August Long Weekend!

19 08 2009

Saturday, August 1st, 2009 ~

Steve and I ventured down to meet Jen and Jay at Centeen Park. Today, we were going to scooter out past the wall, drop into the channel, and drift away. When we arrived there, it was so busy, that we had to park farther away than we knew there was parking for.

We brought our gear down, and noticed a new friend in the park…

Apparently, the town of Brockville put him there, to deter the geese from playing in the grass. There sure are alot of goose bombs everywhere.

We entered the water, discussed the plan, and away we went.

Once we made it to the drop off, we descended and made our way out on a different path. We saw so much wreckage that we had not seen before, and some that we had as well. There were bottles galore, and pieces of ship machinery scattered just about everywhere.

We didn’t drift onto the Gaskin this time, but carried on past it, looking at other cool things. We eventually made our way back into the basin at Centeen Park, where we played in the shallows for a while.

Bottom Time ~ 130 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 100′
Water Temp. ~ 71

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 ~

Woo Hoo! Another trip to the Jodrey! A bunch of us went out with Jeff, and planned for another goodly dive on the massive wreck. Jen and I were teamed up, Oren and Sean were Team Grey, and Steve joined Jeremy. We also had Andy aboard as a Bubble Watcher!

We went through customs, and made our way to the mooring tree. Steve was anchor man, once again!

Getting ready for the dive…

The currents were a bit odd this time around. There seemed to be back eddys galore, and very strong currents. We were a bit slower than usual descending, and ended up on the port side of the wheelhouse…. where the current is rather nasty on a good day. We were happy to have our scooters with us, that’s for sure. We headed back over to the center, where you are sheltered from the current, and started our tour. We investigated some areas that we hadn’t been to before, and peeked in some more crevices. Alas, we had reached our bottom time, and made the trip back up. Our deco was relaxing, and I had to giggle at Jen’s goby feeding. We finished our deco, and scootered back around to the boat. We hung around on the surface for a while, ditched our tanks, then jumped back in to relax in the water.

Some pics on the ride back…

I swear… that crayfish was THIS BIG!

When we got back to the dock, we waited for customs to clear us, then headed over to the Family Restaurant.

We saw this treat in the parking lot…

Another excellent day!

Monday, August 3rd, 2009 ~

Four of us headed to Cornwall, where we were going to check out the Paper Factory Basement. The current is always stronger in this part of the river, and scooters are a wonderful tool in this environment.

We made our way out of the public dock area, and went for a line search. Once we located it, we headed towards the Basement. I was thankful for the warmer water, as I had a leaky neck seal, and was pretty soaked. We made it to the basement structure, and Steve was communicating to me, on how to find the entrance. I gave the “ok,” and we proceeded…. um… “Uh ohhh…” I took my hand off of the trigger, but my scooter was still going. I gave it a couple of love taps, to see if it was jammed, or if there was something stuck in it. Nope.. pft…

I signaled to Steve, and he came over. I pointed at the trigger, and while he looked, it took him a second to realize that I wasn’t holding it. “DOH!” There wasn’t much we could do, except for pull out the thumb.

Since the scooter was still moving, we opted to keep it going. We were headed back against the current, and any extra scooter power is appreciated. Jay had my little 18ah attached to his butt, so at least I had back up, should I need it.

We went for about 15 minutes, and Steve asked me if I wanted to switch scooters with him. I figured he’d probably handle it better, once we got to the shallows, so I was happy to oblige. Since the current was ripping, I was able to anchor the scooter, and pull it back, so Steve could unclip it. He clipped his 26ah to me, and took the 35ah. It was a pretty smooth transfer! He also tried knocking it a bit, to see if he could unjam it, to no avail. Then.. out came the palm. Ohhhh… this was gonna hurt… One tap… nothing… Two taps… there she goes… He clipped the scooter to his butt, and took my little 18ah from Jay’s butt, and in we went, dodging the weeds, near shore.

