A Dip In The Shallow End

29 04 2013

Sunday, April 28th, 2013 ~

We weren’t sure where we felt like diving, so we decided on a place that Steve knew how to get to. Our goal was to hit the east side of Chimney Island across the way, head upstream around the south side of the island, then drift/scooter back around to our entry. The water wasn’t exactly tropical, so we wanted to keep our dive time to approximately an hour.

Chimney Island…

We got our gear out, and got ready to dive! We weren’t sure what was on the other side of the island, which we planned on having a look at, today!

We made it to the island pretty quickly, and along the way, there were some really neat contours of the river bed. A lot of really interesting rock formations. There really wasn’t much current in this area, and it was pretty shallow. Thank goodness there weren’t many boats in, yet. We were still keeping an ear out.

As we reached the other side of the island, we surfaced to see what was around us. There was a protrusion of rock, just west of us, that we decided to go and check out. There were a large number of seagulls chillin’ in the sunshine. They were a little surprised to see us. All I could think of was, “Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!” It was a pretty amusing sight.

As we made our way back around, the shallow water got even more shallow. There was just enough room for our bodies to move through the water, and we had to swing our scooters out to the side, so they wouldn’t break the surface. The water was warmer, since the sun was shining on us, and seeing each others’ shadows and reflections on the surface was a pretty amazing thing to see.

*Note to self* Not a place to be diving, when boats are in the water. 😉

Still, a pretty amazing dive!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 1 minute (even though my bottom timer only registered 31 minutes)
Max. Depth: 11′ (Average Depth: 5′)
Water Temp.: 46F

Just the “tree” of us!

 


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SOS AGM, 2013 ~ Port Dover

15 04 2013

Saturday, April 13th, 2013 ~

After a long drive from Ottawa to Port Dover (about 6 hours, on the Friday night), I arrived…. almost… It seems that the bridge that I was trying to get across was closed for the night, and blocked off by police cruisers. Since there was a detour sign, I took the detour, only to be greeted by another officer, closing off the other side. I was pretty tired, and just wanted to sleep, so I walked up to the cruiser, to ask what I should do. She told me that I needed to go back around the way that I came (which was not exactly an easy task, at 11:15pm, after a bunch of twists and turns to get where I was), and ask the officer if I could go through.

So… I did… eventually… after a 5.5 km detour.  I finally made it to the hotel, and they had left my room open for me (thanks for arranging that, Chris). After convincing myself that a little bug on my pillow was nothing more than just that (it really was nothing more than that), I crashed out…Zzzzzzz…..

I headed over to the Port Dover Harbour Museum, where I met up with a bunch of friends, and it was not long until we were “off to the races.” Chris Phinney opened up, followed by Ian Bell, giving us some of the history of the Port Dover Harbour Museum.  He also manages the Museum.

Chris P…

Ian Bell…

There were a few prize breaks in between the speakers, which was fun… although, I didn’t win anything. Oh, well. 🙂

Bob Sherwood gave his presentation on the Vickery Project, too…

Then, Cris Kohl and Joan Forsberg gave a presentation on Shipwreck Tales Of The Great Lakes.

We then had a lunch break, where we checked out the museum (of course, we had some yummy sandwiches, too).

Warren was at the helm…

…while Krissy was keeping watch for intruders!

Rick Lymer is no stranger to this spot!

After our lunch break, we gave out some very deserving awards. Among them, was Cris Kohl, receiving the Marine Heritage Award – We caught him by surprise. Congratulations!

Then came the AGM part of the weekend, which was an interesting part of the day, and good to discuss items on the “menu,” with members from all SOS chapters.

After the meeting, Ian Bell came up again, and told us about the Shipwreck history of Port Dover and folklore, which was really neat to listen to. Ian had some really great stories. I really enjoyed hearing about the things that happened, and learned a lot about the town of Port Dover.

Capping off the day, were Cris Kohl and Joan Forsberg.

