Nope… Not This Time, Either…

7 05 2012

Sunday, May 6th, 2012 ~ 

So, we made another attempt at looking for the elusive truck. The old Chevy truck that seems to hide from us, every time we look for it. We have been looking for this thing for about 5 years, and although we know we are all around the right area, we never seem to actually find it. Many other friends have found it, although I am starting to wonder if it actually exists, or if people keep photoshopping into their pics and videos, just to tantalize us. 😛

We arrived at Centeen Park, brought our scooters to the water, geared up, and in we went. The visibility was horrible, and there was a ton of green river snot (algae), floating everywhere. I actually caught a piece of it on my upper lip, as we scootered along.

Jenn E. even came by to say hello!

We have had a couple of friends try to help us in our quest, including the directions they follow, as well as another friend giving us GPS coordinates (thanks, Dave). I guess they would be more helpful if we actually plugged them in somewhere. Mike says that would be cheating, if we did that, but at this point, I don’t care. Lol… We’ve been looking for such a long time!!! Today, it did feel like we were getting close. We didn’t see the milk jugs that were supposed to be around the truck, but we did find an area where it was more flat, and what looked like a roadway. A truck should be near a roadway, right???

Oh well.. I guess we will have to continue our search on another day. We did see a fancy pike, though, and it was still a rather fun dive. As long as we still get to play in the water, it is a good day!

Bottom Time: 63 mins.
Max Depth: 96′
Water Temp: 46F
Vis.: Gross, with bits of green fluff.

Mike, James, and Jen B.

James and I! Me, with some serious dive hair! It looks like I also got a bit of sun, a neck seal rub, and cold water face! 😛

We topped the day off with some All You Can Eat Fajitas, at Santa Fe! Thanks for the torts, Penny! 😀

Until our next quest for the Invisible Truck!!!


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Cavezzzzzzz… and Sthcooterthzzzzzz….

10 04 2012

Friday, March 30th, 2012 ~ 

Steve and I hopped a plane to the Mayan Riviera! This whole “Direct Flight” thing is the absolute best! From the airlines that we have used, West Jet is the best, so far. One extra baggage fee is way better than $12/kg over 50 lbs. We also had the best flight attendant that I have ever had. She was absolutely hilarious. During the mandatory emergency demonstrations, “If your life vest does not inflate, you are… SOL! Just kidding… ” 😛

We arrived in Cancun, got a “green light,” through security, then met our rental car fellow. We hopped into the van, where there was a nice, young couple from Mexico City, that were here for the weekend. As we pulled out, they pointed out to us that Robert Gomez (a movie star, in Mexico) was there (we saw him talking to a bunch of cameras), and was surrounded by Police security.

At the car rental office, we learned that the word for “Hatchback,” in Spanish, is… Hatchback…

We finally arrived at our condo, unloaded a few things, then went to meet Kathy, for dinner. Ahhhhh… Fajitas and a Daquiri Fresa!

Saturday, March 31st, 2012 ~

We made our way to the shop, grabbed some gear, and went to Fenom, with Kathy. We took the path to some Mastadon bones, which was extremely cool to see! We tied in to another line, which turned into “swiss cheese.” Very neat cave.

We had a nice, relaxing dive, and even saw a medium-sized brown crayfish inside the cave. He must have taken a wrong turn. We played around in the basin a little, and saw a couple of other lines, which looked very “sidemount-like.” There was another that may have been the downstream line.

Bottom Time:  1 hour, 27 mins.
Max Depth: 57′
Water Temp: 77F
Vis.: Gin clear!

We also saw a funky looking tree, along the way…

When we got back to the shop, Laurynn and Kathryn were just pulling in! How about that timing?? We followed them back to Akumal for some dinner, picked up a few groceries, then back home, to sleep!

Sunday, April 1st, 2o12 ~

We met Laurynn and Kathryn at the shop, and packed our stuff. Today, we were heading to Minotauro. We opted to stay on the main line, since today’s objective was PICTURES! Kathryn brought her camera along, and Steve and I were models for the day! We were rigged up with slave strobes, which would light up the cave behind us, when Kathryn took the shots. What an amazing experience!! Such a beautiful cave, too!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 37 mins.
Max Depth: 48′
Water Temp: 77F

One of Kathryn’s amazing shots, taken at Minotauro! Steve and I…

Dinner was back in Akumal, then Steve and I headed back to the condo, hung up our gear, relaxed a bit, and readied for our next day…. Scooters!

Monday, April 2nd, 2012 ~ 

8:30 at the shop, and we got all of our stuff together. We gathered ’round the scooters, where we went through some maintenance, usage, charging, cleaning, silicone greasing, and putting them together. They were a little different from our Gavins, and we were both looking forward to trying out the Suexes!

