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With 17,000 miles of Pacific coastline, rich waters teeming with life and dive attractions as diverse as glacier-chiseled fjords and modern steel warships, it's little wonder that British Columbia earned the 2003 Rodale’s Scuba Diving Readers' Choice Award for Best Overall Dive Destination in the world. But there's a catch. B.C.'s diving conditions are far more challenging than tropical destinations. The water is cold, the visibility sometimes limited and tidal currents can really cook. But for real divers looking for real adventure, these are all part of the fun. Where else can you find pods of orcas, white-sided dolphins and sea lions, and a seafloor covered with brilliantly colored corals and anemones? The northeast coast of Vancouver
Island is an area of rugged beauty, crooked forests, and clusters of islands.
Each trip offers the possibility of seeing a pod of killer whales with the sun
glistening off their dorsal fins as they surface beside the boat. In the late
summer, schools of Pacific You'll find
wolf eels at a number of dive sites in British Columbia. They are very
territorial (look for mated pairs in small caves and crevices in the colorful
walls) and exceedingly friendly toward divers. Petting is considered OK, but be
careful with the rough surface on the fingers of your
Live-aboard boats
make diving easy. For divers looking for the best dive sites with the luxuries
of a mini-cruise ship, live-aboard diving is for you. These will be some of the
finest diving experiences you will remember, as diving from a live-aboard boat
is effortless. You’ll find that between dives your every need with be met,
while you sit back, relax and enjoy the incredible scenery of the Pacific
Northwest. Owned and operated by Dan and Besides spearheading the Mamro’s hospitality department, Debbie creates masterpiece meals from the oven or the barbeque on the back deck. Out of the galley come fresh baked goods, homemade soups and hearty full course meals. They have a TV with VCR/DVD capabilities for divers who want to playback video from their dives. Tanks are filled on board with air and Nitrox, supplied via an onboard 7.5 CFM compressor. Ample camera storage and a fresh water dip tank are also available on the Mamro. Our trip
package starts from $1,679 and is from May 2-7, 2004 and includes roundtrip
airfare, transfers, 5 nights aboard the Mamro and unlimited diving. Voted No. 1 Overall Dive Destination in the world for 2003 |
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white-sided dolphins return to this area to frolic and ride the bow of our
boat. Without a care in the world, these friendly mammals create an
exhilarating diving opportunity. The diving is unbelievable, with the many
current-swept passages creating walls that are absolute gardens of life, the
pinnacles jutting up from the depths flourish in these nutrient rich waters.
The popular and quite well known wolf eels that eagerly greet you at the bottom
of the anchor chain, the valley of gorgonian coral that entices you closer, and
of course the octopus, Puget Sound king crab, and hooded nudibranchs all await
your discovery. As the fog gently rolls in on the horizon, we head for shore to
have an old-fashioned campfire!
gloves
and use the back of your hand to rub their bellies. Better yet, remove your
glove altogether. Wolf eels have thick, sharp canine teeth and large molars
designed for crushing hard-shelled animals like clams, crabs and their
favorite, spiky red urchins. Some divers like to break open an urchin to feed
the eel-like fish. If you want to try this, wait until after you take your
photos, as greedy kelp greenlings will swarm in for the leftovers. On the way
back up, you can spend your safety stop in the bull kelp with fearless black
rockfish swimming around in an underwater dance. By any standard, the sleek
rockfish are prettier than the wolf eels, but their beauty is only scale-deep.
They lack the puppy-dog personalities that make wolf eel encounters so much
fun.
Debbie Ferris, the Mamro is a comfortable, diesel-powered 52-foot
live-aboard for small groups of 7 divers. The hull's 13-foot beam and shallow
6-foot draft allows the Mamro to get into and out of some remote places.
Two heads with a 15-gallon tank for hot, fresh-water showers are available.
They also have a 21-foot Campion custom-built fiberglass dive tender powered by
a 200-horsepower Yamaha outboard engine for your diving comfort. Its seven
individual dive stations, comfortable stern walk up boarding ladder, camera
storage, and marine head on board make it the ideal companion boat for the
Mamro. Pillows, pillowcases, towels, soft belts, hard lead and your dive
tanks are included. Dive gear, including Argon bottles, are available for rent.
Nitrox and argon fills are available.
