Chanb77's Weblog

Sunday, September 21st, 2008 ~

Well… the day finally came… I had been a bubble watcher on many-a-trip to the mighty Roy A. Jodrey, and this time I was going too. A few friends came up from the US of A, and another few from our neck o’ the woods. The air was a bit nippy, and the sun was hiding, but we were happy to get out for a dive. The water was warmer than the air today! Water Temperature was 67, so it was still wet glove diving weather.

We let the big boyz jump in first, as they were going to have a longer run time than us, then 6 of us jumped in. There were three of us that were n00bs to the Jodrey, so we were going to go down together, drifting on to the wreck. We got down to 150′, and when I shone my light through the darkness, I could see this giant piece of wreck sticking out to greet me. We happened upon the crow’s nest, and the pilot house. What a truly awesome place to be. This giant hunk of ship, with metal absolutely everywhere. I can see why people say that it’s easy to get turned around on this wreck. It’s laying on an angle, against the wall, and is broken and twisted. A steel freighter, about 725′ long, and so much to see.

I was very wide eyed and in awe on this wreck, and the bottom time just seemed to fly by. I’m sure it will take me a few times on it, to really get a feel of where things are. We started the ascent, did our deco obligations, and upon surfacing, had to quote my new favourite line from Mer, with a cat that ate the canary grin on my face. ;o)

I am so looking forward to going back!!

Many thanks to Casey for lending Ralph that light… Holy smokes, it was the freakin’ sun!

Gear shot…Lol….

Saturday, September 13th, 2008 ~

The river had been calling for us to go diving today, so we drove down to meet Jay for some scootering goodness. We geared up and got in the water. The plan was to go out for about 2 1/2 hours, with an average depth of about 40′, max. depth of about 100′.

We did our pre-dive checks, discussed our plan, and away we went. The visibility was a bit stinky at first, but as we headed out toward the channel, it cleared up quite a bit. We dropped down and headed toward the periwinkles.

We were on the trigger for about a half hour, and reached an area that we hadn’t been to before. We found a whole bunch of what appeared to be filing discs… we really have no idea why there would be so many of them, and why in the water? We saw pieces of wreckage that we had not seen before, and also what appeared to be a sleigh (Could this be the ellusive sleigh???). We saw an old tobacco tin, frieghter engine parts, tools, wreck beams, large amount of coal, big brass coupling, glass lantern, pottery, plates, coffee cups, interesting rock formations, and a couple of bicycles. We also crossed paths with a few big fish.

We made our way back, and did a bit of deco in the shallows.

An amazing dive!

Bottom Time ~ 141 minutes
Max. Depth ~ 109′
Water Temp. ~ 70
Vis. ~ Ok, then got better

Today, Steve and I actually slept in a bit, then headed over to Caiger’s, to meet up with Mer and a bunch of the North East Underwater Explorers, that we had met the day before. We went to grab some grub, then headed over to Centeen Park, where it was time for some scooter goodness! There were 6 of us with scooters, and 4 people that would be swimming to the wreck. We let them hitch a ride on the back, to the wreck, then bid them adieu, and went off into the channel.

What a blast!

There were loop de loops galore, and much playing amongst the periwinkle shells. We scootered and drifted, scootered and drifted. We drifted back over to the Gaskin for some more playing, then headed back in.

We played around in 20′ for a while, and watched our buddy, The Muffin Man ~ Chris Malinowski, free dive down to see us. We did catch it on film… There is definite videographic evidence!

I swear, I have a new favourite line…. When we surfaced, Mer shouted out, “That was the F’n’ S@$%!” ROFL…

I never get tired of taking people out on that dive.

Bottom Time ~ 96 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 89′
Water Temp. ~ 72
Vis. ~ 30′ – 60′

We exited the water, and headed over to Bud’s for laughter and grub. What an awesome group of people ~ I can’t wait until they come back!