T
oday, we plan to be milling around The Sluggett Point in Saanich Inlet. A dive site new to me, but short distance both from Henderson and Willis, places I have visited before. We know the visibility in the inlet hasn’t been great recently, but I will take my chances with the suspended particles and swap my macro lens for a wide angle dome. I wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity to take a shot of what would be my first Wolf eel. Larry found their den the other day and is confident he can find them again. I have seen his navigation skills underwater, many times in featureless, dim and murky circumstances and don’t doubt him for a second.
We park, prep, jump (ok, … walk) into the water. The entry is shallow for quite some distance and we navigate for a few minutes only 10 feet below the surface. Then we reach a rocky point and plunge into the shadows. I notice there is a lot of silt covering the bottom and I do my best not to stir it up. No need to make the shooting conditions even more challenging. The visibility improves slightly as we go deeper, but is still quite poor. I will have to be very careful with my strobes. If I direct their beam to hit only what I need to illuminate I could keep backscatter at some manageable level. I adjust the strobe position. I feel ready.
