Interesting day at Keystone yesterday. Southerly wind was blowing, but no white caps on the water. Yet. One hour later, as I was doing my safety stop I noticed that the Plumose anemones are swaying, there was quite a surge, so I decided that exiting the water at my point of entry could be hazardous to my camera, so I swam around the jetty to the ferry side and keeping close to the rocks, made it into the protected waters near the small boat launch ramp. The wind was really blowing now. I took off my scuba and waited at the water's edge for the return of the other divers who got in sometimes after me. The surf zone is not the most easiest place to take fins off, so I assisted the first couple, then they took over to help their friends, it was a club outing to Keystone. Some choose the same route I did, rest fought their way through the tumble and toss... Only one mask lost, all ten divers made it out OK. There was not talk about a second dive ... :biggrin:
About the dive itself? Visibility was good at places, twenty plus feet, less at other spots. The reason I went diving was to see if any spawning activity was still going on here, it did not. All the sea stars and chiton returned to their normal postures of crawling around close to the ground and look for food ...
Just another day in the Pacific Northwest with divers playing in the water ... :roll: :roll:
Woah! Point Hudson pulled the same thing though not that bad! When I went in it was a light wind from the northwest but by the time I got out it had turned to full southerly with some good rollers going but it wasn't that bad, thank god. Keystone can be a treacherous place when the southerlies blow.
Thankfully you all made it OK though from the looks of those pix I bet there were some sore people that night and allot of sand to be cleaned out of regs and stuff before the next dives.
Last edited by Dusty2 on Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:39 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Holy cow! What a difference a day makes. Cheng and I were at Keystone this morning and it was almost picture perfect. Seas were calm. Vis was about 25-30 feet. We had a beautiful 74-minute dive, and emerged to bright sunshine.
Some favorite shots ... a Northern Pacific Chengfish ...
Flabellina trilineata ...
Whaddya suppose they're saying to each other ???
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Threats and ultimatums are never the best answer. Public humiliation via Photoshop is always better - airsix
Wow! I'm kinda surprised not to see Mr. Steding and his surfboard in the picture. Glad you guys had a safe dive.
"The She-Ps didn't work for either one of us, however- we accidently glued one to Dan's cat, and the other one ended up in a DEA evidence locker somehow." - Joshua Smith
Wow Jan, those are BFW's (big frigging waves)! I had no idea that the wind was actually blowing that strong on Saturday. It was having its way with our boat at times, but I just thought it was me.
I'm glad no one was hurt. I've been dragged down in surf while attempting to assist other divers and it is NOT a lot of fun!
Yup, I was one of those divers in the washing machine. We arrived around 8am and splashed around 9:30 or so. It was calm when we arrived and a slight breeze was blowing when we entered.
My buddy and I went near the end of the jetty and then headed back in, picking up the line to the pilings in 40fsw. It was a nice dive, with minimal current and no indication of the storm brewing above.
It took 10 minutes to swim to the pilings, and we noticed surge when we were there. My buddy was light since she was using an aluminum 80 instead of a steel 95. So we surfaced between the piling and the large concrete structure. My first thought on surfacing was, "The sea was angry that day, my friend!".
We tried swimming towards the jetty without success, so I signaled that we should swim in the opposite direction to avoid the concrete structure. My buddy agreed and we headed that way, but the seas were 4-5 foot and she got carried towards shore. I was able to get to shallow water away from the structure and get my fins off. But a 4 foot wave threw me down in shallow water and I had to crawl the rest of the way out.
The pics really don't do justice to the storm, but the tally of lost gear from those diving that morning does;
-1 fin
-1 fin strap
-1 mask
-1 tank boot
Overall, it was a nice dive, but little did we know what was waiting for us above!
-Ed in Mill Creek
OW, AOW, Boat, Deep, EANx, CPR, First Aid, O2, Rescue, HSA, DM
Jan, I had to search for this post to compare the waves in your pics to the ones we experienced yesterday at Keystone. Not quite as bad, but close! Nobody hurt, no equipment lost, but rolling around in the surf with heavy dive gear on is a bit challenging to say the least.
I feel sorry for you, I almost went to Keystone yesterday, but then changed my mind when I saw the white caps on the waters from my window and went to Langley instead and had a very nice dive in protected waters there. I am glad nobody got hurt.. My concern with surf exit is always my camera gear ...
Jan K wrote:My concern with surf exit is always my camera gear ...
That was my concern as well. Reading back on your post, it never occured to me as I was being tossed around to swim around and get out at the boat ramp. Good to know for future reference. On a positive note, the wind and waves laid down nicely by about 2:30 or so, and we were able to get in for a nice --relaxing-- dive. Lots of hooded nudibranchs, juvenile Puget Sound King Crabs, and an abalone!!
On the second dive, Jenn pointed out a scene of the sun filtering through the kelp, sheltering large schools of tubesnout and perch. The scene was sacred. The hooded nudibranchs were so proliferate it was hard to take in. I just spent a half hour keying out all of the variety of kelp they attached to. Amazing. A shout-out to Jenn and Chris for letting me join and loaning me a tank so I could do a second dive. I hope when you get to be old, there will be people like you to help you out. - Curt
Curt, it was an absolute pleasure meeting and diving with you yesterday--definitely one of the highlights of the day! Hope to hook up with you for a dive again some time soon!
And yes, that kelp was spectacular! My pic doesn't do it justice, but it does bring back memories of that moment.
by Unknown
