Chanb77's Weblog

Saturday, August 28th, 2010 ~

Time for some more scootering adventures! Steve and I met Claudia, Oren, and Jen down at Centeen Park, and had planned to hit the little “Unknown Hull” that Steve discovered a few weeks back.

Jen, getting her gear together…

Our plan was going to be a bit different from our previous treks to the wreck, but we had hoped to still come upon it.

On the previous weekend in Kingston, Jennifer had told us of some Jelly Fish that she had seen in the water. I was completely mesmerized, and was a little bummed that I had not been on the boats, so that I could see these little guys.

We did our pre-dive checks, and started to make our way out. The park was busy, as there were a couple of Open Water courses going on, so we made sure that we were out of their way. As we ventured out, I was absolutely wide-eyed when I saw a little clear creature in the water column, with mini tentacles, and a round shape, moving rather “jellyish-like.”

I saw one!! Then another.. and another.. Holy smokes! These little guys were so neat looking! I can’t believe they are in the St. Lawrence! They were in about 20′ to 30′ of water, and we saw a bunch of them along the way.

We headed 30 minutes upstream, on the trigger, dropped into the channel, then drifted for 30 minutes amongst the periwinkle shells. Before ducking into the channel, I actually let go of the trigger a couple of times, to allow the jellies to pass through.

As we drifted, we came upon some more very old wreckage. It was in about 65′ to 70′ of water, and just had some ribbing left to it. It was all wood, with ladder-like rungs through the ribbing. There were big metal pieces strewn about one side of it, and it was hard to tell what they once were. It was still very interesting to check out.

We left this wreckage, and went in search of the “Unknown Hull.” It seems we had overshot it, as we didn’t find it this time. Oh well.

We made our way back to the Gaskin, where there were some charters moored to it. We motored around the wreck, where there were some folks a little mesmerized by motorized machines passing by. We swam around the wreck for a bit, then decided to head home. As we moved in the direction of the line, we were saddened to see that it had been cut. Someone on shore had mentioned that the line was gone, and that they had driven four hours to do that dive from shore, for the first time, and it was missing. They had been to the stop sign on Friday afternoon, and the line was still there. It was gone by Saturday morning.

Steve, Leigh, and Francois had laid that line about 5 years ago, and you could tell that the line had been cut. There were no anchor marks, and there were still bits here and there, that you could see a definite cut mark. Sad. There were even parts of it balled up, underneath a rock.

So, we still had a great dive, and it was good to get back out into the channel!

Bottom Time ~ 116 minutes
Max. Depth ~ 104′
Water Temp. ~ 71 (the river is starting to cool a bit)

Claudia and I…

Sunday, August 29th, 2010 ~

Eric came down to join in the fun today, and since we all had the burn time, we were going to follow the “usual” path to the “Unknown Hull.”

We would head upstream for 40 minutes, drop into the channel, drift for 40 mins, then head back up to 75′, where the wreck sits. As we headed out, there was a noise that made us all jump. It didn’t sound like any boat or sea doo that we’ve heard before. It was extremely loud, and actually felt like someone was firing missiles into the water. We looked around, but didn’t see anything. Of course, our first reaction was wondering if a scooter had blown up behind us…lol. What it was remains a mystery. We saw many more Jellies as well.

Along the way, we found even more remnants of a really old wreck. There was a huge chain buried in the periwinkle shells, that was very long. There were also chunks of wood and metal, as well as a bunch of bottles in just about every direction. Another bit of goodness to explore on another dive.

We also made it to one of the horse carriages. There were so many weeds on it, and the horse harness is pretty mangled now. You can still see the metal wheels, with big spikes in the middle, and other parts that are difficult to distinguish.. for me, anyway.

We managed to get to the Unknown Hull again, and showed it to the rest of the gang. There’s not much left to it, but it’s old, new to us, and very cool. I decided to leave the camera at home, but should come back with it next time.

It was around here that Jen must have come into contact with some kind of clear petroleum. It was after her gas switch so she wondered if it was her gas.. which it ended up not being. We had turned the dive anyway, to be sure. Whatever kind of oil it was had completely encased her back up regulator, neck seal, and part of her wing. You couldn’t see it, but you could definitely smell it. I think Jen has now mastered the art of oil clean up.

On our way in, we met up with Chris P. and Allan in the shallows. Chris had his camera with him, and took some pics of us.

Me, taken by Chris Phinney…

Bottom Time ~ 118 minutes
Max. Depth ~ 100′
Water Temp. ~ 71

There were two OW courses going on, and I spoke with one fellow that was so pleased that he had finished his course, and had succeeded with the mask removal/replacement. He said he had tried it last year, but just couldn’t deal with the mask, until now. Practice, practice, practice… Congratulations!!  W00t!

It was great to partake in another weekend, filled with friends and Diving Goodness!