Bottom Time ~ 80 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 50′
Water Temp. ~ 72
Current ~ Rippin’!
Vis. ~ 20′

When we got out, we had a look inside. It seems that there was a loose terminal, that caused it to overheat, and fuse the wires together, sticking it on.

So with the smell of burnt wires in the back, we ventured to Kelsey’s for some grub and laughs. Although we had a kick in the butt end to the weekend, it was still fun to hang out with friends, and do some cool diving.

I guess the Basement will have to wait!


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Jodrey Times Two

13 08 2009

Saturday, July 18th, 2009 ~

A crew of us gathered together, for a weekend of friends and diving. We were off to the Jodrey! Steve was off doing instructor stuff, so I had to leave him behind in Kingston.

We all convened at Rockport Dive Centre, loaded the boat, and off we went. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and we were happy to get out diving, and to the Jodrey, no less! We had one full boat load on Saturday.

Ralph and Ed…

Oren…

Claudia and Sean…

Mer, Jackie, Oren, and Gina…

Jen and Jay…

Jen, Claudia, and I were diving together, and it would be my first time leading a Jodrey dive. My previous dives on it were with Steve, and he is the one with the “Spidey Sense” navigational skills. We discussed our plan on the surface, geared up, and in we splashed. We let a couple of the others go in before us, as we all had different profiles and run times, so the pair with the longer run time went in first.

Claudia, Jen, and I, doing predive checks, taken by Jackie Kaley…

We did our predive checks, and in we went. The plan was to drift over the edge, stay close to the wall, and hit the wreck at 140′. We came down on the “ghost line,” and hit the wreck in exactly the right spot. Woo Hoo!! We made our way around different parts of the bow, and circled the wheelhouse a few times, peering into doors and windows. The three of us really worked well together, and had a nice, relaxing dive. Coming up on the ascent, I missed part of the crack in the wall, that leads you to a nice spot for your 70′ gas switch, and eventually to a relaxing 20′ deco stop. It wasn’t that bad though, as we found some nice rocks to tuck in behind, to avoid the absolutely screaming current. I’ve not seen the current that strong here before. Not being at the normal deco spots wasn’t that bad, as we ended up closer to the boat anyway. We relaxed on the surface before climbing up and debriefing our dive. It seems everyone had a good dive.

Me, taken by Jackie Kaley…

Of course, we had the obligatory Kool Aid shots…

Once we cleared customs, and were allowed off of the boat, we headed back to Caiger’s for some grub! Ralph had arranged for a dinner there for us, and there was a little bit of everything to try.

We even had Birthday Ice Cream Cake!

Then it was off to sleep, for the next day’s adventures.

Sunday, July 19th, 2009 ~

Another sunny day, and another trek out to the mighty Jodrey. Today, we had a couple more people, and were able to get Jeff’s second boat.

Today was just Jen and I, as Claudia was joining Ralph, Ed, and Gina for today’s dive. We dropped in, did our predive checks, discussed our plan, and away we went.

As we descended, we were slightly more shallow than the last dive, and followed the pipe down to the wreck. We were only very slightly to the left of the ghost line on the way down, but still ended up in the planned spot. We did some exploring around the bow, peeked in a couple more doors and windows, and made our way safely around the wreck. On our ascent, we managed to stay on the crack up the wall, and got to the 20′ stop with no problems. We ended up having some pretty fun conversations during deco, to which Sean and Oren both laughed about later on. We also enjoyed feeding some zebras to the gobies.

Once we had fulfilled our deco obligations, we made our way back to the boat once again. I wouldn’t have believed it, but the current was actually stronger on the way back today than yesterday. Holy smokes, it was a-rippin’! We surfaced once again, with grins on our faces, and happy that we had found the right spots. I also had about a foot of hair cut off the previous Friday, and it was amazing to surface without a rat’s nest underneath my hood!!

