Flag Pole 6/19

[gutholmj]

We arrived at Mike's Beach around 11 am and picked up the key to head over to the Flag Pole sit. Luckily no one else was there so we got to park at the bottom of the road rather than having to carry everything down the road. The Olympics provided a nice rain shadow and we didn't get any rain all day. We walked as far south as we could to the no trespassing sign and entered the water. On entry, there was no current and the surface water was calm so it seemed like it would be a nice leisurely swim. The plan was to swim all the way to the new buoy and descend right down onto the knuckle. As soon as got about 50' from shore, I realized that the surface swim was not going to be all that leisurely. The current was moving quickly north. It was hard to tell if we were even making headway at times and ended up taking 20+ minutes to reach the buoy. We took a nice long rest hanging on the buoy line before descending. Having the buoy make this a much simpler shore dive. You drop right on the knuckle. We worked our way south-west down the reef to the cloud sponges at around 95 fsw and spent a good long time taking photos and exploring the sponges before beginning to work out way back up the knuckle. After about 35 minutes on the knuckle we worked our way along the muddy bottom leading from the knuckle back to hore and then explored the rocks in the 20-30 fsw range all the way back to the entry. Vis was excellent. About 30' in the surface waters and 35+ on the bottom with a midwater layer (30-50 fsw) that was a bit mucked up but still 20'. Total for the first dive, max 95 fsw, average 55 fsw, 60 minutes total.

For the second dive we decided to swim just out to the rock point and drop in shallow water and then explore the rocky reef to the south. We spent most of the dive in the 40-50 fsw range checking out just about every small critter there was. Total for the second dive, max depth 55 fsw, average 35 fsw and 85 minutes.

[Alexitt]

Nice!

[LCF]

That's a wonderful dive, but it's one place where I was really glad I had my scooter!

[PeninsulaDiver]

Photo #9 appears to be a Brittle Star.I've never seen one in Hood Canal. If so, Nice find!

-Mark

[cardiver]

Nice pics, James. I hope that we have viz like that on Tuesday!

[gutholmj]

Photo #9 appears to be a Brittle Star.I've never seen one in Hood Canal. If so, Nice find!

-Mark

There were quite a few of them out in the open. it's cool how fast they can move.

[PeninsulaDiver]

...it's cool how fast they can move.

That's for sure.

Did you see them on the Knuckle or on your 2nd dive on the shallow reef?

-Mark

[gutholmj]

...it's cool how fast they can move.

That's for sure.

Did you see them on the Knuckle or on your 2nd dive on the shallow reef?

-Mark

On the way back from the knuckle where you have to cross the mud bottom heading toward shore at about 45 fsw.

[PeninsulaDiver]

Nice! Thanks for the info.
Of the Stars, my fav's are Baskets, these are a very close second.
Thanks!

-Mark

[LCF]

these are a very close second.

Mark, you need to make a trip to Southern California! When we dove Anacapa the first time, we did a site where the brittle stars were so thick they looked like shag carpet.

[PeninsulaDiver]

Mark, you need to make a trip to Southern California!

Sweet! When does the plane leave SeaTac!

-Mark

[Dusty2]

Nice Photos! I like the clam shot and the gobies. The lighting on that wolfie is awesome.

What camera are you using and what settings?

[gutholmj]

Nice Photos! I like the clam shot and the gobies. The lighting on that wolfie is awesome.

What camera are you using and what settings?

Thanks. These we taken with my Sealife DC1000 and 1 Sealife strobe. The big upgrade I made is I adapted the Sealife strobe to mount on the tray and arm from my Nikonos which works way better than the loc-line balls that came with the Sealife strobe. It's much nicer especially for macro because I can use the arm to set the strobe quite aways behind the camera which makes the lighting more even.

This was my first dive with the new setup and it's like having a brand new strobe. Most of the images were taken full auto but a few are 1/60th @ f5.7 with the strobe power manually set.