Holiday At The River!

7 08 2012

Monday, August 6th, 2012 ~ Civic Holiday!

River, you say? I’m in! A small gaggle of us went for a tour! It was time to test the truck location (meaning, to see if we could locate it again), and show it to our friends that had yet to see it! At least, that was the plan…

Myself, Steve, Chris P., Oren, Jen B., Mike, and Michel had scooters, and were willing to travel… in the water… to the truck… we hoped!

Our first stop was the Gaskin, since our bearings had been from there. We reached it, headed South, then east, then for a drift! The current wasn’t moving as quickly this time around, so it did take a little longer, moving along the channel.

Wouldn’t you know it… TRUCK! SWEET! That is three times, now (although, I missed one of the times, due to my ripped neck seal). Jen had her camera with her, and got some video. So, yes… There is videographic evidence that we have seen the truck! No photoshop involved! w00t!

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 9 minutes
Max. Depth: 101′
Water Temp.: 75F


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Twenty 12

It’s True… We Finally Found It

4 07 2012

Monday, July 2nd, 2012 ~

It is hard to believe, but after 5 years of searching for that elusive old Chevy truck, we found the darn thing. Yes, other people have found it, and even with others’ directions (including GPS coordinates, that we hadn’t used), we were still not able to find the thing.. until today.

Scooters, taken by Eric Bourque…

The goal of the dive was not even to search for the truck! We scootered upstream, dropped into the channel, then drifted. We drifted for a while, then came back up to 65′, where we ended up at the Gaskin.

Since we had time and gas, we took a bearing off of the Gaskin, scootered south, then east, then drifted… It was myself, Steve, Eric, and James, and since the visibility was not that great, we spread out enough that we could still see each other and our lights, but also enough so that we could cover a good bit of ground. I was on the far left side, then Steve, then James, then Eric.

We were all keeping our eyes peeled, when up ahead, I saw a very slight darkness in the ground. This is normal though, as the riverbed does change in places, form periwinkle shells to dirt, and vice versa. Just to be sure, I hit the trigger… HOLY CRAP!!! IT’S A TRUCK!!!

I signaled like a mad lady, and everyone scootered over. It did occur to me that they might think I was pulling an “Out Of Gas,” but since we were on the lookout for something that we had been searching for for years, I was confident that they would realize that it was definitely fast signal worthy.

I think we did happy dances for about 10 minutes (Ok, it might have been 5, but it seemed longer). We swam and scootered around it, checking it out. From the size of it, it is definitely an easy target to miss, especially in visibility like this!

Of course, there was absolutely no photographic or videographic evidence of this dive… I guess we will just have to go back!

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 11 minutes

Max. Depth: 105′

Water Temp.: 68F

Most excellent!

James, Steve, me, Eric. Taken by Eric Bourque and his camera timer. 🙂


Also,  a shout-out to Laurynn! We found it on your Birthday! w00t! 🙂


Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Twenty 12

Rockin’ Dive

3 07 2012

Sunday, July 1st, 2012 ~

Eric came to join Steve and I for a dive (crazy, I know…). We found a little spot in the river that Steve and I had been to before, but it had been quite a while. We figured we would give it a go, since we couldn’t get near Centeen, today (Canada Day celebrations).

We dropped our scooters in the water, then geared up. There were a few islands around, and we figured it would be neat to scooter around them. The entry is quite shallow, which was fun to put fins on. We had to go out quite a bit, in order to get ourselves ready to go. There were many very sticky and soft parts of the riverbed, which made it a little tricky to walk out. It wasn’t so bad, when taking the scooters out, but with tanks on, we sank in a little more. We just took our time, and all was well.

We started out, and saw some absolutely amazing rock formations, under the water.  At first, we wondered if some of them might have been man-made, but if so, they would have been awfully hard to put there. Some were jagged, and others were perfectly smoothed down and square.

There was so much to look at, and we did not realize that the channel went this deep, here. Extremely cool dive, and one we will definitely need to do again!

Bottom Time: 57 minutes
Max. Depth: 104′
Water Temp.: 68F


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Twenty 12

Zzzzzzooooooooooooom!

11 06 2012

Saturday, June 9th, 2012 ~ 

Today’s dive was at the quarry… an extremely busy quarry. There were cars as far as the eye could see! Well.. at least into the upper parking lot, as well as a full house, up by the toilets.

