Jodrey Times Two

13 08 2009

Saturday, July 18th, 2009 ~

A crew of us gathered together, for a weekend of friends and diving. We were off to the Jodrey! Steve was off doing instructor stuff, so I had to leave him behind in Kingston.

We all convened at Rockport Dive Centre, loaded the boat, and off we went. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and we were happy to get out diving, and to the Jodrey, no less! We had one full boat load on Saturday.

Ralph and Ed…

Oren…

Claudia and Sean…

Mer, Jackie, Oren, and Gina…

Jen and Jay…

Jen, Claudia, and I were diving together, and it would be my first time leading a Jodrey dive. My previous dives on it were with Steve, and he is the one with the “Spidey Sense” navigational skills. We discussed our plan on the surface, geared up, and in we splashed. We let a couple of the others go in before us, as we all had different profiles and run times, so the pair with the longer run time went in first.

Claudia, Jen, and I, doing predive checks, taken by Jackie Kaley…

We did our predive checks, and in we went. The plan was to drift over the edge, stay close to the wall, and hit the wreck at 140′. We came down on the “ghost line,” and hit the wreck in exactly the right spot. Woo Hoo!! We made our way around different parts of the bow, and circled the wheelhouse a few times, peering into doors and windows. The three of us really worked well together, and had a nice, relaxing dive. Coming up on the ascent, I missed part of the crack in the wall, that leads you to a nice spot for your 70′ gas switch, and eventually to a relaxing 20′ deco stop. It wasn’t that bad though, as we found some nice rocks to tuck in behind, to avoid the absolutely screaming current. I’ve not seen the current that strong here before. Not being at the normal deco spots wasn’t that bad, as we ended up closer to the boat anyway. We relaxed on the surface before climbing up and debriefing our dive. It seems everyone had a good dive.

Me, taken by Jackie Kaley…

Of course, we had the obligatory Kool Aid shots…

Once we cleared customs, and were allowed off of the boat, we headed back to Caiger’s for some grub! Ralph had arranged for a dinner there for us, and there was a little bit of everything to try.

We even had Birthday Ice Cream Cake!

Then it was off to sleep, for the next day’s adventures.

Sunday, July 19th, 2009 ~

Another sunny day, and another trek out to the mighty Jodrey. Today, we had a couple more people, and were able to get Jeff’s second boat.

Today was just Jen and I, as Claudia was joining Ralph, Ed, and Gina for today’s dive. We dropped in, did our predive checks, discussed our plan, and away we went.

As we descended, we were slightly more shallow than the last dive, and followed the pipe down to the wreck. We were only very slightly to the left of the ghost line on the way down, but still ended up in the planned spot. We did some exploring around the bow, peeked in a couple more doors and windows, and made our way safely around the wreck. On our ascent, we managed to stay on the crack up the wall, and got to the 20′ stop with no problems. We ended up having some pretty fun conversations during deco, to which Sean and Oren both laughed about later on. We also enjoyed feeding some zebras to the gobies.

Once we had fulfilled our deco obligations, we made our way back to the boat once again. I wouldn’t have believed it, but the current was actually stronger on the way back today than yesterday. Holy smokes, it was a-rippin’! We surfaced once again, with grins on our faces, and happy that we had found the right spots. I also had about a foot of hair cut off the previous Friday, and it was amazing to surface without a rat’s nest underneath my hood!!

Jen and I, taken by Jackie Kaley…

It was an amazing couple of days, diving with friends, with much laughter, and more diving goodness!

She-P shot!

Thanks to all of our friends who made the drive out to play!!


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St. Lawrence Adventures

24 07 2009

Saturday, July 11th, 2009 ~

Since my other half had to work, I headed down to the river to meet Claudia, for some River goodness! Our plan was to swim out to the Gaskin in the morning, then meet Steve and Andy later on, for more diving goodness.

