Valient Dive, Lake Washington, 120' 20 minutes, Lots of Sculpins

Thanks Richard for letting me use your twins and picking me up. I left work early yesterday and Richard picked me up at a dock in Kirkland so I didn't have to drive around the lake. A short run out to the wreck. We used the depth sounder to locate the plane and dropped a down line with 6#'s of soft weights. The water was 68 degrees above 40'. Below 40' it was 46 degrees! Vis at the bottom was around 10'. We dropped the line 5 feet from the front of the plane. The plane is upside down and in the mud. 4 slow passes over the plane and 20 minutes later it was time to come up. Nice to do once.

Here are a couple of fresh water sculpins I had in a fish tank once.



Here is a picture of a Valient plane.

Cat Fight

ROUND ONE GOES TO "DOUBLE PAW" ORANGE KITTY
Our cat Dakota aka "Little Boy" had an evening tussle with the two fisted "Orange Kitty" last Friday night. For a couple weeks now, since our dog Wally died, Little Boy has stayed kind of close and has enjoyed playing with the laser pointer while I scan slides each evening. Little did I know he viewed the laser light sessions as "training" to help coordinate his punches and lunges. After a day inside he stuck around while we enjoyed Salmon but took off shortly after wards - unfed. Usually I feed him when he is in for the night. I hunted around the neighborhood like a hobo jiggling a cup of food and banging on a cat food can all to no avail. We went to bed. A short hour later Jeff popped out of bed thinking a coyote was eating Dakota, but instead found him with blood running down his face cowering behind the sand pile that apparently was doubling as the makeshift boxing ring. Jeff called to him and ran up expecting him to dart away like usual. Nope. He definitely lost that round and without Jeff as his personal trainer would have been down with the count. As a side note he went to the vet and then cowered under the bed for a couple days with no interest in going outside. He now is feeling a little better and wants to escape for payback. This is the cat I stole from the neighbors 9 years ago...sneak neutered...the cat who ate a hole in the screen and climbed out the window for payback after the last tussle - the paw puncture. This time his luck has run out and the next outdoor air he breathes will be in Puerto Rico. I wonder what trouble he'll get into there? (falling avocados, resting in fire ant nests, Red Jungle Fowl chasing and pecking at him) Stay tuned. More rounds are sure to follow!

Fun Ride at Day Island Wall

Yesterday we let Bob figure out the timing for diving Day Island. Rob and I figured that even if the timing was way off it didn't mater because we had Mildred and Bertha to tow us around and Bob has The Ex. Just as we hit the wall we saw some other divers who were finishing their dive. The current was still slack at this time. We zipped down to the bottom of the wall. Rob was doing a lot of barrel rolls and having a lot of fun.
Only 10 minutes after passing the other divers someone turned on the hose! The current was wild and flowing in all directions. At times the scooters couldn't make any headway into the current. Then it would change direction and we would be flying with the current. Very fun. We made it to the top of the deep wall at 120' and explored that for a while. To bad Mildred and Bertha aren't rated to go any deeper. We were also on Nitrox so we couldn't go any deeper anyways. We saw a couple large Dogfish Sharks and chased them around for a minute.As Bob was nearing Deco (he was on air) we turned around and rode the wild  current back to the top of the main wall. We saw a lot of wolf eel and even got one to come out of his den to eat a rock crab. Vis was around 25'. Lots of fun!

Saturdays Dive

I took Mildred out for a spin on Saturday and dove from Three Tree North to Three Tree South. Bob and I dove while Katrina practiced Spanish on the beach. We went in at max flood and dropped down to 80'. With help from the current we were flying until we hit the point. At the point the current went from paralleling the beach to pushing us straight down the slope! This would not have been a good place for the scooters to break! We had to point the scooters right into the current so we would not get pushed down to deep. We made it across the point and the current lightened up and paralleled the beach again. We scootered for about 35 minutes before Mildred started to tire. Three tree South didn't have to much to see but there were a lot of jellyfish we had to avoid. Vis was 20+ feet. It was a fun dive and Rob met up with us afterwards for dinner. Thanks Rob for letting me ride Mildred.