Brockville | Chanb77's Weblog

In It For The Long Haul

15 07 2013

Sunday, July 14th, 2013 ~

The St. Lawrence River was good and warm, so we had planned on doing a longer dive. Steve, Eric, and I were starting from Centeen Park, heading upstream in the shallows, into the channel, then back up, for planned deco. It seems we do quite a few dives from this entry point, which is true, but it is a different dive, every time!

The sun was pretty hot, so we got our gear into the water, as soon as we could…

We made our way upstream, switched scooters and stages, and down we went, into the channel. The visibility was pretty horrible, until we got down into the channel, where there was a significant improvement. We drifted for a while, Then started our gradual ascent, with our planned stops.

Bottom Time: 3 hours, 48 mins.
Max. Depth: 112′
Avg. Depth: 58′
Water Temp.: 68F
Vis.: Not very good; better in channel

As we did our 1 ATA deco stop, we heard some familiar voices behind us. Mike, Jen, and Julie greeted us, and gave us a hand with our gear (we were very thankful, for that).

Le Princessi also came out to play, on deco! 😀

We then headed to Boston Pizza, for after Diving Goodness Eats… We ended up getting home pretty late, but when you’re with friends, it doesn’t really matter. 🙂

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Tags: Bloggy Thing, Brockville, Centeen Park, Chan's Bloggy Thing, Diving Goodness, Gaskin, Gavin, Gavin Scooter, GUE Divers, GUE Ontario, Scooter, Scooter Dive, Skills, St. Lawrence, St. Lawrence River, Technical Diving
Categories : 2000 + 13

Diving With My Arizona Sista!

3 06 2013

Friday, May 31st, 2013 ~

After picking up one of my bestest buddies from the airport the previous night, I brought Karen to work with me, on Friday. It became, “Bring Your Dive Buddy To Work Day!” We were able to leave a little early, and we made our way up to the quarry, to mess around a little, and do some skills. Christian met us up there, too!

Our dive plan was to do a few skills around the plane, drop down to the sub for an ascent, then mess around at the plane again. I did have my camera with me, but put it down for skillz.

We then went down to the sub, where we very quickly noticed one of the thermoclines. *Shiver!* We stuck around there for a bit, then practiced an ascent from 50′. Coming back up through the warmer water was a very welcome thing!

I did take some pictures, too!

Karen… I guess she’s moderately squared away… 😀

Christian is OK!

On our way back in…

….of course, we had to goof around, just a little…

When we surfaced, the sun had begun its descent…

Bottom Time: 42 mins.
Max. Depth: 56′
Water Temp.: 46F (below first thermocline)
Visibility: A little bit crappy

Group shot!

Karen and I headed back, and readied our gear for the weekend!

Saturday, June 1st, 2013 ~

We had loaded the van on Friday night, so we were ready to roll, around 7am, to head down to Mallorytown Landing. We were hitching a ride with Rick Lymer, to the Daryaw!

Joining us, were Lisa, Karen 2, Donna, Hong, Ivor, and Shawn.

The Landing…

When we got to the Daryaw, there was a small boat passing. We waved…

Karen and I splashed in. The surface current wasn’t too bad, but we had drifted a bit, doing our gear checks. We had scooters with us, so we weren’t really concerned. As we descended, we were a slight bit downstream of the wreck, so we made our way over to it. We did a full turn of the wreck, then underneath, where we tied off our scooters and stages, then ran a line inside. We peeked into a few rooms, where there was absolutely no shortage of freshwater eels. A few of them were poking out of their holes. We turned around, made our way out, then checked out one of the holds. We wanted to do a little more looking around, but were getting close to the end of our planned dive time. Very much fun!

On our way out, we did our gas switch, then drifted off. We didn’t follow the line up, so I blew a bag, and we ascended. What a blast!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 4 minutes
Max. Depth: 93′
Water Temp.: 53F
Visibility: 30′ (a bit milky)
Current: Not as strong as usual, for the Daryaw; low surface current

Karen C., checking out the River!

