XK-Won

25 05 2014

Saturday, May 24th, 2014 ~

A long day, but a great day of Diving Goodness, in and around the St. Lawrence River.

Our morning didn’t quite go as we had planned, so we ended up being a little later than we had hoped, at the river. We met Christian, and since the water was warming up, a little, we wanted to do a little bit longer of a scooter run. Of course, as soon as we arrived, the rain started to come down like baseballs. It lightened up enough, for us to bring our gear down to the water, then started again, as we tried to gear up. We had the big white van, so Steve and I each had an end of the van, and got dressed. As soon as we were ready, the rain stopped. Of course, right?

We had an extra scooter with us, that we were testing out, after a repair, as well as the camera. I opted to take the extra scooter, while Steve took the camera. It’s been a little while since I towed another scooter (Mexico cavezzz), Β and I welcomed the practice. We did our gear checks, stretched out (still, winter undies), and were off. The visibility was not that great, and the water was a bit greenish, for this time of year. We scootered upstream for a while, then dropped into the channel. W00 H00! We saw quite a few dead gobies, along the way (more than usual), which were mostly wrapped in white fuzz. We drifted along, keeping a look out for anything neat. There were spots with many bottles, a lot of rock, periwinkle shells, and even the odd bass and sheepshead carp.

We made our way to the Unknown Hull, where Steve took a few pictures.

The visibility wasn’t that great, but he did get a few shots.

It was then time to go… We made our way up to 65′, where we eventually got up to the Gaskin. Poor thing, looks pretty rough, this year. It is sad, watching the bow fall apart.

I was starting to get pretty chilly, so I signalled to Steve, to turn the dive. We started to make our way back to the shallows, where we hung out for a bit, then made our way in. Ahhhhh…. Back Β in the RIVA!!!

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 6 minutes
Max. Depth: 108′
Water Temp.: 51F
Vis.: Not great, for this time of year, but clearer in the channel.

 

Normally, when we get out, someone will stay with the scooters, until someone goes and drops their tanks, then comes back to bring them out. Alas, those days are over, for us… Even with my doubles on, I was able to pick up the XK1, with no issues, and bring it out of the water, with my stage bottle. Ahhhh…. Suex, I appreciate you (…and Steve)!!! πŸ˜€

When we got out, it was beautiful out, again!

After our dive, Steve and I headed over the border, to see Chris, Bob, Stacey, Lisa, Mario, Nate, Jen, Julie, and Hong! I didn’t get to taste Hong’s egg rolls, but I really look forward to it, another time!!! πŸ˜€

 

It was pretty late, when we got home, so we left the unloading for the next morning.

Diving Goodness, hanging by the fire, with friends = The Best!

Until next week!

 





Turtle Turbo Alley

10 05 2014

Saturday, May 10th, 2014 ~Β 

Ahhhh… We are finally back in the RIVER! With the tough winter that we have had, it has taken the St. Lawrence River a little bit longer to thaw/warm up, than usual. Today’s air temperatures are the nicest that we have seen (this year), at 22C… and sunny!

The van was packed, and we hit the road!

Surface shots taken by me. In-water shots taken by Steve, today!

I had only used my new scooter for a short time, on our last dive, and didn’t really get to do much, since the dive was cut a little bit short. Today, we planned on heading to either Ivy Lea, or to Island 99, for some scootering goodness! Steve was bringing one of the cameras, to practice with, too. On our way down, Frankie and Christian messaged us, to let us know that Ivy Lea was not fully open, but that there were people there, getting ready to open, for the following weekend. They gave us permission to dive there, which was most excellent!

Check-In…

It was finally warm enough to wear flippy floppies!

We got to our entry point, and the staff told us just to make sure that the boat launch was not blocked. No problem. I think we can handle that.

There are some crazy currents, here.

Steve and I finished our gear checks, and Frankie had a glove issue, so while he and Christian were tending to that, Steve took a few pics of me. The current was pretty strong, too.

Me, hitting the trigger…

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Cheese!

