The entire coastline on the colourful side of Victoria was being stirred up by a few days of gale-force winds so I settled on Henderson Point (Feb. 13, 2010). I showed up early and was actually the first diver in the parking lot. A few minutes later the hordes started showing up, but I was geared up and in the water before the instructors could criticize my standing-up tank and how I rig my bailout bottle. Visibility was a milky 20-30 feet. I didn't go deep this time. My maximum depth was only about 70 feet. I slowly poked around the reefs taking pictures of mostly sculpins. A small school of perch was hiding in the plastic skeleton's rib cage on the sailboat hull. Despite this being the warmest winter I can remember, I was shivering too badly to take any more pictures after 45 minutes underwater. It took me the whole drive home with the heat cranked up to finally warm up. I almost felt like I was back in my wetsuit days. I guess puttering around with a close-up lens doesn't create as much heat as charging around with a wide-angle lens.
