Heleen And Sander Came To Town!

3 09 2011

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 ~

After a crazy day of work, I filled up the Dive Gear Transportation Unit, and headed to the airport. I only had to do two circles around, and I found my passengers! Our friends from Holland were here! w00t! I finally got to see them in person, and would be spending the next few days diving and talking about everything under the sun!

Our first stop was the Quarry, directly from the airport, as the plane was a must-see for Heleen!

I brought my camera along, for some pics, and we jumped in the water. We went straight to the plane for some pics, then to the boat, sub, and back to the plane for more pics and most excellent Diving Goodness fun! It was definitely fantastic to finally get in the water with Heleen and Sander!

Sander and Heleen, over the infamous plane!

w00t! Myself and Heleen!

Sander, giving the moose ears!

Coming back in…

Bottom Time: 41 mins.
Max. Depth: 55′
Water Temp.: 60F
Visibility: Goodly

Off to Boston Pizza, for some delicious dinner, and to meet Steve!

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 ~

Today, we were heading down to Rockport, to go for a scooter run to the Kinghorn (thank you for the extra scooter, KR). We had a few errands to run in the morning, and I cooked us a big breakfast, so it was early afternoon before we got to the shop.

We made our way to the wreck, played around on the outside, then headed inside, to swim around the core of the wreck. It seems that the wreck has deteriorated even more, and it appears that there have been a few deck beams that have fallen in. I still never tire of seeing the view of ambient light, up through the inside of the wreck, through the wheel. We made our way back, and back up, onto the boat. What a fantastic dive! I think Heleen and Sander liked this one! 

Bottom Time: 64 mins.
Max. Depth: 90′
Water Temp.: 69F
Visibility: Not too shabby

Yummy… Kool-Aid…

After our dive, we topped it off with some ice cream, from the upstairs shop! Mmm.. Rolo…

Jeff and Sander were chatting, so we grabbed Sander an ice cream, too… or.. did we?? 😀

We headed back, and were able to make it back in time for the last 10 minutes of Steve’s Final Hockey playoff game! Way to go, Steve!

When we got back, we unpacked, and had some fun with the neighbours…

Thursday, September 1st, 2011 ~

Today, we had planned on going down to the river, for a scooter dive, but decided to go a little closer, so we could do some tourist stuff, after our dive. Quarry? Meh.. went there on Tuesday.. Hmm.. How about Back Mine? Steve and I hadn’t been there in over a year, and this would be a great time of year to go. The water is always extremely cold, as this mine was built into a mountain, and the water does not see sunlight. Although there is a covered dome overtop of the site, there is a large area of open water, where we dive. There is a mine shaft that starts at about 120′ deep. It is an absolutely beautiful dive, but as I said… is cold.

We took the ferry across to the Quebec side, and once we arrived, we took a bit of a jaunt up to the top, to take some photos.

 There happened to be a photographer there, doing a photo shoot, and he was gracious enough to take some shots of us, too! Thank you, Rick!

Once we entered the water, we made our way to the other side of the open water area, saw the old truck, old line, and other interesting formations. There was obviously not much ambient light, so it was a bit murky… and crisp. We surfaced on the opposite side, had a chat and a laugh, then headed back down. We showed Heleen and Sander the grim reaper sign, then made our way back in.  

Good thing we were already hooked up…

Bottom Time: 45 mins.
Max. Depth: 105′
Water Temp.: 38F
Visibility: 25′

After we packed up, we made our way downtown, to the Byward Market, where we grabbed a snack from the Chip Wagon. We just had to introduce Sander to poutine! We did a bit of a tour of the Parliament buildings, the lock system, and a few other cool buildings.

On the way back, we stopped to pick up some BBQ and sweet corn!

What a fantastic day!

Friday, September 2nd, 2011 ~

Well.. today was the day that we were all departing for different places. Heleen and Sander were on their way home, Steve was heading to Florida, and I was going to Seattle, for the Team AGGAST adventure.

It was so amazing to finally meet our friends from overseas, that we have been corresponding with, e-mailing, and sending so many pictures back and forth with. We were able to give them a little taste of Canada (besides their adventures in the Rocky Mountains, before they got to us), with Tim Horton’s, Kool-Aid, hockey, poutine, the Parliament buildings, maple syrup, and some of the diving we have to offer. What an amazing time for us, too… please come back!! See you next year!! 😛

Here are the links to Heleen’s Canada videos!

