The Jamieson

3 08 2008

Saturday, August 2nd, 2008~

Steve, Leigh, and I headed to Kingston, to meet our friend, Jay. We then headed over to the ferry, that would take us over to Amherst Island.

We had a bit of a wait, so we goofed around a bit…

Jay…

Steve…

Leigh…

…and I even caught a pic of a little otter with a fish in his mouth…

Here comes the ferry!

Jay was a bit famished…

Upon looking overboard, there was a lip where people had thrown coins…

After about a 15 minute ride over, we exited onto the island. Leigh has a friend that lives here, and has allowed us access to his property. You can see the jug to the William Jamieson wreck from his kitchen. Today, we were going to scooter over to it, and see if this was feasible to line, in the near future.

We drove up to what is believed to be the life raft from the Jamieson, when it sank in 1923. Some believe that the raft was switched out later on, but no one really knows for sure. We aren’t quite sure what’s up with the wagon wheel…

We lined our gear up on the shore, and got ready…

We did our predive checks, took a bearing, and headed out to the wreck. The visibility was a bit stinky, and we wanted to check to see if we were still on the correct bearing, so we blew a bag and surfaced after about 12 minutes on the trigger. The water was a bit choppy, as there was a bit of a storm brewing, not that far away from us. We looked for the jug, and saw that we were about 100 feet away from it! w00 h00! We took another bearing, and back down we went. We managed to get right to the mooring line, to the wreck! W00 H00!! There was an obvious thermocline at 63′, and the bottom of the wreck is at about 75′. You could actually see the haze of the thermocline. Seeing as we had wet gloves on, we tried to stay above it for the better part of the dive! None of us had done this wreck before, and it is a pretty fun one to do. Although the vis wasn’t the best, it was still pretty cool. The Jamieson is a two masted schooner, about 100′ long, and carried coal. The stern is still intact, but the bow is pretty broken up. We had the camera with us, and both Steve and Leigh took turns filming. I made sure I did the Heleen dance too. ;o)

On the way back, we stayed at exactly 62′, in order to keep toasty! The ride back seemed alot quicker! We did see what might have been a mast of some sort, sticking out of the silt, quite a ways off of the wreck… a very interesting thing to see.

Bottom Time ~ 76 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 71′
Temp. ~ 55/65
Vis. ~ Hazy

We surfaced, doffed our gear, and went back in to laze about in the water for a while.

The pics are a bit dark, but… oh well…

Steve…

Leigh…

Jay…

Me…

Myself, Jay, and Leigh…

We packed up, and headed over to the ferry dock ~ It seems we missed it by about 5 minutes. We’d have to wait another hour, so we loitered for a bit by the cars…

We finally boarded and made our way back to the mainland!

We headed back over to Northern Tech Diver, where Commander Tom was going to be having a BBQ!

Here are the boyz, trying to get it started… it was quite the ordeal… rofl…

There was quite a crowd of us gathered round for burgers and sausage. Thanks to NTD, and to Matt for doing the cooking!


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Tag Along!

4 05 2008

Sunday, May 4th, 2008 ~

Steve and I headed down to the mighty Ktown on Friday night, to sit in on a split weekend Fundies course. This was Steve’s first course that he was interning on, on the road to becoming a GUE instructor. I like sitting in on classes, as I enjoy reabsorbing information. Friday night was some classroom stuff, Saturday started off at the pool, for the swim and breath hold tests, then back to the classroom again!

Sunday was dive day. There were four students ~ Two in doubles and two in single tanks. Dive one was a “see where you’re at dive,” and Steve had the video camera going. I went in with Tom R for a leisurely dive in the Brule Road Quarry. We dropped down, did our valve drills, swam around the boat, found a ton of bottles, and Tom even found a gold necklace… We watched the students for a while, and surfaced with them. The two of us then went back to shore, but sat at the surface for a bit.