Claudia and I met at Centeen Park, geared up, and in we went. We dropped down to 15′, did our bubble checks, then headed down the pipe. We reached the end of the pipe, and did not see the “STOP” sign, as the visibility was pretty crappy. We reached the big square rock pile, then turned back to the east a bit, in hopes of finding the line.

We were in luck! We came upon the line, and managed to make out the back of the stop sign. We headed out toward the wreck. The current was pretty light here, so following the line out was not difficult at all. Once we got to the little boat ahead of the Gaskin, the current really picked up, and we had to give a little extra “umph” to our kicks. Wow… the visibility really went to the birds here… or, shall I say to the fish.

We reached the end of the line, and still could not see the wreck, that sat right in front of us. Claudia looked at me, and wondered why the line ended, so I motioned for her to keep going forward. The visibility was that bad, that we couldn’t see the big bow, right in front of us.

We were on top of the giant anchor, that lay against the wreck, and still couldn’t see it. There appeared to be a bunch of people on the wreck, from a charter above, and I motioned for Claudia to come towards me, as there was one of them about to land on her. We hovered there for a moment, to see if the silt would settle, but it only seemed to get worse. We watched the diver land in the silt, and just stand there. Yes… he stood there. We wondered if the vis would be any better inside the wreck, so we ascended to the large hole in the side, and I went in first. Claudia followed right behind me, and I could see her light. I was “blessed” with a wall of absolutely zero visibility, so I turned around and showed Claudia my thumb. This was ridiculous. We turned around, and as Claudia made her way out, there was a gang of single tank divers that were attempting to follow us. The moved out of the way, let us pass, and we headed out of dodge. We had a relaxing swim back, as we had help from the current, and we both giggled as Claudia signalled to me that she wanted lunch. Me too! This swimming stuff is hard work! Lol…

We made it back to the break wall, and I saw something bright and pink, that I just had to pick up. It was a pink head band, and I thought it must have looked quite nice, perched on top of my hood. We kept swimming in the basin of the park, and we saw yet another head band. This one was bright yellow, and fit nicely over top of Claudia’s hood. We were quite a team now. We giggled, and ascended back to the entry point. Although the visibility was horrible, we still had a fun time, and got to play around in the water.

Bottom Time ~ 65 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 60′
Water Temp. ~ 66
Visibility ~ Um.. yeah.. right

A couple of pictures, showing off our fancy head bands…

Oh, and the Kool Aid shot…

Since we were going for a second dive, and were running a bit behind, we packed up and headed over to meet Steve and Andy, while still wearing our drysuits.

We met them, and headed on over to Rockport. Along the way, we stopped at the side of the road, to show Claudia and Andy Island 99/Teapot Island. We took a few pictures, and headed over to see our friend, Jeff.

Jeff showed us a compass that he had purchased from an antique show, that was pretty awesome…

We decided to head out to the Kinghorn.

The visibility was much better than at the Gaskin, so we were happy about that! We did a few turns of the wreck, checked out the holds, and headed back. We had a wonderful dive!

Bottom Time ~ 51 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 92′
Water Temp. ~ 66
Visibility ~ 35′

Once we got back in, we headed over to the Family Restaurant, where we had some grub, and I just had to indulge in the cherry pie, which was fresh out of the oven. This place has the best cherry pie anywhere!

Sunday, July 12th, 2009 ~

Claudia, Steve, and I had planned on a scooter run out of Centeen Park, while Andy was going to set up some of his new stuff on his gear. Zi was also coming to meet us for our second dive of the day, and was there a bit early.

The three of us headed out past the wall, then dropped down into the channel, where Steve led us straight to a little wreck that he had previously found, and over to the horse carriage. We drifted in the channel for a bit, then back over to the Gaskin. We went through it once, then came back in. At least Claudia got to see some of it this time!

We brought the scooters back in, had a snack and some water, then got back in with Andy and Zi. Claudia had a bit of a drive ahead of her, so she made her way out.

I decided to take my camera out on this dive, and see what I could come out with.

