Stuart Island
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2017 8:40 pm
many many years ago i had talked to a diver on scuba Board who frequently made boat trips up to stuart island, He was a rebreather diver and he would stay and Moor on the island while doing multiple dives at Turn point .... The reason i really enjoyed the talks was because he spoke of the Wall there ... what Kinda a wall ? well take a look ..
you see that line 24 fathoms .... then 47 fathoms ...? 168 feet to over 600 FEET !! Now thats a wall ..
there is nothing i enjoy more than being on a wall , and looking down to nothing but Black Abyss.. the fact of diving on a deep wall really gets me pumped and excited .. being neutral on a wall and just looking down thinking ..WOW i could really disappear if i went down .. ok so back to the story i tried several times to schedule such a dive to Stuart Island with guy who i cant remember now who he was ..LOL but it never worked out ... I tried and called the anacortes dive charters but the Run time to get up there is way to long , like 5 hours , and it was a no go .. the other Main Big issue of trying to dive Turn point, is massive Current ... the point is very subject to currents , and when it going .. the water is very turbulent, much like deception pass .. So i needed the right tide day , and a person with a boat ... Now comes Seaslave .... He lives in Birch bay , and I dive with him all the time in the san juans .. But turn point was never do able for his work sched , and when he was able to get free of work... I have 3 factors to try and get out to this Epic Wall .. a Boat .. tides , and weather ... So i waited ... and i waited ... and i waited ... 5 years went By
Last summer i got a text ... and it read ... " want to Dive turn point ? " I replied ... " dont tease me Bro , you know dam Well I want to dive there !! " Seaslave then replied .. " pack your Gear cause Its On !!! " turn Point was finally going to happen , and it was on My Bucket list .. I have many diving bucket lists , we all do , we all have a place or a dive that we want to do before we die .. I have 2 more to do for my list .. film Red Goose Neck barnacles @ Nakwakto Rapids, British Columbia.. 22 knots of Death ... and some day Make it down to the Chan Islands to swim in large Kelp forests ..
The pure Fact i was going to stuart Island was great .. the fact i was going to get on this wall was even Better ...
The Dive :
we Loaded up and boated over , the trip would take an Hr to reach the site , om the way we Hit Gull rock and took in some wild life.. once at stuart Island we geared Up and waited ... Matt was out due to a cold , so Jake and I were diving together... we splashed in after a short wait and the kelp laid down , next to cliff we went over our plan and dive ... i hit my deflator and dropped ... the water was a bit fuzzy with sediment , but viz on this day was 20 feet , I fired up my video and started my drop on the wall ... it was massive , and Awe inspiring , Huge and sheer was the underwater cliffs , and when i looked down there was nothing Below me .. Nothing But the call of the deep ... This was the Mega wall i had heard of .. I cant image hitting this site now in the winter time and having 40 feet of Viz .. the wall Just dropped .. all around me were thousands of white Plumose , rows and fields of them.. many Crimson anemones , they were everywhere here , and full of candy stripe shrimp ... parts of the wall that are hit hard with current are covered in bright colors of life .. sponges , and barnacles , blood stars , cushion stars , and a new one for me a Northern star.. massive schools of rock fish , there were some nice over hangs here along with a cave ... I saw sea cukes , and sea apples , plenty of Nudis , the wall had it all in one dive ... too bad i only had 1 tank to dive it with ... the life zone between 40 and 20 was superb .. I spent my dive swimming south toward the cove and ended up on a overhang in 20 feet Loaded with zoanthid Polyps, and very colorful Mushroom Tunicates .... the dive was Epic in more ways than i could have imagined , and i cant wait to get back there someday ...
https://youtu.be/uTUyaxPTlD4
you see that line 24 fathoms .... then 47 fathoms ...? 168 feet to over 600 FEET !! Now thats a wall ..
there is nothing i enjoy more than being on a wall , and looking down to nothing but Black Abyss.. the fact of diving on a deep wall really gets me pumped and excited .. being neutral on a wall and just looking down thinking ..WOW i could really disappear if i went down .. ok so back to the story i tried several times to schedule such a dive to Stuart Island with guy who i cant remember now who he was ..LOL but it never worked out ... I tried and called the anacortes dive charters but the Run time to get up there is way to long , like 5 hours , and it was a no go .. the other Main Big issue of trying to dive Turn point, is massive Current ... the point is very subject to currents , and when it going .. the water is very turbulent, much like deception pass .. So i needed the right tide day , and a person with a boat ... Now comes Seaslave .... He lives in Birch bay , and I dive with him all the time in the san juans .. But turn point was never do able for his work sched , and when he was able to get free of work... I have 3 factors to try and get out to this Epic Wall .. a Boat .. tides , and weather ... So i waited ... and i waited ... and i waited ... 5 years went By
Last summer i got a text ... and it read ... " want to Dive turn point ? " I replied ... " dont tease me Bro , you know dam Well I want to dive there !! " Seaslave then replied .. " pack your Gear cause Its On !!! " turn Point was finally going to happen , and it was on My Bucket list .. I have many diving bucket lists , we all do , we all have a place or a dive that we want to do before we die .. I have 2 more to do for my list .. film Red Goose Neck barnacles @ Nakwakto Rapids, British Columbia.. 22 knots of Death ... and some day Make it down to the Chan Islands to swim in large Kelp forests ..
The pure Fact i was going to stuart Island was great .. the fact i was going to get on this wall was even Better ...
The Dive :
we Loaded up and boated over , the trip would take an Hr to reach the site , om the way we Hit Gull rock and took in some wild life.. once at stuart Island we geared Up and waited ... Matt was out due to a cold , so Jake and I were diving together... we splashed in after a short wait and the kelp laid down , next to cliff we went over our plan and dive ... i hit my deflator and dropped ... the water was a bit fuzzy with sediment , but viz on this day was 20 feet , I fired up my video and started my drop on the wall ... it was massive , and Awe inspiring , Huge and sheer was the underwater cliffs , and when i looked down there was nothing Below me .. Nothing But the call of the deep ... This was the Mega wall i had heard of .. I cant image hitting this site now in the winter time and having 40 feet of Viz .. the wall Just dropped .. all around me were thousands of white Plumose , rows and fields of them.. many Crimson anemones , they were everywhere here , and full of candy stripe shrimp ... parts of the wall that are hit hard with current are covered in bright colors of life .. sponges , and barnacles , blood stars , cushion stars , and a new one for me a Northern star.. massive schools of rock fish , there were some nice over hangs here along with a cave ... I saw sea cukes , and sea apples , plenty of Nudis , the wall had it all in one dive ... too bad i only had 1 tank to dive it with ... the life zone between 40 and 20 was superb .. I spent my dive swimming south toward the cove and ended up on a overhang in 20 feet Loaded with zoanthid Polyps, and very colorful Mushroom Tunicates .... the dive was Epic in more ways than i could have imagined , and i cant wait to get back there someday ...
https://youtu.be/uTUyaxPTlD4