We had some classroom time first, then loaded Danny’s truck, and made our way to Eden. Once there, we adjusted our tow cords, had a bit more instruction, then headed to the water, for skills! We practiced many different things, including stop/go, pulling/pushing, pulling with elbow, towing a second scooter, towing a buddy, OOG towing, checking buoyancy, and turning at different angles. We headed into the cavern zone, running the reel, and towing the second scooter. I learned just how negative the Halcyon scooter is, when weighted for salt water, while we were in fresh water.

I brought the reel in, and.. well… I didn’t really have any issues, but let’s just say that the line on the reel, wasn’t exactly even…lol.

Danny’s favourite expression: Pure. Mickey. Mouse! 😛

Total Bottom Time: 2 Hours, 45 mins.
Max Depth: 38′
Water Temp: 77F

Back to the shop, unloaded, checked scooter voltage, plugged them in, then off to the grocery store, for some groceries! We then made our way to Latitude 20, for some Quesadillas con Pollo, y dos Cocas!

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012 ~ 

We had a break from our course today, as Danny had made an obligation for the day, so we headed to Jailhouse, with Laurynn and Kathryn! The entry was absolutey zero visibility, but once we made our way in, we saw some beautiful cave. Laurynn had her video camera with her, too!

We saw some animal bones, took a jump, and saw some really stunning cave. I can’t wait to see the video!!

Total Bottom Time: 1 Hour, 43 mins.
Max Depth: 76′
Water Temp: 77F

 

After our most excellent dive, we headed back to Tulum, for some delicious backroad feasting! Back to shop, unload gear, back to condo, rest, then back to Latitude 20!

Pic taken by Laurynn Evans…

Oh… and… Do NOT act out scenes of Platoon with Charlie Sheen…

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 ~ 

Back to scooter school! Today was Gas Planning and Burn Time planning! Today’s dives were at Chac Mool, with two stages each. Steve got to take a third stage bottle, and I had a second scooter.

Holy halocline, Batman! This was our first time in Chac Mool, and most of our dive was in the halocline. We saw, “The Monster,” which is the biggest formation in any of the Mexico caves, on the downstream line. Danny scooted over beside it, to give us a perspective on how big that thing really was!

We were doing calculations as we went on with our dive, of our scooter burn times. I had a hard time remembering the numbers at first, but did eventually get the hang of it. Going in, I was using the Suex, with the Halcyon scooter towing behind, and on the way back, switched it up, to see how I would be with the larger scooter towing behind. That went well, although, I think I needed a bit of a shorter tow leash on the bigger scooter.

Dive 1 – Downstream Line:

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 9 mins.
Max Depth: 42′
Water Temp: 77F

On our second dive, we went on the Upstream line. I ran the line for this one, took a third bottle, and Steve had the extra scooter. I found myself very relaxed on this dive. We tried the scooter override on this dive, too. What an excellent day!

Dive 2 – Upstream Line:

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 14 mins.
Max Depth: 51′
Water Temp: 77F

We went back to the shop, unloaded, tended to scooters, did some DPV 1 presenting, then to Subway, and back to the condo! We definitely slept well!

Thursday, April 5th, 2012 ~ 

Today was Dos Ojos. I had two bottles and two scooters, while Steve had three bottles. I led this dive. We followed the cavern line, ran a spool off to the main line. We took a jump, and after continuing for a bit, dropped our first stage bottles, then scooters, swam for a bit, then dropped our second stage bottles. There was some really neat cave, here!

We reached our turn pressure, and headed back. Once we returned to the basin, we played “games.” Danny set up a line for us, and we were picking up stage bottles, on the fly. We would be driving one scooter, towing two, carrying two bottles, and picking up a third. How fun was that? Although, I cut the pachoosies out of my fingers, trying to clip that third one! I needed practice on clipping that third bottle on.

Still a most excellent day!

Bottom Time: 3 hours, 31 mins.
Max Depth: 49′
Water Temp: 77F

We went back to the shop, unloaded, checked voltage, plugged scooters in, loaded up for Thursday, then did more DPV 1 presentations.  We then went over to meet Danny’s twins! So adorable!

It was getting late, so we ended up back at Subway, and as we neared the condo, we saw Marina. Steve went back to work on his DPV 1 stuff, and I went to shoot the breeze with Marina!

Friday, April 6th, 2012 ~

Shop, scooters, Nahoch!

Lowering down scooters and stages…

Today, we had two scooters and two bottles each. Main line, a jump to the right, drop 1st stages, continue on, drop 2nd stages and scooters, and went for a swim! When I was getting close to my turn pressure, I noticed Steve reaching for his markers, to mark the next intersection. We have a very similar SAC rate, so instead of pulling out the markers, I just signaled to Steve, and turned the dive.

