Oceanography Graduate Schools

I'm planning to apply to several West Coast U.S. graduate schools to study
oceanography: MSc at min, maybe PhD.

Can readers here comment on the relative strengths & weaknesses...or
whatever they want to say...about the following schools?

- University of Washington
- University of Victoria
- University of British Columbia
- University of Hawai'i
- Scripps / UCSD
- University of Southampton  (what the hey....interesting 1 yr MSc program)

My EE/CS background and interests point toward physical oceanography, but
with a 25 year history in software development & computer science (computer
graphics, embedded systems, information retrieval, metadata modelling), I'm
anxious a) *not* to spend all my time in front of a computer and b) to have
a dependable outdoor field component.  I'll humbly yet eagerly start from
near zero in biology.   Math skills, albeit rusty, are good (6+ semesters).

All the venues (coastal, shelf, deep sea, vents, ridges) all sound good to
me at this point...but coastal would probably fit better with my sea
kayaking hobby. ;-)

Thanks,

ER