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Octopus Hole |
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Reviewer |
Site Condition |
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| Name: | Ed Kenney | Entry: | 
5.00
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| Email: | Click Here | Bottom: | 
4.00
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| City: | Rainier | Reef: |
4.00
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| State: | Washington | Animal: |
4.00
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| Country: | USA | Plant: | 
3.00
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| Diving: | 10 years | Facilities: |
3.00
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| Dives: | 400 | Solitude: | 
2.00
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| Roads: |
5.00
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Evaluation |
*Average: |
3.81 |
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| Update on my recent report - as of March, 2005, octopi have moved back onto the main wall. Also, my ratings will raise on this site due to the incredible winter conditions today. I woke to a brilliant sunrise - no wind, no frost - so I high-tailed it two hours from my mountain outpost to the coast just as the weather cleared over Hood Canal. The water was so calm at the site it looked like a thin layer of see-through neoprene was coating it. Cars were parked all along the road, filled with divers, as the secret of our tremendous diving conditions this winter has definitely leaked out! Most of the divers, however, were doing an AOL course, I think, so I never saw them. This is typical - don't worry if you see cars all over both sides of the road - you are still likely to have most of the wall to yourself or to not even see another diver. The viz was muddied at the beginning of the descent from the floating platform, but it cleared quickly. At a wolf eel hangout below the mid section of wall at 60 feet of depth I could see the surface. That is pretty unusual around here. Just a bit farther along, I could see a hundred feet of wall horizontally. That is definitely unusual!! Only two divers were on the most interesting section of the wall and none in the boulder field beyond, my favorite part. What's to see? Well, octopi once again, and I was glad to see a few had made it back after two straight years of tragic dissolved oxygen deficiencies in the early Fall. Two beautiful wolf eel and one grand old warrior watched from their perches high on the wall. I could only find two wolf eel anywhere deep. There were six areas with big clutches of ling cod eggs, and both gnarly and good-looking younger ling guarding them - also, two nice schools of coppe rock cod and perch. The tube worms and nudibranches at wall's end were exceptional. The superlative viz really helped in locating these - it's the first time I've seen the topography of all the boulder patches beyond the main wall. One nudi I've never seen before - darn it if I don't have my PNW nudi book loaned out. Porcelain texture, an inch and a half long, with nice highlights of red and black on raised spicules. The only thing that could have made this dive better would have been watching the orcas cavort there the evening before. That's what the divers who stayed overnight saw. | |||
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Enjoyment Level |
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| Snorkel: |
3.00
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| Beginner: |
4.00
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| Intermediate: |
4.00
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| Advanced: |
3.00
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| Night diving: |
5.00
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Seasonal Information |
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| Season: | Winter | ||
| Year: | 2005 | ||
| Visibility: |
4.00 |
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| Current: |
5.00
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| Surf: |
5.00 |
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