My first dives in Canada!

In June Mary and I flew to Vancouver and met up with our good friends Meagan Abele and Natalie Scadden. We had first met them when they had been on a working holiday in Nelson Bay – now we were on their home patch. Meagan took me for a quick check out dive at Jericho Beach - I didn’t take my camera but as the underwater visibility was 0.5 metres, good photos would have been rather tricky! Mary and I then headed off on an Alaskan cruise and Rocky Mountaineer trip through the Canadian Rockies.

Once we back in Vancouver Mary flew home to Sydney and having dropped Mary at the airport, I then wasted no time meeting Meagan and Natalie for a dive at Kelvin Grove beach on the east side of Howe Sound. The water looked greenish and to begin with the underwater visibility was just 1 metre but as we dropped deeper this improved to around 9 metres. Naturally this layer of greenish water reduced the light underwater. I was very excited to see Red Irish Lord Sculpin and Decorated Warbonnet for the first time – thank you Meagan and Natalie. The next day the girls took me to Howe Sound where diving from Mina II we dived East, North and South Bowyer. Thank you skipper Marc Palay for being so helpful. Once again the visibility was 1 metre on the surface but improved as we dropped deeper. More “firsts”: Copper Rockfish and Lingcod.

My last dive in Vancouver was with Meagan and Natalie’s’ friend Vivanna Lee otherwise known as Queen Bee! Viv took me to The Cut at Whytecliffe and showed me another “first” - a King Crab. Queen Bee with a King Crab! A fun way to end my short time diving Vancouver.