This place is also known as Tyee Cove and "Seducers" (I don't know why. I didn't see any condoms on the beach). It's off Tyee Crescent in the Schooner Cove area near Nanoose. There's room for a few cars near a short trail through some blackberry bushes to the rocky beach. There's also a small blue sign labelling it "Blueback Community Park", which is why I named this site the way I did ( and also to confuse divers who know it by the other names). I came here in mid-Feb., 2005. I swam straight out from the beach and through a shallow area with sandstone ledges and reefs with sandy areas in between. This area looked a lot like the shallows in Saanich Inlet (except with sandstone). There was the same kind of seaweed, kelp crabs and perch everywhere. I think there was a bit more colour and variety of small life here than in Saanich Inlet, though. I saw a puget sound king crab and lots of little bright orange snails (whelks?). As I reached the 40-50 foot zone, there were little sponges that looked like orange golf balls scattered everywhere. I went deeper down a sort of wall and again was reminded of Saanich Inlet, with the nearly bare rock and a few boot sponges. There were copper, quillback and some tiger rockfish hiding in the crevices. A sea lion flew down for a few passes above me (later on the beach some kayakers told me it was playing in my bubbles). The wall seemed to end in a flat sand bottom at 110 feet. I swam back up to a ledge at about 50 feet. This area is a bit to the left (when swimming out from the beach). Here were some of the most interesting rock formations I've seen underwater (of course I was out of film by now). There were sandstone "mushrooms", pillars and skyscrapers with overhangs and horizontal cracks inhabited by swarms of rockfish. Schools of perch darted around above in the shallows. The visibility was pretty decent (40 feet or so). As I surfaced, there was a carpet of wriggling kelp crabs (again, reminding me of Saanich Inlet) on the gravel near the beach. I think I would come here again, even though I'm not a big fan of the drive. It would have to be on a day with good visibility though. -The main attraction for me was the rock formation "condos".