Jen and I, taken by Jackie Kaley…

It was an amazing couple of days, diving with friends, with much laughter, and more diving goodness!

She-P shot!

Thanks to all of our friends who made the drive out to play!!


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St. Lawrence Adventures

24 07 2009

Saturday, July 11th, 2009 ~

Since my other half had to work, I headed down to the river to meet Claudia, for some River goodness! Our plan was to swim out to the Gaskin in the morning, then meet Steve and Andy later on, for more diving goodness.

Claudia and I met at Centeen Park, geared up, and in we went. We dropped down to 15′, did our bubble checks, then headed down the pipe. We reached the end of the pipe, and did not see the “STOP” sign, as the visibility was pretty crappy. We reached the big square rock pile, then turned back to the east a bit, in hopes of finding the line.

We were in luck! We came upon the line, and managed to make out the back of the stop sign. We headed out toward the wreck. The current was pretty light here, so following the line out was not difficult at all. Once we got to the little boat ahead of the Gaskin, the current really picked up, and we had to give a little extra “umph” to our kicks. Wow… the visibility really went to the birds here… or, shall I say to the fish.

We reached the end of the line, and still could not see the wreck, that sat right in front of us. Claudia looked at me, and wondered why the line ended, so I motioned for her to keep going forward. The visibility was that bad, that we couldn’t see the big bow, right in front of us.

We were on top of the giant anchor, that lay against the wreck, and still couldn’t see it. There appeared to be a bunch of people on the wreck, from a charter above, and I motioned for Claudia to come towards me, as there was one of them about to land on her. We hovered there for a moment, to see if the silt would settle, but it only seemed to get worse. We watched the diver land in the silt, and just stand there. Yes… he stood there. We wondered if the vis would be any better inside the wreck, so we ascended to the large hole in the side, and I went in first. Claudia followed right behind me, and I could see her light. I was “blessed” with a wall of absolutely zero visibility, so I turned around and showed Claudia my thumb. This was ridiculous. We turned around, and as Claudia made her way out, there was a gang of single tank divers that were attempting to follow us. The moved out of the way, let us pass, and we headed out of dodge. We had a relaxing swim back, as we had help from the current, and we both giggled as Claudia signalled to me that she wanted lunch. Me too! This swimming stuff is hard work! Lol…

We made it back to the break wall, and I saw something bright and pink, that I just had to pick up. It was a pink head band, and I thought it must have looked quite nice, perched on top of my hood. We kept swimming in the basin of the park, and we saw yet another head band. This one was bright yellow, and fit nicely over top of Claudia’s hood. We were quite a team now. We giggled, and ascended back to the entry point. Although the visibility was horrible, we still had a fun time, and got to play around in the water.

Bottom Time ~ 65 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 60′
Water Temp. ~ 66
Visibility ~ Um.. yeah.. right

A couple of pictures, showing off our fancy head bands…

Oh, and the Kool Aid shot…

Since we were going for a second dive, and were running a bit behind, we packed up and headed over to meet Steve and Andy, while still wearing our drysuits.

We met them, and headed on over to Rockport. Along the way, we stopped at the side of the road, to show Claudia and Andy Island 99/Teapot Island. We took a few pictures, and headed over to see our friend, Jeff.

Jeff showed us a compass that he had purchased from an antique show, that was pretty awesome…

We decided to head out to the Kinghorn.

The visibility was much better than at the Gaskin, so we were happy about that! We did a few turns of the wreck, checked out the holds, and headed back. We had a wonderful dive!

Bottom Time ~ 51 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 92′
Water Temp. ~ 66
Visibility ~ 35′

Once we got back in, we headed over to the Family Restaurant, where we had some grub, and I just had to indulge in the cherry pie, which was fresh out of the oven. This place has the best cherry pie anywhere!

Sunday, July 12th, 2009 ~

Claudia, Steve, and I had planned on a scooter run out of Centeen Park, while Andy was going to set up some of his new stuff on his gear. Zi was also coming to meet us for our second dive of the day, and was there a bit early.

