August 16 - 18
8/16 We arrive in the Sitka area, ready for a quick drift dive in a narrow waterway north of Sitka (either Siginaka Is or Middle Is). We arrive at the waters edge of the channel, the captain scopes out the run, and indicates the direction and speed of the current. We jump in and go for it. Two problems encountered in this dive: First, there was a very slow current going in the opposite direction, and second, the current changed direction near the end of the dive and picked up speed. Very odd. We called this dive Barnacle Alley due to the large number and massive size of the barnacles along the wall.
Once in Sitka, a pair of local divers (Dave and Dave) recommended a fantastic pinnacle out by one of the outer bay buoy/sounders. No current, they say. Grand pinnacle with octopus all over it, they say. Now back to reality. We motor around the sounder looking for the pinnacle, which we eventually sort of find and anchor on. We encounter medium seas and a very strong current, so strong that the skiff crew rope-tow us to the bow for our descent down the anchor line. We descend down the anchor line in near zero visibility to find a rubble pile with a snow cap of metridiums at 80 feet with maybe 12 feet visibility. Lots of rocks. Some big, some small. A lot of very red rocks, and some baby red rocks (known as SmallusRockus, or by the common name: pebbles). There was a lot of surge, even at 80 feet, so we made a radial pattern from and to the anchor, never letting it out of our sight (due to the current and rough seas at the surface). Once we were satisfied we had found the best rubble pile in Sitka Sound, we ended the dive with a slow ascent up the anchor line.
The evening was spent prize shopping in Russian and First Nation art stores around downtown Sitka. We had dinner of burgers and beer at Victoria's Restaurant, which was much better than waiting the 2+ hours for a table at some overly hip and pricey food establishment.
8/17 Early morning stroll through downtown Sitka for some photos, and back at the boat by 8am for an 8:10 departure. The little fishing town is very quiet this early, especially being one hour earlier than boat time, and being Sunday helped. We depart at 8:10 for a ride south of Sitka for a 9:15 dive. A 9:15 dive means an 8:45 briefing. For me it was skipped for an R&R morning of hot chocolate, hot tub, and taking in the scenic mountain vistas. Others went out to this new Dave&Dave open ocean site, the review was 'nice dive, some surge, some visibility, some critters'. Uh huh...it was good to just relax.
We then motored to the St. Lazarius Island bird sanctuary, for two days of diving fun and relaxation. The mother ship anchored in the calm side of the island, with a perfect view of Mt. Edgecumbe, an inactive volcano. A very quiet anchorage, so quiet in fact that we had fishing boats anchor near us both nights we were here. This proved to be entertaining when we sent a scout with a wad of cash to purchase 100lbs of salmon...kayaking from one boat to the next...only to come back with all the fish, perfectly filleted and vacuum packed. The other fun was the discovery of a bunch of crabs purchased by one of the guests in Sitka. Not much the captain can do in cases like this. With the additional discovery of a boiling pot of water on the rear deck, it was clearly time for a back deck dinner picnic.
The first dive at St. Lazarius was on the open ocean side with a bit of swell, no current, and some surge, even down to 80 feet. The idea was to find the cavern entrance to a cave that drops to 150 feet, going inland to a sink hole. Ya, right. Needless to say, Dave&Dave's cavern entrance was not found. An evening dive in the wide, cavernous part of the island was had by some, and skipped by others who instead kayaked about the calm part of the island's waters.
8/18 Day two at St. Lazarius. Same dives as day one, with an extra early morning 8am dive off one of the pinnacles on the outer edge of the island. Fine morning to sleep in. The dive did have a few octos for a few people, but not much else. Well worth missing for the warm and dry comfort of the mothership. The outer ocean Dave&Dave dive was tried again with the goal of again finding the cavern's entrance. Again no luck. We did the evening dive at the cavernous cliff opening, with a hugely fish sitting on a ledge and an even hugelier fish as the back end, bottom, of the cavern. Big cod-like things. Huge. Lots of bright orange, textured, slipper-sized nudibranchs. This evening our intrepid leader Phil seemed to reach his Vacation Nirvana. The boy was extremely relaxed.
We have an evening run to the southern end of Baranof Island to Wooden Island. Due to the storm we had been avoiding, there would still be some rather large swells on the way, so Captain Mike prescribed drugs and alcohol for the 8+ hour late night trip.