Weekend Of Skillz – Day 3 – Scooter Time!

3 09 2013

Monday, September 2nd, 2013 ~

Ok… We just cannot have a weekend of skills diving, without including one fun Diving Goodness day! We packed up and headed to the River!

The van was a little loaded. What you don’t see are two sets of 130s, an RB80, and a few stage bottles.

Eric, with his bed and pillow in a bag!

Dave was wearing his Scuba Steve shirt!

When we arrived, there was a little boat going by. The folks moored up to the Gaskin are in for a bit of an earth-shaking!

 

Dave and I, before the dive!

Our plan was to go upstream for about 40 minutes, drop into the channel, drift, then come back up to the Gaskin, before making our way back in. We had seen some neat things on our last dive out there, and wanted to try to find them again.

So… we did just that! We dropped into the channel, and it was drift time! We found an old wine bottle, a motor, tea cup, metal disc, and Eric and I saw a long, round, painted yellow piece of metal, that was very heavy. We had no idea what it was.

This is one of my favourite dives, and you just never know what you will see on each one. We do leave out of the same place, but every dive is different, depending on how long we go upstream, and where in the channel we start to drift. I don’t think I could ever get sick of this one!

As we neared the bow of the Gaskin, Eric signaled me. I turned to see that his right post was free flowing, and I went to have a look. It appeared to be non-fixable (after two attempts to repair it), so I shut it down. Eric was still on a stage, and we had plenty of gas. No playing on the Gaskin, today! Time to go, and out came the thumb. I guess we did skillz, anyway!

In the shallows, we did a little deco, then in!

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 12 mins.
Max. Depth: 109′
Water Temp.: 73F

More cheese!

Julie, Steph, Carm, and I!

We packed up, then went to the Barley Mow, for some dinner! In the parking lot, we saw a very noteworthy license plate…

It was a great way to spend the long weekend! Diving Goodness and friends! w00t!

 


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6th Annual Brockville/Rockport Canadian Invasion!

21 08 2013

Wednesday, August 14th, 2013 ~

The van was loaded, and I made my way down to Caiger’s, after work. I had a few things to do, before the dives would start on Thursday, so I wanted to be ready, Freddy!

I arrived, and found Dev on the “Upper Deck,” so we sat around for a little while (of course, while I was up and down the stairs, taking care of stuff), until the mozzies were on full attack. We moved inside, and were joined by Mark, Raph, Fern, and Daniel.  w00t!

Thursday, August 15th, 2013 ~

Today, we were going to Centeen, for a shore dive! Centeen is a good place to go, when you have divers of all levels. There is something for everyone to see, the entry is easy, and… it’s fun!

Some of the divers, getting ready to go on their dives. Eric and I stayed behind, in case there were any stragglers, that needed to know where they were going.

Darth Nash and Raph of Kahn, getting ready…

Hong and Dev…

Once it seemed that there were no more stragglers, Eric and I geared up for a dive.

We headed upstream for a bit, dropped into the channel, and appeared to be in a spot that we hadn’t been to before. There was debris everywhere, once we had drifted about 30 minutes. We wanted to drift longer, but we had made our plan, and followed it. I think we need to go back there, if we can find it!

We made our way back in, and had overshot the Gaskin, so just  came back to the shallows, where we hung out for a little bit, then in. Very fun!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 37 mins.
Max. Depth: 104′
Water Temp.: 71F

Andy was stylin’, as he was trying out an E.Motion drysuit!

Daniel, Raph, Mark…

The one and only… Frankie Boy!

Steve…

Becki, Andy, and I… followed by Dan’s fancy cap…

Eric B even had his toes painted, for the event!

From there, we went back to Caiger’s, where we got ready for dinner!

Friday, August 16th, 2013 ~

Charter time! We had four boats going out, with both Rec and Tech divers. We had Rec divers aboard the “Arrow,” and Tech divers aboard “River Diver,” “Run Time,” and “Island Diver!” The Tech folks went out to the Jodrey, and the Rec folks went to the Keystorm and America!

Neil wanted to make sure that Oren knew that he had his passport…

Steve, Eric, and I were aboard River Diver, with Daniel, Dev, Joanna, and Stretch, and were heading to the Jodrey.

We had a great dive, going through swim-throughs, and seeing some of the wreck that I hadn’t seen before (rooms on the third deck). We noticed that someone took the radio out of one of the rooms, which was incredibly sad. Besides that, it was a most excellent dive! Thanks for the tour, Steve! There was also some Go Pro video, in which I am hoping that Steve will edit, soon. 🙂

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 12 minutes
Max. Depth: 186′
Water Temp.: 71F

When we returned back to Caiger’s, we unloaded, chilled for a bit, then had a yummy Fajita dinner, and some prizes!

Thank you very much, to our Prize Donors! Also, thanks to Dave Pickens, who also donated a few boxes worth of goodies! Thanks Pickeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnsssssssssss!!!

Prize Tables:

 

Table: Team Wet Rocks!

Table: Team Retrieving!

Table: Team #1 Phan!