Bottom Time ~ 48 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 26′
Water Temp. ~ 55 above, 52 below thermocline
Vis. ~ 30′ ish

We saw some familiar faces gearing up to get in, and ended up chatting for a while. I wasn’t sure if I was going to last a whole lot longer on the second dive, as my back was a little sore, so I warned Tom that I may pull out the thumb. Back down we went.. back to the boat… through the boat…while my mask flooded… We made our way back to the class, where we watched a bit, then ascended with them. Tom wanted to take a turn with the camera, so Steve and I hovered nearby. After a few propulsion exercises, Steve and I were to bring the reel in.. Steve started, then handed me the prize! I reeled in, and we surfaced. I was then elected to be one of the single tank students’ buddy for her Valve Drill and S Drill, and I had to play “dummy.” She did the drills without a hitch, then did a timed ascent to the surface. Steve and I went back down for the lift bag, then came in. What a fun day!

Was I ever glad I had my She-P!!!!!!!

Bottom Time ~ 57 mins.
Water Temp. ~ 55/52
Max. Depth ~ 25′
Vis. ~ 30′ ish

Our training dives start up again this Thursday!

w000000000000t!


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Ahoy Gaskin!

22 09 2007

Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 ~

Well, Steve had to work today, and Carm’s Steve was DM’ing stuff, so Carm and I decided to go for a dive to the Gaskin! This was my first attempt at fitting two full kits in my lil dive car!

We found out that it works!!

Here’s a pic of Carm!

OO.. and I also found out that the super dive trunk will almost fit me too!!

We packed the gear and were off to Brockville. We had to stop at the Diver’s Candy Store (duhhh…) where I broke down and bought the 4th Element Xerotherm 200 g top. I already own the full set of Arctics, but I really liked the thinner stuff, so I just HAD to have it… I would have picked up the bottoms too, but they didn’t have my size… pffttt.. This means I will have to go back on a regular basis until they arrive…along with my Halcyon mask strap. Lol…

We finally made it to Centeen Park, geared up, and in we went. It took a little longer than normal to get to the wreck today, as the current had really picked up. Normally it doesn’t get too strong until about 50′, but today it started to rip a bit at 40′. We made it, and luckily it was surface interval time, in between the charters, so we had the wreck to ourselves. We did a circle of the wreck, and I found a small round bottle on the port side. Nothing old or fancy, just a little brown bottle.

*Insert brown bottle pic here tomorrow!*

There were quite a few fish on this side of the wreck as well. We swam around the stern, then did a pass through the wreck, and headed back. The trip back is always a bit quicker, as we are moving with the current. We had a nice, relaxing dive!

Bottom Time ~ 56 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 69′
Water Temp. ~ 67
Vis. ~ 20′ – 30′

After gearing down, a few other divers pulled up for a class in the shallows. There was one fella diving out of a Mini!!

He even asked me if I wanted to sit in it!!

What a fun day!! We ended the evening with some dinner at Swiss Chalet…MMM.. Cheesy Garlic Loaf!!

At least one more dive tomorrow! w00t w00t w00t!!


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Gettin’ Ready…

13 09 2007

Thursday, September 13th, 2007 ~

After a long day’s work, Steve and I headed up to Morrison’s Quarry once again, to work on skills. I have been doing alot more lately, as I’ve been prepping to go for my Tech Pass for fundies. I did DIR~F last year, but only did it in a single tank, so I was only able to get the Rec. Pass. I thought, what the heck? I may as well get my butt in gear, now that I’m in doubles, and do it. So… tomorrow am, we are taking off bright and early, to make the drive to Ktown. Dan is going to put me to the test, drill my ass off, and hopefully I will walk away with my Tech Pass.

I’ll have to do the “Final Dive” from the fundies class. Descent making two stops, valve drill with primary, finning techniques, donate gas with primary in hand, deploy back up light, ascent making two stops, blow a bag on the ascent… list goes on a little more, but that’s the gist of it. Oh yeah.. and all while not fluctuating more than 3′ from my targetted depth, and staying horizontal.

Sooooo… that’s the plan for the morning. Steve is going to buddy up with me for it (thank heavens!). 

