The frost was still covering the hillside that had not had direct sunlight, the air was chill and the water looked calm.  Just right for a night dive cooked up last minute.  Randy Pedersen and Ed Gullekson met at the Silver Cloud to check the spot for some of our favorite creatures, octopus, stubby squid and bay pipefish.

 

We geared up and hit the water about 5 PM.  Down we went into a significant current running southbound.  Literally we spent the entire dive pointed North, lightly kicking to hold and more vigorous kicking to go forward.  The first third of the dive we only saw some flatfish and a sailfin sculpin.  Then Ed found the GPO under the small boat that is staked to the bottom.  That GPO looks to be "medium-large" in size.  Next Randy found three red octos, all about fist size.  We harrassed these poor things with our bright lights from our cameras for a few minutes, then moved on.

 

We turned to head back toward the exit (actually just quit kicking and pointed South so we could keep from running into anything in the current).  Up we ascended to bay pipefish depths.  I was leading at this point and started seeing the pipefish.  I saw one then another and another and started counting and shooting snapshots.  I hit 15 bay pipefish on this one dive.

 

As we hit about 8 feet of depth the wate was suddenly MUCH colder (cold fresh water sitting on top of the salt).  We got out quickly. 

 

After the surface interval we headed back in.  The current had stopped so moving around was much easier.  Saw the GPO again and each of us found thumb-sized red octos.  Randy found a grunt sculpin and a sea spider.  On the way out we again looked at the pipefish.

 

We also found a white spotted greenling male, guarding three sets of eggs that were stuck to a log.  The greenling was very persistent in keeping near the eggs even though we blasted him with our video lights.

 

Visibility was 15 to 20 feet, hard to really tell at night, and water temperature was about 45, except in the really cold water.  We didn't stay in that part long enough for our computers to take a reading so we just know it was cold.