DAY 1 DEPARTURE
We wandered through overpriced antique shops and passed sidewalk vendors selling trinkets to tourists. After an hour of window shopping we were more then ready for a nap and headed back to the boat. On our way back we heard an accordion and violin player across the street and went to watch them play for a minute. They appeared to be gypsies who played excellently and I admired their style, not trying to be anything but themselves. We tipped them and took one of the CD's they had layed out in front of them. I especially liked the tentacle print on the CD.
Once we were back at the boat Rain got a call to meet up with his grandparents, him and Dom left to go catch up and I finally had peace and slept for 2 hours. As soon as I had closed my eyes i was being woke by Rain in my face about something or other and I followed him out of the cabin to see a family of otters defecating on the dock. We took some photos, I met the Grandparents and we shoved off on a course to Sequim Bay where we would make port for the evening in route to Port Angelouse caverns.
Rain and Dom slept while i motored on for the next few hours along the outer coast of PA passing Protection island in the evening sun. After the slow journey to Sequim bay was complete I woke Rain to captain the boat in to the bay through the dark.
No buoys were lit and the bay was quite shallow. Once anchored we took in the bay and briefly enjoyed the serenity of the sea and the remote star filled skies. I wanted to take the tender out for a short row around the bay to enjoy the bio luminescence that happened to be present that night but was too tired and decided to bundle up and join Rain and Dom in the cabin. We celebrated our adventures to come sipping raspberry dessert wine and listening to the sounds of the gypsies music we had attained earlier that day. We eventually retired in the cabin leaving the vbirth stuffed full of all out possessions.
www.myspace.com/belowthesalt
DAY 2 PA CAVERNS
I woke this morning to the whir of the boats outboard cutting through the sea. It was 10 am and Rain had been navigating us around a large spit for the past hour. An hour and a half later we arrived at an uninhabited coast wrapped in sandstone cliffs and anchored the boat in a wide stretching kelp filled sea.
We readied ourselves for a trek on land preparing a lunch of cliff bars and gathered the necessary camera equipment then rowed to shore.
Hidden by shrubbery Rain led us through to a large cave entrance that must have been two stories tall. There was a cool constant breeze flowing through the cavern.
The tunnel led to an enclosed moist environment banked by steep tall cliff on either side. I was excited to shoot in and around the cavern, it provided for some very creative photography.
Once through the tunnel we found what Rain thought to be a deteriorated old coyote which looked like a pile of bones draped in dirty cotton. We also found a small mouse which appeared to be holding on to its last bit of life after falling down the steep cliff wall. I also photographed a snake and the remains of a mountain beaver which was preserved in the same position as when it passed.
It was a fine specimen. After an hour or so of exploring and poking at dead things Rain rowed us back to the boat for a lunch of barbecued corn on the cob and hotdogs. With plenty of daylight remaining and no plans to leave the caverns until the following day i prepared for a shallow dive in the kelp. This was my second attempt to use my new to me underwater housing along with my 10.5mm. Right after my decent the vis was so bad i decided to ascend and have Rain change out the fisheye for my 60mm to still try to shoot in the bad vis. I was having trouble with the AF and am pretty sure i hadn't tightened my sink cord because my strobe wasn't firing. No matter, the sea life in the kelp forest seemed to be non existent and the best specimen I found was a kelp cab swaying in the current. I abandoned the dive after just 1000 lbs and ascended into fare weather and joined Rain and Dom on deck. This had been my second drysuit dive, even though my chest was a bit wet it was so nice to come out of my suit and be mostly dry and warm. We took in the sun and silence of the coast while drinking beers and studying a bit.
I tutored Rain for his upcoming Italian class and while he worked on hie drysuit.
That evening Dom prepared us some fancy chili with whit wine, onions, spicy hotdogs, and toast. After dinner we brewed a pot of coffee and decided to go ashore for a cave fire. We packed our provisions ( booze and cameras ) and hopped in the dingy. The waves crashing onshore were unexpectedly large and we were not sure if we should go ashore. So we rowed back out to sea and each took a few drinks of bacardi and then headed back to shore to reevaluate the situation. We timed the wave lengths and headed a shore. Rain and I both ended up wading through the sea but made it o shore unscathed. We gathered up all the drift wood we could find and headed into the cave to build a fire. Rain got the fire going and we continued drinking and discussing previous and future adventuring.