As we made our way back to our bottles and scooters, I was given quite a scenario, as I listened to Steve giggling in the background. Let’s just say that clipping on three bottles (I got to take Danny’s extra bottle) and two scooters while in zero visibility was fun! 😛

On the way back, Steve signals me… “Missing something?” It seems that my third bottle had unclipped, and I had not felt it (duhhh…). As I was clipping it back on, a couple of cookies that I had in my compass bungees came out, so I quickly picked them up, and carried on. We got going again, and I get another signal… “Missing something else??” My knife had come out of its pouch, which has never happened in my entire history of diving… It is also in a velcro pouch, so I was really beginning to think that Danny was having a field day with me! Me = Dork… Carry on!

When we surfaced, I asked if Danny had been picking on me, and it turned out that he hadn’t.. well… not the stuff that had escaped from me.. As for the zero visibility, there was no denial! 😀 Still such an amazing dive, and definitely a wonderful learning experience!

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 58  mins.
Max Depth: 31′
Water Temp: 77F
Vis.: Stunning… most of the time!

Packed up, headed back to the shop to switch out tanks and charge scooters, then Steve gave his DPV 1 Presentations!

We then headed for dinner with “The Gang!” We went out to The Pub, with myself, Steve, Fred, Angelica, Laurynn, Kathryn, Kathy, Jason, Ali, Cameron, Evan, Alessandra, and Peter. We had just a few laughs!

Saturday, April 7th, 2012 ~ 

Last day of Cave Scooter School! Today’s dive was in Yax Chen/Ox Bel Ha! We loaded up, and were ready to go!

Partially loaded…

When we arrived, we were happy to have the wheel barrel, to bring gear to the water!

When we arrived, there was a bit of a photo shoot going on. It was incredibly hot and humid, so after bringing gear to the water, we decided to have a bit of lunch, before getting into the water.

Today’s dive was planned as a two stage, two scooter dive, carrying an extra bottle each, for kicks. I was leading this dive, and it was definitely different to scooter it, than to swim it. It is quite a different cave from the other Mexico caves, being dark, and of different formation. Those tarpin in one of the passing cenotes are extremely cool.

We were on the Halcyon scooters for the first while, and then switched to the Suex. It was right around our first stage drop, so we did that, too. Then came our second and third stage bottle drops (along with scooters), and we carried on, swimming. We reached our back gas turn pressure, then started to head back. As we picked up our goodies along the way, Steve was handed a fourth bottle, as well as my towed scooter. He had four bottles and three scooters on him. I ended up with three bottles and one scooter…. for a little while…

Then, it was my turn… I couldn’t expect to get away with that, could I?? 😛 Then I was given an extra bottle, plus the other two towed scooters.. Four bottles, three scooters… Yippppppieee! It went very well, except that I need to pay a little bit closer attention to how much gas I dump from my wing, when carrying this amount of gear, with depth changes. I think I can handle that. 🙂

I have to say, that this was a most excellent workshop, and I love how we were both challenged. It is pretty amazing how Danny seemed to know when to challenge my comfort level, and make me realize that I am capable of more than I imagined. I can say that I can apply what I learned from this workshop to every aspect of my diving.

I feel very lucky to have taken training from Fred, Chris, and Danny. It is really fantastic to be able to share in some of each of their knowledge. I would also like to thank Kathy Dicker, for giving me compliments that I never imagined receiving. They really mean a lot!

Sunday, April 8th, 2012 ~ Happy Easter!

Today, we were meeting Kathy and Lamont at ZG, then off to Grand Cenote! That is, after stopping for some ice cream…

Steve and I each had a stage, and were heading to “La Boca.” We were told that this was some absolutely beautiful cave, and were excited to see it! We would have to do 5 jumps to get to it, so were happy to have a map in my wet notes. We did check it a couple of times.

There was some restrictive passage along the way, and some gorgeous decorations. When we reached the 5th jump, we ascended into a room that seriously moved me. I cannot even express how incredible this small room was. Beautiful cave is an understatment… Just.Freakin’.Stunning. This has to be one of my favourite dives, so far!!!

We went a little further, as we still had usable back gas. We approached a “Y,” in a very silty area, that seemed to pinch down into what looked like sidemount territory. We decided to turn around, and head back. Amazing dive!!!

After the 5th jump, we had passed through a layer of water, that appeared to be like a halocline. We were very confused, seeing as we were already in fresh water. When we asked Fred about it later, it turned out to be a layer of “fresher” fresh water, up in a dome, that came from rain water, creating yet another layer. Very cool!

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 55 mins.
Max Depth: 39′
Water Temp: 77F
Vis.: Spectacular!

We surfaced, and still had quite a bit of back gas, so we opted to go back in, to check out a small jump, off of the main line. It was a cool little spot, that was worth a look! We even passed Kathy and Lamont, along the way.

We headed back to PA, had a short nap, then dinner with Ali, Cameron, Kathy, Lamont, and Evan, at Latitude 20.

Very fun day!

