Location: Wreck of the Transpac, Butedale, British Columbia
Well, we have officially kicked off our Alaska season and are on our way from Vancouver (Steveston), British Columbia to Sitka, south-east Alaska. It’s been a great start to the trip with 2 dives of scuba diving around Pearse Island, Browning Pass and Dillon Rock in Shushartie Bay. I’ve been having great fun getting reaquainted with closed circuit rebreather diving and diving a lovely and very easy-to-use Evolution ccr (made by the same folks at AP Valves who manufacture the Inspiration rebreather). Vis has been up and down – although even “up” wasn’t very good with only 15 – 20 feet at one of my favourite dive sites – 7 Tree Island in Browning Pass. The consolation is that when the vis is down in one place because of a plankton bloom, it usually turns out to be pretty good if you move around a wee bit. And that is exactly what happened when we pulled into the abandoned ghost town of Butedale in the central coast and heart of the great bear rainforest – the visibility looked really good and it was time for a splash on the nearby wreck of the fishing vessel “Transpac”.
The Transpac is an unforgettable dive!! The 180 foot ship is aligned vertically on a steep rock face just like a fly stuck to a wall. The bow is at 110 feet and the stern…. well, the stern is much deeper. Which is where my dive buddy and I and a couple of other divers planned our dive for. And what a dive it was. Visibility was excellent below the first 30 feet. We descended down to the bow and could see other divers swimming around the top of the superstructure with their twinkling lights shining through the rigging and bits and pieces of the wreck. Very cool. But we didn’t stick around because our plan was to descend straight down the port side of the ship into the blackness. The divers’ twinkling lights were soon out of sight above us as we continued our freefall descent into the deep. It was a pretty amazing feeling. All too soon it was time to start heading for the surface, make our deco stops in the shallows with all sorts of interesting animals and critters to keep us occupied and interested and then finally break the surface with the biggest grins on our faces that you can imagine. Whhooeee. What a great start to the day. Captain Mike
Surface Conditions: Sunny and really nice on the first day of the trip. Flat calm. Overcast and light winds by Day 3. Temperature mid 50’s – 60’s..
Underwater Conditions: Visibility as low as 10 feet in places, 15 – 20 at 7 Tree Island, 100 feet plus on the wreck of the Transpace. Water temperature 46 degrees.
Diving down to the stern of the Transpac…
