More diving

[tiggymalvern]

I did a couple of dives in the last two weeks. The first was at Mukilteo, one of central Puget Sound's typical junk diving sites. I dived Mukilteo once in about 2013, and was so underwhelmed I didn't go back until now, so my expectations were low. That meant it wasn't hard to be pleasantly surprised!

The central feature of Mukilteo is the geodrome, a large icosahedron, which the giant plumose anemones love to grow on. Other than that, there are various bits of pipe and other stuff out there to provide hidey holes, and one of them had a wolf eel in. A wolf eel day is always a good day.

Video is here.

This past weekend I dived a scattered plane wreck in Lake Washington. In 1950, two navy Corsair fighter planes collided on a training mission and plunged into Lake Washington off Seattle (the pilots were rescued). One plane survived mostly intact and was later raised, restored, and now lives in a museum. The second plane broke up on impact and still lies in the lake at around 80-85 feet.

The plane is in multiple pieces, several of them just large chunks of mangled metal and wires, but the engine and propellor shaft are clearly recognisable, along with a section of that distinctively bent Corsair wing. (Corsairs really were quite ugly planes, but sometimes that helps to identify them!) This was Lake Washington, so not much to see other than the plane, I think I only spotted six fish the whole dive.

What's left after 70 years in the mud.

The weather is very changeable now, with wind and scattered showers a feature of many days, so outdoor activities require more thoughtful scheduling...

Comments

[tei]

Every time I watch one of your driving videos I’m like “wow, there’s so much down there!” I wonder what is underneath bodies of water I have seen!

The wolf eel had such an oddly expressive face 😅

[tiggymalvern]

It's still amazing to me too, honestly. Everybody knows about the tropical waters and the coral and all the pretty fish because they see it in so many nature documentaries. But nobody goes down there filming the amazing marine life of the northern Pacific coast and putting that on TV (probably because the murky water would make filming a nightmare). There are so many fascinating things just off the beaches here, and so few people have any idea. And the rockfish are really impressive, they can live for seventy years!