Nordic Joe's Seattle Snorkel Guide

Ballard as you have never seen it before.

7-17-09 5:00 pm

Sunny 82 degree

High Tide

Some Chop

53 degree water

100 foot vis

Holy cow. I didn’t know Seattle Snorkeling could get this good.

What a great way to test the new wet suit!

Walk the scenic path to the North-most beach access or plod along the sandy way to this northern most part of Golden Gardens Beach and put in for the Northward “right rocks” run.

We put in at the far North-East side of the beach and made our way out about 50 feet and saw an amazing life-scape in the seaweed beds.  Here’s where the crabs have been hiding.   We lingered here watching the sole, sanddabs and other flat fish as well as hermit crabs and dungeness.  We had 30 foot visibility at this point as we played in 20 foot water.

We headed North along the rocks but about 40 feet out from shore, our eyes on the shifting bed of loose seaweed below.

Striped Sea Perch near "Green Joe"

Swimming over this sea-lettuce will shorten your trip unless you are immune to all forms of motion sickness.  This stuff has a way of moving in the water that makes the rocks appear to swoosh back and forth in a rhythmic tide when it’s really you and the sea-lettuce moving.  Once you realize this, you don’t have long before you start feeling woozy.  My buddy and I had to beach ourselves on a piled of long concrete slabs like mermaids in the pounding surf until out stomachs stopped lurching.  I nick-named the place “mermaid beach”.

Seen here, the "Green Joe" feature is named for its sea-sick discoverer.

After recovering, we went on to an interesting rock feature that drew our eye.   As we rounded the headland, the character of the water and the life changed DRAMATICALLY.  Visibility opened up to about 100 feet.  The characteristic green of the sound turned Hawaii blue on us and suddenly there was life everywhere.  A school of juvenile Steelhead kept checking me out.   Then there was a dense school of what looked like Pacific Sardines.  Then we rounded the rock and were stunned to see a school of about 50 large Surf Perch hiding in the shade of the rock.   It was amazing.

When my buddy and I were looking at the photos over pints at Kings Hardware, I asked the waitress where she thought the pictures were taken:

“Well it’s Hawaii isn’t it?”

I proudly corrected her, “Nope.  That’s Ballard – two hours ago.”

I’m not sure she believed me.

UPDATE:  SWIM 6, Golden Gardens Right Rocks 2

7-18-09 5:00 pm

Sunny 85 degree

Ebbing High Tide

Choppy

53 degree water

100 foot vis

I went back the next day and made an important discovery.

I didn’t bring my friend with the camera this time, so no photos and trust me when I say that’s a shame.

But at least I FINALLY convinced my wife to come with me.  She got outfitted at Cheka Looka with a 4/3 wetsuit and some new fins and a snorkel from DiscountDivers.com (their physical store is over on Westlake). We walked up to the beach and faced a fairly brisk in-shore wind that whipping up the surf into something even choppier than what had made me sick yesterday.  I resolved to power through it.

When we got in, the visibility was passable @ 20 feet, but not as good as yesterday.  The surf was just churning things up too much and we were swimming in sea-salad.  Still, we decided to press on and see if things got better to the North.  We learned in swim #3 to never accept poor conditions but to check farther along the shore.  I told her about the shifty sea-lettuce and its affects, but she wanted to go and see it for herself while I followed the nice and stable sand and rocks down to “Green Joe”.    So I muddled along, seeing the occasional Sole skittering away beneath me and feeling a little down that the visibility wasn’t as good as the day before, but I hoped there would still be a show around the corner like the day before.

When I looked up to check on her, she was pretty far out.  Maybe 100 feet from shore.  That made me nervous since I have read a lot about the currents up here and don’t know too much about the boat traffic either.  I REALLY wished I had brought a “diver down” flag with me to float near by, and will do so on my next trip.  I put my face down and swam farther along the coast, past mermaid beach, and wondered why she wasn’t seasick yet from the dancing weeds.   They were a lot worse today as the surf was really churning.  I looked up and she was…gone.

I spun all around, anxiety creeping up as I couldn’t make out any sign of her at all until – ah, there she was, 250 feet out from shore.   What could she be DOING out there?  It had to be WAY too deep to see a thing in this mess, so I wondered if she was in trouble maybe.  Well, I would have to go out and get her to show her the real places to swim – or at least to check on her.

I took a deep breath and put my fins together for some full body swimming and was out to her in 30 seconds or so.  But as I got near, I knew why she was out that far, and it nothing to do with distress.  She had discovered something amazing…a Forrest that was every bit as filled with life as out best trip in Hawaii in water with 100 foot visibility.  Long spindly legged crabs that would span two feet if stretched out made their way among ling cod.  Huge purple and sun-burst stars defied normal scale and that school of Striped Sea perch from Yesterday…was just the small handful from the REAL school that lived out here.

Large eels, Rock Fish, Ling Cod, big Crab…And the plants here, they are just beautiful.  If I get a camera, I’ll post images of this place right away.

We have nick-named the forrest “Mermaid Forrest” since it’s right by “Mermaid Beach”.

Impression: Quite simply, it blew the doors off of every other trip so far.  Golden Gardens Right Rocks is the best run I’ve found.

Lesson: Try more sights that are farther off shore.  The water is more clear and the variety more amazing than the surf-hugging that I’ve been doing.

Safety Note: I will need to bring a “Dive Flag” with me on any trip where I’m venturing into waters where there may be boats.

7-3-09

Weather: Sunny

Temp: 85 Degrees

Water Temperature: 53 Degrees

Water Surface: Calm

Water Vis: 40 feet.

Current: Fast

Wetsuit: 4/3 Rental

A blue-green paradise for shy fish and crab.

This was our third time at Golden Gardens and our best trip yet.  It’s right here in Ballard and outfitting at Cheka Looka is so easy and inexpensive, that this seems like a natural place for me to test out theories on the art of Snorkeling Seattle.  I’m always glad to stop in there because they seem so interested in the project that it feels almost like a duty to check in and report my progress to them.

What is it??

Seriously...It's cool but...

Neat Thingy

Today we were testing the notion that conditions along the rocks improve greatly at high tide.  So we put out at Golden Gardens again at the climax of high tide to see if it makes a big difference. Indeed it did.  Within minutes of getting in the water we were sighting all kinds of amazing varieties we had not seen in our earlier runs.

Just 50 feet out from the put-in where the beach meets the left-rocks, we ran into a school of what I think were smelt in a bait-ball dense school unlike anything I’d ever seen.

Going along the rocks, it just got better.  Strange creatures that I can’t name roamed a scenic blue-green wonderland that fluttered within inches of my face.  Again we saw Pen-point Gunnels in the rocks, much more fish, and many fewer crab.  Those crabs that were to be found were confined to the sandy bits, way out from shore and a little too close to the boat traffic for my comfort.  None of the big ones were out, but we soon found out why.

As we neared the pier I came upon a disturbing image.  There was something large and white at the bottom, a shark perhaps?   Then as I got closer I saw it was a dead dog-fish that had been cut up and discarded there.  As I looked up onto the pier, the many lines of crab-pots told the story.   These fish remains served to lure the crabs out to where nearby fishers could catch them in their traps.

Safety Note: Swimming near shore and piers is dangerous enough but without a dive knife it’s suicide.  Be sure to get a good quality dive knife that has a notch in it for cutting line before you go out.  You might consider taking two.