I took some interesting shadow pictures on the wall opposite our fire but quickly found it more entertaining to blow flaming balls of liquor off of firy torches.
We then roasted marshmallow and rowed back to the boat and fell asleep watching the Fellowship of the Ring.
DAY 3 VICTORIA BC
We departed early that morning from PA caverns through a soupy sky and kelp filled seas.
We thought it would be a quick 15 miles across the strait of juan de fuca but the current had its own agenda and the journey turned out to take all day. It was slow going for most of the passage. We entertained ourselves by driving the boat through massive flocks of feeding seagulls. We passed the time over spicey hotdogs and warm highlife’s. We even tried to sail a bit but got nowhere even slower. Rain acting as captain of the vessel blew continuose 4 second blasts from his whistle to alert any other vessel near enough of our presence. We were easily excited at the sight of a large jelly as it was the beginning of our adventure and we hadn’t yet seen any extraordinary sea life. We turned the boat around to follow the jelly as Rain and Dom had talked me into jumping in the sea to photograph the translucent invertebrate. I prepared for the cold with a 1 ml. top, shorts, booties, fins, mask, snorkel, housed camera and 60mm lens. To our despare we lost the jelly and were left to carry on. Not much farther on we spotted another jelly off the port side and in I went. The water temperature of the straight was frigged but I have never been known to be too cold, perhaps its my extra layer of warmth I am constantly replenishing with any and all sweets I can get my hands on. I floated around the jelly for what seemed like at least five minutes in the 50 degree water to get a clear shot, with the unresponsive auto focus and not too mention my strobe not firing due to human error on my part. Luckily the jelly was on the surface and I was able to salvage a shot at least worth viewing with only the ambient light and a little help from photoshop.
After far too long we arrived at Oak Bay marina and proceeded to the gas dock.
We were greeted by a cute blonde Canadian who referred Rain to customs to clear us all for our stay in Canada. She took us up on the small talk of the local area and we told her of our plans to find a thrift store for some forgotten provisions and later a strip club which we hoped to be outstanding and exotic since we were in a “different country”. She answered our needs with directions to the local strip bar Monty’s, which is what she called it, and told us of a value village in town. We filled our gas tanks with over priced fuel and pulled the boat into a slip. We paid $2.50 each for a shower and did our laundry with no soap. We paid the $12 moorage, which gave permission for us to stay at the dock the rest of the day. We returned to the boat for a dinner and satisfied our apatites with velveta mac and cheese and toast. Rain insisted we boil the flask I had brought (which I found in the snow up at the pass) before filling it with rum, he is a bit of a hypocondriac. We put down a few beers and threw on our jackets and left the marina passing the local harbore seals begging for food on our way out.
We found the buss to have stopped running a few hours earlier so we asked a well dressed elderly man who was passing by for directions into town. The man was very helpful (one of few helpful people were to encounter in Canada) he had just walked from town and pointed us in the right direction so we headed out on foot. After a brisk 20 minute walk we reached the town of Oak bay and were able to catch a bus the rest of the way to Victoria. We were appalled to find the bus was 2.25 per person and transfers were only good for an hour. The driver gave us directions to Monty’s and we got off the buss at a local park and downed the flask of Bacardi and a few coors lites we had brought a long. We found the strip bar and we were to delighted to enter without a cover and purchase beers at a faire price. We sat at the front of the stage and took in the atmosphere.
It was a bit different then the clubs at home there were no personal dances and four girls who rotated dancing on stage every couple of songs. By the time we left we were totally inconpasitated and failed our attempt at waliking back to the marina so Rain hailed us a cab. We paid the cabby 10 bucks for the ride and Rain scaled the fence to the marina and let us in since we didn’t have the marina keys had we only paid for day moorage. Rain and I anchored the boat in the bay and went to sleep.
