Spent quite the weekend diving in the Strait! Nice weather and favorable exchanges made for an excellent window to dive the Diamond Knot, the Dungeness Crane, and the Martha Foss. Saturday we met at the dock around....6:00am. It was wonderful to be up so early in the morning! We cruised out to the Diamond Knot site and hooked the boat relatively quickly. The T1 guys went in first. After 15 minutes of in water prep activities that included trips back onto the boat they were ready! Too bad about all the surface helium breathing, but it makes for funny sounding voices. The rec guys were next and crawled down the line. Current was moving! The knot came into view at only about 20-30fsw....amazing viz on tap! The dive was limited due to current but I did get to know Barney the barnacle for a good 10 minutes as I kicked and kicked to stay in place. We ascended up the line to find fog and no boat. Seems the tech guys drifted off the wreck on their ascent. Probably smart as we were getting our butts kicked holding onto the line. The boat came back for us though and all was well. The second dive was pure magic. Zilch for current, 60+ft viz, o.m.g...!! These are the Diamond Knot dives you dream about. Of my 6 knot dives, this was the best by far. We saw the entire boat and spent nearly 40 minutes on her. In the evening a few of us passed the time at a local fair watching goat tying and bull riding at a local rodeo. Sunday morning we met for traditional breakfast at the Chestnut Cottage. Once again we became too loud as is customary. Oddly this was the fault of Dave Stucki, generally blameless in such matters. We met at the dock and headed out for the Dungeness Crane and Martha Foss. Capt Bill found the crane on the third attempt and we watched the buoy...waiting for the current to slow down. Slack should be any time! But then 20 min passed, then an hour, then two hours! Geepers!! The crane has a reputation for this and we were going to suffer as all others have. Eventually the currents slackened and we jumped in (see PADI AI Archis patented face plant giant stride at 2:52) to one of the more amazing wrecks Ive seen. One can sum up the crane with two words - rockfish, wolf-eel. There was a massive abundance of both. At one point I had 5 wolf eels in my field of view at once, one being in the open! The crane was well worth the wait!! Then, on to the Martha Foss. What a great dive to end the weekend on. We quickly found the debris, dominated by the engine block. Underneath was a resident octo, as promised by Northwest Wreck Dives. Also a wolfie inhabitant. This wreck was confined to a small space so you could really piece together how the boat fit together. It was such a kick. So...whew! A packed and tiring yet memorable weekend. :) Great friends all around, I cant thank Kathryn Arant, Serge Sountsov, Jeremy Qualls, Don Winslow, Archis Gore, Marshall Reed, and Dave Stucki enough. And special thanks to Bill Minton of Northwest Dive Charters for taking such good care of us! Http://vimeo/103880555
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 06:38:49 +0000
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