This is another Vancouver-area dive that I've never done before. It's 3 shallow wrecks (the ex Coast Guard cutter Ready and 2 older wooden fishing vessels, including possibly the Cape Swain) grouped together near shore just South of the Britannia mine. Since the silt-laden plume of the Squamish River turns this whole Northern part of Howe Sound a light blue milky colour in the Spring and early Summer, I'd only consider diving here in the winter. I drove up from Vancouver on Dec. 26, 2017.
I parked next to the highway near a McDonald's billboard that is a landmark for the entry-point. In hindsight, I probably wouldn't have parked so close to the railroad tracks. They are still active and when I was putting my gear together, a train went by uncomfortably close. There are a series of trails leading through the forest (scattered with concrete ruins from the area's industrial past) to the shoreline near a row of pilings. The wrecks are just off these pilings.
Visibility was quite nice (about 40'). I quickly found the first wreck about 20-30' deep. I think it's considered to be the Cape Swain, a 60'-long fishing vessel built in 1927 according to Nauticapedia.ca. It is now mostly collapsed.
After leaving the Cape Swain, I continued swimming along parallel to the pilings about 25' deep. I soon saw the bow of the Ready in the distance. The Ready was a 100'-long steel Canadian Coast Guard cutter built in the 1960's. It sank in 2011.
When the Ready sank it came to rest against another, older wreck. I don't know its identity, but it seems like a 50-60'-long, wooden fishing vessel. Like the Cape Swain, it's mostly rotted away. The deepest part of this wreck was about 55' deep when I was here at a semi-high tide. I took a series of pictures of the entire wreck with the intention of digitally stitching them together later, but they didn't line up well enough for the software to combine them so I'll just include most of them here separately.
I swam back up to the Ready. Again, I took some series of photos of the entire wreck, hoping to stitch them together later, but like before, it didn't work very well.
After an hour and a half underwater I was running low on air so I snorkeled back to my entry point on the surface. As I passed over the wreck of the Cape Swain, I took some photos of it while looking down from above.
