With cell service being slightly amis the night before, a text sent out by Paul (head of the rebreathers) at 6pm, equated to my phone figuring out to receive it at 1am.
The message equated that it was going to be an early boat out to the Cape Breton in Nanaimo. Well that changed my plans a little, as I left Campbell River a little earlier than expected, before everyone was up.
Heading down was pretty uneventful, but we met up, geared up and headed onto the boat with Sundown.
There was some wind warning the day prior, and even cancelled some ferry sailings. The waves weren’t too bad, but we were on a very small fiberglass boat (I’m glad we all weren’t diving with stages, as with the half dozen bailout bottles and a few cameras took up what little space there was already.
As we were coming out of the port, we saw 2 Orcas swimming around. I’ve never seen them before, and unfortunately, we only saw their tall dorsal fin. Either way, another check mark on marine life.
Getting out to the Breton, only the bow line was left after the storm, with the midship line was taken out in the storms.
Being the only diver on open circuit, and wanting to get to the skylights, a long swim below 30m was not my idea of a good dive, same with the rest of the group, so we went over to the Saskatchewan instead.
When I was there last month, only the bow line was in, but now the midship was accessible. This meant, that we just drop in at the tower and go from there.
Dan Downes came up from Sydney and partnered up with me for our dives of the day. He was on his rebreather as well, so (as usual), I was the weak link as far as gas consumption, and NDL being on regular air.
This was one of my best cold water dives in terms of performance, and enjoying the big wreck!
Last time, I somehow burned through 40bar of air just getting down the line, swam a few meters, and had to head back up. Not this time.
My SAC dropped nice an low, pretty much on par with my warm water tropical diving, and I enjoyed a nice 30 minute dive, with hitting my NDL at 30m.
The only major issue I had, was finding the line at mid ship. We came back along the port side, and what I thought was the line, was a line from the gunnel to a smaller tower behind the big tower. Oops! I found it quickly after discovering ‘why is the up line going back down on the wreck??’ as it was only a few kicks away.
A few schools of perch and rockfish all around the ploumose covered wreck (I don’t think there was much exposed ship).
The minor issue I had was when coming down the line, my neck felt very cold, like ice cube to skin cold. I don’t know if I had the seal in a weird spot in relation to my hood, but back up, I had a big case of hangman’s neck!
We came back into harbour, dropped off of one of the rebreathers (wasn’t feeling well, and didn’t end up diving) and elected to do the Riv Tow Lion as the surface chop wasn’t too pleasant for the small boat.
Dan took his camera down and we found out that there usually is an octopus in the sand at midship, we planned on heading down the line to the deck, when we hit midship, drop down to the octopus, and carry on from there.
This was another great dive, I swam around the prop, came back up and just circled up the tower for a great 40 minute dive.
There were lots of crabs (a few different kinds), lots of cod and rock fish hanging about. Even a giant cod caught me off guard just off of the bow. My spidy sense was tingling that something cool was near. Looking around for it, I didn’t realize that this massive guy was just lying in the gunnel just inches away from me!
I came up to the boat, and was surprised some of the rebreather group was already onboard. Turns out I had more air then they did!
While packing up, Dan invited me to dive with him and a student in Victoria tomorrow, as they needed to empty some tanks for a gas blending course.
Back to the shop for more fills, pay up the balance, and back up to Parksville for my last quick visit with Granny before heading down to Victoria. But not without a visit to Goats on the Roof to pick up some of the best Beef Jerky in Canada! It’s soo good, I normally buy it by the pound.
Nanaimo BC, HMCS Saskatchewan
Date: March 18, 2014
Bottom Time: 30 minutes
Max Depth: 28m
Water Temp: 7.8C
Vis: Decent
Notes: Midship to Turret
Running Time: 47:14
Nanaimo BC, RivTow Lion
Date: March 18, 2014
Bottom Time: 37 minutes
Max Depth: 23m
Water Temp: 7.8C
Vis: VG-Excellent
Notes: Octopus midship @ sand
Running Time: 47:51