Posted by Brad on August 02, 2002 at 20:34:32:
In Reply to: Best/Worst Stories posted by Ken Kurtis on August 02, 2002 at 11:43:50:
A few years ago i took the good skiff out to the Cortes Bank to have a look around. The spring winds had blown incessantly for weeks. I had been watching the weather 24-7, so 8 hours after the lull, i was on the bank. The residual swell was about 8 ft (the bank crests at about 9ft. There were no boats on the horizon.
I carefully set my anchor on a sandy patch about the size of a pool table, adjacent to the wreck. I slipped into the wonderland...
There were WSB everywhere! One, three, eight, every where you looked there were sea bass swiming in the kelp, open water over the wreck, literally everywhere! Try as i might, i couldn't get close enough to get a good picture, so i just swam around for a couple of hours in a state of complete and utter amazement...
During that dive i had 5 encounters with giants. Beautiful lumbering creatures that are as curious about you as you are about them. One thing about the giants that i have observed time and again is that they do not experience confusion in any discernible form.
That evening, i watched the sun set from the edge of the universe.
After dark, i put the wetsuit back on and slipped back into the realm. The swells were still big and it was a little disconcerting to loose sight of the light. I would surface and have to wait to sync with the swells before seeing the light.
Freediving is a tough go at night. You have to reorient yourself with the bottom structure each decent.
After a while, i decided the best thing to do was to go down about 25ft (neutral buoyancy) and gently hold on to a kelp fron and just wait for the telltale luminescent glow of who-knows what....
On one particular dive, i see a huge glow about 20ft away. I swim over and turn on my light. I see two giants! Both swing their heads my way, one dashes off in the opposite direction, the bolts straight by me, boomsounding all the way. An excellorated succession of bone jarring thumps as he passes by within a couple of feet.
Later that night as i sat listening to fine music on the CD and sipping a run and coke under the stars, i couldn't help but think that i had encountered a mating pair. The bold male told her to save herself, and then charged toward the danger with his only weapon, his intimidating boomsound...
***********************************************
footnote to that trip: as i was leaving the bank a gillnetter showed up and was laying his net in a circle around the kelp on the high plain. I went back out there 10 days later and the bank was barren! No giants, one scarred WSB, not a single mature sheephead!
*************************************************
One of my worst experiences was also at the bank. I had gotten there the evening before and spent a lovely night adjacent to the wreck. At sunup, i put on my wetsuit and slipped into the realm. I had only been swimming for about 20 when i came up for a breath and there was a navy hilo hovering directly overhead. The guy used hand signals to tell me to leave the area immediately!
Silly me, i make the run to the bank looking for a little peace and solitude and i gets kicked out!
i have been there a few times since and have never seen it as plush as it was...
before the gillnetter