I had heard a few reports that the Spring plankton blooms had taken a break in parts of Saanich Inlet so I came out for a dive at Daphne Islet to test a new (1970's/1980's) camera strobe. Unfortunately, back then they made strobes big and bright so I didn't have a thick enough diffuser over it. I was using a white plastic bag and rubber bands as a temporary diffuser, but the strobe still made too much of a glaring spotlight. -So I couldn't get any decent wide-angle photos. It didn't help that the visibility was less than 10 feet for most of the dive, although it cleared up to maybe 20-30' in a few places between 40 and 60 feet deep.
This time I tried using a different access point than the one I normally use. I had a look at this trail years ago, but it seemed longer and steeper than I'd like. I seem to be getting hardier as I age so I tried it out today. Going down wasn't difficult, but the hill on the way back up made me have to stop a few times to catch my breath.
When I was swimming along the base of the wall at Daphne Islet I decided to swim out a bit over the mud to see if there were any more rocky areas. I saw some tracks in the mud, maybe from crabs, some kind of fish or dragging anchors? Nearby there was a very silty reef starting at about 80 feet that I followed down to about 100 feet deep. I didn't have the air to follow it to the end.
