Cove 2 vis?

dsteding · Post by **dsteding** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:28 pm

Anyone dive this weekend? How's the vis at Cove 2?

enigmatic · Post by **enigmatic** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:10 pm

It seemed to be 15-20 feet or so.... until I lost a fin a mucked it all up. But that should be gone by now. ;-)

BASSMAN · Post by **BASSMAN** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:18 pm

Ah! Swimming in circles looking for your fin?

I lost a fin on sunday, after a dive And went back to find it laying in the parking lot! $\:D/$

CaptnJack · Post by **CaptnJack** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:23 pm

Was crap at the surface Saturday - like <4ft

Got a bit better down past 30ft. At 75ft is was 15ft. At 100ft by the logs it was maybe 18ft

Melody and I used the Xs to go out from Cove1, run along the 75ft contour to the I-beams. Circle the I-beams and head over to just past the logs. Then she had a primary light failure (broken cord) and I guess the passenger ferry pulled up. Huge propwash blew us around.

We buzzed out of there up the boundary rope into Cove 2 at 50ft. Vis was again ~12ft. Back to Cove1 at the 40ft contour in 12ft vis. Surface just shy of Cove 1 in 3ft vis again.

Weird since there were basically no divers anywhere.

RJ

enigmatic · Post by **enigmatic** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:26 pm

Swimming hard down with one fin while trying to find my other fin cause right as I lost my fin (on my first drysuit dive) my feet decided to fill with air. Convenient I tell you! Pez was a good buddy and helped me out though!

dsteding · Post by **dsteding** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 3:31 pm

CaptnJack wrote:Was crap at the surface Saturday - like <4ft

Got a bit better down past 30ft. At 75ft is was 15ft. At 100ft by the logs it was maybe 18ft

Melody and I used the Xs to go out from Cove1, run along the 75ft contour to the I-beams. Circle the I-beams and head over to just past the logs. Then she had a primary light failure (broken cord) and I guess the passenger ferry pulled up. Huge propwash blew us around.

We buzzed out of there up the boundary rope into Cove 2 at 50ft. Vis was again ~12ft. Back to Cove1 at the 40ft contour in 12ft vis. Surface just shy of Cove 1 in 3ft vis again.

Weird since there were basically no divers anywhere.

RJ

Sounds like a fun dive, I didn't know the ferry was running yet.

My X Scooter fund got a nice boost this weekend at the poker table, one week of playing poker and I am up to $400 . . . only $3000 or so left to go.

CaptnJack · Post by **CaptnJack** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 3:44 pm

The docks are in place, but the ferry itself may not be running yet. But there was something almost overhead. It was big, it was noisy, and there was alot of propwash at 100ft by the wooden wreck along the boundary line (20ft past the logs)

I was a little miffed that Melody didn't get herself organized and outa there faster after her light failure. She looked at it like,

"wait Joe's not here why did my light go out??"

Put a scooter in the woman's hand and all the other dive pieces got a bit ignored.

CaptnJack · Post by **CaptnJack** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 3:45 pm

dsteding wrote: My X Scooter fund got a nice boost this weekend at the poker table, one week of playing poker and I am up to $400 . . . only $3000 or so left to go.

you mean $7000 left to go - you need to get 2 ya know

dsteding · Post by **dsteding** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 3:53 pm

CaptnJack wrote:The docks are in place, but the ferry itself may not be running yet. But there was something almost overhead. It was big, it was noisy, and there was alot of propwash at 100ft by the wooden wreck along the boundary line (20ft past the logs)

Wow, that isn't the ferry, even if it draws 20 ft (I bet only 10 or so) I'd have a hard time believing there'd be prop wash at 100 ft. Maybe a UFO?

Looks like I'll have to make $3500 playing poker locally and then go to Vegas for a weekend to double it. That can be done . . . I should probably just buy two anyways . . .

Tom Nic · Post by **Tom Nic** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 3:53 pm

CaptnJack wrote:The docks are in place, but the ferry itself may not be running yet. But there was something almost overhead. It was big, it was noisy, and there was alot of propwash at 100ft by the wooden wreck along the boundary line (20ft past the logs).

Don't like the sound of that!

Is that "normal"? propwash at 100 fsw doesn't sound like something you encounter most days!

Sounder · Post by **Sounder** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 4:09 pm

Propwash at 100fsw would require some SERIOUS horsepower. That's seriously concerning... could it have been anything else? I assume you heard the "chunk chunk chunk chunk" or more of a "vroooom!?"

CaptnJack · Post by **CaptnJack** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 4:42 pm

Honestly I dunno what it was, it blew the scooter away from me (I had let it go to deploy a backup light for Melody). The X will rise slowly if you're not holding it and instead it was pushed down and right (north) into the wood pieces on the bottom.

We had a hard time turning around and getting ourselves pointed south towards cove 2 again. Too much "current" all of a sudden. Sounded like a WA State Ferry at Keystone - loud. 10-20ft south and there was no current.

All that I know is that I had 13-1400 psi of 30/30 in my lp85s and I definately didn't want to be there anymore.

There were some nice vermillions on the logs before

hit.

