Epic diving on Hood Canal

[Jeremy]

Met up with Mortuus, dwinslow, Max, Marshall, and Zane for a four dive sites in one day Hood Canal extravaganza last Saturday.

Three of these were Fischnaller dives (Octopus Hole, Potlatch, Twanoh) and we also threw in Jorsted Creek.

Octopus Hole was phenomenal - life everywhere, including the obligatory octopus. Explored both walls, Mortuus got whacked by a Lion's Mane and wondered if pee would help. Five of us offered, but he wanted to solo on that project...not exactly GUE imo.

We hit Jorsted soon thereafter. After a 15 minute wait in the water (we were with Oregon divers who move like they live in nursing homes) we got started down to the north wall. Spectacular viz allowed us to see the entire structure of this steep wall and we made several passes. We saw a couple of octos in lairs only a few feet apart and a juvenile wolf eel. We explored the shallow wall, then made our way over to the barge to finish the dive. What a great site!! Felt sorry for the folks in doubles on the entry...but that's how it goes in PNW diving sometimes.

We had a nice steak BBQ at Potlatch then hit the water. WOOOOWWWWWW!!!! This place has a frigging steep sand wall that doesn't stop! I had to slam on the brakes because we were descending so fast. On our ascent it felt like we were coming up a practically vertical but sandy wall. There wasn't much life here....sort of reminiscent of Lake Washington actually. This site had a spooky feel underwater. A few of the scooter divers received facefulls of Lion's Mane Jellies...wheeee!! 5 of 6 divers got whacked by jellies on this epic day of legend.

We celebrated with dive 4 at Twanoh State Park where we had a nice conversation with the ranger. Upon descent, all you could think was "oysters galore!!!" They were everywhere! The water here was noticably milkier and more yellow than the rest of Hood Canal. In fact, it was quite interesting to see how the life and water quality changes in Hood Canal as you move north (better clarity water, more life) to south (milky water, less life).

All in all, a tremendous day of diving!

For those interested, here is a video of dive 1 of 4 - Octopus Hole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO00XhQrqx0

[Mortuus]

The water here was noticably milkier and more yellow than the rest of Hood Canal.

It was next to a heavily populated swimming area....

And here's the embedded video:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/pO00XhQrqx0[/youtube]


Thanks for the trip report! It was a hell of a day. Truly epic. I can't wait for the dives next weekend!

[mz53480]

Zane, how were the new tanks?

[KeithBoll]

Hi! Was wondering what the location is of the secondary wall at Octopus Wall is. And - how does it differ from the primary wall? Thanks, Keith

[Jeremy]

Hi Keith,

We used the following map. The platform isn't there any more, but the location of the walls is still correct.

http://www.pnwscuba.com/sitemaps/octopushole.gif

[H20doctor]

Man, being stung sucks.. Esp while scootering.. And the pee pee dont work at all.. Nice video and dive report

[Mortuus]

And the pee pee dont work at all..

No it does not =/

[dwinslow1]

It was truly a great day on diving and the weather was perfect. Thanks Jeremy for the planning the dives and the BBQ.
We are blessed to have all these fantastic dive sites locally to explore.