Octopus Hole 2/25

[Jeff Pack]

I was originally doing this with a group from the pacific nw meetup board, but given that area gets busy early, I thought a 11am splash was to late, especially for a limited parking area.

So mpenders, myself, Scubie Doo, Micah (a new diver) arrived around 8am. Micah being a new diver, shows up with 6 dives and a 67cf tank (I never even knew there was such a thing), so it kinda threw off our game plan for a deep dive to around 100ft off on the far wall.

Mike helped me get my can light oriented properly, although was abit weird with it on the side like that.

Did our buddy plans, and surface swam "almost" to the tree, and then descended. I think if we'd gone all the way to the tree, we'd have missed the wall.

So first dive, I buddied with Scubie (Jessie), and we had a nice leisurely 55m dive. That 35w HID light screamer was certainly interesting, and I found diving with another buddy with a can light very nice, because I could always tell where he was, without having to look about. While Jessie shot pics, and stayed out of his way, and made sure my beam didnt effect his shots.

When I hit low air (we were by the crates), I just swung the beam over to him about 20 ft away, and it just threw this big shadow of him on the crates, we both laughed about it later. Cant miss a signal with that thing.

While folks had told me not to adjust my weight, I did subtract 2 pounds, and was fine. Ony problem I had was side trim, and I kept rolling to my right badly.

So during surface interview, we all discussed the dive, etc for awhile.

Meanwhile "Tahoe" the wonder dog shows up from a few miles away apparently (and didnt get hit on the road thankfully).
Chipped and tagged, so we hooked up with the service, they called the owners, and around 5m later the owner shows up.

Its good to see a responsible pet owner.

With that out of the way, was time for dive 2, and I buddied with Mike this time. we covered alot of territory on that dive.
Lots of Octo dens, but not a single octo either dive,nor wolfies either :(

This time I adjusted my weight to account for my side trim, and was pretty much spot on.

Viz was in the 20ft range for the most part, the second dive had alot surface swells. When we surface from the second dive, you could almost surf them.

Thx Jessie, Mike, and Micah for showing up. Thx Mike for helping me with the can light. Hopefully Micah will show up here.

[mz53480]

Cool. How was the viz?
Also, where is this 'far' wall as compared to the usual wall?

MZ

[Jeff Pack]

You'd have to ask Mike, he had the map of the area, I just recall there was a farther away wall that goes to around 90ft I think, but we were limited to Micah's capacity and training.

Viz was a good 20 feet, alittle more earlier in the morning until those swells started rolling in.

[mpenders]

Here's a link to a dive map of Octopus Hole that indicates a deeper wall.


I've not found/dove the deeper wall myself, and the map is a little out-date (no platform exists). Best way to find the shallow wall is to walk or surface swim to the nearly-downed tree that is south of the entry, then head straight out/away from the shore

http://pnwscuba.com/sitemaps/octopushole.gif

[Scubie Doo]

Nice recap Jeff. We did have a good time. Nice viz and no crowd. I left my camera on the shore on dive two since I was buddied with a newer diver. I wanted to make sure he enjoyed himself and that I was paying attention :-) Here are a few photos. Not much of the UW variety, only took 19 pics.

[RoxnDox]

NIce pics, Jesse. Or was that Chezzie? (sorry, I couldn't help myself)

What shutter/exposure settings did you have to go to for the wave-smoothed shots that day? They turned out great... Tripod, or just balance the camera on a handy rock?

Jim

[kitsapdiver]

Here's a link to a dive map of Octopus Hole that indicates a deeper wall.


I've not found/dove the deeper wall myself, and the map is a little out-date (no platform exists). Best way to find the shallow wall is to walk or surface swim to the nearly-downed tree that is south of the entry, then head straight out/away from the shore

http://pnwscuba.com/sitemaps/octopushole.gif

I have never seen that particular map of Octopus Hole before, I have been to 100fsw there, and dind't notice anywall, so my guess would be that there is a very small wall there, not worth writing home about, or perhaps I just missed it. Either way does anyone else find it weird that there would be "eel grass" between 90 and 130? I'm thinking maybe the originator meant sea pens? I dunno

[mpenders]

Either way does anyone else find it weird that there would be "eel grass" between 90 and 130? I'm thinking maybe the originator meant sea pens? I dunno

+1
My first thought was sea whips instead of eelgrass.

I didn't take many pictures during the dives here, there just weren't that many critters about. Here's a couple did get:

California Berthella

Lingcod guarding eggs

[Scubie Doo]

NIce pics, Jesse. Or was that Chezzie? (sorry, I couldn't help myself)

What shutter/exposure settings did you have to go to for the wave-smoothed shots that day? They turned out great... Tripod, or just balance the camera on a handy rock?

Jim

Jim,

Sorry for the delayed response. I missed it somehow. Rather than using my G10 Underwater camera, I used my wife's Nikon D40. The settings used were; F27 - Shutter 4 seconds - ISO 200. I used a handy rock :-)

Regards,
Chezzie

[RoxnDox]

NIce pics, Jesse. Or was that Chezzie? (sorry, I couldn't help myself)

What shutter/exposure settings did you have to go to for the wave-smoothed shots that day? They turned out great... Tripod, or just balance the camera on a handy rock?

Jim

Jim,

Sorry for the delayed response. I missed it somehow. Rather than using my G10 Underwater camera, I used my wife's Nikon D40. The settings used were; F27 - Shutter 4 seconds - ISO 200. I used a handy rock :-)

Regards,
Chezzie

It sure turned out great... I've tried long exposures doing the same thing to get blurred motion on streams, and I get a decent shot perhaps half the attempts...

Jim

[Scubie Doo]

Thanks Jim, it is tough to avoid over-exposing the shot with such a long shutter speed. Therefore, you need to take the picture dawn or evening. Or any of the gloomy days here

[RoxnDox]

Thanks Jim, it is tough to avoid over-exposing the shot with such a long shutter speed. Therefore, you need to take the picture dawn or evening. Or any of the gloomy days here

Or spend $$ on a decent ND filter... One of those things I keep hedging on, especially now that I have underwater stuff I can use it on instead!

Jim

[Scubie Doo]

Good point. I agree, more $ on underwater gear.