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Come one come all. Please come and join me in a little adventure to Case Conference center on Whidbey Island. This is the perfect little get away for the morning and afternoon. Fun, sun and, of course, FOOD will be provided. The date is Saturday September 11. This will be a fairly early dive. Due to the complex tidal current exchange we need to dive this a little more aggressively. The ideal time to dive Camp Casey is the slack before the ebb tide. Unfortunately, we will need to dive the slack before flood. Because there is no real slack the slowest water movement we will see is 9:00 am. After conferring with a couple of sources I was able to determine that entering the water 10 minutes prior to slack will be ideal. The water moves fast on the flood so this will limit your bottom times. I want everyone who is going to dive this day to be at the briefing at 8:30 a.m. sharp. I want people entering the water ready to go at 8:45 a.m. Depending on the turn out I will determine if a beach boss will be needed. I want to remind all that this is a working dive for the club. Please bring your goody bags and critter collection containers. I also need a head count no later than September 2 so I can inform Casey of our meal requirements. In the past we have been able to invite our spouses and/or significant other for the day. If you would like to bring a guest please do so. Just include them in your head count. If your guest wants to dive this is not a problem but they will need to fill out a waiver. This is a great area for our club to dive. It is closed to diving with the exception of our club. Emerald Sea Dive Club has benefited from the work we do to support the marine lab at the camp. If you have any questions please contact me via e-mail Jason.t.miller@comcast.net

Laura Orlich

Diving and eating, of course.

So put your regulator where your mouth is and join us at the Emerald Sea Dive Club Summer Picnic and Dive on Sunday September 26. Sharan Smith and Laura Orlich are hosting a dive at Edmonds Underwater Park followed by a potluck picnic at Edmonds City Park. Your friends and family are invited too. There is a great playground at the park for all to enjoy. And in case of bad weather there is a large sheltered area. So come rain or shine! The club will provide cedar planked smoked salmon and barbequed chicken, soda pop, and water. A drawing will be held to give away fabulous door prizes.

Please RSVP to Laura Orlich at 425-640-5840 by September 22!

Details, details, details . . .

Diving: Meet Sharan at Edmonds Underwater Park, 10:30 a.m. Splash will be around 11:15 a.m. after a quick dive briefing.

Picnic: Join us at Edmonds City Park after the dive or around 1:00 p.m. The entrance to the park is located off Third Avenue and is south of the underwater park and ferry terminal. The park runs parallel to the stacking lanes for the ferry but you must go to Third Avenue to enter.

If your last name begins with

A thru F Please bring a desert

G thru M Please bring an appetizer

O thru Z Please bring a salad or side dish

You can also bring outdoor toys or games and additional beverages

Your dog and alcoholic beverages.

It is also not necessary to bring folding chairs; there are plenty of picnic tables.

Darlene Ripley

Fran Murray is looking for volunteers for the Christmas committee. So far, Elena DiPardo and Laura Orlich have stepped forward. This is YOUR Christmas party too; please volunteer some time to make it special. Thank you.

Laura Orlich has secured the Milltown Sailing Association hall for our Christmas party; however, in order to receive this FREE Laura is looking for six to eight brave souls to fling themselves into the sound only to be rescued by the Milltown Sailing Association Life Sling Practice class. This sacrifice will be rewarded to the entire club in December when the sailing association has agreed to lend us their hall. You will also receive a free sail boat ride. Please volunteer your time for this event. NO tanks, BC, or weights required only your cool water exposure suite, hood, and gloves! The specific time, September 18, will be announced later.

Did you know that when you show your ESDC membership card at Starfish dive shop you receive a 10% discount? Did you know that if you show your ESDC membership card at Northwest Sport Dive you get a free air fill? Be sure you have your ESDC membership card with you when you go shopping at dive shops—you just never know.

If other shops give you a discount please let us know and we will publish their name.

In order to get new members the board has decided to be more aggressive; therefore, the club is looking for a Membership Coordinator. This position would entail being in charge of finding ways to increase the membership by placing brochures in local dive shops, promoting the club at dive sites, etc. The Membership Coordinator will head a committee to help him/her with this job; so you will need to coerce your ESDC friends into being on your committee. If you like meeting new people, making new dive buddies, educating divers on the FUN of belonging to a dive club then this is the job for you. This is not a board position this is a committee like the Christmas Party Committee or the Greeter position.

Bruce Bury

David and Darlene hosted a dive to Three Tree North. They did two dives and I did a third. Tales of the third dive, with my buddy Rich from Mossbay Dive Club is as follows. We walked up the beach, right of the public access, until we came to the garage with moose antlers on it and headed out onto the rough water. At 45’ we found the boat and trailer. Inside, there were hundreds of golf balls and one green sea urchin the size of an orange. We continued down to 93' exploring more of the local junkyard. There were tons of schools of tube snouts, kelp, shiner, pile, and striped sea perch; lots of sunflower, spiny pink, blood and vermilion, leather, sand, and northern sun stars; orange, white, and California sea cucumbers; sea pens, black-eyed gobies; sole and flounder, some red rock, kelp, helmet, slender, Dungeness, and hermit crabs. We saw one scallop that was opened showing off its black light sensitive eyes.  There was a foot long cabezon hanging out near the eelgrass along with red, green, and brown gunnels hiding under the brown kelp, small tide pool sculpins, a few buffalo heads, and some small great sculpins. Yes, we saw ratfish all over the place from 90' to 18' deep.  There were brown and copper rockfish and one yellow eye rockfish hanging around some wooden grates at 80' and lots of painted and kelp greenlings and one rock greenling that I spotted.

