This is another one of those random Saanich Inlet spots that I've been trying out lately. It's a small, nameless, exposed rock off the Eastern side of Finlayson Arm. It's across from and half-way between Christmas Point and the popular dive site that people call "Christmas Point". I tied my boat to a fallen tree on the shore and swam out to the tiny, island-like rock (June 23, 2009). The outside dropped down in a series of stepped walls with small overhangs, small pinnacles and deep, crack-like canyons. Visibility was about 20 feet in the shallows and about 50 feet below 30 feet deep. It was mostly your standard Saanich Inlet kind of dive except for a few things. I saw more tiger rockfish here than anywhere else I've been. They weren't in schools or anything, but I must have seen 7 or 8 of them hiding around the rocks. Another unusual thing was all the lampshells. These bivalves were covering most of the rocks below 100 feet deep. I've seen them at Lenfesty Point, but not this many or this deep. I also saw more cup corals than is typical in the Inlet. I didn't see any cloud sponges, but there were lots of boot sponges starting at around 100 feet. Other than all the above, there was the typical Saanich Inlet stuff (lion's mane jellyfish, copper, quillback and yellowtail rockfish, crystal tunicates, various seastars, etc.). It was a pretty decent, dramatic dive with the good visibility, but I'm still after cloud sponges so I'll try somewhere else next time.
