Heading down to the shop to get ready on Sat. we were greeted by a weather delay, as Erin waited to see when a front was coming through. After a bit he decided that if we were quick we could do it and hit the slack that we needed for West Race Wall, my favorite PNW dive site. Usually we do that dive first and then Main Race second, but he wanted to get the heck out of there in the afternoon, so we did Main Race first. It is a bit boring, but pretty in sections, and it also allowed us to work out some bugs and be ready for West Race, which can have a lot of current and be much deeper.
Coming up a bit late after an hour in 40' of water, he said that slack was in about 1/2 hour and we needed to just change tanks and get ready. As we were diving nitrox, that wasn't a problem. West Race was it's usual technicolor self, just an amazing display of color, invertebrates, sponge, fairly large cold water coral and more. We were actually a bit early, and I liked catching the end of the ebb as it took us deeper along the wall to the best part of the site, although a bit disconcerting, as the next stop if we got blown off is Japan. I dove the best part of the wall at a depth of 60-80'. As I came up and clinging to some kelp against the current to do my safety stop, I was muttering unkind curses about Erin being too early, when the tide suddenly swung me around 180 degrees and started to flood! We beat feet back to Victoria as the storm hit and the winds rose to 35 kts.
The next day we went over to the other side and Erin kindly upgraded us to the Cape Able; a much bigger and more comfortable 12 pax boat. As we were only 7 that day, it was very comfy. Alas, some of our group were late and disorganized, so we got a late start and the light morning winds came up to 25kts or so, so we couldn't do a couple of spots that Erin wanted to go to. Falling back on plan B, he got us onto a decent little rock in the lee. It had a small cave and narrow deep wall, that I missed, but I did find some nice critters to shoot including a grand prize, a Mossheaded Warbonnet, which are very hard to find.
Anyway here's a few favs. All shot with my D80/60mm Nikor Micro in a Fantasea Line FD80 housing with twin Inon z240's. I used a Woody's diopter on some of these that I've had custom made to a 120mm skirt size. Manual on everything, I'm a control freak I guess.
Mossheaded Warbonnet
Hermassenda Crassicornis (yep, same animal as in CA, different colors)
Scaly Sculphin
(he was in the cave and was almost albino, I like this shot, looks like a watercolor painting almost)
Cabazon (big ass ugly fish!)
More here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/opticalocean/...57600342732356/
Enjoy,
Jack