Chanb77's Weblog

Saturday, August 25th, 2007 ~

Our good friend, Francois, came down for a visit again. He arrived at about 10:30 last night, and he and Steve spent the night in the garage….. They installed a permanent line between the booster and the compressor…

This morning, Steve, Francois, and Leigh were up and out early, to catch a ride to the Jodrey. They said there was ripping current, but they had a blast, and even took video.

A couple of friends of mine from NY state came up to Brockville for a visit as well, and we decided to have a splash in at Centeen Park, to work on their skills with their new doubles and to just tool around.

I met them and we went for a splash. Valve drills were done, air was shared, bags were blown, finning was practiced. What more could one ask for? We had a nice, relaxing dive (yep.. relaxing, even WITH the drills…) . It was a short one, but a nice one.

Dive Time ~ 45 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 31″
Water Temp. ~ 70

When we finished and getting ready to leave, we heard sirens. I saw an ambulance down by the water, at a building not too far away. Cruisers followed. My first thought was… diver…

The sirens stopped and started up again. Up pulls a cruiser, and an officer gets out, looking out at the water. I ask him if a diver has been hurt. He says there has, but they don’t know where the person is.

They had received a 911 call about a diver, and they didn’t know the location or whether it was from shore or a boat diver. They were cruising the sites, hunting for this person. We made a couple of suggestions as to other sites, but they were out of their jurisdiction, so it had to be nearby.

There was nothing we could do, so we left. I made a couple of calls to others that I knew were diving around the area, but to no avail. I really hope it wasn’t serious, and that the diver was found.

Upon returning home, the boys were back at the garage. We installed the kick ass power bar we got for the charging station and plugged in the loot…
(notice kick ass power bar on the right of the shelf ~ it’s a long one with yellow plugs)

We hung our gear on the gear rack…

..and even had room for Francois’ stuff…

Camera Station (not everything is up yet)…

Work Station…

The T’s…

…and Francois taking it for a run, boosting his tanks!

It was kind of funny… We had a friend drop by, that owns a dive shop, and upon entering the garage, asked if we were still open….

Until tomorrow’s adventure!!

Sunday, August 12th, 2007 ~

After a few more dry days than we would have liked, Steve, Wooferbitch (Leigh) and I decided to load up the Dive Gear Transportation Unit, and get our butts in the water. We didn’t really have a solid plan, just that we were headed to Brockville, and into the water.

When we got to Leigh’s place, he had mysteriously grown hair in one night…

We then went into his home studio, where there were mixes of three of the new videos to come ~ The Jodrey, The Sheboygan and The Davie, and The Daryaw… Very cool stuff!

We went to Mallorytown to drop off a copy of the almost-done new video to Curt, who was so gracious to allow us access to the Daryaw from his back yard. I should tell that story one day… it’s a fun one. I’ll wait until the video comes out, I think.

We still had no clue where we wanted to dive, but wanted something different than the Gaskin. We ventured off to St. Lawrence Park to see if there were any spots on a charter. We ran into a bunch of people we knew, and for some strange reason ~ not sure if it may have been the beautiful day and gorgeous sunshine ~ every boat was packed. Oh well, off to the Gaskin we go……

When we arrived, we noticed a couple of charters out on the wreck, and no divers from shore. There were quite a few swimmers though ~ as I said, it was such a gorgeous day!

We geared up, got in, and off to the wreck we scootered. When we got there, there were still a few divers on the wreck, who to their surprise, thought aliens had arrived on the wreck. I guess they had already done a pass of the wreck, and didn’t expect to find 3 crazy dry suit divers, armed with scooters and stages when they came around again. It was kinda funny to see their reactions.

We did a pass through the wreck, and decided to drift off. I really enjoy doing this, as there are many treasures to find ~ Bottles, pieces of racing boats, and even an eel. We drifted back near the shore, and worked on skills ~ some air shares, valve drills, reg switching etc.

It was an overall wonderful and relaxing dive. No cameras, just good relaxing fun!

Bottom Time ~ 93 minutes
Max. Depth ~ 65′
Water Temp. ~ 74

Monday, August 7th, 2007 ~

Seeing as Steve needed a day off after his river adventure last night, he took the day off and did some more work on our Dive Garage. Just thought I’d post a few before pics!

August 7th, 2007 ~

Ok… so yesterday’s dive didn’t happen quite as planned… We were heading to Dive Tech first, so Francois could get some goodies for his stages and a couple of manifold servicing kits. We ended up being quite a bit longer than anticipated (as always when travelling to the Diver’s Candy Store). I think they have a chemical in the air conditioning that makes you want more more more…

Francois also decided to buy himself a Helium analyzer, which we thought was incredible, as he’s leaving it at our house… *All hail the mighty Francois* (ok.. it almost sounds like the “mighty poisson..”)

The boys were going to do the Daryaw from the zodiac, and go inside, and then Steve and I were going to do the Gaskin on our way back home, as a night dive.

Welllllllllll……. we ended up arriving at the public launch at about 6:30 pm, and the boyz readied themselves for the dive…

They finally set out at 7:25, and I was left to guard the fort… so to speak. I sat back, relaxed, and read a bit of a book.

I caught a couple of pics of this little gem that was coming out of the water…

Well, it started to get dark and the mossies started biting, so it was into the van I went. I realized how dumb that was… me, sitting there, in the dark… er.. uh.. …

Ok.. 3 hours had passed. Not uncommon, but I should expect them back soon. I walked around the bay for a bit, and looked for lights.. nothing… Ok.. starting to get a teeny bit worried… Pft.. they’re fine, they’re fine… Don’t be silly… (convincing myself). I must say that the thought of calling the Coast Guard did cross my mind.

Finally, another half hour later, and I saw a bright light in the distance. I had my LED scout with me and signalled to them. As soon as they saw my light, the boat turned and headed for shore. *Phew* In they came, but I sure as ‘eck wasn’t getting my dive in tonight.. pfttttttt…

At least they were safe.

We rolled in at about 1am, unloaded the Dive Transportation Unit, and crashed.
We still haven’t watched the video footage, but both Steve and Francois got video. Can’t wait to watch!