100th dive @ DIW

bnboly · Post by **bnboly** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:21 pm

Tom and I celebrated my 100th dive today at DIW. We had a excellant dive of over 1 hour. We saw many wolf eels, red irish lords, one medium GPO and quite a few gunnells. Viz was about 30' or so. Tom planned the slack pretty good - we had almost no current for the entire dive. All in all a most excellant dive! Thanks Tom!

Pez7378 · Post by **Pez7378** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:26 pm

Congratulations Bill! DIW is on my list of must see sites. Soon I hope. :rr:

DiverDown · Post by **DiverDown** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 3:09 am

Sweet!!!

Oh yeah and Day Island Wall is cool too.. $\:D/$

bnboly · Post by **bnboly** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 3:23 pm

I forgot to mention that we were also buzzed by a harbor seal for about 4-5 min!

Tom Nic · Post by **Tom Nic** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 7:28 pm

:wav:
Congrats Bill on #100! WooHoo!

You'll be at 200 in no time at the rate we've been diving!

What a fantastic dive we had at Day Island Wall. That site never disappoints. Some pictures of the dive are here
I dropped the wrong (full) tank at the dive shop off to be filled, ](*,) so had to run home (15 minutes away) and pick up another tank (Thanks Doug!) so we went in the water later than I had originally planned. It ended up being a night dive, which is great time to dive the wall! It was still a great dive, with current only being a minor inconvenience. We dropped and went along the South Wall a ways, saying Hi to the GPO & Wolfies. (Can you spot the Sailfin Sculpin by the female Wofie?)

<a href="" title="CIMG6809 by thomasnicodemus, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2048/203 ... 53f06b.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="CIMG6809"></a>

<a href="" title="CIMG6822 by thomasnicodemus, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2363/203 ... c59e0b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="CIMG6822"></a>

This dive was Gunnel city! They were everywhere, and being one of my favorite critters they always make for a fun dive for me! The red Crescent Gunnels stood out like light bulbs on the wall.

<a href="" title="CIMG6828 by thomasnicodemus, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2232/203 ... 7d8b82.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="CIMG6828"></a>

<a href="" title="CIMG6794 by thomasnicodemus, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2129/203 ... a4719e.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="CIMG6794"></a>

And of course the South Wall is one of the best places to find a Red Irish Lord, and they were out in force, decked out in their finest!
<a href="" title="CIMG6783 by thomasnicodemus, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2272/203 ... 57a89d.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="CIMG6783"></a>

We went along the South Wall until the current started to pick up as the wall veers away from shore, so I turned us around and we went back North on a different leve to see different things. (That was when we got buzzed by our friendly seal. I thanked him

for not tugging on my fins!) Sure enough as we moved back along the wall the current lessened in the more sheltered area. We went through the slide / break in the wall and continued along enjoying the beginning of the North Wall. At around 1,000 PSI we headed up over the wall and toward shore , ending a great 65 minute dive playing with Gunnels in the shallows.

I love the different colorations of the Scaleyhead Sculpins. They are really quite beautiful, and match the areas that they hang out in so well... their camouflage is impeccable. How do they do that?!
<a href="" title="CIMG6801 by thomasnicodemus, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2345/203 ... 1f2b40.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="CIMG6801"></a>

<a href="" title="CIMG6844 by thomasnicodemus, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2219/203 ... af021b.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="CIMG6844"></a>

And finally, it was interesting to find this poor (or lucky!) Gunnel with a perfect half dollar bite out of it. With Jan's latest creation (here) it's not hard to see that Gunnels are snack sized for many critters. What I wonder is, what took a bite out of this guy?

<a href="" title="CIMG6855 by thomasnicodemus, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2139/203 ... 443d68.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="CIMG6855"></a>

Congrats again Bill, and thanks for a great dive!

Diver_C · Post by **Diver_C** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 7:39 pm

Congrats Bill on #100!

And great shots Tom!

Can't wait to be able to dive DIW again, especially since I have had so few opportunities to dive anywhere the last couple of months.

Rich

Seth T. · Post by **Seth T.** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 6:30 pm

Congrats and welcome to the triple digit club!