We decided to head east from the entrance, and do a nice, relaxing swimming dive. Again, the visibility wasn’t all that great, but I managed to get a few alright shots. The camera made it look better than it actually was.

Self Portrait…

We saw alot of things that we hadn’t seen before as well.

Andy, and the “Maple Leaf” wheelchair…

Steve, lighting up a tube filled with fish…

Andy, Steve, and Zi…

Zi…

Andy… doing fantastic, my friend!

Yet another self portrait…

On the way back in, the current seemed to get quite a bit stronger, and we made our way in, against it. We also met up with some of the local residents…

On the surface…

Andy got a picture of me, too!

Bottom Time ~ 58 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 35′
Water Temp. ~ 67
Visibility ~ 10′ – 15′

Andy brought along some cold Cherry Coke, which I had not tried before. Holy moses, was it good. Mind you, I also gave him some Ketchup chips, that he had not had before, and got him a little hooked too.

Thanks to all of our friends that made such far drives to come and dive with us. It really is alot of fun to dive with everyone, and build new adventures.


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The Quest For The Truck

5 07 2009

Saturday, June 13th, 2009 ~

There are rumours of an old truck, sitting in about 94′, in the St. Lawrence. Oren, Steve, and I were on a mission to find it! We know of a couple of people that dive it once in a while, and have given us a rough estimation of how to find it.

We took our gear down to the water, and prepped for the adventure.

Oren, after taking his scooter down to the water…

We dropped down, gathered up, and off we went. We dropped into the channel, and began to drift with the current, at 94′. We encountered many cool looking bottles, and even made it to a small island, but no truck. As we drifted, we did happen upon interesting dune-like formations of periwinkle shells, that we had never seen before. The periwinkle shells do cover alot of the channel, but we had not seen them in a desert formation like they were. It was very cool to see.

We also saw various bits of metal, strewn about, but nothing that indicated a truck should be there. We decided it was time to turn, and headed back against the current.

Even though we didn’t find the truck, it was still alot of fun looking for it.

Bottom Time ~ 89 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 106′
Water Temp. ~ 57
Visibility ~ 50′

Our day of diving was not yet finished!

Jay and Jen arrived, we had a bit of lunch, and planned another run upstream. This dive would be a bit shorter, and we would travel upstream, drifting back down onto the Gaskin, then back in.

Our collection of gear at the entry point…

We had an enjoyable and relaxing dive in the channel, finding an old boat motor, more metal bits, and many upside down bottles (this means they’ve been picked up before). We arrived back to the Gaskin, played around the wreck for a while, then headed back in.

Bottom Time ~ 77 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 105′
Water Temp. ~ 57
Visibility ~ 50′

Jen, Jay, Oren, Steve…

Jay, Jen, Oren, me…

We had some company when we surfaced as well. A couple of Airedales…

We had some other visitors as well. Or, perhaps we were visitors on their turf…

We can now refer to Steve as the Goose Whisperer… *ducks*

We packed up and met up with Eric, who had picked up his new suit.

Eric, striking a pose…

The side of our Dive Gear Transportation Unit (DGTU)…

We then sat around with Gill and Vian, having water and the most decadent pie I’ve ever tasted in my life. Thanks Oren!!! I’m not sure if I should really thank him or curse him for bringing such wonderful food, that makes my butt grow, just thinking about it. The thought of Almond Apple Cheesecake didn’t really appeal to me at first… Then I tasted it.. Holy smokes… As much as I love their Mumble Crumble pie.. this one takes the “cake.”

Ok.. off to sleep.

Sunday, June 14th, 2009 ~

We headed back down to Centeen Park, where we planned on going to the Gaskin, then veering off, to see what we could find. We noticed that there was a boat moored up to it before entering. When we got there, we really couldn’t see much other than silt, so we decided to keep going. No Gaskin today…

We scootered past it, and into the channel, where we reveled in the sites of more bottles, periwinkle shells, and generally just enjoying the water.

It was a similar dive to those we have done before, but we never seem to tire of it, as we always do see different things.

