Diving Goodness | Chanb77's Weblog

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

A-Bay, Eh?

19 05 2013

Saturday, May 18th, 2013 ~

Today, I decided to go and meet up with Lisa, and a few members of the Clayton Dive Club. We were going to go for a fun dive on the Islander, so I brought my camera with me. Getting over the border took quite a long time, since it was a Saturday morning of a long weekend. There were about 10 rows of 50 cars each, and it took me about an hour to get to the customs agent. Of course, I have a van with dive gear, so they opened the door for a quick check, and off I went.

I finally arrived, and geared up for Diving Goodness! It was an absolutely gorgeous day, too!

Entry…

Lisa was my model for the day!

The water was pretty murky, but I still like this one…

The wreck is pretty busted up, but it is still fun to see.

Peek-A-Boo!

After doing a few spins around the wreck, practicing finning techniques, and having a few laughs, we made our way in.

Bottom Time: 49 mins.
Max. Depth: 45′
Water Temp.: 50F

As we came in, Timraughly (you will forever be known as that, Tim) was waiting for us, in case we needed a hand.

Group shot, taken by an onlooker…

…and of course, the “Snuggle” shot…

As we were packing up, Rick pulled in, so he joined us for some lunch, along the River. We went for some pizza!

We walked around for a bit, playing tourist. Most of the shops and stands were just opening up for the season.

Lisa was showing Psy how it’s done….

Giddyup!

We also found this very dangerous place.

We mostly behaved, and got some gelato and sorbet. There were some pretty amazing treats in there!

What a fun day, playing tourist! Thanks for the treats and a great day, Lisa!

As I made my way back over the border, there was absolutely no line going either way. It was smooooooth sailing!

Until next time!

Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: Bloggy Thing, Chan's Bloggy Thing, Diving, Diving Goodness, GUE, GUE Divers, GUE Ontario, Islander, Islander Wreck, 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

Clayton Clean-Up Dive!

6 05 2013

Saturday, May 4th, 2013 ~

Since we haven’t been to the US side of the River much, Steve and I decided to join some of the gang, and go down for the Clayton Dive Club clean-up dive! We arrived at the Port Dover Antique Boat Museum at around 9am, registered with the dive club, unloaded our gear… and went diving for garbage!

I caught Bob with his camera!

Lisa and Skip!

Steve, C-Mal, and Damian… Bad Boyz, Bad Boyz, What ya gonna do?

There were quite a few people joining in on the fun, and we were all concentrating on the area around the long dock. When Steve and I descended, we were greeting with quite a bit of silt, which was kind of fun, as we made our way around the dock. We managed to pick up quite a lot of garbage, including bottles, cans, pieces of metal, socks, potato sacks, plastic, and we almost got some of the metal that was embedded into the ground, but even with both of us pulling on it, we couldn’t get it out. There were a couple of shopping carts, too. We didn’t have a very long dive, but it was still fun to pitch in, and do our part to clean up!

Bottom Time: 41 mins.
Max. Depth: 7′
Water Temp.: 50F
Visibility: 0′ to 2′

I was really impressed, how the city joined in to really help the clean-up. There were some crew along the dock, pulling up any items that any of us found, putting them into wheel barrels, rolling over to a front end loader, and then putting it into a large dump truck. The town had also put together sandwiches, drinks, and the mayor even made probably the best choco chip cookies I have ever tasted!

Partial group shot!

From there, we made our way to Bob’s Hideaway, and Patty’s Place, which was also a lot of fun. Lots of laughter and Goodness! Thank you, Bob and C-Mal!