I had just finished a dive nearby on Galiano island (19245 Porlier Pass Road) and I noticed another beach access marked on the map that I picked up on the ferry. This access is about 1/2 kilometer North of the 19245 dive site. It's at the end of the gravel/dirt Trincomali Drive. I parked at the end of the road (still March 17, 2014) and saw a steep trail down to the water. Stone blocks had been placed to provide steps on the way down. Underwater, there was a shallow ledge and then the bottom dropped straight down in sandstone wall. Visibility was 15-20'. I was diving a couple of hours after the Porlier Pass slack and I felt a slight current. There were groups of white plumose anemones around the top of the wall. This wall ended 80 feet deep and then there was sand. I didn't swim out to see if the wall would start up again. It was unusually dark down here and the visibility seemed to be worse. Hovering in the gloom next to the wall with all that dark water behind me, I tried not to think of orcas. Like my dive earlier in the day, the marine life here was almost identical to most of the spots along this part of the island. Below 40 feet, there were urchins, sea pens in the sand, feather stars and small "Galiano Island" soft corals. I saw the required Puget Sound king crabs. I also saw a large orange peel nudibranch on the sand. I usually only see these where there is some kind of coral. I don't know if it was after the soft corals or the sea pens. I had turned right (North) as I swam along the wall and as I ascended to the shallows to swim back, I saw the wreckage of a car scattered down the slope 10-30 feet deep. It must have been here for a while since there was nothing left of the body, just the axles and parts of the frame. The steering wheel was lying in the sand on a ledge. As I swam back along the shore in the shallows, I saw lots of other old junk (a toilet, a small anchor, a tire, etc.) Whoever lived on the property above a while ago must have just shoved all their junk from their backyard into the water. On the sandy ledge near my entry-point I noticed that there were crusty-looking cemented tube worms living in the sand between the tube-dwelling anemones. I usually only see them on solid rock. Later, after the dive, I noticed that this spot is only about 200-300 meters South of the "Spotlight Cove" dive site. Depending on how much air you have and how fast you swim, this is basically the same dive site. If I brave the steep trail and dive here again, I'll swim South instead.