The Quarry and The Kinghorn…

Back Mine…

 

 

Canada…

http://wethorse.nl/Canada11/index.htm

Other Wethorse videos can be seen at: www.wethorse.nl


Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Wow... 2011!

2010 In Review!

8 01 2011

This year was another great one, as far as Diving Goodness is concerned!

We started the year off at the quarry, and ended it somewhere nice and warm.

Shot from New Year’s dive 2010, of Steve and Jay…

In March, our Freediving friends were back, and we got more shots and video of them…

Stills Video…

Steve’s Video…

We still kept up our skills and drills at the quarry, and had many friends join us there…

There was even this one time.. at band camp…

…and even friends that couldn’t be there, but sent a little piece of them to be with us…

Our first river dive of the year was at Farran Park, on Easter Weekend. Water temps. were around 41 …

Our friend, Jeff, finished off his Commercial Diving course, and it was great to have him back around!

Dives in Rockport…

Exploring in the St. Lawrence…

..and we even made friends with some sea creatures…

We spent a bit of time in Kingston, as Steve was teaching some Fundies courses. I either helped out or found my own friends to dive with…

We also made a few trips to the Jodrey, where we also had many friends visit and join us…

We did some investigating at some other sites as well…

I also met two of the most fascinating ladies ever: Edith and Sandra. They gave me so many details and stories about their childhoods, and growing up along the St. Lawrence River, before it was flooded. I could have listened to them for days. It was amazing to learn from them.

Eric also proved that it is entirely possible to dive out of a Mini. Doubles, scooter, and stages…

Fred came up to visit us in Kingston, and DIR Ontario organized seminars over two days. Fred gave us updates from the MCEP, CINDAQ, a line survey workshop, and a presentation on the Bosnia cave systems. Steve joined in and gave a seminar on Gavin Scooter Maintenance as well. It was a fun weekend!

Fred also presented us with a CINDAQ sensor, in the name of DIR Ontario, that would be placed in one of the cave systems, and when any of us go down to visit, we can retrieve the sensor, download the data, then replace it back into the system. Very cool stuff!

Thank you, Fred!

Then came the Invasions…

This was the 3rd Annual Brockville Invasion, and had grown 30 people strong. We had an excellent weekend of amazing people, alot of laughs, and some great dives. We had friends from all over North America.

This was the second year for the Kingston Invasion, the following weekend. Another amazing group of people…

This year, we also found tiny jelly fish in the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario. This was a pretty neat thing to see!

When the Jodrey was closed down to diving, due to an oil leak, we found another Tech wreck to dive.. The Oconto. This was definitely rock and roll. I imagine we will do this one again next year. 🙂

We gathered a crew together, and repaired the vandalized line to the Gaskin.

Then there was Mexico. We went for two weeks of bliss, in the Mexican caves. Well.. one week of bliss and the GUE Conference, and a second week of tired, working bliss that Cave 2 brought on. :p

We got to retrieve our CINDAQ sensor from Xtabay and download the data, which was really fun to do. I really enjoy the GUE Conferences, as it is not only full of interesting information, but it is awesome to meet so many people from all over the world, and put faces to the names that we see on the internet. This is the best part.

Cheers to yet another wonderful year of Diving Goodness, and another cheers to 2011!


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , ,
Categories : It's 2010!

Gaskin Line Clean Up

31 10 2010

Sunday, October 24th, 2010 ~

Well, the weather wasn’t all that great for a Sunday afternoon in October, but a group of us met at Centeen Park, to fix up the line to the Gaskin. Someone had vandalized the line that Steve, Leigh, and Francois had laid about 5 years ago, and we were on a mission to fix it. We had posted for anyone that wanted to help us was welcome.

Steve and I headed to the river, and met with Mike, Jen, Andy, Cory, Adam Kulczycki, Julie, and Stephane.

Steve, Mike, and I scootered out to the wreck, running a reel from the wreck, back to the stop sign, as a reference. Mike had the new line, and proceeded to run it out, following the reel. From there, Steve put the stakes in the ground, leaving Julie and Stephane to push them in.

Of course, Steve had to push a couple in, with his fancy stake hammer. ;o)

Cory, Adam, Jen, and Andy were collecting the myriad of lines that ran in many different directions. Some of it was really good line, that we can reuse. Good thing, as we did run out of new line to run to the Gaskin. We will probably run back out next weekend to finish it up.

Bottom Time ~ 1 hour, 41 minutes
Max. Depth ~ 65′
Water Temp. ~ 53
Visibility ~ 20′

There was quite a bit of line picked up!

It was cold and rainy, but we all kept smiling, and we had a fantastic time!

