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Published On: Jun 21, 2005 12:05 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Jun 21, 2005 12:05 PM
Billygoat Bay to Port Neville
A really cold scuba dive. Lots of wind on the
nose, but manageable. We make it into Port Neville.
OK, so Steven is a bit insane. The water was
amazingly clear the next morning. We were in 30 feet of water, and you could
just barely make out things on the bottom, such as the white outline of a shell.
Steven said, "Hey, this would be a good place for our first drysuit dive." Roma
apparently was either under a spell or not yet quite awake, and
agreed.
We rigged the diving equipment, which required us to bring everything out of the aft lazarettes. The tanks, BCs, and regulators must weigh 35 pounds for each setup. It took probably 2 hours to get everything out, rig it, and get into our dry suits. We floated our BCs with tanks in the water (lowering them over the side on small lines tied to the rail).
Roma and Steven got in the water, donned their BCs, and were ready to go. Roma was freezing already, having had some trouble getting her mask and hood to cooperate. There was a 1 knot current that came out of nowhere. At one point Roma said she wasn't comfortable in the current because it was too strong.
The dive plan was to go under the boat to check it and the zincs out, go up to the anchor and follow the anchor chain to the bottom, up-current. Then check out the anchor, and head off cross-current to the shelf where the huge tree sat downed.
We made to go under, but we wouldn't sink! We had forgotten the dive weights! We asked the kids to go get us some 5 pound weight bags while we froze in the water, waiting. They came back a couple of minutes later with four 5 pound weights. Two for Steven and two for Roma. After getting them in the BC pockets, we tried going down again. No luck!
We asked the kids for a few more weights. Roma ended up with 20 pounds, and Steven with 15 pounds. They could have each used another 5 pounds, but we got down.
The underside of the boat looked fine. The prop zinc, which is the quickest to go, still had its edges, which means it's good for at least another month. The water had become a bit more murky, but visibility was still 20 feet or so. We went up to the anchor chain and followed it down. It was instructive to see the anchor (a CQR) lying on its side partially buried in the sand.
The current was still running, so we headed up against it. There were large kelp fronds which Roma would occasionally grab on to rest. Roma pointed at her air gauge: she had 1000 lbs left (she started with only 2000 because we hadn't refilled our tanks from the pool drysuit orientation).
We continued up-current. We saw a couple of Sunflower Stars (large sea-stars with 30 - 40 legs), some kelp crabs, a couple of rock crabs, and some urchins. Mostly, we just froze. A couple of minutes later, Steven signaled that he was cold, and we should ascend. We popped up 50 yards from Trinity, and swam back on the surface. It took us a couple of hours to warm back up. The dive stats: we were down 35 feet for 13 minutes. The water temperature was 10 degrees C (~ 52 degrees F). Damn cold! We decided that we wouldn't do that again real soon.
Later at 1535, after everything had dried, we left for Port Neville. The wind was again coming from ahead, but it had just started, and the seas hadn't build much. We sailed the 10 miles upwind, seeing as much as 20 knots, gusting to 25. It was a decent run because it was short, and the seas hadn't built to much over 3 feet. Gage's seasickness medicine worked and he didn't get seasick!
At 1817, we anchored in Port Neville. This is a little place where there is a little shop, a post office, and not much else. There is a dock.
The lady who lives there runs the post office, dock, and shop. Her name is Lorna, and we met and talked with her for a long time. We invited her back to Trinity for dinner the next day, and had a good time. She let the kids play on their big treehouse (more of your traditional slapped together treehouse). She told us the story of the big grizzly bear that had been on the property the afternoon before we got there. She said they have a couple of grizzlies that prowl the area, and suggested we keep alert and keep the kids close to us. The kids didn't seem too phased, but we didn't actually see any bears either.
We stayed in Port Neville for a couple of days, waiting for another weather window.
We rigged the diving equipment, which required us to bring everything out of the aft lazarettes. The tanks, BCs, and regulators must weigh 35 pounds for each setup. It took probably 2 hours to get everything out, rig it, and get into our dry suits. We floated our BCs with tanks in the water (lowering them over the side on small lines tied to the rail).
Roma and Steven got in the water, donned their BCs, and were ready to go. Roma was freezing already, having had some trouble getting her mask and hood to cooperate. There was a 1 knot current that came out of nowhere. At one point Roma said she wasn't comfortable in the current because it was too strong.
The dive plan was to go under the boat to check it and the zincs out, go up to the anchor and follow the anchor chain to the bottom, up-current. Then check out the anchor, and head off cross-current to the shelf where the huge tree sat downed.
We made to go under, but we wouldn't sink! We had forgotten the dive weights! We asked the kids to go get us some 5 pound weight bags while we froze in the water, waiting. They came back a couple of minutes later with four 5 pound weights. Two for Steven and two for Roma. After getting them in the BC pockets, we tried going down again. No luck!
We asked the kids for a few more weights. Roma ended up with 20 pounds, and Steven with 15 pounds. They could have each used another 5 pounds, but we got down.
The underside of the boat looked fine. The prop zinc, which is the quickest to go, still had its edges, which means it's good for at least another month. The water had become a bit more murky, but visibility was still 20 feet or so. We went up to the anchor chain and followed it down. It was instructive to see the anchor (a CQR) lying on its side partially buried in the sand.
The current was still running, so we headed up against it. There were large kelp fronds which Roma would occasionally grab on to rest. Roma pointed at her air gauge: she had 1000 lbs left (she started with only 2000 because we hadn't refilled our tanks from the pool drysuit orientation).
We continued up-current. We saw a couple of Sunflower Stars (large sea-stars with 30 - 40 legs), some kelp crabs, a couple of rock crabs, and some urchins. Mostly, we just froze. A couple of minutes later, Steven signaled that he was cold, and we should ascend. We popped up 50 yards from Trinity, and swam back on the surface. It took us a couple of hours to warm back up. The dive stats: we were down 35 feet for 13 minutes. The water temperature was 10 degrees C (~ 52 degrees F). Damn cold! We decided that we wouldn't do that again real soon.
Later at 1535, after everything had dried, we left for Port Neville. The wind was again coming from ahead, but it had just started, and the seas hadn't build much. We sailed the 10 miles upwind, seeing as much as 20 knots, gusting to 25. It was a decent run because it was short, and the seas hadn't built to much over 3 feet. Gage's seasickness medicine worked and he didn't get seasick!
At 1817, we anchored in Port Neville. This is a little place where there is a little shop, a post office, and not much else. There is a dock.
The lady who lives there runs the post office, dock, and shop. Her name is Lorna, and we met and talked with her for a long time. We invited her back to Trinity for dinner the next day, and had a good time. She let the kids play on their big treehouse (more of your traditional slapped together treehouse). She told us the story of the big grizzly bear that had been on the property the afternoon before we got there. She said they have a couple of grizzlies that prowl the area, and suggested we keep alert and keep the kids close to us. The kids didn't seem too phased, but we didn't actually see any bears either.
We stayed in Port Neville for a couple of days, waiting for another weather window.
Posted: Mon - July 12, 2004 at 05:17 PM