Richard

dsteding · Post by **dsteding** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 5:05 pm

On 30/30 so it wasn't Junior and narcosis, and it wasn't the water taxi. You were at 100 ft, big ships draw 52 ft, so even below a container ship you'd be 40 ft away from its keel (but I wouldn't want to be that close).

Freaky. Very freaky.

CaptnJack · Post by **CaptnJack** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:25 pm

I'm wondering if it was a tug dropping off pieces of the dock. When we surfaced back at Cove 1 20 mins later there was nothing nearby. A ghost ship...

dsteding · Post by **dsteding** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:39 pm

CaptnJack wrote:I'm wondering if it was a tug dropping off pieces of the dock. When we surfaced back at Cove 1 20 mins later there was nothing nearby. A ghost ship...

Must have been. The new ones have thrusters on them, I wonder if the crazy currents was the thing slowing down.

Sounder · Post by **Sounder** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:27 pm

This is really strange. Seems divers should be aware of anything affecting current at 100fsw! Even a cargo ship drawing 52' of water shouldn't have efected the water at 100fsw. A tug with thrusters shouldn't have effected it either!

Sounds very strange - almost worth an investigation to see if there were any official boats in that area or if it was a rouge cigar boat doing a wheelie or something... been there, done that... but I wouldn't expect it to cause extreme current at 100fsw!

CaptnJack · Post by **CaptnJack** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:40 pm

Even the ferry can cause propwash here at fairly deep depths. When they hit reverse the thrust blasts the hull and gets deflected down. Never noticed it straight out from the pier before, nor this deep.

And bigger ships drawing 20-30 ft would definately affect the water, they push it all over (gently for efficiency sake). I remember feeling a swirl at the De Lion drydock in Edmonds when you could dive there. And that's a good 75ft north of the actual ferry slip.

I suspect it was a tug of some sort, but might have been the ferry. The docks were in place but there were some tires (fenders) on them still and I don't think passengers are riding yet.

Its not like it was unswimable current or even in one direction, it just blew us around a bit (a 5ft swirl) for 2-3 minutes.

Really you shouldn't be out here without good gas reserves. Treat it like the overhead it basically is.

Sounder · Post by **Sounder** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:48 pm

I AGREE! Run 3rd's!!! My usual guys will testify that I enjoy surfacing with 1000psi or more.

Ok, so we're looking at one of two things: a) some VERY deep drafting boat - a very large or deep hulled boat; or b) a boat with super high horse power. With the fact that it was for 2-3 minutes, it really makes me think it was not a "wheelie boat" but instead was a high horsepower deeper drafting boat.

Either way, there are classes going on, and some of them go to the I-beams. There shouldn't be cluster-F propwash issues around there anytime.

Pez7378 · Post by **Pez7378** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:23 pm

dsteding wrote:Anyone dive this weekend? How's the vis at Cove 2?

Thursday Kayak Point! 0ft but fun. Lost a fin in 4fsw. it was found.
Friday Mukilteo St. Park 20-30ft and fun.
Saturday Cove 2 15-20ft and fun.
Sunday Mukilteo T-dock 3ft 0-15fsw, 15-20ft 15-100fsw and FUN!

Finding Enigmatic's fin.................that was fun too, but only because we had plenty of air and I knew exactly where it should have been, right in the middle of the silt out in 44fsw just west of the tire and south of the post.

Sounder · Post by **Sounder** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:58 pm

Perfect! By the sounds of it (Matt not throwing his OTHER fin in), you found it! I will be honored when the day of Pez being my dive buddy arrives. Hopefully, I won't be found throwing my "other fin in" too!!!

CaptnJack · Post by **CaptnJack** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:46 pm

Sounder wrote: Either way, there are classes going on, and some of them go to the I-beams. There shouldn't be cluster-F propwash issues around there anytime.

Well its legal to drive a boat over the I-beams. Technically diver's need a flag everywhere in Seattle (by city ordinance) although that seems weakly enforced at Alki.

And even with a flag, boats of any size can legally go right over it. If they hit a diver it would be "negligant operation" for sure. But there's no law saying you must keep your boat X ft away from a diver or a dive flag. The marine rules of the road only apply to vessels, not people (swimmers/divers).

Unfortunate but true. We treat Alki as a diver's playground but its not exclusively ours.

Richard (50ton USCG Master)

LCF · Post by **LCF** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:25 am

Looks like I'll have to make $3500 playing poker locally and then go to Vegas for a weekend to double it. That can be done . . . I should probably just buy two anyways . . .

You're going to have to buy two of them if you want to keep a certain dive buddy, because OUR money is being saved for a condo on the Riviera Maya

CaptnJack · Post by **CaptnJack** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:46 am

And the other buddy will have the boat

dsteding · Post by **dsteding** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:30 am

LCF wrote: You're going to have to buy two of them if you want to keep a certain dive buddy, because OUR money is being saved for a condo on the Riviera Maya

This is scooter extortion! Okay, okay, I will buy TWO. Going to have to go to Vegas a couple times, and I think I need to get the travel packages.

If this is the only way to have scooter buddies, so be it.

thelawgoddess · Post by **thelawgoddess** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:06 am

fyi, there's no diving in vegas! i bet you can find a diving locale that ALSO has a casino ...

Northwest Dive Club

Cove 2 vis?

Cove 2 vis?

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