Woodward point sticks out into Sooke Harbour just North of Whiffin Spit. The marine chart shows a reasonably steep slope to about 40-50' deep near the tip of this point. There is a public right-of-way to the water near the point, off Tideview Road in east Sooke (between houses 6651 and 6663). From the shore here, it's a 250-meter swim to the tip of the point. I had put off diving here because of that swim, but I had the urge to try it on Feb. 2, 2014. There is a strong current off the tip of Whiffin Spit and the channel off Woodward Point isn't much wider, so I checked the Sooke tide table before coming here. It showed a 3-foot exchange (rising) during the time I expected to be in the water. I didn't have the luxury of diving during the slack, and I assumed that this small 3-foot exchange would only produce a mild current. The trail was nice and short, if a bit steep in places. It led down to a gravel beach with Woodward Point out to the right. I started to swim out on the surface and it was shallow for a long way out. The sandy bottom was covered with a large bed of eelgrass. There were a few hooded nudibranchs here and I saw a sealion and a harbour seal in the distance. Most of this area was only waist or chest deep. When I was about 2/3 of the way to the tip of the point I descended and continued to swim out underwater. The eelgrass was still here, but the bottom was now a steep silty-sand slope. Visibility was about 20 feet and it seemed nice and bright. As swam along the point, a rocky reef appeared. In places it formed a wall dropping down from the shoreline. It seemed pretty grey and silty, but there were a few clumps of orange and white plumose anemones, seastars and tiny decorator-type crabs. This rocky area ended in the sand about 45 feet deep. The current was coming from behind and pushing me along. When you're swimming with the current, it's sometimes hard to realise how strong it is. I continued to drift and saw a field of plumose anemones on some broken rocks near the base of the slope 45 feet deep. There were some boulders and walls a bit shallower that were also covered with plumose anemones and patches of yellow sponge. This must have been near the tip of the point. I hardly saw any fish, only a group of white-spotted greenlings. I followed this plumose-covered slope down to about 55 feet deep (on about a 7-foot tide). When I tried to turn around and swim back up the slope, I realised how strong the current was. I could see pieces of kelp swirling around and shooting past me. I struggled back up to the shallows using the angles of the rocky reefs and walls to try and shelter from the current. I was at the tip of the point and even in the shallows, the rocks had a coating of colourful encrusting sponges and cup corals. I still had at least half my air left, but I realised I'd need it to struggle back against the current. I tried to swim back in the shallows at the tip of the point, but the current was too strong to swim against. It was sweeping straight out past the tip of the point into Sooke Harbour. It would be pretty embarrassing if I had to stagger out of the water in downtown Sooke and call a taxi to bring me back to the other side of the harbour. I tried swimming as hard as I could while pulling myself along the rocks near the surface. When there were sandy patches, I couldn't get a grip and the current pushed me backwards again. I was breathing harder than I liked and I almost gave up a few times, but I eventually gasped my way back to the shallow eelgrass area, where the current died down. If the current was this strong on a small exchange, I can't imagine what it would be like on a more-typical day. I was still pleasantly surprised by the anemones and colour at the point and I'm already hoping to try diving here again as soon as possible.