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We went back for Frankie and Christian, and away we went! There were turtles, everywhere! Small ones, medium-sized ones – they were everywhere!

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We even saw a few mud puppies…

 

This guy was standing his ground, as Steve neared him. He stood up, and stared him down.

 

We kept moving, and hit some crazy currents. There were even a few moments, where we had to aim our scooters straight down, as the current swept upward.

Christian…

 

Frankie Boy…

 

 

 

Poisson…

 

 

Yippppppieeeeeeee! What a ride!

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We went all the way around, and exited at the beach area. Since the camp ground wasn’t officially open, there were no people there, so we had the place to ourselves.

 

Bottom Time: 56 mins.
Max. Depth: 52′
Water Temp.: 46F
Vis.: A lot of green goop in the water

Christian and Frankie…

Rock on, dude!

I took one of Steve, too!

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We dropped our gear, and Frankie stood guard, as we went for a walk, to get the vehicles.

We did come back for him, though. He DID have our gear, after all.

 

Exit…

 

It was such a beautiful day, so we had to hang around, and talk about are most awesome dive!

 

We went for a quick bite to eat, and we headed our separate ways. I absolutely loved spending the day this way. Diving Goodness, friends, and… TURTLES!

 





A Different Route

20 11 2013

Saturday, November 9th, 2013 ~Β 

For today’s dive, we were getting in at St. Lawrence Park, then drifting and scootering to Centeen Park.

Entry…

Gear at the entry…

We decided to go upstream a little bit, to the little wreck that we came across, a few years ago. Steve had rebuilt the motor in my Little Red Rocket, so we were testing it out, along with another one that he had rebuilt, that he was using. We had an extra one, for back up.

Very short video of the little wreck, from a previous dive *WARNING* VERY POOR QUALITY* πŸ™‚

https://vimeo.com/32125823

We had a quick look, and then made our way south (thanks to Mike, for turning off my back-up light). We dropped into the channel, and back up to the other side, where we started to drift. There were a couple of spots where there wasn’t much current, so we hit the triggers for a bit.

We found a few new spots that we had not been to before, and there were some really neat rock formations. We have seen horse harnesses in the river, but not as many as I saw, today (they were to the right of me, so the others didn’t see the first few). There were three harnesses, all within about 50′ to 100′ from each other. Sadly, I’m sure that it did not end well for those horses (from the “olden days”). We also saw an air stack that appeared to be from a very large ship (freighter, perhaps). We also noticed that they may have tried to recover it.

There were a lot of really cool places along this route! A definite redo is in order!

It seemed that both of our rebuilt motor scooters were in most awesome form, and as we hit our turn time, we made our way a bit more shallow, until we reached the “Unknown Hull,” where we had a little look. It has been a while since we have been to this little one, too! Then, onward to the Gaskin! Mike had found a little leprechaun Halloween figurine, and after having some fun with it for a while (sticking it in Steve’s scooter strap), Steve passed it to me. As we got to the Gaskin, I placed it outside the wreck, for good keeping. He shall guard the wreck, now. At least, I hope he does. That poor wreck is falling apart.

We hit the triggers for home, did our deco stops, and as we were heading in, I noticed a very small gar pike. It may have been the same one that I saw a few weeks ago. He gave us a little show with his mouth. They are such neat looking fish!

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Max. Depth: 113′
Water Temp.: 50F
Vis.: Decent, but dark. No sunlight to light up our day!

Thanks to Chris, who gave us the Santi Panties Dance, in his undies that he won at the Invasion!

Yes… I did show him a few of the moves, but he had some good ones of his own, too!

Well, I couldn’t get a pic of the exit, but you may have seen some Centeen Park pics, in previous Bloggy Thing entries. By the time we retrieved the vehicles (we had one at Centeen), loaded them, and got changed, it was a bit dark.

With that, I leave you with a selfie, at the entry!





Smells Like Centeen Spirit

14 10 2013

Sunday, October 13th, 2013 ~

We packed up, and made our way down to Brockville, for some scootering and drifting Goodness! We brought the gear to the water, geared up, and away we went, upstream.

