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We just returned from our Thanksgiving trip to Lowe=B9s Resort, in Pender
Harbor, British Columbia.
This is my report on that trip.
We stayed at Lowe=B9s, as we always do, and dove with Bryce Christie, the
finest Captain in the business, Master of the Topline.
His web site is:
<http://www.sunshinecoasttours.bc.ca/scuba.html>
He=B9s the one you want. Don=B9t waste time, like we have, with others.
11/25 Arrive at Lowe=B9s Resort after a trip made longer by the storms,
traffic, and shorter by our new Forester. I drive back into Sechelt,
looking for milk, and then we fall into bed, exhausted.
11/26 Thanksgiving has become my favorite holiday. Barbara, the One True
Dive Babe, wakes me up by telling me that the NFL is on TV, and I wake up
and watch the umpires beat the Steelers, in Coin-gate. Our cunning plan
was to arrive a day early, so we could sleep in and relax the first day,
and it works wonderfully. Lori and Tammi arrive next, and they are in a
mood. Barbara cooks Thanksgiving turkey, which of course comes out
wonderfully, and Russ rolls in, and we eat turkey. The meal calms the
women, and Russ and I leave on the Thanksgiving dive, a night dive in the
Skookumchuck. I return exhausted, but happy. I eat Barbara=B9s homemade
pumpkin cheesecake, and drink Ghiradeli=B9s, write this report, and fall
into bed.
Dive #1: 11/26/98, Park Wall, Skookumchuck Rapids
Night dive
80 feet for 37 minutes, 46 degrees, on air, with Russ, off the Topline.
Light current.
Comments:
Russ and I drop into a pitch black night, after a dark, rainy trip. Below
the surface, of course, is Park Wall, one of the most beautiful places on
Earth. Strawberry Anemones, Urchins, and every color of the spectrum
cover every inch, and we drop to 80 feet, drifting slowly through a dead
slack for about 15 minutes, and then the current turns. We drift with the
new current for a LONG time, and watch the scenery. We look for octopus,
but don=B9t find any.
11/27 Kathy and somebody-her-Old-Man join us just as we are leaving the
dock. At first glance, we have been saddled with two strokes, complete
with snorkels and force fins. They turn out to be nice people, who simply
have never been exposed to how to Do It Right. They dangle, they flash,
but they are nice people. Russ, having learned last year, takes seasick
medication, and lapses into a coma until we reach the dive site.
We count more than eight mature Bald Eagles as we leave the harbor.
Dive #2: 11/27/98, Telescope Pass, British Columbia
Vis 20-30
130 feet for 40 minutes, 46 degrees, on air, with Barbara, off the
Topline.
Comments:
We leave Lowe=B9s in a stiff rain, and Bryce predicts foul weather, and a
nasty passage across the open water between Pender Harbor and the
Agememnon, but when we clear the Harbor, the water is flat, and the only
issue is visibility.
We take advantage of the flat water, and sail past the Agememnon, North
to Blind Bay, and through Blind Bay to Telescope Pass, where Bryce tells
us the story of Captain Nelson at Trafalgor, when the Admiral raised a
Retreat signal, Captain Nelson put his telescope to his blind eye, and
stated that he saw no retreat signal, and then performed brilliant
maneuvers that made naval history. And now, Blind Bay will forever remain
adjacent to Telescope Pass.
The dive is pretty, giant nudibranchs shallow, and below 100 feet the
cloud sponges grow to be longer than I am tall. My computer dies after
only about 10 minutes, and I signal Barbara, and we keep it shallower
than we had planned.
My right knee is leaking, and we cut the dive short because I=B9m cold.
I abort the second dive of the day, because my knee is wet, and my
computer appears to be dead.