I retrieved a white rubber squid lure that was snared in the junk pile at 80'. We drifted in the eelgrass in front of the public access entry. Amongst tires and concrete anchor blocks I found lined chitons, coonstripe shrimp, feather duster worms, white-plumed anemones, and shiny sea squirts. While on the sandy slope I saw sand rose anemones and white lined dironas (from 1" to 3"). About a dozen leafy horn mouths were inside the tire rim (because this is a G-rated audience I will not describe what they were doing). Let’s not forget the moon snails and their egg cases, saw some large moon snail shells but no hermit crabs in them.  Also found some cockles lying on top of the sand around 60' but no sunflower stars nearby to make the cockles use their foot to escape.

All three dives I did were exciting to do due to the five divers that I dove with that day.

Later that day, other divers saw a six gill and a sand shark in the same area. Luck of the draw, next time I hope for me and you. See you all, next time we dive.

Darlene Ripley

The last couple of columns have been remiss in informing the public, the illustrious members of ESDC, of the latest alien sightings. Last Sunday while diving at Three Tree North I discovered that it is hard to locate aliens in Puget Sound if you do not dive. Well, what a shock that was to discover; it never occurred to me I would have to actually get in the water with my dive gear and go look for aliens to report on.

Once I realized I was on a mission to discover aliens, to keep all of you up to date, there were none to be found. Instead, I discovered "real time" things like a school of ratfish, two baby octopi one of which had tentacles about 6" long and the older one whose tentacles were about 12" long, four different types of gunnels, several sculpins some which had pink spots on their heads, flounders who were eating and did not mind being watched for five minutes at a time, and orange sea pens. I could go on and on and on as there was a plethora of sea life.

The only thing alien I saw was my dive buddy’s writing on a slate. WHAT? WHAT??

Sure, things may appear 25% larger under water but not necessarily clearer! Talk about alien.

You could win a $50.00 ESDC check by hosting club dives. Every time you sponsor a club dive your name "goes into a hat" and twice a year a raffle will be held and one person from each drawing will receive $50.00 from ESDC as a Thank You for sponsoring dives, friendships, and fun! Remember, a club dive is a dive approved by Rich Carton, Activities Coordinator, and placed on the clip-board and on the ESDC web-site. This is a great way to meet club members and have lots of fun. Book your dives today! Remember: the more dives you book the more chances you have of winning.

When you take a class that furthers your diving experience, such as Advanced Open Water, Rescue, Dive Master, etc., show The Board your certification card and you will receive a congratulatory $15.00. This offer is only good one time per year.

E-mail Jason Miller, our mailing list moderator, jason.miller@IDG-Corp.com,

to be put on the ESCD yahoo group mailing list

(www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ESDClist) where you can communicate with other members regarding various dive topics, find dive buddies, or let everyone know about a planned dive that did not make it to the newsletter or clipboard in time. Join the list so YOU won’t be left out!

Wednesday, September 1

Alfy’s Pizza

4820 196^th SW

Lynnwood WA

425-775-5459

Board meeting, 6:00 p.m.; everyone is welcome to join these meetings

General meeting, 7:00 p.m.

Bob Goetz -- Liability in diving

Heading north on I-5: take exit 181B (196^th St SW/Alderwood Mall Pkwy). At the top of the exit there is a stop light, turn left. At the next stop light turn left onto 196^th St SW proceeding to 48^th. Alfy’s is on the south side of the road. (Alfy’s is 4 blocks down from The Rock.)

Heading south on I-5: take exit number 181 (Lynnwood). At the top of the exit there is a stop light, turn right onto 196^th St SW, proceed to 48^th. Alfy’s is on the south side of the road. (Alfy’s is 4 blocks down from The Rock.)

President Wendy Drucker astromoi@earthlink.net

Vice-President Elena DiPardo edipardo@u.washington.edu

Secretary/historian Laura Orlich lorlich@ssoe.com

Treasurer Willow Moore dr.moore@verizon.net

Activities Coordinator Rich Carton addcorich@verizon.net

News Letter Editor David Ripley esdcnewsletter@mindspring.com

NL Editor’s Secretary Darlene Ripley esdcnewsletter@mindspring.com

Big Buddy Coordinator Sharan Smith sjsmith0@gte.net

Webmaster Phil Morgan pmorg@olmpus.net

Greeter Loogpla Cowden loogpla@att.net

Visit our web-site: www.emeraldseadiveclub.org

Write us: Emerald Sea Dive Club

PO Box 73

Edmonds WA 98020

Contact any of the board members via telephone or e-mail.

Month for newsletter Deadline

October September 27

November October 25

December November 22

₪ Greg Becvar

425-670-3978

tridoxia@yahoo.com

₪ Mike Bevan

work: 425-788-0595

home: 425-788-1015

₪ Bruce Bury -- PADI rescue

425-788-8063

bury1of6@aol.com

₪ Jason Miller -- Rescue

425-778-7548

Jason.t.miller@comcast.net

₪ Skip Stacy – rainy days

425-775-2410