Nary A Photo Was Taken

21 07 2014

July 20th, 2014 ~

Today, Eric B., Jen, and I went out for a scooter run. Eric and I brought along enough bottles for us to do rotations, after our dive.

We scootered upstream for 30 minutes, then made our way into the channel. The visibility was much better in the channel, than in the shallows – thank goodness! There were spots where the current was absolutely ripping, and spots where it was non-existent. Go figure.

We drifted at 100′, for about 30 minutes, then made our way back up. We did a little deco, then some bottle rotations.

Hooray, for bottle rotations! Exciting, I know!

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 29 mins.
Max. Depth: 103′
Water Temp.: 68F

I can’t believe that I didn’t take a single photo of our dive, entry, exit, team, bottles, scooters, anything…

I shall use a picture from a previous post, then. We cannot have a post without pictures! Pics, or it didn’t happen! 😛

T2 = T minus 7 days…

 


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Courses, Of Course

19 07 2014

July, 2014 ~

The next couple of weeks brought GUE courses, to the front line. Steve was teaching a Primer, a DPV-1, as well as some Fundies Goodness, and hours of in-water time.

Congratulations, to all of the students!

 

A small glimpse of the new under water statues, at Centeen Park…

Between all of this goodness, Eric B and I went out for a skillz dive, in preparation for our upcoming Tech 2 course. We each brought three bottles, so that we could practice our rotations, at the quarry. At 20′, we dropped our bottles, to do valve drills, s-drills, finning techniques, blowing smbs, and all of the usual skills. Then, it was rotation time. I seemed to be having quite an issue, getting my last bottle’s butt clipped to my hip D-ring. I was getting quite frustrated, and my silly, slightly injured wrist was really bothering me. Ok. Deep breath… Let’s try this again… I took off the bottles, laid them on the bottom, and tried again. Yes, the clip that I was using, was a little bit tough, but nothing that should be giving me such an issue. Here I go, again…

Same thing… just couldn’t reach that darn D-Ring… wtf??? I put the bottles down, again, and decided to switch them around, just to test the theory. That’s when I noticed that the bottom clip had been left, wrapped around the hose of the stage bottle. Well, duhhhhh… no wonder I couldn’t reach the inside, with that clip.

I unwrapped it, then had at it, again. This time, success. *Phew* Eric’s went a fair bit smoother than mine did.

*Notes to self*
1) Check to see if bottoms of stage bottle clips are wrapped behind the tubing, before doing bottle rotations.
2) Bottle rotations with full bottles of 32% suck. Yes, I was already aware of this, but now, I am extra aware.

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 6 mins.
Max. Depth: 19′
Water Temp.: 66F
Frustration Level: Varying, but at least I was persistent 🙂

 


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Morrisburg – A Current Affair!

1 07 2014

Sunday, June 29th, 2014 ~

A large gaggle of us met down at the Morrisburg public dock, where we discussed our dive plan. We would enter down the road, then scooter/drift through the old channel, and through Lock 23. Since we had a bit of a distance to drift, we unloaded at our entry, then brought most of the vehicles down to the exit, and drove back to the entry, in our van. We would pick up our van, after the dive!

Some of the gear, unloaded…

It appears that sometimes gear DOES grow on trees!

We were going to scooter/drift in “this” direction (east)…

We entered the water, carefully. There were some slippery rocks, so we took our time. We scootered south, into the old channel, then started to drift. The visibility was not great, so staying together was a bit of a task. We did manage, though.

When we reached the lock wall, we tried to stay on the north side, but the current was absolutely ripping there, so we opted to go up and over, to the North side. I was loving how the XK1 handled the screaming current! Perhaps we can try to scooter upstream, another time… the dives where we always have to resort to “Plan B,” since the current gets to strong, to even scooter against.

Before we made it to the beach area, we found what may have been a dump area. There was some old garbage, and a large pile of bottles, in the silt. We blew an SMB, then swam over to the beach area. It was a beautiful day, so the beach was quite busy. We usually get asked by both kids and adults, “What do you see, down there?”

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 39 mins.
Max. Depth: 58′
Water Temp.: 62F
Vis.: 5′ to 10′ – Milky

Our exit point…

Chris took Steve to pick up our van, while I was the designated gear watcher. Raph had quite a drive ahead of him, so he left right away.

After gear loading…

At our post dive meal, I could not help but think of my friend, Jeff Schrieber, making fun of our mooses aboot the hooses…

Cheers, Jeff! 😛

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Daryaw Day

30 06 2014

Saturday, June 28th, 2014 ~

Well, it’s about time that we got on a boat, this year, so we made our way down to St. Lawrence Park, to do exactly that. We were using Under Where? Dive Charters (Tom Scott), and were getting on Pork Chop, with Ryan at the helm, and Alex as crew!