What a great day!

At dinner, of course, there was a little bit of shenaniganry going on. Dar and I had a couple of friends join us…

The Port Dover beach. You can see the lighthouse in the background, as well as the very murky water…

Sunday’s events were workshops, which I would have loved to have taken part in, but I opted to start the journey back home. There were a couple that I was especially interested in:

Primitive SkillsMooring Systems
Historic Artifact Identification

I did get a chance to walk around the pier on Sunday morning, which I am glad that I did!

Next year, the SOS will be in Brockville! Come on out for some excellent information on shipwrecks, and a great place to be!

If you are not a member of Save Ontario Shipwrecks, please consider it. Education about preserving our wrecks is a very important thing!

http://saveontarioshipwrecks.ca/user/register

Dar and I!


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Hop Hop Hop Into The Water

1 04 2013

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!!!


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Beneath The Sea – 2013

27 03 2013

Friday, March 22nd, 2013 ~

Steve and I were ready to go, and after a few hours of work in the morning, we were off to Secaucus, NJ. We made one refueling stop, but headed straight down to the Meadowlands. As we headed into the hotel, we weren’t there 3 minutes, before we ran into Harvey, from N.S.

We checked in, then walked over to the show, to see some of our favourite people.

Our first stop was Light Monkey, where we hung out with the fellas for a while.

Joel even showed us his Sears pose…

…and it looks like Derek has been bitten by the Captain!

There was a little bit of shenaniganry going on…

…and it seems that Corey was able to avoid my camera lens.

We then went to see the two and only – Susan and Faith – where they showed us the fancy final edition of the DUI heated undergarment.

We made our way over to Ultralight, where we picked up some of our items, for our new Go Pro scooter mount. Some of the best machined items, here… and fantastic service!

Well, I’d like to say that we saw more on the Friday evening, but we did not. We spent most of our time catching up with Becky, Corey, Joel, Susan, and Faith…. Then it was show closing time. Or – Time to go to the Tech Party!

We did have more fun than was probably allowed, but we managed to keep it under control. Doug Marcoux even has a video, to prove it. We met up with our other Canadian friends from 1000 Islands Pleasure Diving, as well as Bottom Time Diving, and many others!

We finally got to meet our friend, Jason! He even gave us a Whoooooom!

I have to send out an extra special THANK YOU to Jason Fisch, for trekking through the snow, 10 miles,  uphill both ways, for getting us these extra special Bud Lites. Jason… I salute you. 😛

Just as we were about to leave the Tech Party (yes, we were some of the last people there), Dougie told us a most hilarious story, that included some very graphic explanations (imagine that). He just happened to be explaining the most detailed part of the story, as of of the hotel managers walked by… and he had been trying really hard not to laugh, but could not contain himself. He was literally doubled over, in hysterics. Of course, Jolson became our new friend, and I don’t think he expected to hear what he heard, as he walked by!

Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 ~

On our elevator ride down for our hotel breakfast, we just happened to run into Alessandra. We joined her and Peter for breakfast, saw Ken, then Harvey and Ann, then off to the show! Harvey was going purse shopping… 😀

We were happy to run into Ed and Gina, who we had not seen in a while. Of course, we had to chat for a while, before going to any of the other booths!

After quite a while, we managed to get down to the other end of the first aisle, where we met Wayne F., and Santos…

😉

It took us even longer, but we finally made it over to the next row of exhibitors, where we found some more friends…

We made a visit to the Santi booth, and then it was time for lunch! There were 11 of us that went over to Chili’s, where we enjoyed food, laughter, and friends! *Insert pic that I didn’t take, here* 🙂

Well, we did make it back to the show, but we didn’t make it through all of the exhibits, since we were a little chatty. Oh well, there was still tomorrow, right??

Saturday dinner was with our buddies from DUI! I was honoured to have a seat beside Ms. Susan, and there were no shortages of laughter. In fact, there was quite a bit of shenaniganry going on.