Table: Team Exploration!

Thanks very much to Chris Phinney, for stepping up, when our speaker could not make it! Chris gave us a presentation on Ship Construction, that is part of the NAS-1 course. THANK YOU, CHRIS!!!

Saturday, August 17th, 2013 ~

Day 3 of Invasion Diving Goodness! Back to the Jodrey, for the Tech boats! The Arrow was taking the Rec folks out to the Vickery, and for a drift dive!

Stretch, Eric, and Steve…

Dev, fixing some gear…

Daniel…

Joanna…

…and Captain Rick!

We met up with the Arrow, at customs!

Then, Samer demonstrates that it is very important to hydrate, so that you can hook up, while diving…

For today’s dive, Steve, Eric, Dev, and I were heading to the stern. I hadn’t been to the stern in a very long time, and I was looking forward to getting there, again. We followed the rail of the wreck down, then back up, and in no time, we were there (it helps that we had current on our side). We did a tour of the outside, through the walkways, and peeked in, a little. I absolutely LOVED this dive!

With some years more experience on the wreck than when I last did the stern, we had a really good time of everything. Doing this dive is scooter dependent, when doing it from the bow. I’m not sure if there is still a stern line on the wreck, or not. Just a fantastic dive!!!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 16 mins.
Max. Depth: 200′
Water Temp.: 71F

Stretch, after rescuing Le Princessi from the evil cave line…

Tonight’s dinner was a most excellent Prime Rib (with a couple of vegetarian options, too), and…. GRAND PRIZES!!!

Of course, the group shot had to come, first! Such a wonderful group of friends!!!

We had two Grand Prizes, thanks to Light Monkey and Santi Canada! w00t!

Congratulations to Dev Clifford, for winning the 45# Light Monkey WIng!

Congratulations to Chris Phinney, for winning the BZ400x undergarment, from Santi Canada!

After dinner, a gaggle of us decided to go to Centeen, for a night scooter dive to the Gaskin! There were 11 of us, so we spread out the teams a little, putting teams that knew the area in the front, middle, and back of the pack!

As we got to the Gaskin, we swam inside, and I have never seen so many eels, in my life! I knew that they were around, but really had no clue that there were this many on the Gaskin. They were burrowing down, left and right, leaving little silt clouds as they dug themselves back into the silt! While I felt like I was on an episode of Fear Factor, I did find myself wildly fascinated, at the same time. 🙂

We spent a little time on the wreck, then headed back in. There were many laughs, and we had a blast!

Bottom Time: 47 mins.
Max. Depth: 65′
Water Temp.: 71F

As we packed up, and were getting ready to leave, it seemed that there was a bit of a key incident. I won’t mention any names, but… we were pretty late getting back to Caiger’s, and I’m sure that the CAA fellow would rather not have had 12 of us surrounding him, as he was trying to do his job! *Giggle* Ah, well… all ended happily, and since there was Diving Goodness involved, it was just another adventure to tell!

Sunday, August 18th, 2013 ~

The last day of our Invasion FUN!

A few folks decided to get on the road early, another bunch went out for a charter to the Kinghorn, and another bunch of us went back to Centeen, for a scooter run!

Ok, so it took us a little longer to get to Centeen, due to the Brockville Triathlon, but… we eventually made it there… convoy, and all!

Thank you! Thank you! No applause needed (Andy)…

Becki and Dan…

Joanna, Eric P., and Stretch…

There were some people swimming out to the Gaskin, and we were taking the scooter folks out to see the old Truck!

Becki’s going DIVING!!!

We did make it to the Truck, and there were a few Happy Dances, as we arrived. There were a few video cameras going, but I haven’t seen any footage, yet!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 55 mins.
Max. Depth: 103′
Water Temp.: 71F

You must be “this” tall, to ride this ride… But, at least there is Kool-Aid – Thanks to Dan Humble, for the Kool-Aid packs!

Stretch and Daniel, photobombing Joanna and I! Love it!

Steve, Dan, Daniel, Becki…

Eric B., Frankie, Eric V.!

Thank you to everyone, for making this year such a blast! I can’t wait to see you all, next year!!!

w00000000000000000000000000000t!

 

 

 


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DPVs & Drifting Goodness

5 08 2013

Sunday, August 4th, 2013 ~

Steve was taking Frankie and Christian out for their final day of DPV 1 (the awesome Experience Dive day), and Eric, Jen, and I went for a scooter upstream, and a drift!

Centeen was a very busy place today, so we ended up parking some of our vehicles on the side streets.

We brought our gear down to the water, and discussed our plan…

The three of us planned on going upstream to some wreckage that we had found, then drop in a little deeper, to check out the scattered pieces of wood (which were absolutely everywhere), then drop into the channel for some Drifting Goodness!!

We did exactly that! Checked out the many pieces of wreckage, and when we had seen enough, we made our way down to the channel. We ended up in a spot that had a ton to look at, and there were spots that we may not have been to, before.