Thank you to everyone that helped, and to Marc G. too!

Here is a video of some of the dive!

We capped off the day with a meal at Santa Fe, which seems to be the new favourite spot to eat. Fajita Goodness, with homemade tortilla wraps, that you can watch being made. Absolutely delicious!

Thank you so much to all that helped. It was a grand day to play and dive!


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , ,
Categories : It's 2010!

The Oconto

28 09 2010

Saturday, September 25th, 2010 ~

On Friday afternoon, I received word that our planned dive to the Jodrey for today, was not going to happen. The rumour was that it was closed down to divers, due to an oil leak, and that it would to be assessed. It has happened before, and was closed down a few years ago as well.

There were six of us ready and mixed for the Jodrey, so we tried to think of another option for today’s dive. We finally decided on the Oconto. Only 1 out of 6 of us had done it before, and the 6th last did it 9 years ago, so we thought we’d give it a go.

Jeff, at the customs dock…

We knew that the currents here were a bit rock and roll, so we made plans accordingly. We were three teams of two, and would let one team of two go, then another, then another. We planned on entering the water, clipping off to the gear line while attaching deco bottles, then heading over to the channel marker, where we would be sheltered from the worst of the current.

Channel Marker, where you can get a bit of shelter…

Eric B was my buddy, and once we got in, and deco bottles on, we made our way to the channel marker. We had done most of our gear checks on the boat, but did our remaining ones there.

Very long tag line.. just in case…

Since we didn’t know what to expect, other than raging current, our plan was to descend on the trigger, five minutes, heading upstream, and drift onto the wreck. We followed our plan, and at 5 minutes, started to drift, and finish our descent. We weren’t sure what the wreck looked like, so we kept our eyes peeled. There were some seriously massive boulders along the way, which could have easily been mistaken for pieces of wreckage. Yes, I did mistake a giant one for a piece of something…

We did come upon some wooden wreckage though, that looked like a piece of a hull. There wasn’t much to it, so I wondered if that was it. Did we miss it?? We drifted on, and came upon a giant mast-like structure, sticking out of the periwinkle shells. Ok.. how about this? No, this was not the Oconto.

Just past this area, we came upon some large, wooden wreckage. Jackpot!! Ok.. this was not easy to miss. We checked out both large pieces of the wreck.. Half of it was laying upright, on an angle, with the other half laying upside down. Apparently, there is some wonder of whether or not there are actually two wrecks at this site. When we got to it, we saw one of the other teams of two inside a swim through. We did a little investigating, then met up with both teams in between the two pieces. I gave them a wave as we passed by.

When it was time for us to turn the dive, Eric and I decided once again, to hit the trigger, and move upstream, so that we could drift a little, on deco. We prepared for our gas switch a little early, so that there were no issues when it was time. Everything went smoothly and quickly at the 70′ stop. Once we got to our 20′ stop, Eric found a sweet spot to move into, where he was sheltered from most of the blasting current. I tried to tuck in as well, but didn’t get as sweet of a spot.

Up ahead, I noticed a bit of a cubby, where I thought it might be easier, so I signaled to Eric, and we moved up. Yes, this was much better. The current was still moving, but there was a little bit of alleviation here. Jeremy also noticed our little spot, and he and Kevin moved in as we moved up.

When surfacing, we tucked in behind the marker buoy once again, and did our 1 ATA deco stop… 😛 We all seemed to surface in perfect succession, and we all made our way back to the boat, taking turns, as we had gone out.

Max. Depth ~ 178′
Bottom Time ~ 67 minutes
Water Temp. ~ 64
Visibility ~ 40′

Frankie, clinging for a quick, “Rock On, Dood!”

Steve, coming up the ladder…

Jeremy…

Kevin…

Eric – Thanks for the dive, my friend! Thanks to Andy, for the loan of his scooter too!

Me…

On our way back, we saw buoys over the stern of the Jodrey, where there were divers earlier, assessing the oil. We did actually see a few splotches of oil on the surface. Let’s hope there isn’t much damage to the water, and that the leak can be contained.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , ,
Categories : It's 2010!

Jelly Roll Park!

29 08 2010

Saturday, August 28th, 2010 ~

Time for some more scootering adventures! Steve and I met Claudia, Oren, and Jen down at Centeen Park, and had planned to hit the little “Unknown Hull” that Steve discovered a few weeks back.

Jen, getting her gear together…

Our plan was going to be a bit different from our previous treks to the wreck, but we had hoped to still come upon it.

