Although most people refer to this dive as "The White Lady" (I have no idea why), on the chart it's called Repulse Rock and that's what I'll call it. It's on the East side of Saanich Inlet off the point where the inlet bends to become Finlayson Arm. I came here at the end of December (2004). When we left the Goldstream marina, there was a thin layer of patchy ice on the surface of Saanich inlet. It made a scraping noise on the hull of the boat as we sped through it. This was our second dive of the day (after Christmas Point) and by the time we reached the marker and mooring buoy, the ice had melted and the sun was out. According to a couple of local guide books, there is supposed to be a "valley of sponges" on the south side of the marker so we tried to find it. The water was a bit murky from fresh water near the surface, but cleared up steadily as we went deeper. The area around the marker was a series of shallow reefs and walls. This place was swarming with orange plumose anemones - more than I've seen anywhere else in Saanich Inlet. The sides of some of the small walls were covered with cup corals (also something I never expected to see in the Inlet). As we swam South past the shallow reef, we reached a steep area that plunged down to over 100 feet. By now, visibility was at least 60 feet. We turned right and swam parallel to the wall over a wide sandy ledge with areas of rubble. This area was full of rockfish including lots of tiger rockfish. There wasn't much growing on the wall, just your typical Saanich Inlet life - a boot sponge here and there and white translucent tunicates (crystal tunicates?). We didn't see any cloud sponges. I think we should have turned left towards shore instead of right when we hit the wall. The dive was still worthwhile for the dramatic topography/visibility.