DAY 4 VICTORIA BC
We started the day off fueling our hangovers with muffins from our Costco variety pack and Smart start. We rowed ashore from our anchorage and caught the community transit, angrily paying the 7 dollars it cost for a one way trip for us to get to town. Our first stop was the everything is a dollar store. Where we bought 9v batteries, coffee mugs, soap and detergent. We ate at Mcdonalds for lunch and purchased items from the 1.39 value menu. The streets of Victoria were crowded and there was a more then healthy ratio of full bodied woman about. We eventually found a cozy internet cafe where we could plug in and make the rounds. We checked email, took care of online banking and got student loans in order. Later we walked a few blocks down to the Salvation army thrift store where I bought Jasmine some new dive booties for 5$ and Rain purchased a set of oversized beach candle teeky torches. Then we went a few more blocks in the other direction to the Value Village. It was a huge store with more trash and treasure then I had ever seen.
After looking through hundreds of t-shirts I found not one but two amazing t's! One was a blue tie die orca ocean seen by The Mountain and the other a sweet sea monster and two divers hovering dangerously close to its gaping jaws. Dom bought a new coffee maker since she had dropped the perculator from the previous coffee maker into the sea earlier that morning and a vintage type writer in good condition I fear will end up in our living room next to the vacant bird cage. Rain got a plastic retractable cup holder for the boat and he got dome some hiking shoes for the trip. We stopped by an art gallery on our way across town and saw the most amazing painting. It was a mermaid suspended in the center of the composition with wild Madussa like hair but instead of snakes her hair was a mess of firey orange intertwined fish ans the whole painting had an ominouse deep dark feeling to it. Unfortunatly it can't be viewed online and weren't able to photograph it. We wanted to check out the museum and Imax but they were closing shortly after our arrival and we decided to come back once Jasmine joined our crew. By this time we were completely exhausted but refused to pay another 7$ for the bus ride back to the marina and were able to hitch hike there with ease :) . Rain rowed us back to the boat where Dominique made us spaghetti with meatsauce and garlic bread. I then helped Rain finish lezione preliminare of Oggi in Italia and we made dive and travel plans for the next few days.DAY 5 ZERO ROCK
We woke up to sunny skies and howling wind that morning unfortunatly the currents were against us. We sailed back and fourth pointed northerly but pretty much stayed in the same spot as the current was stronger then the pull of the wind at our sales. Five hours later after the current finally turned we had reached our dive destination for the day Zero Rock, just a small buoy marked on our chart that was not far off from our route to the Gulf islands. While Rain and I suited up some whale watching zodiacs came by and warned us not to dive do to the coming of a few orca whales. We thanked them and continued our preperation for the icy sea. We stepped off the boat and into the ocean and Doninique handed me my heavy camera system with my fisheye lens mounted this time.
DAY 1 DEPARTURE
The viz was good and there were sea urchins everywhere as with most sanjuan dives. 
We saw ling cod and cabazon but the most interesting sea life was a school of tiny krill or fry?
We are not sure what they were but we liked watching the school weave through the kelp. 
Rain signaled to me he was cold and having problems with his drysuit so we made our ascent. On the surface Rain explained his suit was completely full of water and he looked as if he wasn't going to be able to make the surface swim back to the boat. Once we were back on board he was extremely cold but Dominique was able to nurse him back to his proper self.
The weather was still holding and we commuted through another beautiful sunset. We anchored a few miles north of Zero rock at Staanichton bay. Once we were settled Rain revealed a gigantic muscle which he had stashed in the pocket of his bc during our dive.
Dom was quick to cook it and insisted we all try some of it. I didn't enjoy it. While we were outside cooking the muscle we noticed swarms of red worms swimming across the surface of the bay everywhere we pointed our lights. We caught one and were thouroughly discusted after examining it. They appeared to be some kind of pile worm or maybe
We saw ling cod and cabazon but the most interesting sea life was a school of tiny krill or fry?
We are not sure what they were but we liked watching the school weave through the kelp. 
Rain signaled to me he was cold and having problems with his drysuit so we made our ascent. On the surface Rain explained his suit was completely full of water and he looked as if he wasn't going to be able to make the surface swim back to the boat. Once we were back on board he was extremely cold but Dominique was able to nurse him back to his proper self.
The weather was still holding and we commuted through another beautiful sunset. We anchored a few miles north of Zero rock at Staanichton bay. Once we were settled Rain revealed a gigantic muscle which he had stashed in the pocket of his bc during our dive.
