Several of us went to Whidbey Island this weekend for some diving. It was quite windy out there, but we got in some good diving nonetheless! We were hoping to really take advantage of the best reasonable dates/times for good tides at Keystone for the last of the year and do 3x dives/day, but that that was not to be had. When we first arrived, holy smokes it was windy, there was salt spray coming up over my car. And this was at low tide.
No worries, we messaged Jan to ask for an alternative site, and he very kindly recommended Possession Point Park (I think this is different than the fingers park, but not sure). This place is known for nudibranch and seapens. He even pulled it up on a webcam for us to make sure it was good. Thanks Jan!
But before trying out that site, we had some grub at Pickles Deli. Yum!!
It was Pat G, Jesse (Scoobie Doo), ScubaJess, Kerry E B, and me. We arrived at the site, and it was definitely doable. Viz was quite poor with the wave action, but it was okay, considering. Only a few minutes into the dive we saw some nudibranchs eating sea pens right, and there were plenty of Diamond Backs and Striped nudibranchs feasting, mating, laying eggs thru the dive. Also on the dive we saw shrimp, egg yolk jellies, kelp crab, red rock crab etc. There was heavy evidence of an octo den, but we didn't end up finding an octo. There was also a seal spooking out Jesse. I swear the haunter bid us good riddance upon site exit!
Here's a capture from that dive:
- This red rock crab was a beaut
In the morning we went back to visit Pat again. Bradmond also joined us. We also met Canadian divers Chad and Maz (Maz only under water).
After dive one and some nice warm soup from Pat, the wind was picking up and we were a bit cold and had a misbehaving camera so we called it after one dive! What a great day!
- Brad checking out the Rock of Life 2
- Rockfish galore
- Many of the plumose were looking a bit off...
- Pat and Scubajess
- Stiimpson's Star
- Kelp crab
