After being nagged by certain members of the club plus one husband, I did take my drysuit, and did have a days diving.. My buddy was a very pleasant young man, Shaun, I was his first overseas diver he’d buddied, and didn’t it show. We weren’t going back to shore until he had shown me as much of the coast he could on such a limited timetable. The bonus was, the other divers on the boat were doing a course, so I was well and truly spoilt, didn’t lift one piece of equipment, because it was my HOLIDAY!!!! Wasn’t that thoughtful.
The first dive was on a wreck. H.M.S. Saskatchewa. It has been purposely sunk for divers and was huge. We dropped down on to the deck at 27 mtrs. The vis. was excellent compared to home, although they were complaining that it was awful. We worked our way up around the massive gun barrels and the bridge, seeing loads. Many varieties of Starfish, my favourite being the feather star, gobyfish, Tiger Rockfish seemed to inhabit the bit of the inside I saw. Giant Plumos grow like Deadman’s Fingers do on our wrecks. There were many varieties of tube like sea anemones, beautiful.
The second dive was off the coast of an Island inhabited by Pacific Harbour Seals. We dropped down to 18 mtrs. The vegetation was so colourful. Again we saw much in the way of nudibranches, dendronotids, crabs, goby, transparent sea squid, jelly fish, many varieties of sea cucumbers and a Lewis Moon Snail, which was quite amazing the way it covers its shell with itself. Quite a few different fish, Tiger and Copper rockfish, Lingcod, and Shiner Perch. All this time we were gentle surfacing, Shawn then pointed upwards, on reaching the surface we had arrived at the point where the Seals were, to see them slipping into the water. We bobbed down again to see a couple being nosy, we then surfaced again to see about 8 heads bobbing about 10ft. away. So we submerged again and then the fun commenced. They swam around us, just keeping there distance. It was absolutely awesome. Words cannot describe how I felt. After 10 minutes it was time to return to the boat.
The third dive was a very short and shallow one along a ledge, again the vegetation was so colourful, various nudibranches, snails, crabs and fish, and I was very tired by this stage, and not sorry the dive was only 15 mins.
It only leaves me to say that the diving here is every bit as good and colourful as the Red Sea, and may be I can return in the Winter some time as the vis is even better and hopefully the Whales and Dolphin will be there.
Vancouver offers a wide range of diving and wild-life. Giant Octopus, Killer Whales, Wrecks... If you would like to dive there later - perhaps in September - let the Committee know of your interest. You will have to budget £1,000 for the trip. - Mike Hamilton Scott.
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