Sunday, April 9th, 2012 ~

Today, we had planned on going for a dive with Fred, but Steve had a pretty nasty ear infection. As we left to meet Fred at the shop, we were slowed by a “friend,” blocking the path…

He was more than two feet long, and would not budge. We tried to encourage him to move over, but he got a bit aggressive, so we had to wait until he decided it was time to move. *Shudder*

Once we made it past, we headed out!

We met Fred, and instead of leaving Steve behind, to go diving, we decided to go for a walk along the beach.

We walked along the beach to this wonderful spot…

Pic taken by Fred Devos…

There was definitely water flowing out of this spot, so we threw our fins on, and went in. Wow! That was some chilly fresh water, coming out of that spot! We could really feel the temperature difference, from the salt water, to the fresh water. There was even a misty halocline, along the surface. We had a fun swim in the ocean, with fins and snorkels. What an amazing way to end our trip! Thank you, Fred!

We have made some pretty great friends in this neck of the woods, and we cannot wait to get back!!! Thank you, friends at Zero Gravity!!!


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AGGAST Comes North~

25 02 2012

Thursday, February 16th, 2012 ~

Airport pick-ups! Laurynn and Karen were first, followed by Sonya, and then Kathryn. I had a good parking spot, but since Steve went to do a coffee run, he lost his spot. Steve called as he was getting closer to us, in the line-up of cars that were being waived through. We had some luggage ready to throw into the back of his van, so that we didn’t get in trouble from the airport cops, and Karen was ready to jump into the passenger seat. Exchange complete! They were off! We waited for Kathryn, then were on our way home, too!

Once we got to our place, we directed people towards their sleeping spots for the next few days, chatted for a while, then to sleep!

Friday, February 17th, 2012 ~

Breakfast was at Cora’s, which is an exceptional place to eat!

We ate, chatted some more, then went back to the house, to load up. Off to the quarry, we went!

Eric and Steve both had their chainsaws, and worked on cutting the hole for us. We got ourselves ready to dive, and we were off to the races!

“Are we really doing this??”

Of course, there was some shenaniganry, as we readied to dive!

The princess was preparing for a surprise meeting!

We descended under the ice, and Eric ran the line out to the main line. Steve brought our video camera, as we had to document our US friends’ inaugural ice dive! Kathryn had her camera, and Jen brought along her video camera.

Sonya and Laurynn, with Steve in the background…

Karen and Kathryn…

Eric takes in the sights, above…

We had a most excellent dive, and there was much fun and Shenaniganry! Our friends had done their first ice dive, and even enjoyed it!!!

Bottom Time: 37 mins.
Max Depth: 44′
Water Temp: 39F
Vis.: Not too shabby!

Dinner was at The Works, where they stuck us in a cage… How did they know? Everything was delicious, and although there was a Squirrel Fail, there was much laughter and grins from the day’s dive.

We made our way back to our place, for cupcakes, chatter, and some video review! We also watched a slideshow of Kathryn’s shots!

A fun day!

Saturday, February 18th, 2012 ~

Today, we headed to Timmy’s for breakfast (with a few people sneaking to Booster Juice), then we were quarry bound. When we got there, there were about 5000 cars (ok, probably about 20) in the main parking lot, and even more in the back lot. It was definitely going to be a busy day at the quarry. One of the guys told us that they were moving out shortly, and we would be able to move our cars closer. Sweet!

We did not need to cut the hole again, so we took our time gearing up. Finally, the parking spots opened up, and we were able to pull our cars down. Woo hoo! Time to dive!

James, Oren, Chris, Mike, and Jen were also here today, and this time, Steve had the video housing on the scooter mount, to get some more cool footage of everyone.  There were a couple of other cameras in the water, too (Kathryn, Chris, Jen, James.. if I remembered all of the cameras)!  It was a camera day!

So, I guess it is fair to say that there was even more Shenaniganry to be had, today. This time, we had more players!

I think Eric was suspecting that he was under attack from the Princessi!

Yeah, he was right…

We even managed to get a group shot! Well… Everyone, except for me! 😛

Ice Push-Ups, anyone?

Hmm… What is that, hanging from Eric’s butt??? On closer inspection, he seems to have been Princessified!!

Bottom Time: 48 mins.
Max Depth: 38′
Water Temp: 37F
Vis.: The same!

Sonya found an ice heart! Sonya and Laurynn must love Canada. 😛

We were a big group, today! Yes, we were all DUI Dogs of the week! w00t!

After such Diving Goodness, we made our way to Ha Noi Pho for some delicious Viet cuisine!

The Biebs came along, and since he didn’t get to participate in the day’s Shenaniganry, he wanted to try this ice diving thing, too…

I think he approves.

Then he got into the booze…

A fun way to end the day!

Sunday, February 19th, 2012 ~ 

Finally, some sunshine! Today would be our last day of Ice Diving Goodness, with our AGGAST sisters!