On the previous weekend in Kingston, Jennifer had told us of some Jelly Fish that she had seen in the water. I was completely mesmerized, and was a little bummed that I had not been on the boats, so that I could see these little guys.

We did our pre-dive checks, and started to make our way out. The park was busy, as there were a couple of Open Water courses going on, so we made sure that we were out of their way. As we ventured out, I was absolutely wide-eyed when I saw a little clear creature in the water column, with mini tentacles, and a round shape, moving rather “jellyish-like.”

I saw one!! Then another.. and another.. Holy smokes! These little guys were so neat looking! I can’t believe they are in the St. Lawrence! They were in about 20′ to 30′ of water, and we saw a bunch of them along the way.

We headed 30 minutes upstream, on the trigger, dropped into the channel, then drifted for 30 minutes amongst the periwinkle shells. Before ducking into the channel, I actually let go of the trigger a couple of times, to allow the jellies to pass through.

As we drifted, we came upon some more very old wreckage. It was in about 65′ to 70′ of water, and just had some ribbing left to it. It was all wood, with ladder-like rungs through the ribbing. There were big metal pieces strewn about one side of it, and it was hard to tell what they once were. It was still very interesting to check out.

We left this wreckage, and went in search of the “Unknown Hull.” It seems we had overshot it, as we didn’t find it this time. Oh well.

We made our way back to the Gaskin, where there were some charters moored to it. We motored around the wreck, where there were some folks a little mesmerized by motorized machines passing by. We swam around the wreck for a bit, then decided to head home. As we moved in the direction of the line, we were saddened to see that it had been cut. Someone on shore had mentioned that the line was gone, and that they had driven four hours to do that dive from shore, for the first time, and it was missing. They had been to the stop sign on Friday afternoon, and the line was still there. It was gone by Saturday morning.

Steve, Leigh, and Francois had laid that line about 5 years ago, and you could tell that the line had been cut. There were no anchor marks, and there were still bits here and there, that you could see a definite cut mark. Sad. There were even parts of it balled up, underneath a rock.

So, we still had a great dive, and it was good to get back out into the channel!

Bottom Time ~ 116 minutes
Max. Depth ~ 104′
Water Temp. ~ 71 (the river is starting to cool a bit)

Claudia and I…

Sunday, August 29th, 2010 ~

Eric came down to join in the fun today, and since we all had the burn time, we were going to follow the “usual” path to the “Unknown Hull.”

We would head upstream for 40 minutes, drop into the channel, drift for 40 mins, then head back up to 75′, where the wreck sits. As we headed out, there was a noise that made us all jump. It didn’t sound like any boat or sea doo that we’ve heard before. It was extremely loud, and actually felt like someone was firing missiles into the water. We looked around, but didn’t see anything. Of course, our first reaction was wondering if a scooter had blown up behind us…lol. What it was remains a mystery. We saw many more Jellies as well.

Along the way, we found even more remnants of a really old wreck. There was a huge chain buried in the periwinkle shells, that was very long. There were also chunks of wood and metal, as well as a bunch of bottles in just about every direction. Another bit of goodness to explore on another dive.

We also made it to one of the horse carriages. There were so many weeds on it, and the horse harness is pretty mangled now. You can still see the metal wheels, with big spikes in the middle, and other parts that are difficult to distinguish.. for me, anyway.

We managed to get to the Unknown Hull again, and showed it to the rest of the gang. There’s not much left to it, but it’s old, new to us, and very cool. I decided to leave the camera at home, but should come back with it next time.

It was around here that Jen must have come into contact with some kind of clear petroleum. It was after her gas switch so she wondered if it was her gas.. which it ended up not being. We had turned the dive anyway, to be sure. Whatever kind of oil it was had completely encased her back up regulator, neck seal, and part of her wing. You couldn’t see it, but you could definitely smell it. I think Jen has now mastered the art of oil clean up.

On our way in, we met up with Chris P. and Allan in the shallows. Chris had his camera with him, and took some pics of us.

Me, taken by Chris Phinney…

Bottom Time ~ 118 minutes
Max. Depth ~ 100′
Water Temp. ~ 71

There were two OW courses going on, and I spoke with one fellow that was so pleased that he had finished his course, and had succeeded with the mask removal/replacement. He said he had tried it last year, but just couldn’t deal with the mask, until now. Practice, practice, practice… Congratulations!!  W00t!

It was great to partake in another weekend, filled with friends and Diving Goodness!


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , ,
Categories : It's 2010!

« Previous Entries Next Entries »