Friends are what it is all about and making new friends above and underwater was a big part of my two weeks at Browning Pass Hideaway - offshore Port Hardy, British Columbia.

Even though I’m still traveling home at the moment (remember I’m doing a cross country + B.C. driving trek, visiting friends and family and diving of course........!)  Anyway I’m still not home yet but I wanted to update you all on some of my fav characters I met for the first time.

The wolf-eel above is in excess of 7 ft. long!  But as John deBoeck, our cool captain and host at Browning Pass Hideaway said, wolf-eels “are the golden retrievers of the sea” -- often very curious and “friendly”!  We named this wolf-eel “Gumby” and that will be made clear in future posts, but for now just note that Gumby the wolf-eel and I spent a lot of time together underwater and really “bonded”. :-)

Continuing on with friends made below are two fellow divers I met and dove with.  Often when the weather gets challenging as it does at times in Port Hardy - well divers can get, let’s say, “creative” with their time not able to be spent underwater.  This isn’t always a bad thing as you can see we discovered (with John deBoeck’s help) more little friends (Gumby, Pokey & Boat-Pokey) that wanted to experience the wonders of the underwater world!  In fact Valerie even wrote some “rap” lyrics to document the event.  Of course much more on this but for now here is a tidbit:

Ocean/Jelly/Jett

(Named for parts of our three individual websites as follows:)

Ocean(grant Images) - Carol Grant, middle

Jelly(fish Productions) - Valerie Lyttle, right

Jett(Britnell Photographics) - Jett Britnell, left

Ocean/Jelly/Jett name conceived by Valerie Lyttle

Ocean/Jelly/Jett Rap written by Valerie Lyttle -

with * annotation by Carol Grant

Ocean/Jelly/Jett

Ocean Jelly Jett

What you see is what you get

Gumby and Pokey without a net

With divers they just met

Next to wolf-eels - please don’t pet*

With cameras - now get set

In the wet

Ocean Jelly Jett

Rap by Valerie Lyttle

*annotation by Carol Grant - while Ocean/Jelly/Jett is generally not in favor of contact with marine life that could be construed as “harassment” Ocean/Jelly/Jett - (henceforth in this annotation known as OJJ) - OJJ does reserve the option to “pet” the said creature if it “pets” us first*

So see what can happen to divers with a little too much bad weather... :-0 :-) :-0

LOTS - more to come, just let me trek back to Florida first.

Best, Carol