Northwest Dive Club

Is anyone going out to Northwest Island (Rosario) these days? I just got my hands on a DPV.

I’ve dove the west side off a boat and it was fantastic. If I had a scooter I would be diving there and around Skyline regularly.

Sounds really cool. Maybe I should get my scooter in service again just to hit that.

YellowEye wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 10:56 am Sounds really cool. Maybe I should get my scooter in service again just to hit that.

Yes, you should!

What happened to the scooter? flood?

eh.haole wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2020 8:11 pm What happened to the scooter? flood?

It has just been sitting unused in my garage for over 10 years. Just didn't find much use for it.

If you want to plan something like that let me know I'll run you out there...
I have. a DPV

Cool, yeah it looks interesting, any tide notes? Apart from Rosario or Pass slack? I figure one would want to aim for the ridge reef NE of the island for an approach.
I almost went there today for a look but had to do other stuff.

I got around to checking this out today. Calm seas and the still fog burned off right around the perfect time for a weak flood. Visibility bordering on terrible (6-8 ft?) for the scooter out WNW along the 10 metre contour, with areas of fully terrible (1-2 foot) during certain plumes of eddy currents and/or finning mistakes at a putative wall bottom/ledge somewhere (40 metres/130 feet).

Lucky encounters with lots of things on the way back up to 20, 15, and around to the scooter back. This made the dive worthwhile.

Not sure exactly where I was or how much of the island I met today on account of the "visibility," but definitely I will look forward to going back.

Anyone accustomed and pleased to do a similar dive/profile, please let me know!

Sooo cool you got to go and found candy!!! Sounds so fun!!

Very cool! Do you think a surface scoot would have been better? How would you compare the reef to other sites?

The bottom ~10m contour scoot was no problem, apart from the occasional grass dodge. A surface scoot/snorkel could facilitate a precise drop and gas savings, but more at the mercy of weather, currents and errant speedboat traffic.

The part of the wall I saw was quite large and as deep as anyone wants according to the bathymetry, although I was finding silt ledges below 30m and silt is quite pervasive on the side that faces the Pass (centuries of industrialized Skagit outflows?)

A bit further along and in more sensible depths (~20 metres) it looked like a similar intact ecosystem to the Pass, but not as clean and stunning since the currents aren't strong enough to powerwash it as much. Next time I will skip going deep and try to circumnavigate at the 20m level to get some more bearings.

Very cool. Were there proliferating anemones and finger sponges?

I mean, probably? But I am not an expert. It's no Pass Narrows, but there is cool stuff to encounter and the tide I got seemed pretty benign (14:30 to 16:30, 15th of July)

YellowEye wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 12:08 pm Very cool. Were there proliferating anemones and finger sponges?

It’s pretty similar to Sares Head or the less current intensive sites in the San Juans. It’s definitely not as pretty at the pass or skyline but I remember enjoying it a lot. There are lots of crimson anemones with candies (It’s where I saw my first ) and the usual wildlife you see in the area. When I did it we also saw several wolf eels out on ledges along with a big pskc. I don’t remember any sponges or other higher current species.