The three of us headed out past the wall, then dropped down into the channel, where Steve led us straight to a little wreck that he had previously found, and over to the horse carriage. We drifted in the channel for a bit, then back over to the Gaskin. We went through it once, then came back in. At least Claudia got to see some of it this time!

We brought the scooters back in, had a snack and some water, then got back in with Andy and Zi. Claudia had a bit of a drive ahead of her, so she made her way out.

I decided to take my camera out on this dive, and see what I could come out with.

We decided to head east from the entrance, and do a nice, relaxing swimming dive. Again, the visibility wasn’t all that great, but I managed to get a few alright shots. The camera made it look better than it actually was.

Self Portrait…

We saw alot of things that we hadn’t seen before as well.

Andy, and the “Maple Leaf” wheelchair…

Steve, lighting up a tube filled with fish…

Andy, Steve, and Zi…

Zi…

Andy… doing fantastic, my friend!

Yet another self portrait…

On the way back in, the current seemed to get quite a bit stronger, and we made our way in, against it. We also met up with some of the local residents…

On the surface…

Andy got a picture of me, too!

Bottom Time ~ 58 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 35′
Water Temp. ~ 67
Visibility ~ 10′ – 15′

Andy brought along some cold Cherry Coke, which I had not tried before. Holy moses, was it good. Mind you, I also gave him some Ketchup chips, that he had not had before, and got him a little hooked too.

Thanks to all of our friends that made such far drives to come and dive with us. It really is alot of fun to dive with everyone, and build new adventures.


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Happy Canada Day!

24 07 2009

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 ~

Happy Canada Day! Hmm.. what to do… How about go for a dive or two?

We packed up and headed down to Centeen Park. We thought we would give that elusive truck another attempt. Myself, Steve, Jay, Jen, and Oren made another run out with the scooters, and tried to find that darn thing, once again.

We saw things that we hadn’t seen before, which was a really good sign. We even saw what looked like a bit of a road, with rocks on either side. You’d think you’d find a truck near this, for sure, right? Yeah… not so much. We found bits of metal, pieces of this and that, bottles galore, but still no truck. We played amongst the periwinkle shells, then made our way back. The visibility was a bit stinky, and although we all stayed in our buddy teams, we ended up coming back at different times. Steve and I made it back first, followed by Sean and Oren, then Jen and Jay.

Bottom Time ~ 64 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 104′
Water Temp. ~ 62
Visibility ~ 15′

When we surfaced, our buddies for our second dive greeted us at the stairs, as well as Jeremy and Kevin, who were going out for a dive too.

We all had a bit of lunch, which consisted of some sandwiches that I had brought for everyone, and some veggies that Jen brought, then went for dive number two.

We headed out to the Gaskin, with scooters galore, and messed around for a bit, then came back in for some great fun and conversation. It was fun watching the Muffin Man get towed back, after he broke Bob’s scooter (*ducks*). Lol…

Bottom Time ~ 52 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 70′
Water Temp. ~ 62
Visibility ~ 20′ and milky

Superstar diver!

I think we celebrated Canada’s birthday in the best way possible… The River, scooters, and good friends.


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Quick Dip At The Quarry

21 07 2009

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 ~

Steve and I went up to meet Eric once again, for some skills, gearing up for his upcoming Fundies course.

We dropped down, stretched out, did bubble checks, and made our way over to the plane. We started out with a timed ascent, then a descent, valve drills, and S drills. We then moved on to finning techniques, and the illustrious back fin. Eric was determined, and was working hard!

We headed back in, doffed our gear, and came back to the water, to demonstrate the back kick without gear. It does feel funny without gear on, but it’s still pretty fun to do.

There was another group of divers looking on, that probably thought we were a bit nuts.

Bottom Time ~ 53 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 31′
Water Temp. ~ 60/62
Vis. ~ 30′


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