Chanb77's Weblog

Saturday, January 15th, 2011 ~

Wo0 Hoo! Time for Ice Diving Goodness!

Frankie was in town, and Eric met at our place, to go up to the quarry. It seemed that Mother Nature had a snowstorm in store for us today, so we braved the roads, and headed for water.

When we arrived, there were a few other divers there, with the same intentions. There was already a hole cut, but we decided to cut another one, in our fancy hectagonal shape. Nice going, Steve!

Steve ran the line and tied it into the main line. From there, we headed to the plane, where we messed about for a while, then played around some more, while I took a few pictures.

Eric, Frankie, and Steve…

Steve, going under the wing of the plane…

Frankie, flying…

Eric…

We did a tour past the boat, and made our way back, playing around in the water, of course.

Frankie and Steve played light saber wars…

High Five!

..and.. what is the dive day, without a self portrait? I’m not sure what was up with my serious face, but I was definitely having fun. 🙂

Coming back in…

Bottom Time ~ 46 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 31′ (Avg. 18′)
Water Temp. ~ 35F
Visibility ~ Pretty decent

It was pretty chilly out, so it didn’t take long for our gear to start freezing up…

Evelyn told us that Zora had been guarding our van, during our entire dive. She didn’t even move when Evelyn came by!

Once we cleaned the cars off, we took a run up to see if Jean Burger had reopened yet. They were well on their way with rebuilding, but it was not ready yet! Oh well… at least it won’t be too much longer. Poutine is a staple after ice diving! We ended up going out to Buffet Des Continents, which is always yummy!

The drive home was a slow one, with all of the snow. Cars were in the ditches, left and right!

Sunday, January 16th, 2011 ~

Well, it was definitely another extremely frosty day, and we went diving. I decided to leave the camera behind today, and just play around in the water.  

When we arrived at the quarry, we noticed that someone had recut our hole, which was fine, but they clearly had motor oil in their chainsaw. This is extremely bad for both the water and our gear/drysuits. There is nowhere for the oil to travel, so it will sit in the hole, until the ice melts. It is much better to use vegetable oil, instead of motor oil. We have a designated chain saw for this.

It can be broken up with some Sunlight dish soap, but we hadn’t brought any with us, this time. Evelyn had some in the cabin, but it was frozen solid. Steve stuck it in front of the heater and wood stove to thaw.

After about a half hour, we were able to get some drops out, and cleared up the ice hole. *Phew*

We geared up and got in.

Today’s dive was a shorter one, and a very relaxing one. We just tinkered a bit, and swam through the boat and plane. We manipulated valves, and just hovered in the water for a while. Not our most exciting dive, but still very enjoyable.

Bottom Time ~ 36 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 55′ (Avg. 24′)
Water Temp. ~ 39F

Until next week!