This was the first dive we did (July 16, 2016) in Barkley Sound during a weekend of diving out of Bamfield. The Vanlene was an 8500 ton freighter loaded with cars being shipped from Japan to Vancouver. Due to the lack of working navigational equipment, it ran up on some rocks near Austin Island in Barkley Sound on March 14 1972. Many of the cars were salvaged by helicopter, but the ship was abandoned and over the next couple of years it broke up and sank. This is an exposed location and we were lucky to have such a calm day for diving. It is often inaccessible due to wind and swell.
Visibility near the surface was pretty bad, maybe 6'. Below 30' deep, it cleared up to maybe 50' of visibility. The wreckage was flattened and scattered over a wide area. We went down to about 75' deep, but the wreckage continues deeper. There were lots of fish-eating anemones in the shallower depths. I saw a few China rockfish and some blue rockfish mixed in the schools of black and yellowtail rockfish. I found the most interesting area to be around the engine room. There was a round boiler and the shaftline in its stern tube leading to the large steam engine. I took video during this dive so the following pictures are stills captured from the video.
