman
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by spatman »

Thanks for creating another dive site listing, WaGigKpn. Would you mind reformatting your original post to match the other listings? Instructions are here: http://www.nwdiveclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=170

Thanks!
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dwashbur
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by dwashbur »

Ah, the memories. I did the OW portion of my rescue class there. My wife and I did our 100th dive there. The little wreck is where I saw my very first lumpsucker. A couple of questions:

1. Does the guy up on the hill still play the role of Parking Nazi?

2. Did they leave the fallen pilings and stuff around where the pier used to be?

Gotta get back there one of these days. It was a sad day when they pulled the dolphin out...
Dave

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fishb0y
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by fishb0y »

Jeff, the guy on the hill committed suicide around New Years... Funny enough, the parking situation cleared up when the junk he used to keep on the side of the road was cleaned up.
WaGigKpn
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by WaGigKpn »

I will reformat my post when i am on a computer.

The first 50 yards there is no trace of the pier. Further out there is a lot of leftovers and i would say its even better than before! But i only swam over it....didn't get to explore.
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Dusty2
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by Dusty2 »

fishb0y wrote:Jeff, the guy on the hill committed suicide around New Years... Funny enough, the parking situation cleared up when the junk he used to keep on the side of the road was cleaned up.
it's a shame there have to be people like that. Obviously he and mr angry and the others of that temperament are not happy people. :rjack:
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CaptnJack
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by CaptnJack »

fishb0y wrote:Jeff, the guy on the hill committed suicide around New Years... Funny enough, the parking situation cleared up when the junk he used to keep on the side of the road was cleaned up.
Its a shame he didn't get the help he needed a long long time ago.
Sounder wrote:Under normal circumstances, I would never tell another man how to shave his balls... but this device should not be kept secret.
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olalladiver
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by olalladiver »

Still some fishing line, I understand, from around the pier... I didn't see much while I was there but some of the people from our dive party said they'd seen a fair bit...

We did eventually find that line and tried to unbury it a bit and it's how we eventually did find the Barbara last weekend, but it's definitely a little more challenging to find now that there's no pier as a starting point.
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CaptnJack
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by CaptnJack »

Tess and I found the Barbara G no problem at all last weekend. Dropped anchor right next to it... :)
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olalladiver
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by olalladiver »

I didn't have GPS. I'm sure you could have dropped anchor through the barbara G if you liked.
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CaptnJack
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by CaptnJack »

olalladiver wrote:I didn't have GPS. I'm sure you could have dropped anchor through the barbara G if you liked.
Ack anchoring actually "on" a wreck is very poor form. Except for the Taylor Bay wreck, that's full of sand and easy to anchor in the middle of.

If you have a GPS you could skip the line and run a heading from the light pole at the head of the old pier to the Barbara G. Coordinates are in Boyd's book. I could go down and get the heading so it could be reported here even.
Sounder wrote:Under normal circumstances, I would never tell another man how to shave his balls... but this device should not be kept secret.
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olalladiver
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by olalladiver »

It was a joke... No, I didn't think you'd actually anchor on it... Just makin' fun of you for your makin' fun of me... Just havin' a little lighthearted fun... ;)

No GPS... but it would be good to confirm heading, I suppose... I had heard 55 deg mag from the pole, but we managed to miss it and flounder around for quite awhile before stumbling on the line... so can't confirm... And of course there's always the problem that, as I'm told, I don't swim so straight... Next time one of us is out, though, it'd be great to pop straight up so we can get a heading confirmed, yes...
WaGigKpn
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by WaGigKpn »

edited main post to follow forum rules.
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olalladiver
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by olalladiver »

I was at Harper two weeks ago and can confirm that a 55 degree heading from the lightpole nails the Barbara G.

Incidentally, the funding has come through and the pier will be replaced -- Probably sometime after the first of the year. My understanding is it will have both a high pier and a lower float portion, which it would seem would probably allow for giant stride pier entry in the future. Booyah!

This from the Friends of Harper Pier (and yes, I'm very happy it's being replaced for a number of reasons... thanks to all who supported it.)
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StrangeDoc
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Re: Harper, Barbra G. (formerly fishing pier)

Post by StrangeDoc »

Just dove there today. It was a good dive. Yes the new pier is there and it has a floating section that could be used for giant stride entry. It is about 15fsw at the floating section. When I went though there were a lot of fisherman on the pier so we opted to do a shore entry. Parking is a bit crazy, there isn't a lot right at the pier, we were able to park up the road a little bit without any issues. We ended up at the floating section though because some crab fishers called us over to see if we would be kind enough to retrieve their crab pot that they lost.

There was a fairly strong current heading northward. It wasn't too difficult to swim against after dropping to the bottom and using the bottom a bit to help go forward.

There is still a rope along the bottom from the pier out to the Barbara G. What was left of the wreck is some structures, but there was a fair bit of life all over and was worth checking out. We swung wide of the pier heading the other direction and found the bottle field and was able to poke around there a bit. Did find an octo in a bottle.

The shore entry/exit does kind of suck here, there is a stone step and some rocks to climb up but it is a fair ascent/descent when entering directly from the shore.
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