Well, I was lucky to spot that there was a monday charter going out with Pacific Pro Dive happening out of Campbell River, and was able to join up with them to dive some sites up there.
There was a class of 4 Hollis Explorers happening, and a pair from Ottawa that I joined up with to dive the HMCS Columbia and Copper Cliff
On the way up, stopped in Courtney to intercept Liz and a few prepaid passes with Sea Dragon charters that I purchased last trip out, and back on the highway north.
The wreck was pretty decent. Nicely sitting in a protected bay across the straight north of town. It’s a sister ship to the Saskatchewan, sitting shallower at roughly 70 feet to the deck.
It is listed roughly 45degrees, making it interesting as you swim around the towers, with the changing buoyancy. It wasn’t barren, but not covered in life yet. A few people saw a Wolf Eel (extremely jealous).
The second dive was at Copper cliff Where you can see exposed copper in the rocks as it tarnishes and stains the rest of the rock.
We had a great dive for the first 15 minutes or so, until the current picked up and started to drag us out away from the wall. I signalled to head up, and as we were ascending at roughly 12m, my buddy got pulled down in a down current and ended up further down the wall when I surfaced.
I made it up to the surface first of the group, deployed my SMB and the boat came racing over. As that was happening, my buddy popped up, and the group of rebreathers were starting to hit the surface as well.
So it seems we missed the current by about 10 minutes or so.
But that first part of the dive was fantastic. Staying at 18m, and dropping down to 21m was the plan, we saw tonnes of various fish, plumose, and urchins. Hopefully lots of great pictures were captured before we were blown out.
We packed up and headed back to the store in Courtney, settled up and was invited by the group of rebreathers to join them the next day in Nanaimo hitting some wrecks and walls, which, I of course obliged them by gracing them with my presence.
That night, I was able to go and hang out at some more relatives I haven’t seen in quite a few years, check out their remodelled business (they suffered a nasty fire last year) and exchange good cheer on St Patty’s day.
Campbell River BC, HMCS Columbia
Date: March 17, 2014
Bottom Time: 21 minutes
Max Depth: 22m
Water Temp: 7.8C
Vis: VG-Excellent
Running Time: 46:19
Campbell River BC, Copper Cliff
Date: March 17, 2014
Bottom Time: 25 minutes
Max Depth: 22m
Water Temp: 8.3C
Vis: VG-Excellent
Running Time: 46:44