Location: Octopus Wall, Alcalla Point, Virago Rock (Pt. Grey) in Porlier Pass. Thetis Island. Canadian Gulf Islands.
I am very excited to be visiting and diving our old haunts in the Canadian Gulf Islands. Things have been so busy with Socorro, Sea of Cortez and Guadalupe trips that it’s been three years since we did a four day trip through the Gulf Islands. Today was dive day 1 and we spent it in beautiful Porlier Pass diving the “old faithfuls” like Octopus Wall, Alcalla Point and the wreck of the tug Point Grey on Virago Rock. The diving was great and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
The most interesting event of the day was when one of the ship’s service generators started to overheat and shut down. I could not figure out what the problem was – especially as we are fresh out of refit with overhauled cooling pumps, new hoses, overhauled heat exchangers, etc. We finally discovered a fish (a herring to be precise) had managed to lodge itself in our intakes! On closer examination, we discovered more herring lodged in the intakes for both main engines and the watermaker as well!! That’s one heckuva way to catch fish!! We finished the day off with a shore visit to Andy and Virginia Lamb’s lovely new dive resort on Thetis Island – Cedar Beach Bed and Breakfast. It’s great and I can’t wait to go back and visit them as a guest this fall. Safe diving all.
–Captain Mike
Weather: High scattered clouds, light winds, calm seas. A beautiful early spring day.
Water: Water temperature 48° degF. Visibility variable from 10 foot and bloomy in the shallows on Dive #1 to an excellent 40 feet on Dive #3.
