Nautilus LiveaboardsLooking back at my circumnavigation of Vancouver Island May 23 – June 1, 2009 So it was about 4:30 pm on Saturday when we arrived on the dock in Steveston for our dive trip that would take us around Vancouver Island. Our trip had been a long time coming as we had to book the […]
Read MoreWe are enroute now for 2 days of scuba diving at Port Hardy (Queen Charlotte Strait, Browning Pass and Dillon Rock in Shushartie Bay), 1 day diving the wreck of the Transpac at Butedale and then it’s off to Alaska!
Read MoreDive #1 was at West Race Wall at Race Rocks. Dropping the scuba divers off in a 25 knot westerly was a bit of a challenge especially considering that we are not allowed to drop the anchor and stabilize ourselves in the Marine Protected Area. Dive #2 was off the Ogden Point Breakwater with the Nautilus Explorer tied up in the Inner Harbour in front of the Empress Hotel. Wrapped the trip with a great dive on the artificial reef G.B. Church off Portland Island.
Read MoreWe capped the day off with a visit to the Quatsino lighthouse and were given a wonderful tour by the very friendly lighthouse keepers. Quatsino is a beautiful place and I won’t soon forget watching the sun stream through the trees on the steep and heavily wooded hillside beside our anchorage. But without a doubt, the highlight of the day was steaming 1/2 mile offshore from dreaded Solander Island off Brooks Peninsula. It was a spectacular sight in surprising calm seas – calm enough that I actually thought of staging a spontaneous dive off Solander (which is something I am sure nobody has ever done before).
Read MoreIt didn’t take much convincing for me to stage another dive there today. Finished the day off with a shore visit to the old whaling station at Coal Harbour on the far side of the Narrows. Coal Harbour was originally a coal mining town (go figure huh!!). It became a coastal defense station during World War 2 with large hangars, over 700 personnel and a fleet of Stranraer flying boats and Canso (aka PBY or Catalina) amphibious aircraft as well as fleet of high speed RCAF air-sea rescue boats (the dinner charter boat Malecite which still works out of Granville Island was one of these air-sea rescue boats and somewhat famous for trying to rescue the crew of a Stranraer that crashed in open ocean in 1944).
Read MoreOur scuba divers loved it as they found every imaginable sort of nudibranch and “muck” creature. I was a bit skeptical when they surfaced and gleefully told us that it was fabulous British Columbia muck diving but everyone seemed to have a great time. One diver even found the steel hull of a shipwreck on one side of the island. We staged dives 2 and 3 at slack in Quatsino Narrows and very good dives were had by all.
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