After we were all on board, we headed over to the Lillie. Some did a drift, some.. well… a few missed the current, but still had a good dive! Karen and I chilled on the boat, and helped the others with their gear.

Shawn and Ivor had a good drift!

Rock on, Hong!

Karen H. got photobombed!

Donna had fun, too!

Lisa “forced” me to taste that Vanilla Coke… For someone that doesn’t drink pop often, I was quite liking it!

Lisa, with Mike and Rick, up top!

The gang, minus me! There did seem to be quite a few “Karens,” on the boat. What a fun day! Boston Pizza was our dinner menu!

Sunday, June 2nd, 2013 ~

Today, to the Jodrey!

First, to customs – Leaving Boldt Castle…

There were only four of us, and we had the wreck to ourselves. The visibility was not the best, but at least we could see more than 5′ in front of us. As we descended onto the wreck, there was absolutely no ambient light, thanks to the clouds and to the thunderstorm that hit, earlier that morning. At least the storm had stopped, by the time we were loading gear.

Karen and I did a tour of the bow, peeked in the wheelhouse, and a bit of the crane. There was hardly any current at all, which was very surprising. We were even able to hover on the port side of the wheelhouse, which is usually a place where the current wants to push you up and over the wreck! Craziness! It was pretty cool to show it to Karen, though!

Myself and Karen, on deco. Taken by Kevin Abe.

Bottom Time: 55 mins.
Max. Depth: 175′
Water Temp.: 55F

Neil, chillin’. Is that a Sears catalog pose? 😛

“The Abe,” hangin’ on the bow…

Karen and I, after most awesome Diving Goodness!!!!!!!

Once we got back to Caiger’s, cleared customs, and unloaded, we went to the Family Restaurant, for a delicious meal! Lisa, Karen H., Donna, and Merv joined us too, since their charter was back around the same time as ours.

It was most awesome to have one of my AGGAST sistas visiting, and to meet some really fun and good people! *Cheers,* to next time! 🙂

Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: AGGAST, Bloggy Thing, Brockville, Chan's Bloggy Thing, Diving, Diving Goodness, Gavin, Gavin Scooter, GUE, GUE Divers, GUE Ontario, Jodrey, Morrison's Quarry, Scooter, Scooter Dive, Skills, St. Lawrence, St. Lawrence River, Technical Diving
Categories : 2000 + 13

DPV 1 Weekend

21 05 2013

Sunday, May 19th, 2013 ~

I decided to head to the quarry, where Steve was running a GUE DPV 1 course. I joined the guys for a couple of dives, and took some surface shots!

There were quite a few people bungee jumping, too. Even though people say, “Never Say Never,” to which I usually agree. I can safely say that you will never catch me doing that. I would sooner jump out of a plane (with a parachute, of course).

Scooters for everyone!

Doing GUE EDGE!

Hong is A-OK!

Going back in!

Bottom Time (for me): 57 mins.
Max. Depth: 28′
Water Temp.: 53F (above first thermocline, at 13′); 48F (below first thermocline)

Some after dive smiles!

Sunday, May 20th, 2013 ~

Today, to the River! A few skills, then the Experience Dive! Eric joined us too, to go for a bit of a scooter run!

Hong, bringing gear down to the water.

We were doing a couple of dives today!

For the first dive, there were some skills to get finished up. All went very well!

Bottom Time: 38 mins.
Max. Depth: 31′
Water Temp.: 51F

The second dive was the Experience Dive, which was really fun. We scootered upstream, dropped into the channel, and seeing how much this was enjoyed, as a first scooter run, was pretty amazing! We finished up on the Gaskin, where we did a small tour, then made our way back in.

Bottom Time: 58 mins.
Max. Depth: 100′
Water Temp.: 51F

I have a feeling that Hong may have really enjoyed this one…

Way to go, Hong!!! Great job!

