Paul called me Saturday afternoon wanting to know if I wanted to be the 4th on a Sunday boat dive launching out of Holmes Harbor, in Freeland.

"Of course I do!"

We met at the dock at 0900 -- Boat was already in the water, most of all the gear already onboard. It's times like this that makes me happy I was 15 minutes early. I hate it when the boys are waiting for me.

We weren't going out very far-- about a 10 minute trek. I spent the time attaching my steel 92's to my BC, getting all my gear out of the H2Zero bag and began to suit up. Paul walked by me and asked me if I needed anything.

"A smaller ass, please."

...as I wrestled my neoprene...

Paul looks around the deck of the boat, shrugs, and says,

"Sorry Kit. I failed to bring my 'spare ass' bag."

Smart aleck. (Smart Ass?)

When we got to the dive site, Paul & Pete jumped in first. The objective was to find a sunken barge in about 100+ feet of water. Todd and I stayed with the boat during their dive, so we could be live to go get them, if they came up anywhere other than the Diver Down buoy line.

It was a little overcast, about 61F, hardly any current to speak of.

After Paul & Pete came back up, Todd and I went about finishing up putting on our gear so we could splash. Unfortunately, the boys couldn't find the barge -- they instead managed to notice just how much of a sandy bottom Holmes Harbor has. That's a shame.

*Todd (sitting) and part of Paul's head

*Paul (l) and Pete getting ready to giant stride at the Holmes Harbor dive site

So, after they came up, Todd and I got into the water. It's a little disorienting, descending down a line and seeing particles in the water drifting around you. You know you're descending, but without some sort of visual focal point, you feel... well, loopy. I started to see the bottom when we got to about 100'. I slowed my descent and checked my air supply. RBT - 5: I guess I really get anxious when I go to a new dive site. I breathe heavily and the lung icon pops up on my SmartCOM. I mentally scolded myself.

"Relax, breathe, slow your breathing, breathe, breathe, breathe, you're ok, breathe, Kit, breathe."

RBT went back up after I berated myself a little.

There really wasn't much to see. The barge was a skeleton. What was left of the beams rose directly out of the mass. Copper rock fish haunted what was left of it. There really wasn't much left to look at. Some anemone's found homes, but for the most part. Sand, Sand everywhere.

We turned to go back up the buoy line. At around 60' my computer read that I had a RBT = 0:
I looked up the line and Todd was within arms reach. All three of the boys dive redundant. I could reach Todds' pony without a problem. I shut my eyes tight for a few seconds, went back into a calming mode, slowed my breathing and did my safety stops as I should.

As I ascended, I felt better.

I've decided that I don't really much care for deep diving. Maybe when I have a little more experience and I can control my breathing a little better.

We pulled up the Diver Down buoy and headed back into the dock. We barely caught the dock at a tide where Todd could off load the three of us, jump into our cars and do our Surface Interval while we drove down to the Langley Marina.

The tide was going to go out even further, so it made sense to move the boat to a area where we were able to dock the boat to offload gear after our second dive. Otherwise, it would have been hours before we could have gotten close enough to the Holmes Harbor dock.

*leaving Langley Marina to head to Greenbank dive site

So... it's interesting driving a car with neoprene on... wet neoprene. Paul offered me a towel to sit on because your's truly forgot to bring herself one. We waited around for Todd to bring the boat down the island, watching a big Bald Eagle evading some Seagulls. I guess he got a little to close and they were in serious pursuit of the big guy. Pete and I chatted about the final season of the Soprano's. It was either a brilliant or horrible ending. I haven't been able to figure out which one it was. Either way... I was sad to see it end.

Todd showed up and off we went out of the Langley Marina. We had about a 30 minute cruise, so again, not wanting anyone to have to wait for me, I got busy changing out my tanks and getting my gear ready.

*Todd

Objective for this dive: Find the man-made reef, comprised of sunken boats. Todd said one of the boats was a large kayak, planted in the sand so it's bow reached up to the sky. Todd threw out the anchor so we could all splash at the same time. We found the dive site with ease. The kayak was pretty cool to check out. Todd had me "stand" on my fins next to it and wave so he could take a picture of me. If I knew how it was mounted, I would have slipped inside of it and pretended I was workin' oars.

Not a lot of life growing on the boats here either... there was a lot of sand and a lot of Copper Rock fish again. After about 30 minutes, we went back to the anchor line.

I guess due to some increased workload from the previous dive and this one, my computer wanted me to be a little more cautious on ascent. Todd motioned he was going to take more pictures, and I told him I was going to head up since I had a long ascent ahead of me... I had a required safety stop at 20ft for 2: & another one at 10ft for 10:

Strange. But, ya know... better safe than sorry.

I was a little cold after this dive. Paul came up and put a towel around my shoulders. Heh. Now I have two of his towels.

We have a new set of kiddies coming into WIDC tomorrow - so I'll bring them back then. Anyways, we got back to the Marina, sun was shining and we set about hauling all our gear back to our cars.

Todd decided to moor his boat in Langley for the week since he was working just up the road.

Oh... for the record? My Canon S1 SI is toast. This is the camera I use for my underwater pictures. The housing flooded last week so there won't be any pictures taken by me underwater for awhile. The pictures in this post was taken with my Tilt. Hopefully Todd will send today's pictures to me and I'll put them in this blog later.

Will keep ya'll posted.

(Oh, Gas on the Island now : $4.67)

Crab Season Opens, July 2nd, 2008

July 1st... it's almost midnight when I hear Clints' truck pull into the driveway. I get out of bed, go upstairs and help him bring in his gear for the night... compiling mostly of doggie bed, doggie food, doggie wee-wee pads, orange juice and a bucket of scallops.