Raphael had driven up from NYC, and Frankie had driven from Quebec City, so the four of us packed the night before, and made tracks, early’ish…

At St. Lawrence Park, we met Chris Phinney, Neil MacMillan, Kevin Abe, Eric Vermette, James Young, and Hong Phan, and loaded up the boat. It was a very busy day at the park, since they had a “Breakfast On The Island” event, going on. There were line-ups of folks, waiting to get on the shuttle boats, to take them for breakfast, on one of the 1000 Islands (Refugee Island). There was even a camera crew, that was catching all of the action, and even caught me carrying my scooter to the boat. My 15 seconds of fame, perhaps? 😛

Once we finally got all of our gear loaded, and parked all of our cars across the street from the park, we were off! To the DARYAW!

Scootery Goodness, alongside Captain Ryan!

I was buddying up with Raphael; Steve was with Frankie and Eric; Chris, Hong, and James teamed up; and Kneel and Kevin Aaaaaaaaaaaabe were buddies.

As we tied up to the mooring, we put our stages and scooters in the water. We noticed that the surface current was absolutely ripping, and it was probably the strongest that I have ever seen it there, in the times that I have dived the Daryaw.

Kev, Raph, James, and Eric V., just before gearing up.

Buddy teams took turns getting in, clipping on bottles and scooters, and dropping down. Raph and I were the last team to descend. It was Raph’s first time on the Daryaw, so we took it easy on the descent. We did have to hit the triggers, in order to get back to the wreck, which was not bad, at all.

Looking out, from underneath the shelter of the overturned wreck…

We made our way underneath, and Steve was taking pictures of everyone, as we swam around. The wreck is upside down, so we are able to swim “up,” into the holds. There is one hold that you can surface in, thanks to the giant air pocket. Steve, Raph, and I surfaced in it, giggled for a little bit, then back down.

Frankie, peeking under the wreck…

Kev and Kneel…

Eric V….

Hong and Raph…

Chris, peeking out of the wreck, with Raph, below. Not sure who the other diver is (there was another boat that pulled up, as we descended)…

One of hundreds of eels, on this wreck…

The plan was to drift off of the wreck, and one of each buddy team was to blow an SMB, as we came up, and the boat would pick us up. We stayed on the north wall, to be safe (and not drift into the shipping channel). Raph and I started our drift a little bit earlier than we had originally planned, but still had a nice, easy drift along the wall.

The stern of the wreck, as Steve was drifting away…

Frankie, Eric V., Steve…

Raph and I surfaced, and Ryan and Alex saw us, pretty quickly. They zoomed over, picked us up, and we waited for the others to pop up, which they did, only minutes after us.

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 1 minute
Max. Depth: 96′
Water Temp.: 62F

Raph and I…

Hong, Chris, Raph, James…

Steve, Eric V., Frankie Boy (the one and only)…

Kev and Kneel…

We made our way back to St. Lawrence Park, and unloaded. Even though there isn’t as much gas in the tanks, as we get back, it still seems like the gear gets heavier, after the dive! 😛

Thank you, Ryan and Alex! You guys were awesome, and we couldn’t have asked for a better day!


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Rollin’ Up And Down The River…

23 06 2014

Saturday, June 21st, 2014 ~

Since Steve and I were the only team available for the initial Project Baseline: St. Lawrence River – Canada dive, we decided to do a bit of a dive, before our station-seeking, on the Gaskin.

We brought our scooters and a camera along, and went for a ride!

We scootered upstream, and before we dropped into the channel, we played around, and took some pictures…
(Pics of me, taken by Steve; Pics of Steve, taken by me – Nikon D200 – playing with strobes)

 

After our “photo session,” we dropped into the channel, and looked for anything “neat,” that we could find!

We did come across many burned planks of wood, that could very well have come from a couple of the wrecks, from the War of 1812. We know that they were burned at the water line, in the area.

Also along the path of wreckage…

More burned wood…

There was a lot of debris along the path that we took, and we are happy that we had the camera along, to take some pics of it.

Once we started to make our way back up to the Gaskin, we readied for our initial Project Baseline: St. Lawrence River – Canada dive. Details of that dive, are in the entry, before this one – found, HERE!

 

Bow of the Gaskin…

If you would like more information on Project Baseline, and how to get involved, in your own community, you can find information HERE!

Doing a little deco, at 30’…

…and a little more deco, at 20′!

Bottom Time: 3 hours, 12 mins.
Max. Depth: 107′
Water Temp.: 60F
Vis.: 5′ to 20′ – milky

I did get a little chilly, near the end of the dive, but it was absolutely wonderful, to be playing out in the channel, again!

 


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