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Tags: Bloggy Thing, Brockville, Centeen Park, Chan's Bloggy Thing, Diving, Diving Goodness, Gaskin, Gavin, Gavin Scooter, GUE, GUE Divers, GUE DPV 1, GUE Ontario, Morrison's Quarry, Scooter, Scooter Dive, St. Lawrence, St. Lawrence River
Categories : 2000 + 13

No See For The Saw Mill

13 05 2013

Sunday, May 12th, 2013 ~

The air temperature had really dropped, going from 25C+ all week, to about 10C, with some serious winds! We took our chances, and went down to Guindon Park. We had thought about going out to the Power House, but when we pulled up, there were some serious white caps and flooding. I could just see my tendency to feed the fish, arise.

We decided to go and check out another entry, at Lakeview Heights, which also had waves and white caps, but we had the opportunity to see something new – An old saw mill, that had been around since the late 1800’s, before the first flooding of the St. Lawrence, in the early 1950’s.

Grist Mill
“The grist mill on the dam, ca. 1870
Owned by J.G. Snetsinger, successful business owner, who was responsible for many of Moulinette’s early enterprises.Courtesy: Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Historical Society.”

photo GristMill1870.jpg

Before gearing up, we headed back over to Guindon Park, to let our other friends know that we were going there, instead. With the rock ‘n’ roll waves, the visibility looked to be much better than from Guindon.

Back over, we went.

We brought our gear to the water…

The entry was pretty shallow, so we had to walk out a bit of a distance, to get fins on, and do gear checks.

Our destination was approximately the middle of the right half of the tree line. Our estimated time on the trigger, to get there, was about 30 minutes.

Once we went through our dive plan and did our gear checks, we were off. The water was a bit cloudy for the first few minutes, then opened up, nicely.

Giddyup!
Pic by Steve Blanchard

Short video of the wave action!

We headed SSW, and made it through two of our check points – early, even. When we got to what we thought was the area, we had a look around. There were spots where the current was absolutely insane, and our scooters were really working it, to make any headway. There were also spots where the current was absolutely non-existent, which was sort of nice, but we were hoping to do a little drifting!

I had the standard body with me, and was monitoring my burn time. It was getting close, and we still hadn’t found the saw mill. Oh, well… I guess we’ll just have to come back another day. I gave Steve the signal, and we started back (Eric was on the other side of Steve).

While we didn’t get to the saw mill, we did see quite a few tree stumps and bits of building foundations (rebar and wood), as well as a few pretty large fish. There were a few Sheepshead Carp, Bass, and a really large fish that I have never seen before. It looked a bit like a Yellow Perch, but was quite large. Same colouring. I will keep searching, to see if I can find out what it was.

Very cool place to dive!

Bottom Time: 74 minutes
Max. Depth: 70′
Water Temp.: 51F
Vis.: 30′, past initial shoreline muck

Us, after the dive. I swear, I thought we were going to be taken off to Kansas!

…and a Rainbow, for Mother’s Day!

Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: Bloggy Thing, Brockville, Chan's Bloggy Thing, Cornwall, DIR, DIR Ontario, Diving, Diving Goodness, Gavin, Gavin Scooter, GUE, GUE Divers, GUE Ontario, Lost Villages, Scooter, Scooter Dive, St. Lawrence, St. Lawrence River, Technical Diving
Categories : 2000 + 13

SOS Daryaw Mooring Moving Day!

6 05 2013

Sunday, May 5th, 2013 ~

We stayed in Cape Vincent Saturday night (thanks to Bob and Chris), then made our way back over the border, for Sunday morning charter. We were climbing aboard Tom Scott’s boat (Under Where? Charters), and were going to help moving the new mooring block on the Daryaw.

We all met in the parking lot, discussed the plan, and loaded up. Each team had a job to do, and almost everything went according to plan. 😉

Captain Ryan, at the helm.

There were 6 of us with scooters, so first, we had to locate the block (Steve’s and my job). Once we found it, Steve blew a bag to the surface, and we showed Team 2 where it was. Team 3 shot up a bag from the old mooring, so that Tom could tie the boat into it, while we worked with the mooring block. Another team attached the shackles to it, then some mighty big lift bags, and we were off to the races.

The boat was able to move the block within 10′ of the intended spot. Not bad, teams!

Bottom Time: 55 mins.
Max. Depth: 93′
Water Temp.: 46F

Some pics from the day!