I just thought I'd share my experience at Pleasant Harbor over the weekend. Executive summary: Awesome time, can't wait to get back!
I live in Seattle so it's always easier to hop on the Aluminator or shoot down to Tacoma and hop on a Bandito boat but I hadn't been diving in the Hood Canal in a while. Another recent rEvo convert in Portland wanted to do some diving so I decided to join him. The last time I was on "Down Time" I got up at 4 in the morning, picked up a buddy drove for two and a half hours, did 2 dives off of Don's boat in crappy viz and then drove all the way back home, dropped off buddy and then collapsed from exhaustion.
Fast forward a couple years (
) and I did not want to pull that day trip again so I booked 2 days on the boat and a night at the Pleasant Harbor House. This was the RIGHT THING to do. I had a couple of awesome dives at Broken Leg and The Pinnacle. Good visibility and Wolf Eel, GPO, and schools of huge Vermillion and other Rockfish galore. Many mean looking, huge lingcod as well. Everything was huge, including some monster jellies
I left most of my stuff on the boat for the next day and the beauty was that I didn't have to schlepp much back to my car and the marina store has a restaurant with beer on tap.The house was a 5 minute walk away and was stunningly huge and nice. It was recently remodeled, completely new, large and comfortable. After a quick settle in and checking in via the free WiFi I walked to back to the marina restaurant and had some tasty ribs and beer. Everyone at the marina was super happy and nice.
After a very comfy night's sleep there was fresh coffee, muffins, juice and a waffle station. Another great dive at Puali Point (West Reef). The only downside was that I hopped in to dive the Pinnacle again for dive #4 and had my drysuit zipper open about 3-4 inches
Sub-optimal. I got back on the ladder, Don fixed me up and I did a 30 minute "semi-dry" dive after that. Still fun. I was handed a hot-chocolate immediately upon reboarding the vessel while I got out of my soaked under garments. No. I don't have any pictures... still learning how to dive my CCR so I didn't bring it. I was so impressed by how nice the entire staff was, and what a good time I had that I was compelled to share ;-)
Dive safe, stay wet.
-Dennis
