Gedney (aka hat) island by Everett

[yahmason]

Hi all,

We are planning a dive off of Gedney island, also known as hat island. It's located between Everett and the south end of Whidby Island. There are two places to dive there, the reef and the barges. The barges are supposedly outside the entrance to their marina, and the reef is south of there. Ok, that's still a large area...

Does anyone have more information than that? Which one is better? GPS coordinates anyone? Depth?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Nicholas.

[CaptnJack]

The reef is on the south side of the island. Its marked on relevant charts (e.g. NOAA chart #181441) which you can view here: http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/18441.shtml NOAA calls it a "fish haven" Its also written up in the Dave Bliss Boat dives of Puget Sound book. I don't have my coordinates handy, sorry. Depths are 40 to 70ft as I recall at least that's the majority of it. Try to go at high or low tide, the currents are surprisingly swirly (and there's no current correction station nearby). Realize that its totally exposed to the south as well so watch any southery wind forcasts. Everett is a WAY better launch than Mukilteo BTW. I have never done the "barges" so I can't comment on which is better. The fishing reef is average, fairly busy with fishermen depending on the season. Probably deserted right now.

[Jan K]

Nicholas, I did dive both places you mention, personally I prefer the Gedney reef, but it might be because I like to take pictures and the reef offers more variety. My buddy liked better the barges - so there you go
You can find some of the pictures from those dives on this forum on Whidbey Island Critters thread. Hope you have good time diving there. As CaptJack mentioned, the reef is exposed to the southerlies...

[gcbryan]

I haven't been to the Reef (I understand it's similar to KVI?) but I did enjoy the Barges. There are several barges with the deepest one being around 110 fsw I believe. The structure of the barges is what makes this one interesting along with the marine life.

It is right at the entrance to the marina so you don't want your boat blocking the entrance and you want to be careful when you come up as there might be boat traffic.

[Rockfish]

I've dove both the barges and the reef a lot. When the water is snotty we'll dive on the barges but when it is nice we'll do the reef. The coordinates on the map are the start of the reef. There are a lot of rock piles, concrete on the bottom spread out. We have a couple of the bigger spots located but it is also fun to drive over and look at the depth sounder and find new spots on the reef to dive.

Mike

[LCF]

Did the barge outside the marina today. Very pleasant dive, with lots of structure and quite a bit of life.

This site is not current-sensitive, and we dove it on a day with very large exchanges, and had no current at all. We moored just to the south of the marina entrance, in about 20 feet of water (the slope from shore is VERY steep there, so we weren't far from the water's edge). We dropped and swam east to about 50 fsw, then turned north. Swimming north, the slope fell off steadily. We found the deep end of the barge at about 90 fsw. The shallow end is about 60 to 65 feet.

There's quite a bit of the barge that is intact, but the shallow portion has fallen apart, and the ribs are exposed. We saw a variety of nudibranchs, black, copper, quillback and VERMILION rockfish. In the shallows, we swam through schools of herring. There were fairly young ling cod hiding in the barge crevices. There was a little fishing line on the barge, but not much. Viz today was fairly good -- at least 20 feet, once we got below the surface schmutz.

The dive reminded me a lot of the Possession Point ferry, although there wasn't quite the diversity of species that I've found on the ferry in the past.

Hazards at this site are basically boat traffic, since you are really moored almost in the exit path of the marina. We were careful to swim into very shallow water before surfacing.

It was a very pleasant dive, and a short boat trip from the Everett boat launch.

[Beowulf]

Does anyone have more information than that? Which one is better? GPS coordinates anyone? Depth?
Nicholas.

Here are coordinates from my dive log.

N48 00.006
W122 18.766

N48 00.020
W122 18.717

N47 59.978
W122 18.674

N47 59.985
W122 18.709

N47 59.977
W122.18.651

This is a series of debris piles. You should plan to be there at high tide. The low tide can be very bad vis. Current can also be a factor if you don't have a live boat. My log says I went to 41 feet that day ... must have been low tide.

Hard to say which dive is better between the barges and the reef. They are different...the barges are a bit deeper 70-100 fsw and rarely get much current. The reef is 40-70fsw and can be difficult current conditons. I have seen some very big fish at the reef. Used to be some rope between some of the debris piles at the reef.