Diving the cold, lush waters of Browning Pass, British Columbia

Walls of sponges, soft corals and anemones.

Last week, I returned from 4 days of diving aboard the Nautilus Swell.  It was both exhausting and inspiring, and the best diving I've ever done in cold water, with reefs that rival the most plush walls I've seen in top tropical spots in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Red Sea!  I see now why this is considered some of the best cold water diving in the world!

Pattern on fish-eating anemone

Browning Pass is known for walls literally covered (not a bare inch in sight!) in soft corals, white plumous anemones and sponges.  But we also saw wolf eels and sea lions (and came across a sea otter and pod of orcas on the surface!).  Unfortunately, my DSLR housing was in the shop for servicing and wasn't returned as promised (Backscatter, I'm not impressed), so all of my photos were taken with a Canon G15 compact camera (in a RecSea housing).  I hate to use that as an excuse, but between a totally different camera/housinng and it being my first diving in a new drysuit and backplate BCD, I didn't get the shots I was hoping for.  Still, the experience was amazing, and I'm very glad I went.

Walls packed with life!

Diving in a drysuit is far more physically demanding than warm water diving; I had to wear 48 lbs of lead just to offset the drysuit's buoyancy, and easily that much more weight in the form of tank, backplate, etc. (compared to 16 lbs of lead in warm water!).  By the time I hit the water for each dive, I (and my Weezle, a down-like drysuit "undergarment") were totally drenched in sweat.  But once in the water, it's all weightless, and the payoff was amazing underwater scenery that made it worth the effort.

The Nautilus Swell departs from Port Hardy (a day's drive/ferry trip from Seattle) at the northern end of Vancouver Island.  The boat is actually over 100 years old, but has been rebuilt from stem to stern since the year 2000, and is really quite nice.  It is a spacious and comfortable liveaboard (note, however, that there were only 11 of us; it would seem far less spacious with its maximum capacity of 20 divers).

A fabulous crew

The 5 crew members, plus Cory and Darrell from Silent World (the Bellevue, WA dive shop that organized the trip), could hardly have been more helpful.  One dive, after my giant-stride into the water, I instantly felt an icy intrusion near my hip--accompanied by a sinking feeling in my stomach as I realized I'd left the last 6 inches of my drysuit zipper open (a mistake you only make once, BTW)!  Captain Chris grabbed me from above, rolled me on my side on the surface, and muscled me into position to close the zipper, and I was able to do the dive (albeit with a gallon of cold seawater making it a semi-dry suit).  After the dive, Cory (from Silent World) offered to take the drysuit to hose it out with fresh water, and Chris then took it to the engine room, where it dried out enough for my next dive. Meanwhile, Claire grabbed the Weezle and ran it through the boat's washer and drier. Earlier in the trip, the shoulder release valve on my (brand new) drysuit seemed not to be working; next thing I knew after the dive, Chris (told by Cory, my buddy on that dive) checked it out, found it faulty, and replaced it with one of his own!  I have other examples, but you get the idea--great crew.

Oh, last but not least, I have to mention Bea, Chris' wife and the ship's cook.  Not only was she sweet, but she made perhaps the best meals of any of the dozens of liveaboards I've been on, complete with a final night's full turkey dinner as good as mom's at Thanksgiving!

All in all, an adventure to remember, and one that has me weighing a return trip to Browning Pass...against a trip to 80 degree tropical waters somewhere...stay tuned!

You can see my full trip gallery HERE.