Chanb77's Weblog

Friday, March 29th, 2013 ~ 

Well, Good Friday was as good a day as any, for some Diving Goodness. We met Frankie and Christian at the quarry, for a bit of a dip!

It looks like the quarry is starting to melt, and with this gorgeous weather, it shouldn’t be too long before it’s open!

Christian buddied up with Frankie for some skills, and Steve and I went along for the ride, while Steve was going to test the Go Pro, with the scooter mount and lights set up.

Frankie was going to run the reel, but since Steve and I were ready to go first, Steve brought it in, so that we could stretch out and do bubble checks… and maybe get some footage!

Yeah.. perhaps not. The battery had spent itself. It had been charged after our last dives, but it seems that the battery drains, even when not in use. Lesson noted. On the other hand, the lights fired nicely. Steve left the rig on the line, Frankie and Christian came in, and were practicing some valve drills.

We made our way to the plane, where there was a slight bit of Shenaniganry. Steve and I played around, upside down, played with our valves, and played inside of the plane. Somebody had some cold hands (I won’t mention any names), so we made our way back in!

Another fun day, under the ice!

Bottom Time: 45 mins.
Max. Depth: 29′
Water Temp.: 37F & 39F

After-Dive shop talk…

“Follow The River.” I couldn’t resist – A reference to our parody, Sanked ‘Em…

Neat formations in the melting ice…

After our goofiness, we decided that our Good Friday dinner should be at the Vietnamese restaurant, near our house. Absolutely delicious! Then, back to our place for dive talk, galore.

Saturday, March 30th, 2013 ~ 

Today was RIVER DAY!!! We knew that it would be chilly, so we really didn’t expect a long dive, but at least we were back in the St. Lawrence!

The River is open for business!

The water looked exceptionally clear, at the entry.

It still looked nice, at the first corner (about 20′ deep)…

…and not too bad at the second corner (about 30′ deep)…

We got in the water, and it definitely felt pretty chilly! We were expecting 35F, which is what we got on our bottom timers (except for Steve’s – his always reads 2F lower than mine, so he got 33F – I believe mine, since it read the same as the A-Bay buoy). 😛

As we did our checks and descended, we were greeted by a ton of green goober. The algae bloom has started already, and is absolutely everywhere.

Since the water was still pretty chilly, we decided to just scooter over to the Gaskin, and Steve was going to get some footage, with the recharged Go Pro.

As we got to the wreck, it was like a force field of green algae, just everywhere. The wreck is really falling apart now, but doesn’t seem too much different from the fall, when we were last on it.

I guess we aren’t as “tough” as we used to be, and we were feeling the cold water. Only Frankie had a heated device on. So… after a short play around the wreck, we came back in.

Bottom Time: 33 minutes (yep… total wusses)
Max. Depth: 64′
Water Temp.: 35F
Vis.: Hard to tell, for all of the green goober, but better than last spring.

Even though the water was so chilly, we were totally bulked up with thick winter undies, and thick liners and dry gloves, I have to say that I felt so relaxed, and very happy to be back in the River!!!

Group shot, and group smiles!

Christian is also the proud owner of a new Light Monkey wing!!! Enjoy it, Christian!

Ahhhhh….. Diving Goodness!!!