This place is just outside of Port Alberni, further along Alberni Inlet. There's a dusty gravel logging road leading to China Creek Marina and Campground. Many people live here long term in monster RV's with patios, outdoor dining rooms and fences around their campsites. There are more traditional campsites for the commoners along the shore. Offshore from the beach there is a wreck of one of the "migrant ships" that was carrying illegal immigrants from China a few years ago. It was sunk by the Alberni Reef Society as a shore dive around 80-150 feet deep. Another migrant ship sank accidentally further offshore (over 300 feet deep) and yet another sank (again accidentally) in Barkley Sound (it was raised and sank again while under tow near Victoria). Anyway, I came here to try and dive on one of them. There is supposed to be a buoy marking it, but I saw about 30 or so out in the bay (crab traps). I swam out to the nearest ones (about a half-hour swim, which should have told me I was on the wrong track). There were names and phone numbers on them (which just screams out: Crab trap!). I followed a few of them down, but I didn't see bottom at well past 100 feet. It's a good thing I'm not a technical diver or I would know that deep repetitive dives aren't a good idea. I figured that the wreck was much closer in. For my second try, I swam at 80-90 feet deep from near the right-hand side of the beach (when you're looking out from shore). I swam towards some cliffs on the left-hand side of the beach. The bottom was steeply-sloping mud. I saw some logs and boot sponges, but that's about it. There was a big trench that looked like a ship landed there and slid down the slope. There was a metal rod with a pop bottle on top and a rope tied to it leading down the trench. I followed it down to past 100 feet, but didn't reach the end. I eventually surfaced pretty close to the cliffs, so I guess I should have swam to the right. I did see a lot of mud though, so that was cool. I had one tank left so I figured I'd try the wall dive under the cliffs. The shallows were warm, semi-fresh and visibility was around 3 feet (early August, 2005). I could see a carpet of sunflower stars piled on top of each other and thick swarms of perch. Visibility cleared up below 20 feet deep to around 40 feet. I swam along the bottom where the rock met the sand. At 40 feet, there was a small sailing-type dingy and what looked like one of those mini-tugs or log tenders. There was a marker buoy tied to the log tender. Near the bow there were a few metal tubes sticking up from the deck with decorated warbonnets and juvenile wolf eels living in them. There were some more juvenile wolf eels just swimming around. Near the wrecks, there were 3 boot sponges on the base of the wall (the shallowest I've ever seen them). Of course there were juvenile wolf eels living in them too. The rocky area looked like a mix of Saanich Inlet and the Nanaimo/Parksville area). There was the same silty, almost bare igneous rock that you see in Saanich Inlet, but there were some small yellow sponges and red urchins that reminded me of Cottam Point. Further along the wall there was a falling-apart phone booth on a ledge at 30 feet. Another juvenile wolf eel was curled up un the floor. Most of the fish swimming around were yellowtail rockfish, but there were a few copper as well. More decorated warbonnets were laying out in the open. I followed the base of the wall down to 120 feet, but it continued to slope deeper. There wasn't as much life down here as in the shallows, just a ratfish that followed me around. I don't know if they are common here, but I hardly ever see them in Victoria. UPDATE: I went back a week later and things were the same except visibility was down to around 20-30 feet.
