Sunday afternoon I talked Ann into coming up from Seattle, and David into coming down from Bellingham. It was a first time at Langley for both of them. After a quick site brief, David went with Karl and headed off to the reef proper. I mentioned to Ann that the wall can also be a fun place to check out on the way to the reef. She and I ended up taking quite a while there.
It was quickly apparent that the gunnels were out. Or rather, their heads were out.
There were several itty bitty white lined dironas; I guess there must have been a recent hatching. This tri-tip dirona looked very nice next to the tubeworm.
Ann found this tiny little nudibranch. I think it's my first shot of a barnacle-eating nudi!
Some time after an hour's worth of dive, we arrived at the end of the wall, and could see a tire or two. This was when we agreed we were chilled, so we turned and headed in. I thought it was both highly amusing, and very fun that we didn't even get to the "dive site", but I was glad, since I haven't taken a leisurely tour of that wall for a while.
Karl was done for the day, so he headed out, but Ann and Dave and I agreed to go do a tire reef proper dive. It was rather an odd dive. The clouds had come in, the wind picked up, and the vis tanked on the ebb. It was dark enough under the water that it felt very much like a night dive, although it wasn't that late. There weren't a lot of critters out and about tonight, although I did catch a glimpse of The Old Man. Now, keep in mind that I dive Keystone, where there are lots of very big lingcod. This guy, I saw his head, it registered that it was a lingcod, then he swam away. His body unfolded, and unfolded, and unfolded, and left me boggled. I think there are smaller whales out there!
We found a sailfin sculpin on a log, and I waved David over. He peered at it, but the fishie had his sail tucked away. I poked his tail, trying to get him to raise the sail. I had to poke poke poke, then run my finger down half his body before he moved about an inch and a half forward. But he then raised his sail and that was pretty neat.
The other end of the sailfin's log we found some sort of worm. Usually I think worms are fairly disgusting, but these were interesting. I'm not familiar with the type, but the colors are neat.
On the way out of the water, we had a final goodbye from the denizens of the wall.
It felt great to be back in the water again. Thanks Karl and Ann and David for coming out to dive! I was so pleased to share another site with you!
The student was ready.
it's nice to have low expectations, sometimes - lcf
I said keep going, not start whining -airsix
