This is another no-name, random spot in Saanich Inlet. It's on the East side of Finlayson Arm across from the popular Christmas Point dive site. I pulled my boat up on a gravel beach at low tide (June 23, 2009) and swam down. Visibility was only about 10 feet in the shallows and didn't clear up until I was about 50 feet deep. Even then, it was only around 30 feet, which doesn't sound bad, except it was double that for the last 2 weeks in this area. Compared to the bright, clear dives I've been having lately in Saanich Inlet, this one seemed dark and gloomy. There wasn't a whole lot of noticeable life on most of the dive (maybe it was just the worse-than-average visibility). The topography was the usual series of walls/ledges/boulders going down deeper than I cared to go. I went down to about 130 feet looking for sponges of course, but I didn't see any (boot or cloud). This place did have a higher than average amount of crystal tunicates. Usually you see them by themselves, maybe a few on an entire dive, but here I could look around and see several at once. About 80 feet deep, there was a big ledge with large boulders on it swarming with black and yellowtail rockfish. I also saw the occasional copper/quillback and a single tiger rockfish. Because of the nitrogen absorbed on a previous dive, I had to spend half this dive in the murky shallows. Most of the rocks were covered with light bulb tunicates. This was probably my least favorite dive of the ones I've been doing in Saanich Inlet lately, even though most people would line up to come here if it was diveable from shore. Oh well, there are still 8976 dive sites left for me to visit in the Inlet.
I was going to dive at Christmas Point today (Feb. 15, 2010), but while I was waiting around, breathing away the previous dive's nitrogen, I noticed a small point across the Inlet and figured I'd try somewhere new instead. Later, when I was back at home, I realised I've been here before. It's strange that I didn't recognise any landmarks on the surface, but after reading about my previous dive here, I remembered the boulder ledge with the school of rockfish. This time, visibility was at least 50 feet except for a murky layer in the top 10 feet. in one area, there were several boot sponges and a few tiny cloud sponges at about 130 feet deep.
