Dive Site Reviews:
Alki Junkpile/Junkyard
Seattle Scuba Pool: This is where I did my pool training. It is a nice place to do your confined water dives, refresh
your skills or try new gear. What I didn't like: The chlorine and there were some big rubber sharks... they were scary
for a little ducky like me.
Tricky stuff: Evading the vicious swim
team children.
Stuff to see: I don't wanna talk about it!
Where: Right next to Seattle Scuba
Cove 1:
This is where I did my 4 open water dives with momma duck. I like that this is a
nice, easy site that is great for beginners. There are a bunch of pilings at this site, I really like sitting and watching
all the critters on the pilings. There is also a big field of bottles between some of the piling, it is nice a shallow and
there are a lot of cool little critters to find here, one dive here momma duck and I found an octopus in one of the bottles.
Momma duck said it was just a little one, but I thought it looked really big!! You can also spend lots of time on the left
side of the raggedy pipes, there is lots of what momma duck tells me is 'feather boa' kelp, baby fishies like to hide
in there. If you go a bit deeper, to ~ 40' right past the white can buoy there is a big metal plate. Sometimes there is
a REALLY REALLY BIG octopus in there. It was really cool, but it was scary too, it has suckers bigger than I am :-(.
Tricky Stuff: Not much!! Good for open water duck-ducks.
The bottom slopes off kinda fast so watch your depth thingy.
Stuff to see:
You are likely to see lots of flatfish here, shiner surfperch, pile perch, ratfish at times.
Momma duck said she found a skate here once. I also really love the schools of tube snouts that live here. For inverteberates
(That is a hard word to spell for a duck!!) you will see the big California sea cucumbers out in the sand, and also the pretty
orange ones that look like flowers in amongst the pipes. There are also lots of seastars here as well as the pretty sea pens.
Occasionally an octopus.
Where: West Seattle.
Cove 2:
This is a great site! Lots of people say it is their favorite. I don't know
that it is my favorite, but I like it a lot. If you go night diving here a lot of times you see octopus out walking around,
and ratfish, and seals! The seals like to eat little tasty looking things that divers shine their lights on, so please don't
shine your light on me here :-(. If you go out towards the can buoy and head to the right you will find the big boat wreck
called the Honey Bear. A lot of times there are octopus under it, but not always. My favorite part of this site is all the
pilings with anememememones on them. Lots of time you can see warbonnets on them, they are really pretty! Tricky Stuff: Be careful not to go over the boundary rope, we
duckies need to stay away from the water taxi so we don't get an owie! It can
be easy to get deep here, so we have to be careful of that. Also, there is all that cool stuff to see, but be careful that
you don't run into stuff or get hung up on the pilings. Your gear should always be tucked in nice and snug, but even more
so here.
Stuff to See: Octopus, plumose
anemememones, rockfishes, big lingcod (really scary to this little ducky!) lots of nudibranchies (Sea slugs), spiny pink stars,
sunflower stars (The ones with all the arms), ochre stars..... plus lots more. There are almost always lots of divers here
too, some of them I like to see, some of them..... Momma Duck edit: Duck-Duck, if you can't say anything nice, don't
say anything at all!
Alki
Junkyard/Junkpile: There are two parts to this site; one is a very nice shallow dive in
the eelgrass and around the old dock piliings, the other one is down along the rope that people put down with piles of debris
along it.
Tricky Stuff: Be careful to
check the tides, there can be current here. Also be careful of boats.
Stuff to See: Lots of really cool
Upcoming reviews of other places Duck-Duck has dove:
Cove 3:
Redondo
Sunrise
County Park
Salt Creek County Park
Lime Kiln State Park
Rueban Tarte State Park
Boeing
Creek Reef
Shilshole Barges
China Wall
Fox Island East Wall
Orchard
Rocks
Edmonds Underwater Park
Shangri La
Liekers
West Seattle Reef & Microsoft
Reef
Octopus Hole
Sund Rock
Jorstead Creek
Blake Island Speedway (Also known as
Blake Island Reef)
Four Mile Barges
Keystone Jetty
Owens Beach
KVI Tower
Some more places Duck-Duck wants to go:
Alki Pipeline
Maury Island Barges
Salt Water State Park
Titlow
The Boss
Les Davis Pier
Harpers Ferry
Three Tree
Fox Island West Wall
Agate Pass
Mukilteo