It was also Eric’s Birthday! Karen and I snuck over to the store, while everyone started to order breakfast, at Booster Juice! We had the perfect cake, and were hoping that he didn’t see us walking back to the van, with it!

Then… Quarry bound, once again!

Today, we decided to follow the other line, and head down to the sub. It wasn’t long before there was.. Yes, you guessed it… Shenaniganry!

Laurynn and I, with a self-portrait!

We played around at the sub for a while, came back up, then moved the reel over to the plane line!

On our way back in, we noticed that someone was waiting for us…

Coming back to the entry/exit…

Bottom Time: 46 mins.
Max Depth: 55′
Water Temp: 37F
Vis.: More of the same!

However, the Shenaniganry did not end when we got out of the water. There was dancing, pilates, and new ways to position ourselves in the snow!!

Sonya shows us how it’s done!

Sonya and Steve do “The Sonya!”

AGGAST Supastaaaaaaaaaaaas!

James shows us his fancy moves, too!

I then received a snowball!

Pardon? I can’t hear you!!

Then, it was time for cake! I was trying to get everyone to corral Eric into the cottage, while I went for the cake! I almost got caught, and I think Eric knew that something was up. Oh well… He seemed to like his special Princessi cake!! 😛

From there, we headed up to the infamous Jean Burger, where we introduced our friends to Poutine! You can’t come to Quebec, and not have Poutine!

Sonya had heard of a covered bridge nearby, so we did a little inquiring, and figured out where to go! Steve and I had never been to it, so it was a really neat thing to see!

Road closed… Um… You think???

On the way back, we stopped at a spot on the side of the road, that had a natural spring water spout. People would come with empty containers, to fill them up with incredibly yummy, fresh water! We had driven by it so many times, but had never stopped!

We headed back to our place, where we chilled for a while, then to Swiss Chalet for some Dining Goodness, then to karaoke, to finish off the weekend’s fun and adventure!

I am very happy to know such wonderful people, and to be able to dive with friends from all over. What an excellent weekend of Shenaniganry and AGGAST Diving Goodness!!!

Shenaniganry WAS had in multitudes!!!

Thanks for such an awesome weekend!!!!!! Planning for the next AGGAST get-together MUST commence!!

A video, put together by Steve!

Whooooooooooooooooooooooomvaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Woo Hoo!! Team AGGAST also became DUI Dogs Of The Week!! w00t! 🙂

http://www.dui-online.com/testimonals/2012/team_aggast.html

^Click Link!^


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Mexico ~ 2010 ~ Part 1 of 3

24 12 2010

Sunday, November 28th, 2010 ~

We were up and at ’em, out the door by 4:20am, and headed to the airport. We got through security fairly quickly, and while sitting in the lounge, heard them on the loud speaker.. “Last boarding call for Blake Wilson. Blake Wilson, final boarding call.” Doh!

We grabbed a quick bite at Timmy’s, and waiting for our flight to Toronto. Once there, we had an hour and a half wait for our connecting flight.

Once we arrived at the Cancun airport, we found all of our luggage, exchanged some deneros, then went out in search of our rental car company. Apparently, there are two with similar names.. EZ Way and Easy Way. The EZ Way guy tried to convince us that he was our guy, but we found the other fella behind him. Well.. he didn’t seem to have our names down, but I did have my print out from the net, so all was well.

We were taken a short drive to the rental car place, where it was not exactly on the main path. It looked a little scary, but our fears were eased quickly. They were very quick, friendly, and  honoured our online pricing.. which had been cut off on my print out. We were given a nice little Toyota SUV, that turned out to be the coolest dive mobile. We loaded it up with our suitcases, and started off for PA. The Climate Summit was going on as well, which led to a ton of military personnel everywhere… Trucks everywhere, machine guns on top of trucks, personnel hiding in the bushes.. all while burning cans of fuel, to block off lanes.

Rental car place…

Once we arrived, we really had no idea which condo we were in. We did some deduction, and figured it out. We went up the stairs, to the door, and there didn’t seem to be anyone around. Hummm…

Just then, Ralph came up the stairway, and it turned out that we were in the right place! w00t! We went in, ditched our stuff, then headed down to Gringo Daves. Mmmm.. chicken nachos. It made a nice snack to share, since we hadn’t eaten lunch.  Jen knew we were arriving today, and she had wandered a bit, then into Gringo Daves. Yippee!

We then headed over to The Pub with Jen, Ralph, Gina, Ed, Piotr, Chris, Olof, and Kathy. It was great to see everyone! We had another bite, and a couple of drinks, before heading back over to Gringo Daves, for a bit of Karaoke. Of course, I had to sing a couple of songs. It was alot of fun!

Monday, November 29th, 2010 ~

Let the diving begin!!