After that, a friend of mine is coming down from St. Catherines (about 4 hours west of Kingston), and we’re either off to dive at Nicholson’s Point, or we’re heading to the mighty Brockville for the clean up dive. It will depend on my timing on the morning dive.

From there, we’re camping in Mallorytown … which will undoubtedly mean a trip to Dive Tech (leave… wallet… in … car… ), and a dive at Centeen Park on Sunday. We’ll be meeting with the Wooferbitch, Hugh, and Gilles for a nice dive to the Gaskin!

I guess I will know tomorrow, whether I am Tech Pass worthy or not!

Details at 11!… er.. I mean Monday!


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A Trip To The Mighty T Dot And Back To The Quarry!

8 09 2007

Thursday, September 6th ~ 2007 ~

Well, my job brought me back to the mighty T Dot (Toronto) for a Promo Products trade show, and what better way to end a day, than to go for a dip in the Humber River after? I didn’t arrive in TO until about midnight, Thursday morning, as I was still working until 7pm in the office, then made the 5 hour drive. I got a hotel room, crashed, and rose to the free Continental Breaky! mmmmmmm… English Muffins…. It was kind of nice to be back home (waiver… I’m still happy I made the move!)

So… on my feet all day, a little weary, and off to meet Jen and Ritchard for a dive! I was a bit early, as was Ritchard, so we waited for Jen. Jen called… “Not far now, on the 404.” Now, the 404 really isn’t far from Humber Bay, but for anyone that has ever been in Toronto rush hour traffic, will know that she was about an hour out. As much as I like my friend, I still had a 5 hour drive ahead of me to get back home after, so she told us to go ahead.

We geared up, got in, and down we went. Humber really isn’t the most fascinating dive site, but it’s a place to get wet in the middle of the city. There are culverts, Barbies, road signs, mannequins, and a friendly rooster named, Dick the Cock.

Here are some pics from previous dives there…

The bike…

Neighbourhood Watch…

Ursula…

We descended with vis at about 5′, went through the culverts, and went out to a new line. Vis was pretty stinky, and the gobies weren’t helping. The silt was so loose, that when they scurried, they really kicked it up (nope…wasn’t even me, I swear!). The new line got even stinkier… Vis went from 5′ to about 6″ in a hurry. We decided to turn it. All I could hear in my head was Wooferbitch, “I do not dive in milk.” 

Vis at Humber is never really great, unless the wind is coming from the north. We’ve actually done a night dive there, where you could see as far as your light would shine. Not so much today.

Bottom Time ~ 29 mins.
Water Temp. ~ A very surprising 68 (high for the Lake)
Max. Depth ~ 29′
Vis. ~ 0′ – 5′

We surfaced to find Jen waiting for us, for a friendly hello. We chatted for a bit, then I made the 5 hour trip back home. I did have to stop along the way, to sell my Jacket BC that has been sitting around for a while. Really awesome people too! So, that put me home at about 2:30am, and I still had to unpack my gear. I made it to bed by 3!

Friday, September 7th ~ 2007~

Blah Blah Blah… up early, to work.. blah blah…Get home… pack the gear, and off to Morrison’s Quarry in Wakefield, Quebec for some skills! W00H00!

Ok, my eyes and my butt were both dragging on the ground, so I didn’t have very high hopes for my skills dive tonight. Steve and I got in, did valve drills, air shares, then moved on to the plane. Vis was a bit stinky here too! I’ve been working on my freakin’ back fin forever, it seems, and tonight it finally paid off. I freakin’ back finned. I was so happy, I think I swam backwards for about a half hour. Sometimes pretty, sometimes not so pretty, but dammit, I was doing it.  We did some air shares, no mask drills, and had a freakin’ great dive!

Bottom Time ~ 59 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 28′
Water Temp. ~ 71
Vis. ~ 10′

Today, Steve is off for a “Big Boy” dive with Leigh, and I am prepping for our BBQ tonight! More dive news tomorrow!


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