Whidbey Island

[Desert Diver]

Hello all,
I've enjoyed reading all the new forum posts for some time. Thanks for all the good info. My wife and I will be on Whidbey Island this weekend. Hope to dive on Friday and Saturday. Tides don't look great. Any good ideas on non current sensitive sites we can dive from shore? I hope to catch an afternoon Keystone dive at slack. Better idea? Any places where the tides don't make too much difference? We are old and slow and really don't want to swim too hard.

Thanks,

Brian

[Magoi]

Welcome to the club.

I do not know Whidbey sites well, but the Mukilteo T Dock is close and is usually current free, but sometimes there is a light current. On rare occasions the current is significant. There is some man-made structure there, and you usually can find some wolf eels in the pipes at the geodome (about 60 ft depth, pretty much straight out from the entry point. There is a boat at the divers flag buoy that often has a GPO, but it is deep - around 125 ft. Easy site to navigate, as the bottom slope is fairly gentle and consistent. It is a ferry ride from Whidbey - the dive site is next to the Silver Cloud Inn, past Ivars from the ferry dock. Need to avoid the fishing dock and ferry dock to the left from the entry point; anywhere in front of and to the right of hotel is safe. There will be lots of people crabbing and probably classes on Saturday, so I recommend Friday.

You can check tides and current predictions at various dive sites at planyourdive.com.

I hope you enjoy your dives here.

Larry

[Jeremy]

Langley tire reef is not current sensitive from what I hear.

[eliseaboo]

Friday and Saturday are actually pretty good days to dive in the afternoon. This is the current station I use for Point Hudson, which is just across the ferry in Port Townsend: http://tides.mobilegeographics.com/locations/4765.html

If you're dying to dive in the morning, Langley is a really nice site with hardly any current, but it IS in a marina and right off a boat launch...so on a beautiful summer Saturday morning, you might want to be careful. Driftwood beach isn't too bad either, right down the road from Keystone. But really, Keystone is one of the best sites around - and unless you totally blow the tide tables you'll be fine this weekend and should dive it!

Here's another site to check out: http://www.whidbeydive.com/localdive.html

[Desert Diver]

Thanks for the help. So would you use the Point Hudson current tables for Keystone? I would have looked at the Admiralty Head tables. If I'm reading right there is a large difference. I get so confused.

[Desert Diver]

Would someone compare the July 13 Port Townsend current table against the Port Townsend Tide table on Mobile Geographics? Is it really possible that at 3:38PM there is high tide and 9 minutes before that is max ebb current?

Thanks,

[eliseaboo]

The tides and currents do funny things around here, so yes, it is possible. At Point Hudson I've always used the current charts, but in the past every time I've done Keystone I've used the tide tables. Max ebb isn't that bad tomorrow, so I'd say anytime after 3:30 would probably be fine. I've completely blown the tide tables there and haven't been swept out to sea yet