Dive Review of God's Pocket in
Canada/British Columbia

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God's Pocket: "A different experience - 14 months later", Jun, 2018, by Eric Eckes, CA, US ( Contributor 18 reports with 11 Helpful votes). Report 10745.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This was my second trip to God's Pocket. My first visit was April of the previous year. We booked this trip through Richard Salas who is an amazing underwater photographer. Richard runs several trips per year and introduced us to God's Pocket in 2017. God's Pocket is located on an isolated island about 45 minutes via boat from Port Hardy. It has been owned and operated by Bill Weeks and Annie Ceschi since 1998. Bill runs the dive operation and Annie runs the kitchen and accommodations. First the lodging. This year my wife and I were upgraded to a larger single room which was very nice. Plenty of room and a great view overlooking the bay. Heating is provided by hot water running through pipes underneath the floor. We were never cold. There is a common meeting room for all guests to hang out. It is equipped with a large TV to view photos and videos. They have internet which worked far better than last year, however, use it sparingly...no Facebook or photo sharing over the internet. The dining area and kitchen are spacious. There is one long table with chairs on either side for dining. Food is served family style. There is plenty of food and every meal was delicious. DIVE TIME! The diving was different from our last visit in April the prior year. Two months later in the season and we saw a reduction in visibility. The best time for visibility is in the winter/early spring. Visibility ranged between 5 ~ 20 feet this year versus a consistent 60 feet in April the prior year. The trade-off for going in June this year was that the water temp was 5 degrees warmer. Still, we were all wearing drysuits. My wife and I had the added benefit of heated vests! The dive boat is one of my favorites. The cabin will fit all divers between dives and is heated. Hot chocolate was available after each dive. The dive deck is average but what makes the dive boat so special is that it has an elevator to bring divers out of the water and up to the deck. Be careful as you exit the water as you will feel the load from added weights due to dry suit diving. We got in three boat dives a day with two in the morning / one in the afternoon or vice versa depending on each day's tidal conditions. A night dive was available off the pier as long as two divers commit. The floor bottom gives new meaning to the words "muck diving". This year I passed on the night dives. The critters differed from last year. This year we found Hooded Nudibranchs in abundance although the visibility wasn't very good. Still we hadn't seen them during our prior trip so this was a treat. We visited a lot of the same sites including 7 Tree Island (my favorite!) along with Hooded Nudi Bay, Snowfall and Fantasy Island. Fantasy Island is home to several wolf eels although they seemed smaller than last year. In fact, Mongo who is one of the larger wolf eels was nowhere to be found. The big disappointment of the trip was that no one caught a photo of a Giant Pacific Octopus although one diver claimed to see a tentacle (I'm betting he was narc'd). My wife saw a great Grunt Sculpin which she shared with everyone but me. I got to see it through her videos. Evenings were spent in the common meeting room where Richard would critique our photos or, even better yet, show us tricks in Photoshop to make our photos pop! Another great trip. We will return although we expect to go earlier in the year. Rumor has it Bill and Annie have sold God's Pocket although I understand it was to someone who shares their values and commitment to British Columbia diving.
Websites	God's Pocket God's Pocket
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Indonesia, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Malaysia, Philippines, Truk Lagoon, Palau, Yap, Mexico, Galapagos, Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Red Sea, Cocos Island, Cuba, So Cal Local, Canada, Tonga, Mexico
Closest Airport	Victoria, BC	Getting There	Flew from Orange County Airport through Seattle to Victoria. Drive up the eastern coast of Vancouver Island.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, rainy	Seas	calm
Water Temp	45-50°F / 7-10°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	60-60 Ft/ 18-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	The only restrictions were dictated by the giant tidal swings. We had to enter and exit the water at specific times.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals	N/A	Tropical Fish	N/A
Small Critters	N/A	Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	God's Pocket does not have a dedicated camera room. They have a common room available to all photographers to assemble your camera gear and they have a large screen TV to view photos and videos. They have dedicated camera rinse buckets.

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Dive Review of God's Pocket in Canada/British Columbia

God's Pocket: "A different experience - 14 months later", Jun, 2018,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of God's Pocket in
Canada/British Columbia