Today’s dive was a Fundies Tech upgrade checkout dive. I hadn’t been in the water for a couple of weeks (stoOpid work..lol), so I was happy to get in the water!

I got to play the role of “buddy,” which was also much fun! Fundies Dive 6! w00t! 🙂

Bottom Time:  28 mins.
Max Depth: 30′
Water Temp: 57F
Vis.: Not great – There were also an incredible number of OW checkout dives.

From there, we headed to Jean Burger, for lunch, then home! By noon!!! :O

 

Sunday, June 10th, 2012 ~ 

Today, Steve and I headed down to Centeen Park. Steve was taking a couple of fine folks out for their GUE DPV 1 Experience dive, in the St. Lawrence River, and I went along for the ride!

It was pretty busy at the park, although not crazy. For this dive, I used my “Big Girl Tanks (my 130s), which I have not used since the fall. Yes, they were still a little heavier than my AL80s. 🙂

A little boat that passed by the park…

We also had some visitors, who obviously didn’t care about the pretend foxes around them, as well as did not pay attention to the “police” tape that was put up for them, as a barrier!

My Big Girl Tanks, with my Purple AL80s in the background (I have my fancy Light Monkey wing on those!)…

We got in, did our checks, and our plan was to scooter upstream at about 30′, drop into the channel, drift, make our way back up to the Gaskin, play around for a while, then come back in.

The guys did a fantastic job, and as we came back into about 20′, they were congratulated with handshakes!

Way to go, guys!

Bottom Time:  78 mins.
Max Depth: 94′
Water Temp: 60F
Vis.: Not great in the shallows, opening up in the channel.

This is one heck of a dive mobile!

After the dive, Eric came to meet us, too. We had planned on doing another dive, so we switched our gear over to our AL80s, and grabbed a stage each. We also switched scooter bodies, so that we would have a longer burn time.

So… I can still report that there was no truck to be found… I swear, I think it must get moved when we dive. We did manage to find some wreckage that I swear we have seen before. It is an old piece of a wooden bow. I know it is the same one that we had seen on another occasion.. although, the current was very mild this time around, and I got to actually take a look at it! Once we got to a couple of small shoals, near the 3 Sister Islands, we decided to turn back towards shore.  We stayed at depth for a while, hopeful for a truck sighting, but.. alas.. today was still not the day!

We passed by a bottle jug that we had passed on the way out, so we knew we still weren’t going to find that darn vehicle!

Still an excellent dive, and a lot of fun!

Bottom Time: 71  mins.
Max Depth: 99′
Water Temp: 60F
Vis.: Not great in the shallows, opening up in the channel.

Eric’s new camera!

Eric took a couple of pics of us, with his new camera! Taken by Eric Bourque…

Yet another silly (FUN) self-portrait!


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Twenty 12

Another Attempt…

6 12 2011

Sunday, December 4th, 2011 ~

So.. we decided to have another look for that darn truck… The one that people must be photoshopping into pics, as we still can’t find that stoOpid thing…lol. We have been searching for that thing on and off, for about 4 years.

Steve, Eric, Cory, Raluca, and myself went on the hunt. Although, today’s hunt would be shorter than other attempts, as the water was getting colder. We decided to go to the Gaskin first, then head south, and drift…

Gearing up…

Guess what??? Yeah.. we didn’t find it. We did have a fun dive though, and I was trying my new Santi undies, which were extremely warm. They would have been even warmer, if my suit didn’t flood, I’m sure. I was pretty much soaked, from head to toe, and it seems that I did not have enough weight with my new undies. At the end of the dive, I was extremely floaty. I guess a couple of extra pounds are needed with these babies!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 3 mins.
Max. Depth: 101′
Water Temp.: 44F
Visibility: Not great, at all

Steve and Eric, with a hand action shot!

I guess I moved a bit too quickly on this one, and caused a bit of blur.. Doh…Cory and Raluca were tough, seeing as they only just got back from the warm cavez of Mexico. Congrats on your course, guys!

I was even a bit blurred with my self portrait.. sheesh…

At least I got a decent shot of the entry, as the sun was going down, behind the clouds…

Today’s dinner = Santa Fe!

It seems I will be reporting from the quarry, for our next dives! St. Lawrence, we’ll see you in the spring!


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Wow... 2011!

« Previous Entries Next Entries »