Bottom Time ~ 77 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 106′
Water Temp. ~ 57
Visibility ~ Depends on where you were – 5′ – 50′

Jay, giving his approval of our new DGTU…

Steve…

Myself and Jen…

The two fancy DGTUs…


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Soggy Dive…

15 06 2009

Sunday, May 24th, 2009 ~

We made arrangements to meet Kevin, Jeremy, Oren, and Sean, for a scooter adventure,  out of Centeen Park. On the drive down, we saw quite a few older cars that we gawked at along the way.

Here is one that I got a shot of, heading down the 416…

We were the first to arrive, and were greeted by a rather large tour boat, moored up to the far side of the park…

Here’s a slightly closer look…

I also got a shot of the Historical plaque, which shows some slight differences to the park since 1927…

Once everyone arrived, we got all of our gear together, and got ready to dive! Erin and Kevin A. also came by to say hello!

Oren, bringing his scooter down…

Sean, setting up…

Kevin and Jeremy’s Gear…

Ahh… Bless him… Thank you, Steve.

Kevin’s turn…

…and Jeremy…

We geared up, and in we went. Our quest today, was to find an old truck, laying in about 100′, across the channel. We did our predive checks, discussed our plan, and off we went. Oren was heading the adventure today, and we followed his lead.

Here is a shot of us just before descending, taken by Kevin Abe…

As we started out, I started to feel water in my drysuit. I wasn’t sure exactly where it was coming in, but I could feel a chilly spurt of cold water, every time I pressed my drysuit inflation. The water was a bit warmer, so it wasn’t a dive ender at this point.

We reached the channel, and drifted across, keeping our eyes peeled for the prized old truck. We played amongst the white bed of periwinkle shells until we came upon a rock wall. We had reached one of the islands. We decided to turn back, as we had to go against the current on the way back. We circled the little island, hit a couple of back eddys, and started the journey back to Centeen Park. We saw many large fish, including a few carp, pike, and even a gar pike.

At one point, we found an area with many tree roots and branches, which looked like something out of a Harry Potter movie. We weaved in and out of them, and saw even more fish amongst the trees.

When we arrived back to shore, we all surfaced with smiles and debriefed our adventure.

Although we didn’t find the truck, we still had a blast, and it was great to gather with everyone again.

Bottom Time ~ 86 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 112′
Water Temp. ~ 53
Vis. ~ Varied between 15′ – 40′ (better visibility in the channel)

After removing my drysuit, I actually had to pour water our of my feet… I’d say it was a bit of a soggy dive…

My wet socks and booties…

A little boat that cruised by…

..and, of course, the self portrait…

As we packed up, I noticed a little dragon fly, sitting on the sidewalk…

We did our circle checks, and headed out for a bite to eat. When we came out, we noticed a dragon fly on our grill. I really hope it wasn’t the one from the sidewalk…

Despite the fate of the dragon fly, we still managed to have more fun, laughter, and diving goodness on a Sunday afternoon.


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Mooring Day ~ Part Two

13 05 2009

Sunday, May 10th, 2009 ~ 

 

It was Mother’s Day, and I made sure that I called my mum on the way over to the shop. Steve had left a few minutes earlier than I did, as he was starting his ITC this morning, and wanted to get Timmy’s first. Jen wasn’t far behind me… literally… I think we just missed each other, passing in the hallway. We weren’t sure if the boats were going to go out, as the weather wasn’t looking too promising, and the internet told us that there would be possible storms later on, and high winds. 

 

My first thought was that I should probably stay off the boats today, as my tummy really doesn’t like the waves out on the lake. Of course, I thought about it for a while, hemmed and hawed, and without alot of persuasion from Anne and Oren, I loaded up the boat, geared up, and off we went. 

The winds are coming from the North! That’s a good thing! The waves won’t be bad!

