UnderseaImages's blog

Ventured out to the northwesternmost coast of the contiguous United States to do some world class diving and spearfishing.  The water was calm and fairly warm with temps above 50, which is rare.   Friday we had a gray whale close by the boat at the mouth of the harbor and back at Cabin 25 we had dinner while watching many blows offshore the beach.  The second day we enjoyed clear water diving.  A great adventure to top off my 50 years on Earth.

Dean Valente, Sean Hartman, Matt Warning, Lucas Shuler and professional Blue Water hunter Brandon Wahlers made the crossing from Deception Pass to Lopez Island for the opening day of Ling Cod Season for spearfishing in Puget Sound.  The spearfishing season is only three weeks out of the year.  The currents were minimal for the two hours we dove during the ebb and just as we left the flood tide started to rip through our dive site.  The water was a cold 46F but we enjoyed some decent visibility underwater (as least 12').  The sun didn't poke out of the clouds but the seas were flat all day and the ride across the channel was smooth except for a tide rip closer to Lopez.  We dove for a couple hours and headed back to find Bowman bay too low to get the trailer to the water so most of the crew abandoned ship at Bowman and Matt and I took Komokwa through the pass to Coronet Bay boat ramp.

Dean and I were ready to get wet after a winter hiatus.  The weather was calm when we got to the beach but by the time we left the water the wind was whipping up the waves.  Water temp was around 46 F and the visibility was very nice (25') once you got under the murky surface run off layer.  Felt good to dive again.

Had a nice summer day and clear visibility underwater.  We played around with a lunker ling cod and the dogs were out.

Dave, John navigated Komokwa from Port Townsend to Washington Park on Anacortes (30 plus miles) where we picked up Dean and Pablo.  First stop was a dive during the slack at Strawberry Island.  There was a weak current moving South.  After the dive we went for a hike to Cypress Island, landing at Strawberry Bay.  Back to Port townsend on very flat seas.
Great day.

Arrived in Dutch Harbor aboard the US Coast Guard icebreaker ship Healy.  My day job brought me from Honlolulu to Dutch Harbor for the testing of a bottom mapping echo sounder that was recently installed as part of the science instrumentation. 

Jumped ship, literally in the middle of the Pacific on the way from Hawaii to Dutch Harbor.  Very blue water and clear.