What a great weekend! The fact that I had to go to work this morning and wasn't just hanging out watching another sunrise over Hood Canal, really sucked. It was just too short. Despite pretty crappy viz, there was some amazing diving to be had. As you can imagine, the company was great, and if you've never stayed at the Yellow House before, it freakin' ROCKS! The gear-drying room alone is worth the bucks for the weekend! =)
Kate, Chris, Shell, Loretta, Scott and I seemed to converge on Hoodsport & Dive at about the same time Friday, so we all ended up going for our first dive at Octopus hole and it was actually full of octos! We saw about 4 the whole dive, and a couple of wolfies to boot. Vis was about 10 feet or so - 15 down past about 45 feet, and we had a pretty good time of it - about a 45 minute dive. Not to mention that Tom Nic, Mav & Cuppie were waiting there when we got out of the water! It was a good way to start the weekend. Pesto pasta, Chris's AMAZING grilled garlic shrimp and yummy salads preceded a sit in the hot tub and beers. Yum.
I buddied up with Scott the first dive of Saturday and intended to follow everyone out to the trawler. We were the last to descend, and for some reason, crossing over the sandy expanse between the wall and the trawler, the deep, dark nothingness disoriented the heck out of me at about 65 feet, I started the "sucking air-panic," and the whole 9 yards.. no earthly reason for it. I hit the bottom, and luckily, Scott was right there. He guided us to the wall, at which point things just clicked back into place for me, and we headed back to shore. I felt like a schmuck when we surfaced after only 20 minutes, so I asked if he'd be willing to swim back out to the buoy, just to follow the line down and try to see the 2 wolfies that live at the bottom right there. Neither one of us had come close to them on the descent. So we did - saw them both, and a few other cool things back on the shallower parts of the wall, so it kind of made up for my tweak-out.
Our second dive of Saturday was to the south wall, and it was good. We saw more octos, avoided a huge Lion's mane jelly, and saw lots of little life on the wall. Even saw my first female wolfie! Tom Nic had told me earlier in the day that "The females are the pretty ones and the males are the ugly ones." After giggling profusely, I discovered that now I really know what to look for! Thanks, Tom! Pretty little purple thing, she was!
We came back to the house to get warm and have the BBQ. Mav played T-shirt vendor, and we all ate copious amounts of good food. Around 5, most of us staying that night at the house left again for another dive. The main group went to Octopus hole, and Scott, Barb (Babs13) and I decided to get every last dime out of what we'd paid Mr. Sund. The 3 of us headed back out toward the north wall again. We'd decided that if viz was ok, we'd head to the trawler, but ended up just exploring the wall. Scott spotted a couple of beautiful nudis that really made the dive. Despite continued 5-7 foot viz, there was still tons of life to see.
Saturday night, back at the house, all I remember after Mav & Cuppie left were that Rachel and Greg braved it out for a night dive across the street from the house, and said that the biolum was great and that they saw a giant red octo out in the open. And... most of the rest of us just crashing out in the middle of watching the "LIfe Aquatic With Steve Zissou," in the front room. Those with long drives took off throughout Sunday morning, and everyone had done their part in cleaning things up, so there wasn't much left to do at the end.
Around 1030am, we decided to get in one more dive at Octopus hole before taking off, but it was so crowded that we elected to pay Mr Sund one last time. Greg and Rachel headed out on their own back toward home, which left Kate, Scott and me at Sund. Not many people were there! (A clue?) The chop on the surface should have been a warning sign for what was to come down below. Our first dive attempt was literally the worst viz I've ever been in. We descended with every intention of going out to the trawler, but couldn't even see the buoy line! No more than 1-2 feet max - even with Penelope's 21 watt Salvo!! 7 minutes total, and we called it. Woo Hoo!! As Spatman would say, "Suck factor 9, Mister Sulu!" We decided that it might be a little easier to try the south wall one last time, but would call it if the schmutz was still that bad.
We actually had a great last dive. Saw a HUGE octo out of its den on the wall, and a last wolfie. Closer to the wall and down around 40 feet, the vis was good, and what we all expected to suck, turned out to be a good dive to close out the trip. Then Scott and Kate and I made ourselves lunch out of the leftover flotsam and jetsam, cleaned up, closed up the house, and headed for home.
Thanks to everyone who came out, brought stuff, cooked, cleaned, buddied up, shared knowledge, and made us laugh our heads off, all weekend long. Looking forward to the next one.. :smt038
"Dude... When your IQ gets to 50, SELL!" - Grateful Diver