We were going to attempt to raise the moorings on the Cornwall, the Glendora, and possibly a third, depending on the weather. Myself, Jen, James Y., Sean, and Nancy boarded  Sorobon once again. Oren and John were aboard Seadeucer. 

James Y. aka Vinnie…

 

Jen and Sean…

 

Nancy…

 

Anne even braided my hair for me…

 

All was well on the ride out, and Anne brought us to the numbers for the Cornwall. Anne said, “Now!” to throw out the shot line, and Sean tossed it in. My tummy was beginning to turn a bit, so I geared up and got in. The waves were really moving now, so the quicker I got in, the better. Once I was in, I was a happy camper. I made my way over to the shot line, where Jen met me shortly after. Instead of descending right away, we waited for Sean to come over, so that they wouldn’t lose sight of the shot line, with the waves rockin’ like they were. Once he was there, we set off.

There was “word on the lake” that this line was a bit entangled, so Jen and I figured we’d check it out before the boys came down to throw it up. Once we got down, once again, we were right at the wreck. Way to go Anne and Sean!!!

(That was for you CMaul)!

We saw the mooring line on the opposite side of the wreck, and made our way over to it. We followed it along, checked it as we went along, and once at the bottom chain, saw that it didn’t look to be in bad shape at all. The boys would be fine.

Since neither of us had done this wreck before, Jen and I decided to take a little tour down the middle of it. We came upon one of the paddle wheels, that was still intact, but fallen over, as well as the intact boilers. We decided to go check on James and Sean, and headed back toward the line. We met them half way, where they gave us the “ok” and carried on with their dive.

As Jen and I made our way to the line, we saw the line that the guys had successfully sent up, and although it was a bit jerky with the water movement, all looked fine and dandy. We continued around to where the shot line was, and it was clear that Jen and I both had the same thought. We noticed how close it had moved toward the wreck, and thought we should move it a bit, so that it didn’t get entangled in the wreck, as it was pulled up. We made our way to it, and Jen moved it over a bit.

Ok… let’s go home…

We went back over to where the line was…

Um.. yeah… it WAS here about 2 minutes ago…

The first thought through my head was that the boat was moored to it, and they were drifting…away. Jen and I looked at each other, and knew that we both weren’t seeing things. It really wasn’t there! Lol…

James and Sean were now on the scene as well, so the four of us headed back over to the shot line, where we ascended, and blew a bag.

When we surfaced… yup… no boat… lol… It didn’t take them long to get back to us though. Anne was going to bring in the shot line, and realized that it wasn’t there. She then realized that the numbers were off, so she immediately headed over to us, where we had a bit of a chuckle, and got back on board. It was a bit “rock and roll” with the waves, but we all got up safely. At least they were able to pull up the entire line, so it can be fixed and replaced.

“I swear there was a line there!”

I guess we can’t chalk that one up to David Copperfield. I don’t think he was in town on Sunday.

Bottom Time ~ 32 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 74′
Water Temp. ~ 42
Vis. ~ 40′

Once we had a debrief and a good chuckle, we headed over to the Glendora.

My tummy had not been too bad until this point, but with the bumping and grinding, I think I went instantly green. Jen said that I was a mix between grey and green. I really wanted to get back in the water, but couldn’t even bring myself to gear up. Argh… stoopid seasick.. pft… At least I didn’t give in to it… this time.

Jen was going to go in with Nancy, but they were not in the water long.

Once the boys came back on board, we headed back to the dock, with me in the fetal position, the entire trip back.

 

I did take a picture of James’ iPhone, where he had marked where we were…

 

I was able to sit up a few minutes before reaching NTD, and Jen noticed that the colour had returned to my face. They were all placing bets on how quickly I would kiss firm ground. 😉

Once back, we unloaded our gear, met the rest of the gang, then went to grab some grub. My tummy was still a bit funny, so I took most of my dinner to go!

Despite my churning tummy, the twisting waves, and the rocky weather, it was amazing to get back to Kingtson, for the diving, as well as hanging out with good friends. I can’t wait to get back out next weekend!


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