Frankie, Eric V., Christian St-P., and Dave were heading out to the truck, too.

As we made our way up, the “Little Red Rocket” scooter seemed to be struggling, a little. At 15 minutes, it just didn’t seem to be running right. At 18 minutes, it really felt tired. So… I passed it to Cas, and Steve towed me into the channel. Since we were on a drift dive anyway, it wasn’t a big deal.

We drifted for about 40 minutes, and saw a bunch of different things. I found a cooking pot lid. It didn’t make a great frisbee, so I tried it on as a hat. Since it wasn’t great for either purpose, I placed it back down onto the periwinkle shells. We found a couple of pieces of broken china, some bottles, barrels attached to wooden planks (they looked like they had been there for a while), and we even saw a Gar Pike. I haven’t seen one of those in quite a while, so it was neat to see it. He even opened his mouth, and we saw his razor-sharp teeth!

As it was time for us to start making our way in, I tried my scooter again. It was trying, and I was at least able to make it back up, for most of the way. Then, it was just sleepy, so I passed it off to Cas again, and Steve towed me back up into the shallows. We hung out at 20′ for a few minutes, met up with Frankie and Eric, and went up and in.

Quite a fun dive! I tried out my new Santi 9mm hood today, and it was really warm! It felt like I had a heater on my head!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 52 minutes
Max. Depth: 105′
Water Temp.: 62F

Cas, bringing up some gear!

Sofie, with the dolly, guarding the sthcooterthz!

Duo selfie…

Some of the group! Eric V., Dave, Frankie, Steve, Christian St-P…

I hope my Little Red Rocket is ok! Until the next dive!





Ahh… Jodrey Goodness!

13 10 2013

Saturday, October 12th, 2013 ~

We gathered a few of the troops, and headed down to Caiger’s. Our charter was in the afternoon, so we brought some gear down to the docks, to wait for the morning folks to return. Once River Diver came in, we gave the other divers some time to unload, then we climbed aboard!

We did our usual stop at Boldt Castle, for customs clearance, then made our way over to the mooring tree. The usual branch had been broken, so we settled on another one. We couldn’t figure out why Frankie wasn’t grabbing it, until we noticed that it was just hanging there. πŸ˜›

We went through the usual routine… gear checks, pre-dive briefing, etc… then, off we went. Eric V. and Frankie teamed up, and Sofie and Cas joined Steve and I!

Our plan was to stay on the bow, so we got down the wall, and did a bit of a tour. We decided not to go in anywhere, since 4 people would have been a little much for a lot of the spaces. Steve brought the Go Pro, and got a little bit of footage, too.

We had a little bit of bumper car action, on deco. It was nice and relaxing, but since there were four of us, we did catch a little bit of the current, which just made us have to use a fin, here and there. I seem to recall that someone’s bottom timer bungee may have come into contact with my spring strap. My spring strap won. πŸ˜›

We also noticed the vacuum cleaner, that we had not seen in a really long time. It used to be near the stool (at 20′), but is now sitting a little bit downstream.

Once most of our deco was up, we scootered around to the bowl – where the boat was anchored, finished up, then made our slow ascent to the surface, where we did our 1 ATA deco stop – Or, chilled at the surface. There were a few smiles. πŸ˜€

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 16 mins.
Max. Depth: 187′
Water Temp.: 62F

I think Cas is fitting right in, as he has learned the “Moose Ears” signal!

The one and only… Frankie Boy!

Eric V. …

Rick had a bunch of Deco Cookies for us, too! No, I didn’t eat all of those cookies!

Group shot 1…

Group shot 2…

Once we returned to Caiger’s, we had to stay on the boat, until we cleared customs. We had visions of the sun going down, and us shivering in the dark, but… that didn’t happen. We were cleared in no time, and the unloading began! We were at a pretty far dock, thanks to the very low water levels. Once we had all of our stuff put away, it was Swiss Chalet for dinner, where we met up with even more friends.

Ahhhh… It doesn’t get much better than this… :o)