After the dives, I call the Dive Locker, in Sechelt, only to discover
that they are only open on Saturdays and Sundays. A quick discussion
confirms that they are failing here, and have been going steadily down
hill since buying the shop from Bill Brooks. I am highly amused, as well
as annoyed, because Bill managed to make a good living here, and now,
because they don=B9t know how to run a dive shop, I can=B9t get a new
computer. Barbara wants another Mk20/G250, but I guess we=B9ll buy them all=
back in Seattle.
That night, I tear my drysuit apart and find and patch a leaking section
of seam right above my right knee. Tearing drysuits apart in the middle
of the night in cabins at Lowe=B9s has become a well-honored tradition, we
do it every year. Since I can=B9t get a new computer until we get home, I
take the batteries out, wipe everything I see, and put it back together.
I have high hopes.
11/28 Aaron joins us at Eggmont, before the first dive. He=B9s been driving=
since 4:30 this morning, and after diving the Chaudiere, he promptly
falls asleep. Go figure.
Dive #3: 11/28/98, The Chaudiere, Sechelt, B.C.
Vis 30-40
142 feet for 46 minutes, 45 degrees, on air, Solo, off the Topline.
Comments:
We don=B9t know if Tammi will be able to clear her ears, so we make
complicated plans on who will dive with who after we find out who=B9s
diving, and I just wait until I hear that Barbara isn=B9t going to dive
with me, and then I drop, alone.
I drop down the midship line, there are now five buoys on the wreck, two
have been added, one new one that leads directly to the bridge, and I
didn=B9t see where the other new one leads. Cal, from Sechelt, is there,
with both his boats, and on board is Ron and Barb from Bellingham, and
Andrew, his Old Lady, and Tom from Fifth Dimension, in Kent. I look over
Cal=B9s operation, and decide that Tom and Andrew obviously haven=B9t had a=
chance to dive with Bryce yet, because the Topline is far superior to
what I saw of Cal=B9s boats. The dive decks of both his boats, combined,
add up to about half the square footage of the Toplines, there were no
tank racks on the dive decks, and, in fact, one of the boats was an old
=B3floating home=B2, ala the Snowcrest.
I hit the Chaudiere a lot shallower than I expected, at about 70 feet. I
dropped immediately over the top (She lies on her side), and down into
the mud at about 100, and followed a pretty little reef along the bottom.
Then I returned to the ship, and followed it all the way out to the bow,
at 142, and ascended just in time to meet Barbara and Lori, who were
wandering along the top (side) of the wreck. They turned, and headed
towards the stern, and I headed that way down the centerline of the ship,
at about 110, which became 70 by the time I reached the mortar bay, and
65 by the time I reached the stern. They headed up the stern line, and I
turned back and cruised back down to the midship line, where I spent a
few minutes in deco, and then up and out.
A very pleasant dive, no penetration. The Chaudiere is starting to pick
up some life, there are encrusting sponges everywhere, in addition to the
tunicates.
Dive #4: 11/28/98, Lighthouse Island, in the Skookumchuck narrows, B.C.
Vis: Black Water
80 feet for 11 minutes, 46 degrees, on air, with Barbara, off the Topline.
Comments:
A dive with more excitement than I bargained for. Coming through the
Skookumchuck narrows, Bryce and I start looking at the current, and it
looks flat. We talk, and he says that yes, it=B9s divable, but we need to
get in fairly quickly. We get in as fast as we can, with Barbara and I
taking the last spot, but we drop just as the current starts to turn. We
have about five minutes of control, and then we are picked up, gently,
and swept out into the channel, where the current becomes a raging 7
knots, that tears us off the reef, separates us, and drives me down into
black water, where things go wrong. I=B9m being pushed down, deeper and
deeper, when my mask is suddenly ripped down around my nose, and now
there are lots of things that need my attention. I need to clear my ears,
I need argon in my suit, I need more buoyancy, and I need to replace my
mask. I push my mask to my face and clear it, my ears, and look at my
gauges, and then my mask floods again, and the cycle repeats. My mask
won=B9t stay on my face, and I haven=B9t got time or hands to replace it
properly. Now down in black water, with zero vis, and being driven deeper
and deeper, I drop my mask, hit both inflators, and hold them down. I let
them go when I surface. Barbara surfaces several minutes after I reach
the boat, and the rest of the divers are scattered all over the rapids.
