Instant Reader Report
on Clavella Adventures / Browning Pass Hidewaway in
Canada / Porty Hardy, Vancouver Island on
2002/08
by
Peter Belden , CA, USA
Report Number 021226154515817

 La Paz, Curacao, Grand Turk, Monterey CA, Moorea, Ixtapa, Coronados Island,
Cozumel, Belize, Maui, Little Cayman, Channel Islands 

Dive Conditions

Only safe to dive at three specific times each day when currents are slack.
   

[None]  

Overall Rating

We saw several orcas from the skiff on one day as well as a Humpback whale,
fantastic!  Before we reserved our spots John explained that getting in the
water with orcas up in BC would require us to focus on jumping in after
orcas 10-20 times a day and would eat away all our time leaving none for
diving.  It's a low probability activity and with low viz it's hard to get
close enough to see orcas under water.  So this was a dive trip not an
orcas trip.  We had hoped to get in the water with some pacific white
sided dolphins which is a more common occurance but there were none to be
seen at all.  

We did find one large pacific octopus which was fun and several seals but
had unusually bad luck and saw no wolf eels.  We got a special treat in
finding a rat fish.  John deBoeck (owner/captain) knows everything about
the area and tracked down the orcas for us on one of our 5 days with him. 
We saw bald eagles topside on almost every dive.  This is a wonderful,
remote, quiet, cold, and roughing it kind of trip.  

The accomodations are a very rustic floating lodge heated by a wood
burning stove located in a protected cove in the middle of nowhere.  We
saw no other people the whole time and had the whole place to ourselves,
the 5 of us plus John, his friend, and a cook.  The food was fantastic,
3-4 meals a day homecooked just for the 5 of us by a full time cook!!! 
Drysuit is essential and currents are present so this is a trip for
advanced divers.  There was no underwater guide or divemaster.  John
waited topside in the skiff.  

Invertebrate life was very large, metridiums, diversity of starfish and
sea urchins plus many lingcod, rockfish, and scorpionfish.  Huge 2-3 foot
long crabs.  We had hoped to do a side trip with another operator to seek
out the 7 gill sharks but most were not departing on week days.   I
recommend BC/Vancouver/Port Hardy as a destination and John deBoeck
(Clavella) is clearly the way to go.  The boat Clavella itself is a bit
old and beat up, and so we were very glad to have the lodge option. 
Diving was from a skiff and all sites were within 5 minutes.  Some kelp,
some walls, some big rocks covered with anemones.   

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