Dom was quick to cook it and insisted we all try some of it. I didn't enjoy it. While we were outside cooking the muscle we noticed swarms of red worms swimming across the surface of the bay everywhere we pointed our lights. We caught one and were thouroughly discusted after examining it. They appeared to be some kind of pile worm or maybe
DAY 6 Sydney Spit and Domville Island
We woke up to more sunshine and wind. We raised the main and the genoa and traveled north to Sydney spit. We tied up to the dock and tried to get some information from the locals about good dives in the area or dive shops near by.
The island had very picturesque sandy beaches and clear water not to mention a two-mile long spit jetting out the northern tip of the island. The only bad thing I could say about this place was that it seemed crowded. There is a ferry shuttling people back and forth from the main land all day long. We were happy to be alongside the protection of the dock and grateful for the calmness it provided. We ate a breakfast of blueberry pancakes and fried sugar coated spam. We decided to go for a walk to see the rest of the island. On our walk we saw the island was bordered with white sand beaches and clear waters that reflected the tropics. Half way across the island we came upon steep sloping sand cliffs with soft deep run off at their base. 
We spent a little while here running, jumping and cartwheeling off of the small sand cliffs. We carried on farther down the beach and I took to carrying a large piece of bull kelp and using to whip Rain with the holdfast. This led to a dual between I with my Indian Jones kelp whip and Rain with his Bilbo Baggins Sting wooden dagger on a desolate sand spit surrounded by shining seas. The battle ended with Rain nursing a stinging back from the dried holdfast and myself ringing out my trunks from being tossed into the sea lining the spit. We were growing tired and headed back to the boat passing by some four-legged inhabitants along the way. It was 4pm by the time we got back to the boat. We ate hot dogs for lunch and Rain and Dom took a quick dip in the beautiful yet frigged water. We left Sydney spit and headed to Domville Island for an evening dive. 
We anchored the boat just off of the island right on top of the underwater wall we were about to explore. We decided to dive in our wetsuits due to Rains recent dry suit failure. I was packing my camera with fisheye lens and Rain was taking my new Mares spear gun to try his luck at bringing up a healthy meal.
We entered the water and swam down through the kelp to a small shelf where we fiddled with all of our gadgets for the dive, turning on underwater mp3 players and checking aperture, shutter speed and positioning strobe arms. The vis was good and we headed deeper passing down a sheer wall to about 60 feet where it briefly flattened and then headed down to deeper waters.
The dive was packed with life including urchins, anemones, oversized nudibranches and sea stars.
After our dive we were greeted by another sanjuan sunset. Piece by piece we dismounted our gear and motored back to Sydney spit where we anchored for the evening. After dinner Rain was determined to have a fire at the end of the spit. We rowed over to the spit and walked about a half mile from where we were down to the end of the spit.
There was plenty of driftwood to fuel our fire and even some chairs fashioned out of beach logs for us to sit. Rain and I drank half a fifth of Don Rio rum while Dom supervised.
I attempted some more star trail images only getting one shot per battery (D200 battery life is terrible) none of which turned out as I had hoped. Rain and I were pretty intoxicated and made a drunken pact to contact our grandparents and learn of our heritage before it is too late.
border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5249469417346538130">Day 7 Domville Island
We woke up again to sunny skies and to our surprise lots of wind. Our plan for the day was to go on a second dive at Domville Island and then head to a marina in Sydney and fill the scuba tanks, do laundry, shower and buy groceries. We were delayed early by our anchor, which was stuck in the muddy bottom of Sydney Bay and took some doing to free it not to mention our dingy line getting caught up in the prop of the outboard more then once. We eventually worked it out and stowed all of our belongings and set sail for Domville Island, which wasn't far off. 
Once we arrived we dropped anchor maybe 30 feet off from the island and took our time preparing for the dive. I decided to use my 60mm in auto focus for a change. We dove wet suits again and entered the water just a bit south from where we dove the day prior. Once we were underwater there was pretty much a vertical wall to about 80 ft. It was a really cool dive packed with marine organisms. We saw lots of big nudies, some ling’s and rockfish. The lighting in the kelp shallows was awesome and the marine life was extremely diverse and thriving throughout the dive.
After we were got out of the water we ate corn on the cob prepared by Dom, which seemed like a delicacy. I was pleased with the results the 60mm had produced, it turns out it’s a lot easier to see if the image is in focus underwater with a 60mm rather then a fisheye.
