BANDITO CHARTER TODAY (8-22)

[cardiver]

We had an amazing couple of dives with Bandito today. Our first stop was Day Island and our second was the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
The dive on the bridge was absolutely incredible! It sure seemed like more than one knot of current but the sights and the speed were the most fun I've had on a dive in quite a while.
Here's a link to a few pics I got. The wolfie is at DIW and the large GPO is at the Narrows.

www.picasaweb.google.com/cardiver/bandito

[coachrenz]

Great picture of the Red Irish Lord. Your picture really shows the rows of scales along the dorsal fin that is one of the ID clues.

[Navigator]

Gorgeous day, Great dives.

Muchas Gracias Bandito.

<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1099/120 ... a5fb6f.jpg" width="500" height="352" alt="Woolf Eel-1"></a>

[Pinkpadigal]

Thanks everyone for a great day of diving. It was a lot of fun and so much to see! Ron...your photos are much better than mine!

[Scubak]

Bandito is always a good trip and well worth it. Class act...
DIW is one of the premier sites in the PS and also it is great that there is diving under the bridge again.
Where did you drop in? Was it a drift dive from where to where???
Great pics. Wish I went.
Kirsten

[coachrenz]

Amy -

Is that avatar of yours workplace safe? Geez, we expect to see that type of behavior from the dungeness crabs but from divers?

Great pic of you (and I hope your other half) engaging in a little underwater smooch.

[Sea of Green]

Great shots! What camera are you using?

[cardiver]

It's the Casio EX-Z1000.

[Tom Nic]

Great day, great dives! Thanks CarDiver for actually taking a picture of the bridge... which of course I forgot to do! ](*,) Thanks Amy and Bandito, thanks Sounder for being a great dive bud as usual!

A few pictures are here

The drift of the narrows was outstanding... although I must admit that as much as I like taking pics it was a bit frustrating to be zipping by the scenery and not stopping to take a bunch of pics! I should have taken some video, but forgot to do that as well. ](*,) Supposedly this current was less than a knot. If that's true I don't think I want to drift it when it's whipping along at 4 or 5 knots! Everything went vertical and calm right at the end of the dive. We dropped in just to the south of the bridge, then went to 80' or so, and ended up a couple hundred yards north of the bridge. Just beautiful!

Our DIW dive was critter city! Sounder and I saw at least 2 smaller octos and 6 large GPO's... a couple of them "real herkers"... the largest I've ever seen. They were tucked back in crevices, so I had to stick my head in the holes trying to get pics, at the same time swatting away the "guardian" rockfish that darted in front thinking they were going to get another meal. I guess they come to any commotion and don't have the sense to know that it's just me taking a pic and not mama GPO tearing apart a tasty redrock!

I couldn't get this one to fit in one picture! The mantle on this gal was huge!
<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1385/121 ... 05411f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="CIMG8168"></a>
<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1055/121 ... 45ab1f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="CIMG8170"></a>

You can just about count the tentacles on this one.
<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1010/121 ... 1b6c8b.jpg" width="500" height="289" alt="CIMG8156"></a>

Here's another.
<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1314/121 ... 0302ac.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="CIMG8166"></a>

One of the GPO's took an interest in my camera but then went back to it's napping...
<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1111/121 ... 0c5337.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="CIMG8159"></a>

I was surprised at the number of shells, both bivalve and moon snail and triton type that were in front of the dens along with the usual crab remnants. I didn't know that octos ate them as well... although maybe they were "collecting" them?

And of course we saw the usual 8 Wolfies or so. There were a couple of "pairs" of larger mature males and a juvie... don't know if wolfies protect their young? ... or mabe they were just pervs... ya never know...
<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1355/121 ... cab475.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="CIMG8162"></a>

All in all, amazing dives. Here's a few more pics, starting with Sounder getting way too friendly with grandpa wolfie:
<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1149/121 ... 44904e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="CIMG8130"></a>

<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1440/121 ... 8f5c2c.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="CIMG8125"></a>

<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1269/121 ... b090b9.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="CIMG8147"></a>

<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1150/121 ... 658f39.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="CIMG8152"></a>

<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1211/121 ... 03e649.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="CIMG8115"></a>

<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1251/121 ... 52dfdd.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="CIMG8131"></a>

<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1255/121 ... 4196ba.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="CIMG8121"></a>

[Sounder]

8 Wolfies?! Hmmm... I stopped counting after the 6 we saw on the south wall before heading north where we saw what I'd guess to be 6 or so more at least! Clearly one of us was narc'ed... we may never know who.

Wow, this was the best DIW dive I've ever had. Tom and I started just south of the brake-down pile dividing the walls and headed south to about 50' from the end of the south wall. Then we turned and headed north all the way past the end of the north wall. It became down right funny when I'd find yet ANOTHER huge, giant, amazingly large GPO... and another... and another.

The rockfish were annoying and funny at the same time. They were clearly cleaning up the left-overs from the most recent meal and they were aggressive... they certainly didn't mind Tom and I and I basically started playing bouncer while Tom took pictures. This was all accompanied by out-loud laughter from us both. We certainly wasted some back-gas laughing so hard. Good stuff.

When we were satisfied we'd seen the last of the the fringe-edge ledges at the extreme north end of the wall (after spending a good 60 minutes on the wall and having seen the ENTIRE Day Island Wall in a single dive), I shot a bag and we drifted together making our stops perfectly. 40fsw for a minute, 30fsw for a minute, 20fsw for 4 minutes, and then onto 15fsw slowly... when Tom flashes me wildly and points to a rather HUGE lion's mane jelly directly where we were headed... so down to 20fsw we went and enjoyed another 3cu' of gas briskly swimming away from the beast. Once we were in the clear we headed back up to 10fsw, eyes peeled for nasties , and then to the surface where the beautiful Sampan was waiting for us.

This quite possibly could be the best dive I've ever done, anywhere, including dives in warm water. As usual Tom was a great buddy - never out of sight (well, except twice briefly when we were bubbled-out, like being silted out, by the clouds of bubbles from other divers deeper than us, but we knew where the other was). Definitely one to tell my grandchildren about.

Oh yeah, and the Tacoma Narrows was... um... exciting? Yeah, I think exciting sums it up. Did see much, but throwing yourself to the current knowing you simply can't swim against it is an interesting feeling. Things literally flying by, and the only way to stop was to grab something and hold on! Neat geology though, and the literally thousands of buffalo sculpins were fun too. Didn't see much else in the way of life. We DID get to experience what Rick described as "the bug on a windshield" phenomena... yeah, those HUUUUGE cube blocks come out of NO WHERE when you're flying along... SPLAT! Once you're stopped, you get to crawl to the side and then when you let go you're off and zooming through the narrows again. Good stuff.