Guy Foster and I arrived at the delightful God's Pocket Diving resort on Sunday afternoon, March 24. We were immediately favorably impressed by the staff, the wonderful dinner, and the group Richard Salas had assembled. The boat ride to God's Pocket was beautiful with calm seas and sunny skies and took about an hour from Port Hardy at the NE end of Vancouver Island. This followed a wonderful low level flight on Pacific Coastal Airline from Vancouver Airport. The views of fjord like bays and snow capped mountains were breathtaking.
Below are some photos from our first dive at Frank's Rock, to see more, please go to:
https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipNA7622sjcH1_M98Y02WLbFKMkSINT-LM3s1MFJ
The boat ride from God's Pocket to Frank's Rock was beautiful and I quickly realized what an incredible environment for diving exists in the area. As soon as Guy and I descended at Frank's Rock I said to myself "OK, I understand why I've been told this is the best cold water diving in the world"! My single biggest thrill on this dive, and for the day, wasn't the excellent 40 ft visibility or the sheer density of the invertebrate life, it was, for the first time since the sea star wasting disease made the magnificent Sunflower Star locally extinct in Monterey in 2013, seeing thriving Sunflower Stars! Hopefully they will repopulate the entire west coast in years to come.
Descending from our boat at Frank's Rock in early(ish) sunlight.
I haven't seen a living Sunflower Star since 2013's sea star wasting plague, I was overjoyed to see healthy ones on this first dive at God's Pocket!
Guy taking pictures amongst Metridium anemones.
Not a bad shot of a hermit crab, taken with my wide angle fisheye 10-17 mm Tokina.
I bought an extra heavy upper body jacket to go with my full body undergarment for this trip. Glad I did, it plus two long pairs of wool socks kept me comfortable on the first dive of the day, in 45 degree water and not too chilled after a second dive....Plenty of time to recover with lunch before the afternoon dive.
The Palm Kelp up in the shallows had beautiful anemones on their stems.
Our second dive was at "Butter Tart" also known as "Snowball". Our sunny weather, which I sure hadn't expected, continued! Below are some photos from this dive, for more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/S7vuKtWneiEgX1ka9
Guy dropping at the start of our dive at Butter Tart, aka Snowball. Look at the light above, look at the visibility!
A new, for me, type of rockfish, species TBD when I have time to look at my fish books.
A Kelp Crab, in the kelp.
The colors of the dense invertebrate life is amazing, reminds me of warm water soft corals in Fiji!
Our third and final dive of our first day at God's Pocket was at Hurra's Point. We dived this site because it is sheltered from the strong tidal flow running at the time of this dive. As we learned, the peak and ebb tides, with the lowest tidal flow, are required for diving many of the best sites.
Below are some photos from this dive, to see more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/RzPWE91TbuGPibPH6
My first ever Red Irish Lord. They are very confident of their camouflage or just stubborn, they are very patient with photography and photographers. In California, my favorite fish subject is the Cabezon. The Red Irish Lord is the picturesque equivalent in BC.
Guy pauses from photographing the patient Red Irish Lord, which you can see near the white Metridium anemone in the center of the picture.
What an incredible first day of diving God's Pocket, great subjects, clear water, sunny sky, and calm seas, followed by a wonderful dinner!
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