PNW Dive Report: Zipping to Fox Island with Bandito Charters

Booking boat dives in the PNW is a little like snagging concert tickets — you need your credit card ready, you jump when a seat opens, and sometimes you go through a middleman to make it happen. That’s exactly how we ended up on Bandito Charters.

Visual: The Vessel

Logistics

Booking

Bandito is run by Rick and Jackie. Jackie, who has over 60 years of diving experience but looks like she’s in her 60s but is actually 75, casually dropped that detail mid-conversation and I completely lost the ability to do math for a moment.

Their model works through local dive shops — Bandito doesn’t do easy direct bookings, but their calendar page lists upcoming dates and which shop has chartered each one. That’s how we found Seattle Dive Tours, based in West Seattle near Alki Cove 2. We’d crossed paths with their crew at Alki before and had a good impression, so booking with them felt like a reasonable bet.

The process itself was smooth — all online, two liability waivers (one from the shop, one from Bandito), and clear reminder emails with meet-up details. They offer guiding and gear rental if you need it. The two other divers on our boat shared a dive master, Brent, who showed up early and brought extras just in case — a sign of someone who’s seen enough dives to know not to assume.

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Morning Logistics

Meet time: 8 AM at Delin Docks in Tacoma, departure at 8:15 AM.

We arrived at 7:10 AM because we had full gear to set up. The dock wasn’t open yet, but Rick and Jackie showed up around 7:15 to let us in — so next time I’d aim for 7:15–7:20 AM to set up right on the dock.  

We assembled one full kit (Backplate & Wing + regulators, without weights attached as advised) and carried them on. Rick helped get the second tanks to the boat. Each diver gets a bucket under their seat for gear; your active tank is bungeed and can be seat-belted in place for more security once weights are put in.

Jackie flagged that the ride to the first site is 1 hour 45 minutes, so most divers board in street clothes and change closer to the site. We opted for base layers and undergarments on and suited up later. The area under the captain’s seat serves as a changing space — snug but functional, especially with only 5 divers that day.

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On Board

The boat is comfortably sized for 6 divers. Amenities include:

• Marine toilet
• Bottled water only.
  • Wish refillable option is offered though.
• Hot water, chips, cookies, tea/coffee/hot chocolate. Soups after the second dive
  • Bring your own cup if you want to skip the disposables — we did, and it worked fine for the soup and hot chocolate post-dive.
• Seating area with a table
• Dedicated spots in the cabin for phones and small valuables during dives
• Fish ID pamphlets and regional maps
• Camera rinse bucket at the bow
• Hot and cold outdoor shower
• Spare weights and tanks

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Entry, Exit & Dive Briefing

Entry: Giant stride off the boat, then surface swim to the bow to descend on the buoy line. Jackie advises which side to swim based on current, wind, and shore position — a small thing that actually matters.

Exit: Open-ended stairs you can climb with fins still on. This was a first for me — in warm water I always remove fins before boarding, but cold water tanks my flexibility, so being able to climb out fully finned is genuinely great. Same setup as Miss Gig on YSS, if you’ve done that one.

Dive briefing: Jackie draws the site on a whiteboard with depth and direction markers, then walks you through a suggested route using relative landmarks (“keep your right shoulder to the wall”). Clear, practical, no guesswork.

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The Dives

Dive 1 — Z’s Reef, Fox Island

• Depth: ~40 ft top of wall / ~60 ft bottom
• Skill level: All levels
• Visibility: 10-15 ft (not our day)
• Marine Protected Area — accessible by boat only (shoreline is owned privately)

Z’s Reef is a straightforward wall running parallel to shore, about 200 meters long. At a leisurely 10 meter/min pace, we covered the whole thing in one dive. The substrate is rocks and boulders — no flat sand — which means plenty of crevices and fissures to poke around in.

What we saw:

• 3 wolf eels (one with a head roughly the size of mine, tucked into the rocks)
• 3 lingcod
• One large lemon nudibranch (the size of my GoPro float stick)
• Plenty of GPO evidence — dens and crab scraps — but no GPO sighting

This is a clean, accessible dive. Good for divers of any level.

>> Read more: WDFW Marine Preserve — Z’s Reef

>> Read more: Other dive sites on Fox islands by Clements Family

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Dive 2 — Sunrise Beach, Gig Harbor

• Depth: Varies but ~60ft at the bottom
• Skill level: Intermediate
• Visibility: 5–10 ft (not our day)

We’d just dived Sunrise Beach from shore back in January — full hike, full swim, the works. Getting dropped directly by boat felt like a luxury. The site itself held up: interesting reef structure, good rock coverage for shelter when the current picked up at the end of the reef.

Rumor has it the resident wolf eels here have been fed green sea urchins by divers and will circle you looking for a handout. We didn’t get that experience today, but I’m told it happens.

What we saw:

• Wolf eels and lingcod
• Lemon nudibranchs
• Leopard dorid
• No octopus 

Visibility was the main letdown — our January shore dive had noticeably better marine life density, though that’s probably more luck and timing than the site itself.

>> Read more: my PNW Scuba Dive Site Logistics: Sunrise Beach Park in Gig Harbor, WA

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Final Thoughts

Bandito Charters is well-run, organized, and genuinely friendly. Rick and Jackie clearly know what they’re doing — it is evident when I watch them operate.

That said, if I’m comparing South Puget Sound boat diving to what’s on offer in Hood Canal, Hood Canal has the edge in terms of marine diversity and geographic variety in my humble opinion. And Miss Gig on YSS, being a faster vessel, can reach more distant sites in the same window.

But if you’re looking for a solid two-tank day in South Puget Sound with good briefings, a comfortable boat, and operators who actually care — Bandito is worth your time and the $175.

>> Read more: difference between boat diving vs shore diving in my blog post – “Boat Diving 101: Is It Really Better Than Shore Diving?“

>> Read more: the next step up from PNW day boat diving on “Diving God’s Pocket: 15 Dives and One Unexpected Night in Port Hardy”

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Editorial disclaimer

Please be aware that scuba diving is an inherently risky activity, even with certification and experience. The content on this blog reflects my personal opinions and experiences and should not be considered instructional. Always prioritize safety, seek guidance and certification from qualified diving professionals, and carefully consider the risks involved in any dives.