He curls up on the futon while his little dogs explore my place. They're little, they're cute.... we go to sleep a little before 1AM and then one of the dogs wanted out at 0430. So, I could not see myself going back to sleep -- so I got up, started breakfast & managed to get myself a cup of coffee.

Clint shucked the scallops and threw them in a frying pan. We had a decent breakfast before we loaded up all the gear and head down to the Langley Marina.

Paul was already there.

We geared up, discussed the dive plan,

"Try to stick together, but if we get separated, no big deal, right"?
"Right."

Long story short, I ended up to the North, Clint ended up to the South and Paul - master navigator he must be- ended up right in the middle where he was supposed to be.

I had come across a 'clam shell graveyard' and there were hundreds of Rock crab all over -- most of the Dungeness were female. *shucks* But we did manage to bag a few legal crab between the 3 of us.

We came back to my place where we boiled them up in the outdoor propane grill. I threw some party wings and some prawns wrapped in bacon on the BBQ and we enjoyed our Surface Interval, chit-chatting and having lunch.

Somewhere in there though, we all fell asleep and took a little nappy-poo.

Around 1430, Paul & I woke up and tousled Clint off of the futon. We packed up our gear and went back down to Langley for dive #2.

We did a lot better sticking together this time. All in all we managed to come up with 27 legal crab. We went back to my place, fired up the propane grill -- shared a pizza and off we went out separate ways. Okay well, I went back into my house and plopped my butt down to watch Deadwood.


I'm pooped! Hunting is hard work and who'da thunk them crabs can crawl so fast? ;)




Wish we had more this size... this one had over a 7" carapace...

From 06/08/08 Onamac Point & Hat Island dive June 8, 2008

Onamac Point & Hat Island dive June 8, 2008
Originally uploaded by PierPressure

We took off north out of the Marina, on the Navy Base in Oak Harbor and took off towards Camano Island. Craig and his son, Jeff splashed first. Having some problems with Craigs's mask and also some poor visibility, their dive didn't last very long and we wound up pulling up anchor and headed for Hat Island in Possession Sound.

Half way there, the low oil alarm on Julie's Trophy screamed, so we cut the engines and 'MacGuyver'ed' the reserve oil to the outboard. We disconnected the lines to the alarm and moved to the Langley Marina, where Julie and I hoofed it up to the Star Store and bought all the 2-stroke oil they had in the place.

Back on the boat, back on towards our destination, we made it to Hat Island. We observed some Sea Lions basking on the exposed rocks, due to the extreme low tide.

Craig and I had both brought our spear guns, as it was the last day for Ling Cod spearfishing, but for some reason, we splashed without them. Of course, upon descent, there were Ling Cod everywhere. Oh well. Next year.

Decent Visibility.

Great day - we went back to Julie's place, rinsed off gear, ordered a pizza - and sat in the Hot tub while we drank Brandy Sours.

From 06/01/08 Vid: Giant Pacific Acorn Barnacle (Balanus nubilis)

Vid: Giant Pacific Acorn Barnacle (Balanus nubilis)
Originally uploaded by PierPressure

Wow, look at this! Two days in a row I managed to blog.

We went to the Keystone Jetty today. It was the 4th (fun) dive of the O/W kiddies. This was the dive they were to plan on their own and execute it. At the end of the qualifying dive (over 15 feet for over 15 minutes) they were certified scuba divers. Yay!

Anyways, I shot this video today. It's super short, but it turned out alright. You can click right beneath the video itself to go to my Flickr page to see more pictures I have taken, if you would like.

Viz was bad, so taking pictures wasn't much fun, so I'm surprised this quick clip turned out as well as it did. Current was bookin' through the pilings pretty good and it was very difficult to stay in place and shoot. Very pretty Cirripedia (the feathered fingers) extend from the shell to efficiently kick planktonic food and detritus into their shells. Some of these (usually at deeper depths,) can grow up to 12" in diameter.

Julie, Paul & I stopped at the Tyee for lunch and then I headed home, took care of my gear and then I mowed my lawn.

Monday comes early, after work, I head back up to the North End to sit in on the new kiddies coming in. It's Introductory night to WIDC and that's a lot of fun. *groan*

No rest for the wicked.

*Side note: Gas prices on the island: $4.26 p/g

From 5/31/08 Sun-Flower Stars (Pycnapodia helianthoides)

*Kit Note: Sorry to do this, but I am going to post a few (b)logs here from a previous Blog that I owned - I want to put everything in one place so, just notice the dates on these 3 (b)logs.

Sun Flower Stars
Originally uploaded by PierPressure

By far, one of my most favorite underwater invertebrates, the Sun Flower Star. Found commonly from Alaska to Southern California, they are found to be the largest in the Puget Sound & British Columbia area.

The Sunflower Star is the largest, heaviest, and most active of the Pacific coast sea stars. They are very soft and flexible creatures, which can bear up to 24 arms in adults with an arm radius of over 15 inches. (That's 30" total, guys!)

They are very predatory and have impressively fast mobility.

While they vary from brown, purple, orange, yellow and red, my favorite is shown in this picture. They look like they're backlit. I took this picture at the Langley Tire Reef, in Langley, Washington on beautiful Whidbey Island.

(...on a side note, I've not posted to this blog since Sept 07. I'm going to try to be better. I've got a lot going on in my life right now, with diving, work, job offers, courses I'm taking, general housekeep and maintenance, some 'semblance of a social &/or romantic life and I just need to figure out how to juggle it all. I am going to try to use this blog more for scuba diving adventures and try not to be so bitchy about things that piss me off....Wish me luck)