2/14/09 scuba

matt and spent valentine's day in a more un-normal way. he signed us up for a boat dive day through the scuba shop. so we were up at 6am adn headed south to tacoma and bandito charters for the day. there were 3 couples and then 2 friends, 2 crew and 1 dive leader. it was an interesting day. it started out a little cloudy and cold. our 1st dive was a little sun but we were in teh shade, our 2nd dive was actually sunny, and then it started to rain as we were workign our way through the marina to the dock on the return. we went out to point defiance, a dive spot known as 'the north wall'. we jumped (giant stride) out onto a shelf about 15' down, then you go over a cliff and down a wall to another shelf about 30' down, then you go over a cliff... get the idea? you can go abot 80' deep here, deeper if you have good lights. but they say the best stuff is around 50-60'. matt and i (and mattW the dive leader) were the last off hte boat. i was really nervous. i was more nervous thani was on the 1st boat dive! i know a good part of it was the simple fact that we hadn't been on any dive since the start of october, and probably a ittle bit of the thoughts of Art were in the back of my mind, too.

well, i get into the water just fine and i feel ok. some of the nerves were gone instantly. the 3 of us started to descend and i felt ok. the ears were clearing no problem. then i get to about 20' or so and i have this shooting pain in my right ear. like someone took an icepick and stabbed through my ear into my skull. talk about the pain! i just shot up to the surface. it wasn't like a little pressure, wait it out and then keep going. i get to the top and let matt and mattW know what happened, gave it a few minutes then tried again. i tried to go down slowly, but to be honest i have no idea what my pace was. we got to the shelf ok. saw a few decorator crabs, lots of starfish and anemone type stuffs. i guess the visibility or 'vis' was 15-20'. there was a bit of sediment being kicked up by us too. we make it to the edge of the shelf and start to go over the edge of the wall and i get the pain in the ear again. so up we go. turns out the 1st couple in the water had managed to go through their air by now, and one of the others had a wave of nausea so up they came. her partner and matt went down as a team and i got back on board. so it was short and sweet for me. but the nerves were erase. so that was good.

we went about antoehr 45 mins or so south to a place called Zee's Reef. this was a shelf about 30' down and then antoehr wall you could go down some more. we droped the anchor line and mat was paired up with jeremy while mattW went down the anchor line with me. that allowed me to go down at a steady pace and stay at whatever depth i was at if i had ear issues. well i got to the shelf with no problems. we started looking around. a few fish, lots of huge white starfish - i can't find a picture of them! - there was one i swear had to have been 5' across! and lots of crabs - hermit and decorator. we're moving along, or i should say mattW's moving along, i'm kind of bobbing up and down off the ocean floor. i just couldn't get up into a swimming position of any kind. i had put quite a bit of air into my drysuit - for the 1st time i really experienced how wam they can get! and i was starting to put air into my BC, which they say you shouldn't use for bouyancy. i'm trying to be a goo sport and enjy myself. it was cool looking at stuff. i guess the vis was about 20' and we had filtered sunlight as well since the sun was out! then we get to the edge of the shelf and i look over the wall. i just had 1 thought: "F*** this. if i go over this shelf i'm going to plummet to the bottom." so i just shook my head and signaled i wanted to go up. without having a slate to write down why mattW just followed and made sure i didn't go up too fast. we weren't too deep so we didn't really have to do a safety stop. when we surface i let him know i was having a very hard time staying up off the floor and i wanted to drop a couple pounds of shot. he pulls out a 4lb weight and we start again. this time we we're descending and my left ear is not clearing. we stopped and hung out a bit then went a little further and hung out a bit but my left ear just wouldn't clear. i was really pissed. i don't know how long we waited at 1 point but i looked at my guage and i had used 600psi and i'd only been 'diving' for about 10-15 mins. the rest was up and down bits. i admit i gave up at this point and just surfaced. screw it. at that point i wasn't having much fun i was so frustrated with myself.

over all we saw 3 eagles - 1 was even carrying a fish in its talons. 4 or 5 harbor seals, cormorants, muirs, a white swan, and some other bird - maybe an auk (aulk? sp??)

so it was a mixed bag for diving - i learne i hadn't forgotten as much as i thought i had, i also learned i can drop a few pounds of weight and still get under the water. we got everything offloaded from the boat and were in the truck on the way home at 2.30. got home a little after 3 i think.

matt ran me a very nice and hot, bubble bath. then he brought in champagne and sat on the floor and we talked and drank the champagne. afterwards we got a pizza and by 7.30 we're both totally crashed out on the couch. matt's snoring, i'm drifting, so we go up to bed and slept for 13 hours!


hermit crab


harbor seal


double crested cormorant


bald eagle