I tried going out to Strongtide Island today (Dec. 4, 2009), but when I took my boat out into Baynes Channel, there were steep 3-6' breaking waves. I won't go into the details (I found that Zodiacs still float when they're completely full of water), but I wont be buying the weather forecasters any Christmas presents this year. I made it back to Cattle Point and settled for a shore dive. The Ten Mile Point area was too rough to easily get in the water so I drove back along the coastline to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which was still nice and calm. Enterprise Channel is always colourful so I stopped here for my dive. Visibility around the outer edge of the bay was less than 6' because of a huge cloud of shrimp. It seemed to go on forever and I didn't think I'd be able to find the sewer pipe reef. In places, I couldn't even see the sandy bottom right below me even though I could reach down and feel it with my hand. Suddenly I was out of the swarm and right in front of the reef of boulders. Visibility was still only 10-15', but that was good enough to see the crowds of rockfish and colourful invertebrates coating the rocks. The current was also unexpectedly strong so I didn't go more than half-way out along the reef.
