David, the only place where currents run against each other is south of
Quadra Island (near Mitlenatch), where the tidal exchange from Juan de
Fuca north meets the water coming south from Johnstone.  The sea
condition you report is the result of prevailing winds which are
opposite to the current direction, resulting in short wavelength,
peaked waves which are a sloppy ride in a small boat.  3-5 feet is
irrelevant, the constant west coast swell is bigger than that, but is
easily diveable provided you don't have wind generated waves as well -
use a bigger boat, and check the weather and tides before you dive.  If
you have a sea running, do not incur a large deco obligation.

A heavy sea is one of the best reasons to do a drift deco
(incidentally, why are you doing dives that require deco stops on a 70
foot reef?), to minimize diver anxiety and exertion - especially
important at the shallow stops.  The only reason for not doing this
would be a reduction in surface visibility to the extent that it would
endanger the divers' lives to drift deco, in which case you call off
the dive, instead of doing it wrong.

As you mentioned, the best diving here is in the winter.  Anyone not
diving because of cold air temp. needs to move to Florida.

-Sean


On Thu, 2 Sep 1999 19:10:03 -0700, David & Jamie Thiesfeld wrote:

>Dan,
>  This sounds like a troll but I'm going to bite anyway. Your response below
>has got me curious as to how much cold water diving experience you have, and
>I don't mean this as an insult.
>    A little background on why: I learned to dive in Florida while stationed
>At Homestead AFB. Eventually I moved back home to the Northwest and a buddy
>invited me diving on his dads boat in the San Juan Islands. Talk about
>culture shock,  this macho diver from Florida (me) was in for a rude
>awakening with this cold water crap. Comparing diving in these two areas is
>like comparing apples to oranges.
>   From about April through October visibility in the 3-5 ft. range is the
>rule up here, not the exception. Its also known as the diving season
>here.Big currents are also the rule, not the exception. Winter is a much
>different story, but you can't get many people in the water when the air
>temp. is 30-40 degrees F.
>    The seas here are also nastier, A 3-5 ft. sea up here is twice as nasty
>as I remember it being in Florida. I don't know how to explain this one
>except that while Florida currents usually run one direction we get two
>currents trying to run against each other.
>  I'd like to offer food for thought on the drifting deco debate also.
>Recently we were diving on a reef (70' deep)in the Straits of Juan De
>Fuca. This reef is so small ( about 100ft. x 25ft.) you have to Use a GPS
>and depth finder to find it, but its loaded with fish. You get close with
>the GPS and then watch for the blip on your depth finder. With a 2+ knot
>current running we marked the site with a standard 24" inflatable float ball
>with an anchor for the dive. After the first dive we went back to port for
>lunch and came back using the GPS to navigate. It wasn't until we got about
>50 ft. from the ball before we could see it, we were all shocked and I was
>glad I wasn't doing a drifting deco. I don't know how to explain it but the
>seas are just different up here.
>   All things said and done I would take a dive at Dunkin Rock (our diving
>Mecca) over anyplace  else in the world that I've dove. You haven't been
>diving till you dove " The Rock".
>
>David
>Central Washington Scuba Center
>www.cwscuba.com


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