We made our way to Zero Gravity, where we met alot of the gang. We decided to head over to El Eden for the day’s diving. It turned out that Blake just made his flight, but he wasn’t too sure about his luggage. 🙂

Dive 1 ~ River Run Clockwise
Bottom Time ~ 38 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 46′ (Avg. 37′)
Water Temp. ~ 78
Visibility ~ Clear!
Steve, Me, Blake

Dive 2 ~ River Run Counter Clockwise
Bottom Time ~ 28 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 50′ (Avg. 34′)
Water Temp. ~ 78
Me, Blake, Steve

Dive 3 ~ River Run Counter Clockwise
Bottom Time ~ 38 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 50′ (Avg. 33′)
Water Temp. ~ 77
Me, Jen, Blake, Steve

Dive 4 ~ Cavern Line
Bottom Time ~ 36 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 38′ (Avg. 22′)
Water Temp. ~ 77
Jen, Me, Blake, Steve

We had some pretty awesome dives, and it felt really good to be back in the caves. We also saw Fred there, who was teaching a Cave 1 course.

There was some discussion about all of the Rock Boat sightings in the River, as well. 😉

We then went back to the shop, dropped off our tanks for fills, then went to get some groceries, in Playa. Dinner was at The Pub with Chris L., Tom K., David R., Bob S., Chris M., Piotr, Blake, Jen, and Lamont.

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 ~ Happy Birthday, Jen!

Today, we were going to Nahoch. Steve and I had still not been there, so we were really looking forward to this dive. A great one for Jen’s B’day too!

We packed a lunch, picked up our tanks, and packed the cars. A taxi pulled up, letting out a fella and his gear… “Are you guys going diving? I need a buddy!” He arrived just in the nick of time, and he filled Jen’s car with his gear. Hassan, nice to meet you!

We arrived at Nohoch, and we did make the first trek down with our doubles on our backs, but lowered our second sets down the rope. Thanks to the guys for that one.

Steve and I buddied up, Jen, Hassan, and Lamont were a team, and CMal and Piotr too. Ralph, Ed, and Gina were there ahead of us.

Wow.. what a stunning cave. I swear, it was like we were swimming through a Halloween movie. The stalactites, stalagmites, and columns were just incredible. There was one room that looked like there were a hundred different chess pieces from a scene out of Alice In Wonderland. Some broken, some just waiting to be played with. Call me crazy, but that’s what came to mind. In our swim through “Halloween-land,” it seemed like each room had a different gothic theme to it. Heaven’s Gates.. also amazing. This is definitely the coolest freakin’ cave I have ever been in.

Jen, Lamont, and Hassan were ahead of us, and them lighting up the cave for us was absolutely amazing. Thanks, guys!

One section had what looked like a giant pipe organ, with what could have been melted candle wax all down the sides. Another, was a giant section of more candle wax, sliding down to form the shape of a grand piano. There was even a shape that took the shape of what looked like Hobbes, from “Calvin & Hobbes,” columns that looked like stripper poles, even a giant slab of rock that looked like a boat ramp, and shapes that looked like religious figurines.

On the third dive, my light was flickering a little bit. I turned the dive on gas, and my light appeared to be fading a little. Just as I thought of pulling out my Heser backup to compare them… poof… my primary light went out. Heser, it is. I guess the battery was tired after three longer dives.

On the way out, both Steve and I were making animal shadows with our hands, and when I had my light turned, Steve would shine his light towards me, making a shadow of a giant “me,” ahead. That was cool!

Dive 1 ~ Main Line
Bottom Time ~ 57 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 24′ (Avg. 13′)
Water Temp. ~ 77

Dive 2 ~ Main Line
Bottom Time ~ 66 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 24′ (Avg. 13′)
Water Temp. ~ 77

Dive 3 ~ Parker Line
Bottom Time ~ 70 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 17′ (Avg. 12′)
Water Temp. ~ 77

After our dives, we dropped our tanks off, and headed back to the condo to hang up gear. We headed to The Pub again, meeting up with the usual suspects, as well as Maren, Dirk, Jesper, Thomas, and Jacob. It was great to see Jacob again!

We also noticed that at the entrance to PA, the security checks alot of the empty taxi cabs.. back seats and trunks. Interesting.

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 ~

Up and at ’em again, to the shop. Not before having my All Bran with Raisins, and Steve, his Zucaritas! We ran into the Florida crew, who had arrived the night before, and were also getting ready for some Diving Goodness.

Myself, Steve, Chris, Piotr, Jen, and Hassan headed down through Tulum, and over to Car Wash. Steve and I hadn’t been there before, and were looking forward to it. There were rumours of a croc in the basin, which I didn’t really need to see. Jen had seen him the week before.

Part of the basin…

Jen led us on three out of four dives, as she had been there before, and the lines were not that easy to find. We did the Upstream line twice, then to the Chamber Of The Ancients, then the Downstream line.