I knew from the timing, and from my floaty stage bottle, that I was likely nearing my gas switch time. As I checked my stage bottle pressure, the handle came off in my hand. I managed to keep the knob, but the little bits were now lost… Doh! The current was pretty strong here, so I didn’t have much of a chance to turn and search. Well, at least I was spot on for my gas switch. I wasn’t exactly there, but close enough to switch.  I signaled to Eric and Jen that I was switching, and Eric switched with me (Jen had switched a little earlier). At least I could still shut down the post, with the knob. I then stuck it in my pocket, for safe keeping.

Once we reached our “time’s up” for drifting, we made our way back up, to go to the Gaskin. We thought we had overshot it, but we didn’t. Since the currents were different in a few places in the channel, we weren’t moving as fast as we had planned (only in a couple of areas, was the current ripping).

We made our way in, did our deco, then Eric and I did some bottle rotations, and we all did valve drills. A most awesome dive!

Eric… Thanks for lending me Le Princessi! 😛

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 23 mins.
Max. Depth: 101′
Water Temp.: 71F
Vis.: Varied from 10′ to 30′

In other news… Congratulations to Christian and Frankie, for completing their DPV 1! w00t!

Happy Civic Holiday, Ontario!


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Got E.Motion-Al

22 07 2013

Sunday, July 21st. 2013 ~

Today was the day that I was trying out my new Santi E.Motion suit. I had it on deck to dive on Saturday, but our dive did not go ahead, as planned.

Since Steve was teaching, I made my way down to Brockville, and met Jen. We were going on a channel scooter/drift dive. Our plan was to scooter upstream from Centeen Park, then drop into the channel, and have some fun!

We hit the triggers, and away we went. Once we reached our planned channel drop, we started towards the channel. As we were making our way, we ran into some wreckage. A lot of wreckage. We sometimes see the odd plank of wood, but these piles were many, and strewn about for quite a distance. Of course, we had to have a look, so once we did reach the channel, we cut our planned drift time down by a few minutes.

While we were in the channel, there was a freighter that passed overhead. This is nothing new, and happens quite often. This one sounded like it was within spitting distance! There we were, drifting in the channel, in some pretty mild current, when the river bed started to shake, the current went from slow to “spit you out” kind of speed, and it was so loud, that every piece of our beings were pounding. I swear, we could feel our heart beats, in time with the freighter! We were just shy of 100′, so I knew we weren’t in any danger, but sheesh… talk about giving us some wide eyes!  After it passed, the current slowed down… *Sings Twilight Zone music*

We had reached our planned (make that, replanned) drifting time, so we started to make our way back up. Just as we got to 70′, we were staring into the stern of the Gaskin. How was that for planning? We went for a bit of a swim through it, then decided to swim off, a little. Jen found a couple of little treasures (no, they were not of the wreck-finding kind). 😛

As we came back up into the basin of the park, we came upon an extremely tangled Halcyon reel. Since we were going to do a few minutes of deco anyway, we decided to untangle it. Well, holy smokes… It was not an easy task, but we finally did it. It definitely took the both of us, to do it. We figured it belonged to the people running a course there, so we brought it in. As we surfaced, Jen asked if anyone was “missing” one. They were using it for a rescue scenario, and were just about to go back and pick it up! We saved them a bit of time and energy. 😛

Bottom TIme: 2 hours, 8 mins.
Max. Depth: 99′
Water Temp.: 73F
Vis.: 10′ to 40′

Mike met us over at Bud’s, for some dinner!

We caught three ducks on the back of a Sea Doo, but by the time I got my camera out, they were jumping ship. Go figure…

Oh, well! At least we had a really fun dive!

As far as my new Santi E.Motion suit goes, it fits absolutely perfectly, and was so comfortable to wear. I’m sure that if I had not had a P-Valve malfunction (duck bill valve), that I would have been a happier camper, but the suit was awesome. I can’t wait to get some more dives on it!!


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In It For The Long Haul

15 07 2013

Sunday, July 14th, 2013 ~

The St. Lawrence River was good and warm, so we had planned on doing a longer dive. Steve, Eric, and I were starting from Centeen Park, heading upstream in the shallows, into the channel, then back up, for planned deco. It seems we do quite a few dives from this entry point, which is true, but it is a different dive, every time!

The sun was pretty hot, so we got our gear into the water, as soon as we could…

We made our way upstream, switched scooters and stages, and down we went, into the channel. The visibility was pretty horrible, until we got down into the channel, where there was a significant improvement. We drifted for a while, Then started our gradual ascent, with our planned stops.

Bottom Time: 3 hours, 48 mins.
Max. Depth: 112′
Avg. Depth: 58′
Water Temp.: 68F
Vis.: Not very good; better in channel

As we did our 1 ATA deco stop, we heard some familiar voices behind us. Mike, Jen, and Julie greeted us, and gave us a hand with our gear (we were very thankful, for that).

Le Princessi also came out to play, on deco! 😀

We then headed to Boston Pizza, for after Diving Goodness Eats… We ended up getting home pretty late, but when you’re with friends, it doesn’t really matter. 🙂


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