This is one of the few shore-access sites on Saturna, besides East Point, that looks interesting. It's on East Point Road near Winter Cove Park. On a chart, the bottom drops quickly to around 30 feet deep and then there is a flat area stretching out for about 200 meters. Then a long, shallow reef pops up before the bottom drops away steeply again to over 100 feet. On the surface, I could see no sign of this shallow reef (no kelp, breakers, etc.). This would make it a bit harder to reach by swimming on the surface, because you won't know when you have reached it. I didn't have a compass with me, so swimming underwater would be a challenge as well. When I was here in the early morning, the water was glass-calm. Now in the afternoon, there was a bit of a nasty swell blowing in from the open Straight of Georgia (I could see the Tsawassen ferry terminal in the distance). Just getting in the water was a challenge. The breakers tossed me around quite a bit, scratching up my camera housing dome port, shredding my knee pads and knocking loose a fin strap. After making it through and putting myself back together, I descended down a slope of boulders and rubble to flat sand at 30 feet deep. Visibility was less than 15 feet and there was a noticeable current running. I decided not to swim out to the deep dropoff (drifting lost in the middle of the straight spooked me), and instead just explored the shallow boulder-slope. Despite the current, there was hardly any life here. I've seen more in the shallows in Saanich Inlet and Howe Sound. Of course there was a variety of seastars, a few  red rock crabs, a lingcod and a school of perch at the edge of visibility. I didn't see any sponges, tunicates, anemones, or anything like that. There were a few tiny hermit crabs and tide-pool sculpins, but that's about it. If I ever come here again, I might get a compass, grow some balls and try for the drop-off, but then again, I might not. If you want to see something impressive, go to nearby Winter Cove marine park and walk the short trail to Boat Passage. Currents of up to 8 knots zip through the narrow gap. I've never seen salt water move so fast. I almost thought of diving it, but it's only 10 feet deep.
SEA STAR
BEACH
LINGCOD
SUNFLOWER STAR
RED ROCK CRAB ON SANDY BOTTOM
RUSSELL BEACH AT DAWN
IN THE AFTERNOON
BOAT PASSAGE
BOAT PASSAGE
LEAVING SATURNA ON THE FERRY
LEAVING SATURNA ON FERRY
CLASSIC SMALL ISLAND B.C. FERRY TERMINAL