The Upstream line was pretty cool, but I think my favourite was the Downstream line. The Upstream line was darker cave, with alot of depth change. Luke’s Hope was pretty neat to swim through, as we passed through giant schools of fish. The Chamber Of The Ancients was also very cool. Jen found the line quite easily, which was sweet! We dropped through the halocline to enter, and once we had gotten in and looked around a bit, we noticed a couple of lights at the entrance of the room. At first, I thought that there were two divers, but then noticed that it was a primary light and a helmet light of one diver. It appeared that whoever it was, had followed us in.  As we turned to exit the room, the diver left in front of us, and was out of the water when we surfaced. He did come up to us afterwards though, to thank us for letting him follow our line…

The Downstream line is probably one of my favourites, so far. There was SO much to see! So many formations, columns, stalactites and stalagmites. It all looked like candle wax.. just stunning. I think I liked this line as much as I liked Nah0ch!

After our dives, we goofed off a bit, in the basin. We did not see the croc at all, but we did see a few turtles. Steve and Hassan were blowing water rings, while Piotr demonstrated his wonderful trim.. upside down, and fins pointing upward. 🙂 Jen and I resorted to somersaults. Thank goodness there were no other people there.. They probably would have had us all committed.

Dive 1 ~ Upstream
Bottom Time ~ 42 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 52′ (30′ Avg.)
Water Temp. ~ 77
Jen, Hassan, Steve, Me

Dive 2 ~ Upstream
Bottom Time ~ 52 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 52′ (27′ Avg.)
Steve, Me, Hassan, Jen

Dive 3 ~ Chamber Of The Ancients
Bottom Time ~ 33 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 88′ (50′ Avg.)
Jen, Hassan, Me, Steve

Dive 4 ~ Downstream
Bottom Time ~ 47 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 60′ (32′ Avg.)
Jen, Hassan, Me, Steve

After our dives, we headed back through Tulum, where we were slowed down by the military check point, then back to drop off our tanks. Kirill and Julia had arrived!

We went back to the condo, and readied ourselves for yet another night at The Pub. More people had arrived, and the tables grew. What an awesome day!

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010 ~

We continued with our morning rituals, then headed to the shop. AM and JP met us there too. A gaggle of us headed over to Sac Actun/Grand Cenote. This would be another first for Steve and I.

There were some pretty amazing formations, large rooms, and some incredible ceilings. Some of the formations looked like incense cones, covered in candle wax. There were some really neat looking passages off of the main line, that looked really cool too. So many nooks and crannies that longed to be peeked in. One day!

We made it to a very short gap, that is at another cenote. Apparently, this is the only place where a Cave 1 diver is allowed to put a spool  in, to continue through. There is open water there, so it is permitted. This was pretty cool too. We went a short distance past this gap, then headed back. We decided to leave the reel in, as we were going to do another few dives.

After our second dive, we came up to switch tanks around and have some lunch. We ended up having a much longer lunch than we had planned, so we only ended up doing one more dive. We made it past the gap this time, and into a HUGE room. What a wicked freakin’ room. We turned the dive, right before the restriction, and brought the reel in.

Dive 1
Bottom Time ~ 48 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 39′ (Avg. 29′)
Water Temp. ~ 77

Dive 2
Bottom Time ~ 48 mins
Max. Depth ~ 39′

Dive 3
Bottom Time ~ 67 mins
Max. Depth ~ 38′

During our lunch break, we chatted and took some pics of the animals…

Again, we headed back to the shop, dropped off our tanks, chatted, checked e-mails, then back to the condo to shower and change.

For dinner, we went to Tu Parador, across from PA. What a great place! The owners were very friendly, the food was awesome, and the drinks were even better. They had so many variations of different fruity smoothies, that you could have with or without alcohol. They were all freshly made, and were incredible! Even Piotr’s wierd Onion concoction was good!

Next… GUE Conference begins!


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Categories : It's 2010!

Brockville ~ July 5th & 6th ~ 2008 ~

7 07 2008

Steve and I headed down to Brockville on Saturday morning, to meet with friends, and go for a dive on the Daryaw. We were diving off of Stefan’s zodiac, and leaving from Mallorytown Landing. We arrived a bit early, and met up with a bunch of other friends, who were also heading out to the Daryaw on their zod, from the Henry Street Boat Launch ~ Steve S., Mat B., and finally got to meet with Greg Mossfeldt. When we got there, there was a huge freighter going by. It was definitely empty, as it was moving pretty quickly, and was sitting very high out of the water…

We chatted for a while, then headed over to Mallorytown to meet with Sean M., Martin R., and Stefan M. En route, we made a stop at Timmy’s, where we also ran into David H., Alan, and April. 😛

Steve, Martin, and Stefan…

The zodiac was pretty cool.. It was an 18′ boat, with a 90 hp, 4 stroke engine.

What I thought was great, was the stainless steel bar down the middle of the boat, where we were able to stand up all of our doubles on either side, and strap them in.

