Posted by Eric S on August 07, 2002 at 22:42:02:
Before I continue the story, Mike had a few questions down in the last thread.
The boat I have is called the Little Hunk Dory and I built it from a set of plans that I ordered from Glen-L Marine Designs in Bellflower, Ca. It is a classic Oregon dory design with a very upswept bow, high flaring sides, a square back, and a forward set motorwell to mount the outboard which not only is better for a following sea but places the motor further forward in the boat for better weight distribution. I built in a center console into it to mount the controls for easy handling. For a boat only 18 1/2 feet long it really handles the sea well. I've been out in 14 ft. swells + windchop in wintertime retreiving my crab pots out of Bodega and I was a lot more scared than the boat. These boats were designed for fishing in very rough water carrying maximum loads so I think it is a good design for up here. The construction is doug fir frames with marine plywood planking, Marine epoxy, stainless fasteners, and fiberglass skin with gell coat. plus all the miscellaneous hardware.
The Lingcod you asked about, I filleted it and grilled it with a garlic lemon butter sauce that I paint on while it's grilling. My wife and daughter inhaled most of it before I even got to sit down so I only got a small piece. I think I'll go get more.
So to continue the report:
There was Seahunt! He made it! I introduced him to the two scuba cowboys Dale and Steve (BTW, real website: scubacowboys.com), and my dive buddy Larry. We gabbed for a while and they all became instant friends with mike. The comeraderie was great. While those guys were taking a surface interval from their last dive I took seahunt out for a quick ab dive straight out to the outer reefs of Vandamme bay. I got into the water with mike but mostly just layed around on the surface and watched. Mike got 2 over 9" and one short, it was only 8 15/16, (that's a joke) but it was a fatty.
We jetted back into the bay and loaded the boat for the dive on Colby reef. I dreamed about doing this dive with mike for a long time, ever since I first mentioned it on this board over a year ago. I thought someday I will take seahunt to this spot and now it was happening. The sea had woken up a bit and a verylight breeze was in the air. My dory had a full load in it of 5 people, all big boys, 2 of which were running doubles with stage bottles, and the remaining three of us with single tanks but between all the gear bodies, weight belts, bottles, fuel, we were LOADED. So much so that I had to go down to my 7.1 pitch granny low prop. I ran about 8 knots full speed just like a big full displacement trawler. The boat really didn't seem to lose to much freeboard, it was just really heavy to move. When we got to the site (1.3 miles south of Vandamme and 1 mile offshore) we dropped anchor on Colby reef. After we all dropped in the water we assembled and started down the line. At the bottom (75 feet) I checked the anchor while Dale clipped his reel off onto the chain. We began our expedition into one of the many dramatic craks running through the reef. At first I just noticed all the large and dramatic rock formations around then my eyes began to focus on all the life inside that hallway. Right away we were on top of 1, 2, then 3 big lings. They lay around on their perches. As we moved on further I saw many different varieties of rock fish including black and yellows, chinas, and blues. The whole time behind me I could see the flash of Mikes camera flash, flash, flash, like a machine gun. I did see a few scallops mixed in with the paint factory explosion of color encrusting areas of the rocks. As we moved on I noticed the line was running down into a cave into darkness. Dale, who was pulling the line was a ways ahead so I signaled to Seahunt "let's go in" As we moved in I saw the line make a turn to the left and exit out the other side, but inside that cave was incredible! Fish laying all over the place. I also noticed piles of crustacean shells around the bottom so It's possible that at one time it was an octopus den. This cave really reminded me of a lava tube off Kona or something similar. After we looked around in that tunnel thoroughly we went out the other side and the vertical wall on each side continued. In this section the blues were so thick that I literally had to push them out of the way to get through. Ask Mike, it's totally true, they just sat there in the water colomn staring at you and wouldn't move! This suprised me since Dale was just a short ways ahead pulling the reel. Later he said he had the same experience. Right as we began to come out the other side of Colby Reef through that giant crack, Dale ran out of line. You could see the other side cascading down well beyond 120 feet. The five of us turned around and made the journey back the same way to the anchor line. The return trip was no less impressive as we saw all the same things plus more I missed the first time. That tunnel is not the same one I saw on a previous dive, which got me thinking that this whole reef is probably riddled with caves and giant gnarly fissures. After all of us got back up the line and did our stops, we hoisted ourselves back into the boat followed by all the gear and rejoiced! Once again, a world class dive!
The rest of the story goes something like this: Get back to camp crack a beer and have a great evening once again talking about the diving, the new friends, and how it sucks that we have to go home tomarrow. One last bon fire, a bunch more laughs, and some gourmet food ( abalone cooked with garlic lemon sauce, fresh crab, fish) It was all tooo good..
When Sunday rolled around a great breakfast cooked on my home made griddle (3/16 plate) that lined up 15 pancakes at a time.
All the goodbyes, see you next year for sures, and then the packing. Four hours worth. I ran the dory south to Albion and put it on the trailer. The sea had picked up. The wind was blowing, and the swell big. It would not have been fun diving offshore that day, but it was a wild and fun boat ride!
We had seized the perfect window of time very skillfully. The North is an unpredictable and unstable place so you never know. One weekend off and we could have all been sitting on shore.
I want to personally thank again each and every one of you who attended.
In order to have a party, you must have people to make it fun, and everyone was a lot of fun!
Next year will be even better. Plan on it. Tell a friend.
I may even have my new huge boat built by then?