Okay back to diving, Penders and I hit Sund Rock on Saturday. I was planning on heading out on Don-B's boat. However, I got a little sentimental and decided that my 500th dive should be with Penders, considering we have over 300 dives together
The first dive (#499) we went to the north wall at Sund and poked around the sea whips. At about 113' we found tons of Stubby eggs. I inspected them carefully, looking for any that were close to hatching. I'd really like to see the hatching occur. I am sure someone on this board has experienced this. After we poked around, we decided to head over to the wreck. That was teaming with life and there were some huge kings on eggs. We also found a nice wolf eel in a pipe and a couple scalyhead sculpins. We headed back in and surfaced from the 75 minute dive a little chilly. My computer had us at 46 degrees, but it certainly felt colder.
Dive #500 we decided to head down the south wall. We were greeted by numerous wolf eels, including a mated pair on eggs. They were about 40' deep and about 5 minutes into the dive. We had a slight current, nothing major. But it did push us to the end of the wall with little effort. We circled back and swam back to the north entry. On the way back, Mike found a small boat loaded with Shaggy mouse nudibranchs. We logged a 71 minute dive on #500.
I was pretty excited about getting to #500 before Feb 22nd (when I was certified in 2009). It is way cool to look in my logbook and see all the awesome people I have met diving over the past 5 years. Anyway, before I get all emotional here are a few pics.
One of the Shaggy Mouse Nudibrachs. Mike may have a photo of more of the Nudis and the boat.
Nice little Hooded Nudibranch on the safety stop on dive #500.
The mated Wolfies on eggs. Not the best shot, they were tucked back pretty far.
Every once in a while you see an anemone that stands out. This one looked really cool and I felt I could get some nice depth. Really liked how it turned out.
Wolfie in the pipe at the wreck.
Cool looking crab in the sand.
It was nice to see a lot of healthy stars on the two dives. After the die-off this winter, I thought this was a perfect picture to capture. As if to say, "everything is going to be fine."
Have a great week!