The Daryaw is about 11km from where we launched, but it really didn’t take long with this zodiac.. Holy smokes, does it move! We got to the mooring line, and tied off beside our other buddies, who were just about to drop in. The surface current was absolutely freakin’ ripping, and we had to put in a pull line, to make it over to the mooring line. Steve, Sean, and I were going to drop in first, do our dive, then man the boat while Stefan and Martin went down.

We geared up and in we went. Holy smokes… that surface current was absolutely nasty! Without the pull line, we’d have been picked up in Cornwall, I’m sure! This is one wreck, where you really do need to use the line to descend ~ The current is just way too strong to fight it on your own. We hand over handed it down, taking it slowly, and tucked in behind the wreck, where you are sheltered from the worst of the current. We went in for a peek of the coal chute, came back out, and checked out the holds. There is an air pocket in the second cargo hold that we also went in and said a quick hello to each other. You don’t breathe in here, but you can remove your reg and talk. Your voice changes a bit with the pressure as well. We left the pocket, and poked around a few places for a bit, then went over and drifted down the keel, and back up. The ascent was a bit easier than the descent, but you still had to use the line most of the time. When we surfaced, we were greeted by about 4 or 5 other boats tied off to the two moorings, and another zodiac tied beside ours (a rather nice one at that)!

Bottom Time ~ 62 mins.

Max. Depth ~ 82′

Water Temp. ~ 67 ~ Wet Gloves~ w00t!

Vis. ~ 25′ – 30′

When we surfaced, it seemed that Martin had ripped his neck seal, and was a little bummed out. Steve offered his suit to him, so that at least he hadn’t driven all the way from Quebec not to dive! Luckily it fit.. with little extra room in the turbos, but he was very grateful.

They dropped in for their dive as we manned the boat and relaxed in the sunshine. Did I mention that it was an absolutely beautiful day??? 😀

Stefan and Martin also had a good dive, and we headed back to shore. It seems that I got a little bit too much sun!!

Steve and I then went to see our friends, Kris and Jess. We sat around and chatted for a while, then Kevin dropped by as well, so I could give him Martin’s suit to repair. Steve and I ended up staying over, and Kevin made the drive back to Ottawa.

Sunday morning seemed to come early, and we met Stefan at Centeen Park at 8:30am. We were going to swim out to the Gaskin! We got in the water, did our predive checks, flow checks etc., then off to the Gaskin we went. It took us nearly 20 mins. to swim to the wreck, as the current was a lot stronger than usual. The current also gets a bit stronger at about 20′ off the wreck. We made it there, did a couple of turns of the wreck, then drifted off. We saw some really neat bottles, and a lot of periwinkles… there was also quite a bit of boat traffic, that we could hear. We drifted back to the entry point, where we saw the little black bass from last week, and about 100 of her little babies swimming in a small cloud. If I was a fish, I’m not sure I would have placed my eggs right near the entry point of a popular watering hole, but I guess she knows best. 😛 We debriefed and exited.

Bottom Time ~ 69 mins.

Max. Depth ~ 69′

Water Temp. ~ 67

Vis. ~ Stinky

We were meeting more friends for an afternoon swim to the Gaskin, and all I could think was… “uh… scooter time for the next dive.”

Our friends started to arrive one by one… Mat B., Ritchard F., Greg M., Steve S., Carmen C., Rick, and Mat’s wife and doggy too! The dog really wanted to come on the dive too…lol…

We chatted for a while, and watched as another giant freighter went by…

After our 3 hour surface interval, we dropped in with everyone. Steve and I had our scooters, and Steve was going to film everyone too!

Ok… we felt pretty dumb as we were going out… We would stop along the way to get footage of everyone, and the current was almost non-existent. How dumb do we feel now?  The current did pick up at the wreck, but not nearly as strong as it had been in the morning! Ah well… playing with the scooters is never a bad thing, anyway!

We gallivanted around the wreck for a while, got some footage of everyone going through the wreck, then headed back in search of a purse that we had found the previous week. After searching and searching, we finally found it. We thought Steve had put it in a barrel, but the barrel ended up being some rolled up carpet.

On both dives, we saw a ton of really big arsed fish! There was a school of Perch that I hadn’t seen before, and a bunch of super-sized carp. There were two that kind of freaked me out, when they came right up beside me, and were inches from my face! Man, those things were big!!! I think Steve got some footage of the Perch.

Bottom Time ~ 89 mins.

Max. Depth ~ 69′

Water Temp. ~ 67

Vis. ~ Stinky

I think we may have convinced Ritchard that he needs a scooter!

The whole gaggle of us, less Ritchard, headed over to Timmy’s for some sandwiches and great story-telling.

It’s really fantastic to hang out and dive with everyone on such a beautiful sunny day!

Here’s Greg and his cool car!


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Categories : Diving Chronicles Of 2008!

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