Took the 8:30 ferry from Horseshoe Bay over to Nanaimo to the dive the Cape Breton, a 400 foot WWII Victory class ship and the Saskatchewan, a 366 foot ex-Canadian destroyer escort (sister ship to the Yukon).

Five of us met in North Vancouver at Eric's place and loaded up Blair's pickup with gear and then all piled in for the short trip to the Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal

The first good news of the day was that that the ferry trip over was half price for some promotion that BC Ferries were running. After a short wait we boarded the ferry and headed up a deck and to the galley where everyone grabbed lunch. Oatmeal, yogurt and toast seemed to be popular.

On the approx. 90 min trip over we came into patches of fog but as we approach Nanaimo we saw that the dive site near Snake Island was clear and the seas flat.

Once off the ferry it was a short trip to marina where we unloaded gear onto a barge like small outboard boat that was tied up to the adjacent to the gangway. All of
gear easily loaded and then we motored across the marina to the dive boat. There we transferred the gear onto the dive boat. As the barge boat was quite stable
and its deck height was even with the rear swim step/deck of the dive boat this was one of easiest gear loadings I have come upon.

Once loaded we headed out of the harbor (breaking thru some thin ice on the surface) out to the Cape Breton. Another boat was moored to the stern which we had planned to dive so we moored onto a bouy that was attached to the forward end of the ship.

Eric, Blair and I made up one team while Ashley, Todd and Mark made up the second team. The wreck was large and had limited life, but lots of internal space to explore.

After lunch onboard we motored over to the Saskatchewan. Teams were the same as on the first dive. The Saskatchewan has quite a bit more life on it and the most common growth on the exterior is Metridium anemones. (similar to the Yukon). Fun dive.

Returning back to dive boat it was clear we were going to miss our schedule ferry, so we relaxed and made dinner plans.

A great day.

Pictures