NY'er invades Fox Island...

My new buddy Mike M., from NY, contacted me earlier in the week to let me know he'd be in town and wanted to get a dive or two in while here. I'd splashed with Mike in early June of this year for the first time, and was glad to hear he'd be returning for another tour of the South Sound. Although Mike was here under unfortunate circumstances, the serenity of diving was just what the doctor ordered.

The first order of business was to determine where to splash. Our dives in June were both at Les Davis Marine Park, so I definitely wanted to steer clear of that site this time around. I thought it would be good to get in a couple of new sites that weren't so far from each other as to be a logistics mess. So, I decided on two of the Fox Island sites.

The tide predictions were lookong to be in our favor for a Fox Island bridge dive, and then a short trip to the West Wall on Fox Island. Mike had yet to be introduced to current, and although the prediction showed that we would not face current under the bridge today, the "predictions" were a bit off - we felt a pretty good ebb flow. We entered on the boat launch side and surface swam out towards the bridge, along the rock bulkhead. Just before we came to the relief under the bridge, we started to feel a little pull towards the east. Our plan was to explore the bridge supports, but as we made our way closer to the first set of bridge supports we quickly realized that this was not going to happen. This was going to be a drift dive!

I positioned myself along the closest bridge support, with the current to my back, and told Mike to do the same at a nearby support. I let him know of the change in plans, and asked if he was good with that. He agreed to the drift option and we descended our respective supports. Once at the bottom, I made sure he was ready to push away and follow the current east. With a big OK sign from Mike, we pushed off and began our drift. It wasn't an extreme current by any means, around 2 knots or so, but it was enough to move us along at a good clip and introduce Mike to a new sensation underwater. Although it was a short ride, it was good fun. Mike was a little on the light side for this dive, and so the shallow cove on the east side posed a small problem of his staying down. We put in a good surface swim to our exit and then crossed the road to our vehicles. We started a little later than we hoped, so Mike checked in with family to see if a second dive was in order. Once confirmed, we headed off to the second of our splash sites for today.

The West Wall at Fox Island has always been a fav of mine if not for a single reason - GPO's. I have always come across at least one GPO here - typically more. I was excited about an opportunity to give Mike his first introduction to one today. Unfortunately, it didn't happen that way. We toured the wall from one end to the next, and then back again... there was no GPO to be found. Plenty of marine life to make the dive interesting, but apparently no longer home to the GPO's. Instead we found a large number of crab taking up residence in what used to be GPO dens on the wall. A telltale sign if ever there were one. Nonetheless, another good dive and a new site for Mike to log here in Washington state.

Thanks again for looking me up, Mike, and do so again next time you're in town. It's always fun! And best of luck to you in your continued scuba studies, and experiences. Stick with it and come back to see us soon!

Buddy: Mike M. (Dive 1: 28fsw for 27mins; Dive 2: 65fsw for 37mins)