Testing the Waters

Hi everybody! Today we decided to test the waters! Jonny had an old dry suit that he wanted to test for leaks, so we went for a short dive out at Auke Recreational Area. Because of the huge tidal swing, one must wait for the right moment to go out. We receive two high tides and two low tides a day, and it changes every six hours. The difference is usually somewhere between 17ft to 25 ft in a day from low tide to high tide. Today's tidal difference was one of the highest of the month- over 23ft. High tide is safest, but you can't wait for too much longer after this because the worst time to go out is halfway in between high tide and low tide. The currents are very strong at this time.

We made sure to plan our dive for the proper time, as you can see on our way to the site in THIS video. (Click the link to see it.) The water is spilling out into the wetlands on both sides of the road.

Here we are at Auke Rec!

There's never any surf (which I LOVE for all those who know about my surf entries..) so you can just pop your fins on and hobble right in! It was raining, the air temp was 41, the wind was blowing, and the surface was quite choppy.

Jonny suits up for the dive! This is a special type of exposure suit. It's designed to keep the user completely dry underneath. He's got on some fleece undergarments, so he was nice and toasty. I, however, did not have this luxury, as you can clearly see below.

I felt a little iffy about doing this, because I knew how cold it was going to be, but I thought it would be fun anyway. This is a 7mm wetsuit. It's fine for cold California kelp dives, but for Alaska I'd much rather stay dry. My suit is designed to allow a layer of water in between my skin and the neoprene. Then my body heats the water and keeps me warm. What got me first were my fingers, toes and ears.

Jonny's all set!

And my tank's on and ready to go!

We walked out, slipped on our fins, did a short surface swim away from the shore. Jonny's suit didn't leak, but it was so cold that his natural body heat created condensation on the inside. This only happens in extreme cold.

And THIS is what we saw!

Maybe it will be a bit clearer next time. Needless to say, we didn't stay in the water for very long. There wasn't a whole lot to see! The water was only about 45 degrees, so we were ready to go back to land after a short time.

Hope our next dive is better!