Diving into the PNW
I joined up with some of my fellow divers, and recently ‘graduated’ divers like myself, at the annual Crab Boil at the “Mukilteo T Dock” dive site hosted by Bellingham’s Gone Diving dive shop.
This was a shore dive and dive site is full of Puget Sound critters from crabs (which was on the menu for us this dive), various saltwater fish, sea cucumbers and even an octopus and wolf eels were spotted by some of my colleagues during the dive. Water was a “warm” (by PNW standards) 49F-55F, and was diving in a Hollis 8mm wetsuit (semi-dry) and with O'Neill Thermo X Long Sleeve Insulative shirt underneath. For the PNW water sport enthusiast, this shirt has been a great piece of new kit, as it has a warm fleece lining inside, with a smooth skin outside. It is quick drying and can break wind keeping me warm wet or dry and I’ve found makes a great addition for diving as well as for SUPing in the PNW.
The big draw is the huge sunken underwater geodome down at about 60ft. This polyhedron made of ropes and pipes is encrusted with sea-life and is big enough to swim through and explore | YouTube Link. It is seriously one of the coolest things I’ve seen in the wild. A blend of art, nature, and sea-science really, all in one installation.
For the #watchfam, a little bit of watch spotting. You’ll spot two watches that accompanied me down on my two dives | the Baltic Aquascaphe Bronze, and the Seiko SKX007.
As with any dive, divers need to be diligent in monitoring themselves, conditions, current, their dive buddy, and their equipment and never dive beyond their training or limits. As Seattle King 5 News reported on June 18th, unfortunately a diver went missing while diving the site a few weeks prior to our dive.