Two very different dives

On Saturday, December 17th, I was at the Poor Knights diving off the Yukon Dive Charters boat "Arrow". The rest of the divers aboard were all experienced divers so our skipper Noel anchored up at a site called "The Canyon" where black coral trees could be found in the depths.

Dive 1 - The Canyon

I dived with Greg van der Hulst, Pete Mesley, and Greg Lowe, who were all diving rebreathers. After getting into the 16C water, we descended down to the 50m mark and swam along the gently sloping white sand bottom. Quite quickly it was time for Greg Lowe to start his ascent back up the Canyon's walls to reduce his decompression obligations which were restricted by the amount of bailout he had available for the depth he was diving.

Pete had his camera and took photos of anything that was of interest. This included assorted nudibranchs and the rarer fish species which hide well away from the more popular diver trails. Greg van der Hulst managed to pose in the background as an aesthetic enhancement (eye candy!) for most of Pete's pictures.

We discovered a magnificent specimen of a black coral tree as we made our way back into the Canyon's entrance. It sat perched on the side of a large boulder and sprouted its many limbs far out into the food rich waters that flowed through the passageway. At about 45m I discovered a crayfish that showed no fear at all as Greg and myself poked our heads into its dark hiding place.

Our ascent took us back up the rich and colourful walls. The decompression penalties we incurred from the deeper section of our dive passed easily as there was just so much to see with every bit of wall covered in something different. Greg Lowe joined us and we did some of our decompression stops together, but when his deco was over he signalled that he was heading back to the boat. After a runtime of an hour and forty minutes, we all ascended from our last stop and returned to the boat.


Dive 2 - Imagination Point

The surface interval went by and it was soon time for my second dive. I opted to solo dive for this one because I was going to be on my SS-18 underwater scooter. The dive site was "Imagination Point" off the southern end of Archway Island.

Everyone was already in the water long before I jumped in. After a quick adjustment of the towing sling and the setting of the props pitch to number 5, I powered up the scooter and slowly descended to 30m. It was strange hearing the whine of the motor in contrast to the silence of the first dive but I didn't really care about it as I was enjoying myself way too much! I headed off in the opposite direction to all the divers and zoomed around the corner in a northerly direction.

Large overhanging ledges and deep cuts in the wall whizzed passed in a blur, barely giving me time to survey any of their hidden treasures so I released the power switch periodically and made a point of exploring the walls. It was soon time to start my no-deco ascent so I traversed backwards and forwards whilst slowly ascending a couple of metres a minute. When I got back to Arrow, Noel assisted me by taking the 32Kg scooter out of the water for me.

The dives were done on my AP Inspiration electronics which I had just got back from the factory in England. They worked perfectly on both my dives, but I'll keep them as a backup option to the Hammerhead electronics I mentioned in my last blog.
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Photo Credit: Young, I.M., 2006 (December 17), Looking north from The Canyon dive site. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Young, I.M., 2006 (December 17), Post-dive at The Canyon. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Young, I.M., 2006 (December 17), Dave Young with Pete Mesley in the background. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Young, I.M., 2006 (December 17), Aorangi Island and Ngoio Rock looking from Imagination Point. All rights reserved.