Hornby Island Dive Charters is my home away from home. Rob and Amanda (the owners of this operation) are two of the nicest people you will find in this industry. Their lodge is nice and cosy and their dive boat has easy exit and entry points. This makes diving hassle free and care free. That is why you can find me at least one weekend a year over on beautiful Hornby Island.

The focus of this trip was to dive with the sea lions. These animals come over like there isn't a care in the world with their playful behaviour It does not happen often that you get to interact with wild sea creatures in this manner. Well it is more that the Sea Lions interact with you, than you interact with them. You should see some of the pictures we took.

An average Sea Lion dive works like this. A 10 minute boat ride out to one of the little rock outcroppings that dot the waters around Hornby. Before you even see the Sea Lions you can hear them and depending on the wind, smell them. We arrived at Norris Rock (the name of this rock formation) finding the sea lions playing in the water like they were expecting us. The boat is anchored in about 30 ft of water. Rob "our boat captain" tries to give us a dive briefing, but to no avail because everybody is too excited to listen to him as there are about 30 sea lions frolicking right beside the dive boat.

We enter the water and descend along the anchor line and swim to about 20 ft of depth. Here we sit on our knees on the rocky bottom waiting for the onslaught. The first wave of sea lions drifts by gracefully like an underwater ballet. From past experience I know what is about to happen. Before I know it, sea lions are playing with all divers. In some cases you just see a bunch of sea lions hanging upside down not seeing the diver they cover.

Some will pull you along the bottom for a bit or tug on your fins. Others play with the bubbles exiting your hood. After a while they calm down and get close enough for some one on one time and more personal interaction. These interactions go on for about 50 minutes when we as divers get cold and it is time to come up and end the dive. The sea lions on the other hand look a little disappointed and follow us to the boat where one brave soul even tried to get on the boat. On the surface we talk about our experiences with big smiles. Although the sea lions sometimes get a little rough "like playing with big dogs" everybody has a great time.

Once everyone is aboard, it's back to the lodge for a warm meal and some down time where everyone sits around looking at their pictures, writing in dive logs, and discussing their adventures. Then back into the water for our second dive of the day. This is a nice relaxing dive just looking at some wolfeels, pudget sound king crabs and other wonderful critters.

This was repeated the next day and before you knew the trip was over. I am already making plans to revisit this dive paradise maybe even this year. Thanks Rob and Amanda for a great experience. Thanks Barry, Brett, Carrie, Fiacc, Michael, Marcos, Vicki for making this trip a trip to remember.