Umatilla Reef - Washington coast

[Don-B]

Let me start by giving you the back story.
3 years ago I started fishing back out on the ocean Cape Alava\Umatilla reef.
After spending a couple of days fishing and seeing the structure on the fish finder I thought "man would it be cool to see what is down there".
There was one spot in particular a pinnacle the rises from 90' to 15' in no time with a big boulder field at the bottom.
It sits a half a mile past the islands at Cape Alava.
I told myself I need to start diving again( I hadn't dove in the last 8 years )
I always liked diving the Pinnacle on the Hood Canal and thought that this one would be awesome.
2011 came along with more fishing trips but I still hadn't dove.
So April last year I got back to diving. It was my goal to go and Dive that Pinnacle.
Now I have dove in the Strait and at Tatoosh before but never on the open Ocean.
After getting out there and realizing I wasn't ready to tackle the pinnacle yet we dove some protected areas by the big rocks and islands. We still had a blast and I gained some good valuably experience.
My love of Diving had returned.

So now comes this year.
Its Sunday 7:30 am. The seas are calm only 2 or 3ft swells with no wind and no current.
The conditions could not be any better.
Mike and me were going in. My 3 year long wish was coming true.
We had a live boat but things were calm enough that I anchored up.
We were right on top 15ft of water. We went down the anchor line .
One thing I will say is even with only 2ft swells the surge beat you to the rock.
We quickly gained some depth to get out of the surge and found ourselves in a 5 foot wide 10ft deep anemone filled crack. Also we found that the 15ft of vis we had at the top was down to 5ft by the time we were at 40fsw.
I followed the crack down to 60fsw until I came to a vertical wall. I knew we water was only 80-90ft at the bottom so I went over. I reached the bottom 85fsw and looked for Mike to come over, No Mike. I waited a few seconds still no Mike. I went back up the wall gave a look, no Mike.
So now I'm left with a decision go back up or down.
Thinking he may have missed me at the bottom I went back down.
I looked to the right and left from where I went over the wall no Mike.
At that point I was hoping he went back to the surface.
I went back up the wall found the crack made it back to the anchor took a quick safety stop.
To my relief Mike was topside. His mask was flooding out bad and lost site of me.

We thought about trying again but with the poor vis , the swells and wind picking we aborted a 2nd try.
Its better to play it safe.
I will say for the little that I got to see I was very impressed.
The boulders at the bottom were 4-8ft tall with a lot of life.
It may take a few more trips out there for the conditions to be good enough but I will go back and try again.
There is so much out there its overwhelming, Just to many good looking sites to dive.
We did get a good dive in the day before at The Point of Arches. The vis was poor also and the video doesn't look that good.

Ill be going back in July and August hopefully the vis will be better and I can get some good video.

thanks for letting me share my story.

[Tom Nic]

Cool.

THere is some awesome diving in big water.

With the proper precautions it can be done safely.

Be safe and thanks for telling the story.

[BillZ]

Great report Don!

Did you launch your boat out of Neah Bay? We did the east side of Tatoosh Sunday morning and had great vis - about 60- 70 ft below 30 feet.

[Don-B]

Great report Don!

Did you launch your boat out of Neah Bay? We did the east side of Tatoosh Sunday morning and had great vis - about 60- 70 ft below 30 feet.

We stayed at Sekui.
Its only a 30min ride to Neah from there.
We almost dove Tatoosh Monday, I wish we would have now.

[LCF]

There's just nothing that is more thrilling than exploring a site about which you know very little. I'm sorry a flooded mask ended your first attempt, but I'm sure you will try again.

[Mateo1147]

I remember our attempt to set the anchor on that pinacle last summer. There was just too much current that time. Glad to hear that you went back and made it in the water even if it didn't go as planned. Better luck next time! Do you have more spear fishing trips planned for the rest of this summer?

[H20doctor]

Tatoosh !!! my favorite place in the world ...

[CaptnJack]

Best dive report of the month, even minus any pics!
I think its fantastic that youre out there, wish my boat was open ocean capable and I had the time to join you.

[BillZ]

Just curious - From previous posts I noticed that you have a Polaris RIB. What makes your boat not capable in the open ocean? I know that if you're going off shore (more than a few miles off the coast) it's good practice to have redundant power but for the rocks and pinnacles just outside of the straits it wouldn't seem to be a problem.

[CaptnJack]

I'd go to Tatoosh from Neah, but probably not go further south from there since any NW summer winds (+swell) would be all the wrong direction for me to return to Neah.

I have never actually been off Cape Alava, but I don't really imagine myself crossing anything like a bar - even in good conditions. Isn't the nearest ramp way down at La Push or?? I'm only 15.5ft long afterall, so running up or down the coast isn't happening.

The few times I've driven along that stretch of coast it was blowing pretty hard and the surf was significant. I've crossed the Elwa delta going from Port Angeles to the Diamond Knot and back. Its pretty tough on my boat. While I can't sink if intact, even fully loaded with tanks and people, one concern RIBs have is stuffing the bow in a steep sided wave and ripping off the whole tube. That would be bad.

If I had the time to cautiously explore the outer coast with an unloaded boat several times I probably would work up the confidence to try diving there. Not all that different from Don's fishing to diving progression out there.

[BillZ]

Thanks for the reply...
This weekend was a great diving window out on the coast - we had great weather, a near neap tide and almost no swell. We didn't go much further out than Tatoosh but it had me wondering if my 18ft RIB would be up to the task of diving some of the reefs outside of the straits.

Cape Alva is about 15 miles south of Cape Flattery - which is a long haul in any boat if you were to get caught in rough seas.

[Don-B]

Its get a little harry sometimes coming back from Cape Alava in the afternoon.
if the marine forcast calls for swells over 6ft or wind waves over 3ft i dont even try it.
This last weekend you could have done it in a 8ft row boat , it was that nice.

I have found that the water conditions are a little better once on the ocean then at the mouth of the Strait.
it seems to be the worst just after you get by Tatoosh.
Also its a 30 mile run from La Push up to Cape Alava so your better off coming from Neah.

[Mateo1147]

Its get a little harry sometimes coming back from Cape Alava in the afternoon.

I still remember the sound of the engine winding up when the lower unit came out of the water on our way back in on Sunday last summer. It looked pretty mellow but I felt beat up after we were back.