Bryce picks us all up, and everyone agrees that that was one hell of a
ride. Everyone loved it, except me. I would have loved it, too, if I
hadn=B9t lost my damn mask. On the boat, I examine my mask carefully, and
find nothing wrong with it. I check everything, and then Bryce is asking
if anyone wants to go back in, so I put it on, and get back in the water.
Dive #5: 11/28/98, Unnamed Wall, in the Skookumchuck, B.C.
Vis: Black Water
61 feet for 23 minutes, 46 degrees, with Barbara, off the Topline.
Comments:
I drop in with Barbara, and we descend immediately to a pretty reef,
where we watch a lemon colored nudibranch crawling through a forest of
urchins. We putter around for fifteen minutes, and then the current has
us again, and sweeps us off the reef, and back down into black water.
This time, though, I remain in control of my gear, and Barbara and I
exchange OK signals with our lights just before we drop out of visual
range, and then I surface, slowly. We decide against the night dive, and
we eat left over turkey, and call it a night, early.
11/29 Aaron fails to tie off his tanks, and on the way out of the harbor,
they fall onto the deck, breaking his regulator. He cancels the rest of
his dives.
Dive #6: 11/29/98, Fearney Bluff, Agememnon Channel, B.C.
Vis: 30-40
130 feet for 46 minutes, 44 degrees, with Barbara, off the Topline.
Comments:
Barbara and I, and one of our favorite dives. A sheer British Columbia
Forever Face, and we drop to cloud sponges that are bigger than we are,
below 130 feet. Barbara spots a baby King Crab, and then we cruise past
the life at 60. This site is beautiful, deep there are tiny gorgonian
coral and huge cloud sponges, while it is still the finest 15 foot dive
there is. From 15 to 30 feet, every inch is covered, and we hang in awe,
and watch the wall live.
The granite here measures its life in millennium, and everything that
clings to it, everything that swims by it, grows on it, brushes up
against it, or hides in it is temporary. It is a humbling thing to
witness, and it is an honor to do so.
11/29 After the first dive, everyone gets all antsy about the ferry.
Everyone just HAS to do that, every trip. So, Bryce, the Prince of
Captains, steps in with a Solomon class decision. We do the first dive,
and then put all the whiners in early, jerk them out, and take them back
to the dock so they can cut their vacation short, and catch the 14:30
ferry. I have never, do not now, and will make no attempt in the future
to understand such behavior. If push comes to shove, they are going to
miss their precious ferry, because this is my vacation. Thank god for
Captains like Bryce. We then return, just the One True Dive Babe, Bryce,
and myself, to do a leisurely second dive at our pace, in a vacation-like
manner.
Dive #7: 11/29/98, Fearney Bluff, Agememnon Channel, B.C.
Vis: 30-40
140 feet for 25 minutes, 44 degrees, on air, with Barbara, off the
Topline.
Comments:
Final dive of our trip. The whiners have been dropped off, and Barbara
and I have this huge, wonderful dive deck all to ourselves.
Bryce=B9s kids join us, and we try to talk them into coming with us.
We drop and wander, and the batteries on my primary light finally fade,
and our trip ends gently, at one of the most beautiful spots in the world.
Back in the cabin, we invite Bryce and Helen to dinner, and in the
shower, I note that the cabin floor, and the bed, are moving in time with
the sea.
11/30 We drive home in the rain, and congratulate ourselves on having the
wisdom to go up a day early, and stay a day late.
A huge success.
"C'mon, you sons of bitches, you want to live forever?"
-First Sergeant Dan Daly
"Who wants to live forever?"
-Freddie Mercury
"I swear, I'm going to live forever"
-Jon Bon Jovi
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