Courses, Of Course

19 07 2014

July, 2014 ~

The next couple of weeks brought GUE courses, to the front line. Steve was teaching a Primer, a DPV-1, as well as some Fundies Goodness, and hours of in-water time.

Congratulations, to all of the students!

 

A small glimpse of the new under water statues, at Centeen Park…

Between all of this goodness, Eric B and I went out for a skillz dive, in preparation for our upcoming Tech 2 course. We each brought three bottles, so that we could practice our rotations, at the quarry. At 20′, we dropped our bottles, to do valve drills, s-drills, finning techniques, blowing smbs, and all of the usual skills. Then, it was rotation time. I seemed to be having quite an issue, getting my last bottle’s butt clipped to my hip D-ring. I was getting quite frustrated, and my silly, slightly injured wrist was really bothering me. Ok. Deep breath… Let’s try this again… I took off the bottles, laid them on the bottom, and tried again. Yes, the clip that I was using, was a little bit tough, but nothing that should be giving me such an issue. Here I go, again…

Same thing… just couldn’t reach that darn D-Ring… wtf??? I put the bottles down, again, and decided to switch them around, just to test the theory. That’s when I noticed that the bottom clip had been left, wrapped around the hose of the stage bottle. Well, duhhhhh… no wonder I couldn’t reach the inside, with that clip.

I unwrapped it, then had at it, again. This time, success. *Phew* Eric’s went a fair bit smoother than mine did.

*Notes to self*
1) Check to see if bottoms of stage bottle clips are wrapped behind the tubing, before doing bottle rotations.
2) Bottle rotations with full bottles of 32% suck. Yes, I was already aware of this, but now, I am extra aware.

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 6 mins.
Max. Depth: 19′
Water Temp.: 66F
Frustration Level: Varying, but at least I was persistent 🙂

 


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Categories : Two-Oh-One-Four

Morrisburg – A Current Affair!

1 07 2014

Sunday, June 29th, 2014 ~

A large gaggle of us met down at the Morrisburg public dock, where we discussed our dive plan. We would enter down the road, then scooter/drift through the old channel, and through Lock 23. Since we had a bit of a distance to drift, we unloaded at our entry, then brought most of the vehicles down to the exit, and drove back to the entry, in our van. We would pick up our van, after the dive!

Some of the gear, unloaded…

It appears that sometimes gear DOES grow on trees!

We were going to scooter/drift in “this” direction (east)…

We entered the water, carefully. There were some slippery rocks, so we took our time. We scootered south, into the old channel, then started to drift. The visibility was not great, so staying together was a bit of a task. We did manage, though.

When we reached the lock wall, we tried to stay on the north side, but the current was absolutely ripping there, so we opted to go up and over, to the North side. I was loving how the XK1 handled the screaming current! Perhaps we can try to scooter upstream, another time… the dives where we always have to resort to “Plan B,” since the current gets to strong, to even scooter against.

Before we made it to the beach area, we found what may have been a dump area. There was some old garbage, and a large pile of bottles, in the silt. We blew an SMB, then swam over to the beach area. It was a beautiful day, so the beach was quite busy. We usually get asked by both kids and adults, “What do you see, down there?”

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 39 mins.
Max. Depth: 58′
Water Temp.: 62F
Vis.: 5′ to 10′ – Milky

Our exit point…

Chris took Steve to pick up our van, while I was the designated gear watcher. Raph had quite a drive ahead of him, so he left right away.

After gear loading…

At our post dive meal, I could not help but think of my friend, Jeff Schrieber, making fun of our mooses aboot the hooses…

Cheers, Jeff! 😛

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Project Baseline: St. Lawrence River – Canada ~ Initial Dive

22 06 2014

Saturday, June 21st, 2014 ~

We didn’t have any GUE Ontario members that were able to join us, for the initial Project Baseline dive, so Steve and I went out in search of the best spot, for one of the stations. Our initial station will be on the bow of the Robert A. Gaskin. Our goals will be to monitor the deterioration of the wreck, as well as the water temperatures, visibility, and any obvious changes (eg. fish, eels).

The ship was originally launched in April, 1863, in Kingston, Ontario.

Since we were the only two divers, we decided to go for a scooter up the St. Lawrence River, and end up at the Gaskin, on our way back. Steve had the camera, in hand.

As we approached the Gaskin, the visibility was not the best. The camera would make it appear better than it was, but it was still tough to get shots, where the camera could focus very easily.

A few different angles:

Taken from 49’…

From above the deck, with the bow to the right…

Taken from 59’…

Water temperature: 60F (top to bottom)
Visibility: 25′ (a bit milky – camera makes it look clearer)

We have established a natural station, for the bow, and will do others on the aft starboard side, as well as the stern, where there is noticeable damage to the wreck. We did see a few small fish.

Project Baseline Dive #1 = Complete!


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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!


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Categories : 2000 + 13

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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