By Kevin Parkhurst
Warm northwest summer days all too soon give way to drippy fog shrouded Fall and Winter mornings and long after most divers have left their gear in the garage to dry out until spring there remains a diehard group of dedicated individuals who understand that the best diving of the year lies below a surface that is be speckled with droplets given birth by the gray skies above.
Diving this time of year takes more planning than seasons left behind but the rewards are well worth the effort. Gone with the sunshine is the algae blooms that cut visibility to inches during the summer, also gone is the extreme tidal changes and rapid currents characteristic of summer, additionally most peoples schedules settle down allowing us more time to enjoy aspects of diving that we all to often neglect.
Instead of rushing out the door on a summer morning for a quick dive at a close beach and then running home to mow the lawn we spend more time, we drive further, take ferry rides; meet for breakfast before the dive or lunch or dinner afterwards. A comfy chair in a coffee house with hot espresso and friends is the perfect way to warm up after a dive and many locations offer this. Dive mornings become dive days and often become dive trips.
One of my favorite winter dive days is a road trip to Port Townsend. We’ll leave early in the morning and catch the ferry at Edmonds or Seattle. Eat breakfast on the ferry and drive straight to Port Townsend where we will dive the jetty or dive for bottles and treasure. With our Memory cards full of pictures or our goody bags full of crab or fish and old bottles and treasure liberated from the years of sea mud that enshrouded them we are out of the water by around 11:00am, we then head to town and have a great lunch at one of the wonderful local restaurants and just take in all this historic seaport has to offer. Next we start the first leg of our journey home by getting on the ferry to Keystone where we do our second dive of the day.
The Keystone Jetty is one of the great dives of Whidbey Island and shouldn’t be missed. In the winter the sun will be getting pretty low at this time so dive lights will be necessary but the sea life on the jetty explodes with color under the beam of our dive lights. After this we head to Clinton and catch the ferry to Mukilteo where we take in a slow dinner at the Diamond Knot Brewery replete with sizzling meat on one of their hot stones, cold beer and great conversation with friends.
A row of cozy little cabins line the beach at West Beach Resort on Orcas Island WA. There’s no more intimate way to spend a few icy winter dive days than to occupy one of these quaint little cabins with friends or loved ones and venture out on dive excursions. The San Juan Islands take on a completely different personality in winter. It’s peaceful and slow.
The visibility in the waters of the San Juans can easily be over 100 feet this time of year. With an abundance of sea life and the amazing and varied bottom topography the diving is hard to beat. Back on shore the cabin is warm. I can still smell the coffee perking on the stove as
the rain rhythmically drums the roof. My lifelong buddy Pat who fancies himself a gourmet broiled some steaks and then smothers them in freshly caught crab meat and homemade hollandaise sauce. A roaring bonfire can often be found at the fire pit next to the beach and it’s guaranteed that I will be playing my guitar there if not too many people complain…
There are those who would rather I keep the secret of the best time of year to go diving the Pacific Northwest but all good things will ultimately be found out so if anyone asks you why you’re diving in this time of year just tell that that I turned you on to “Diving in the land of Winter Rains and Fog”
The writer of this article is Kevin Parkhurst who’s most recent winter event was to set up a night dive event that included the Argosy Christmas Ships arrival at Seacrest Cove I, A raging beach bond fire was capped off with a group dinner at Salty’s on Alki. If you are interested in finding out more about winter diving you can contact Kevin through his dive club the Pacific Northwest Scuba Group by going here: www.meetup.com/PNW-Scuba/
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