Yes, I think Susan was planning something, here!

Steve, beside some of our NEUE friends. Piotr and Damian were collecting things to throw. Somehow, there ended up being a big splat on the wall, next to me… :O

After dinner, we made our way back, but… it was Cheeseburger In Paradise time! Steve elected to get some sleep, but I went out for some singing and dancing! Shenaniganry was still the operative word, here.

Pic taken by Edmund Grant, with Bob Sherwood’s Phone. I absolutely love Piotr’s expression, here…

What a blast!

Sunday, March 24th, 2013 ~

Up and at ’em! Down to breakfast, over to the show to see the last few rows, and say goodbye to friends.

At the Santi booth, we FINALLY got to meet Vicky, and got to see Gerard, from Hawaii! Jeremiah came in for the pic, too!

Pic taken by Forest Rothchild…

Gerard, Vicky, and our Santi friends! I think Jason was hiding…

We checked out some strobes for my camera (wishful), and finally made our way over to our Liquivision friends!

In other exciting BTS news…

Our very good friend, Becky Kagan Schott, was inducted into the Women Divers Hall Of Fame! We are so happy for her, and proud to call her our friend.

Congratulations, Becky!!! A David Schott shot, below… 😛

Becky, wearing her WDHOF pin! Pic taken by David Schott…

It was time for us to roll! We made it out of the parking lot at about noon’ish, and were on our way. Of course, I took a wrong turn, and ended up taking a little tour, but… oh well.

See you next year, Secaucus! No, the fire guys weren’t there on business… I don’t think.

Once we got near the border, we saw a sign for “Moe’s.” Since the one near us had been closed down a while back, I was very excited to go for a bite!!! Steve wasn’t as thrilled, but he was happy for me, so came along (yes, I will tell myself that he was happy for me).  It was my first time seeing a touch screen soda machine, and it threw me for a bit of a loop. Normally, I drink iced tea, but their sweet tea is a little different than ours, and I wasn’t in the mood for it. I didn’t aim for it, but I ended up with Cherry Coke. I wonder how long it will be, before we get those machines in Canada??

Ahhh… Moe’s….

So, while we didn’t get in the water this week, we were still able to see so many of our diving friends that we had not seen in so long. It was definitely worth the drive to Secaucus! *Cheers!*


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A Happy St. Paddy’s Quarry Day, To You!

18 03 2013

Saturday, March 17th, 2013 ~

Well, there were not any green drysuits today, but I did have my green GUE hoodie on, so I guess that counts.

Steve, Eric, Blake, and I joined forces and headed to… yes, the quarry. Our options are pretty limited in the winter, so this is where we spend a lot of our diving time.

Of course, we wondered if Blake would be up for it, since is is now a resident in the Florida cavezzz, which are just a bit warmer than the ice-covered quarry. 😀

Glove test. Yep… a little chillier than cavezz…

I wonder what Eric and Steve were up to, here…

Eric ran the line…

Steve was very relaxed, during his dive…

I think Blake was seeking cavezzz…

Illumin-Eric…

Yep… Blake was still “cool” with this whole ice diving thing. “Moose ears!”

Blake found a frog, but he looked a little bloated. I don’t think he was hibernating…

Oops… Looks like Le Princessi caught another victim!

Hawt date night!

There was even a round of golf, on the front nine…

On our way back into the shallows. You can see that our “H” cut out is still visible, even though it is completely frozen over.

Blake, just hangin’ around…

Yep… Steve is still pretty relaxed…

…and Eric is reflecting on his dive…

 

The sun finally came out, as we were exiting!

Bottom Time: 40 minutes
Max. Depth: 25′
Water Temp.: 37F

Well, what can I say? We had yet another fun-filled and excellent day of Diving Goodness, in the quarry! A great way to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day! That, and The Works, afterwards!

*Cheers to a fantastic day! Go team!


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