I went out again to Swordfish Island on Nov. 3, 2011. There was almost no wind, but a long, low swell was rolling up the Strait from the open Pacific. This swell was crashing against Swordfish Island, but I carried on with the dive anyway. In the tunnel, the surge swept me the entire length of the tunnel before pulling me back to where I started. I couldn't really take pictures in these conditions so I kicked hard and rode the surge out of the tunnel to the Juan de Fuca side of the island. I figured I'd drop down below the reach of the swells and have a nice, long, photo-taking dive. I soon realised that the current was too strong to swim against (even though I was diving during the Race Passage slack). I held onto stalked kelp, hid behind boulders and eventually gave up and swam back up to the shallows where the current was less, but the surge made swimming just as difficult. Holding on to the bottom didn't help because the surge would then just flip me over. I had enough and tried to swim back through the tunnel, but now the current was flowing against me here as well. I swam harder than my regulator wanted me to for longer than I should have and eventually I made it back to the sheltered side. I've always thought of Swordfish Island as a benign sort of dive, a place you go when the current is too strong elsewhere, but now I have a new respect for the potential hazards here.
I wasn't giving up yet though. I came back two days later for 2 dives. The swell was less and I decided to go in when the Race Passage Current Table was showing maximum flood. Visibility was 20-30 feet, the surge in the tunnel was reasonable and I didn't feel any current on the outside slope. I took wide-angle photos on the first dive and close-up ones on the second.