Dom had been keeping busy, her skin was turning to a solid bronze from the sun she had been taking in during our underwater excursions. The wind was still good after the dive so we set sail for Sydney marina. At about 4:30 we pulled in to a very nice (too nice) marina with mostly yachts and upscale vessels, no gas dock and no dock attendants in site. We parked in a vacant slip and went a shore with the intention of a brief visit to find air for the bottles and some amenities. We were directed all over town for a dive shop and ended up walking in circles for a few miles. Apparently the dive shops near the marina had all gone out of business and the “other one” we were told about was too far to walk with 7 scuba tanks. We went back to the boat weary from the long walk. I grabbed my laptop and headed to a nearby hotel to get some time on the internet and research our future dives as well as our air predicament. While looking into my files I saw a flaw in our plans. Somehow we had calculated the coordinates wrong for the HMS Mackenzie, we were prepared to head way north to Pender Island the next morning but the ship was no where near there. Luckily I double checked and realized the Mackenzie was sunk just at the next island over from Domville! stupido! I headed back to the boat to get some rest and planned to hitchhike with all the bottles to a dive shop just a few miles from the marina and then set out for our dive destination the Mackenzie.
Day 8 Delayed
We woke up and headed north to a near by marina to get closer to the new location of the dive and surf shop that used to be in Sydney and is now apart of the dive college across the highway (not accessible by boat). We docked at a fishermen’s transient dock and went to speak with the harbormaster. Janet turned out to be a god sent, the first helpful person in Canada we had met. She spent half an hour on the phone calling a dozen people and places trying to find out where we could fill our tanks. All the dive shops in Sydney were closed permanently and the one that relocated to the dive college hadn't opened yet and the college itself would not fill our tanks due to legalities. So our options were go back to Victoria or Friday harbor neither of which were near our dive destination the Mackenzie that was just 2 or 3 miles from where we were. After been given the run around, Janet found the nearest shop to fill tanks was at Birch bay up around and down the inside of the peninsula. This was a major detour but we had no choice. Janet also offered us showers, she was extremely helpful. We took advantage of a warm shower and shoved off toward Birch bay. On our way down the passage we were thinking we probably wouldn’t make it to the dive shop in time to fill the tanks. So Rain suggested we climb a near by mountain/island and enjoy the view of the Gulf and Sanjuans for the rest of the afternoon. Dom was reluctant but both of us were adamant about her coming with us and assured her it was nothing but an easy walk (which was not the case at all). We anchored in the shallows and took the dingy to shore. We headed up through steep, dry, dense forest that was slick with fallen leaves.
Eventually we broke through the forest into the dry fields we had seen from shore. Dom and I had worn shorts and were now covered up to our knees with unfriendly burrs. We kept going up catching a glimpse of a dear and traces of wool in our path. It took forever but eventually we reached the summit (or what was good enough for me to call it the summit) and took a rest.
The vista was not as I had hoped, as I wanted to get some images having carried my heavy camera pack all the way up this hill. So I carried on east to try and find a view of the Sanjuan islands instead of just Vancouver Island.
I clambered through more forest and ended up in another field with three large wild sheep. I photographed them for a few minutes and then they went on their way. The sun was getting low in the sky and it was time for us to head back. Rain had run to the actual summit while me and Dom were shooting. He came back with tales of amazing island views as far as the eye could see with Mt Baker glowing in the far distance.
I cursed him in my mind and we ran down the mountain finding a heavy tire on the way and pushing it down the steeps to crash into the trees.
We got back to the boat and relaxed while enjoying the amazing sunset even though we were covered head to toe in dirt. We rinsed off in the sea and headed south around the peninsula toward Birch bay. I sat outside and worked on the blog while Rain navigated and then I took on the duty of look out and downed a couple beers.
It was a perfectly calm night and the half moon was high in the sky providing enough light for a safe trip to the bay. When we got there it was too dark to tell what was going on so we just through anchor in what we thought was a safe location. This entire inlet was so protected it didn't seem like rough seas were much of a worry.13 MORE DAYS TO COME WITH MORE ADVENTURES>>>> SUNKEN BATLLE SHIPS... ENOUGH JELLIES YOU COULD WALK ACROSS THEM. MOUNTAIN TOPS.....
