5- A Pinch Of Salt

17 02 2018

Saturday, February 17th, 2018 ~

Today, we headed to Otoch Ha, with scooters and a stage. I have scootered parts of the upstream section a few times, but had never been on the downstream line.

We packed our little VW Gol (that’s right, Gol… not Golf), and I’m not sure we could have fit much else in it.

Two scooters, two stages, two sets of doubles, and two bins…

It took about 30 minutes to get down the Labna Ha road, since we were weighed down, a bit, and didn’t want to bottom the car out, or get a flat tire.

The bugs were in full force, when we arrived at the cenote. It’s further into the jungle, so we did come prepared (those Avon wipes are the best invention, ever).

We carried our gear down the path, and got ready for Diving Goodness.

With a view of the cave entrance…

We entered, T’d left, jumped right, and reached a crazy restriction. Steve went in, first. He got through. My turn… scooter, then me… oop… oop… oop… regroup… oop… I wasn’t sure that I was going to fit through, and was trying to figure out how the puzzle piece was going to fit. Regroup again, and try to squeeze a different way. I had watched how Steve went through, and thought that I was doing the same thing. Apparently, not. Ooh, ooh… there I go! I’m through! Not the easiest spot to navigate, when you’re half upside-down, and sideways.

We scootered for a bit longer, dropped stages, then scooters, and came up to some absolutely stunning and highly decorated cave. Oh. Em. Gee. Being stuck for 4 minutes was worth absolutely every second, for what we saw. We just hovered there, and couldn’t move. There were decorations from floor to ceiling, big stalactites, a bunch of tiny straw stalagmites, and just pure heaven. I didn’t want to leave! We eventually kept swimming, and went through some narrow, decorated passage. As the line continued, there was a small collapse in the floor, which dipped into the halocline. We had a quick peek, then turned around. Holy smokes, such beauty. Steve did take some video, and I will eventually post it, once it’s edited.

We turned, picked-up scooters, stages, then reached the restriction. I guess I figured out the puzzle, as I didn’t have any trouble, getting through, from the back side. w0000000t!!

We surfaced, and I was giggling like a school girl. I’m sure I had a shit-eating grin on my face, too!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 49 minutes

Max. Depth: 41′

Water Temp.: 77F

Avg. Depth: 32′

Once packed, we realized that we had so much gas left over, we could have done another swimming dive. I guess we were so happy with our dive, that it never even occurred to us. 🤓

Very silty entry…

We finished off our day with a presentation of the Hoyo Negro project, some food at The Pub, and a free shot of tequila. Such an exceptional day!


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Categories : Twenty-Oh-One-Eight

One Schott!

27 07 2011

Thursday, July 21st, 2011 ~

So.. Becky and I had threatened to go diving together many times, over the last few years, and the stars aligned just right, to a weekend that we could. Dave was unable to join us, and even though we missed him terribly, Becky and I knew that we would have much Girl Diving Goodness Fun (ok, we did allow some fellas to join us).

We decided on The Works for dinner, after much chatter and laughter, where we introduced Becky to some interesting burger concoctions and combinations, along with our beverages served in measuring cups. We ended up chatting and laughing our fool arses off until the early hours of the morning. Thanks to some of our western friends for some hilarious back and forth banter!

Friday, July 22nd, 2011 ~

Well, we meant to dive today… Let’s leave it at that… 😀 We did have a good time catching up and talking about.. Well.. Everything! We also prepared for the following day’s dives.

Saturday, July 23rd, 2011 ~

We were up an out early, and made our way to Rockport Dive Centre, for a dive on the Jodrey. Becky, Eric, and I were teamed up, and Frankie and Steve were heading to the engine room. Becky also brought her camera along, and took some really cool shots of us, on the bow. Thank you, Becky!!

Me, on the bow of the Jodrey, taken by Becky Kagan Schott…

Eric, on the Jodrey, by Becky Kagan Schott…

We had a nice, relaxing deco, made our way back up the wall, and back to the boat. We did meet up with Steve and Frankie on deco, too.

Frankie, by Becky Kagan Schott…

 

Steve snuck over to say hello, too – by Becky Kagan Schott…

Bottom Time ~ 71 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 163’
Water Temp. ~ 73F
Visibility ~ 40’ (best we’ve seen in a while)

Once we arrived back at the dock, we headed down to the Cornwall, for some grub, then back home.

Sunday, July 24th, 2011 ~

We managed to get a charter to the Keystorm and America – Thank you, Rick! We were at Caiger’s for an afternoon charter, and we did seem to have quite a lot of gear.

Once we got underway, it was after 3pm. We headed to customs first, then to A-Bay for some petrol. While Rick gased up, we chatted, and even played with the resident kitties.

Becky!

Then, we were off! Andy, Eric, Becky, and I teamed up, Frankie and Steve, and Cory and Raluca too. The plan was to go down to the prop for some photos, then make our way back up. We spent the majority of our time at the prop, then made our way back up and in. Thanks again for the shots, Becky! You rock! It was great to see Andy again, too!

Bottom Time ~ 48 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 75’
Water Temp. ~ 73F
Visibility ~ 40’

There were, of course, more shenanigans on the boat…

From there, we headed over to the America. It had been a while since I had actually been on it, so I was actually looking forward to it. We had some directions to where a large anchor was, so after doing a pass of the wreck, we hit the trigger to find it… We followed our directions to a “T,” and lo and behold, there it was! Sweeeeet!! Doh.. Becky didn’t have her camera on this dive, and it was Murphy’s Law that there was something so cool to get shots of. J

We had a peek at it, then went a little bit further on, to see if there were more cool things to see. We didn’t travel too far off, before turning back to the wreck. We did a quick pass underneath the America, then headed in.

Bottom Time ~ 48 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 75′
Water Temp. ~ 73F
Visibility ~ 40’

Homies…

Look! Andy’s here!

On our way in, the sun was setting over the River, and was the perfect end to some extremely fun dives. We arrived back at Caiger’s, where we had to wait for customs to clear us, before getting off of the boat. This took a while. We waited, and waited, and started to get absolutely molested by mosquitoes. We were sitting targets for these man-eaters!

On the way in…

Finally, Rick came back with the good news that we were allowed back into Canada, and could start making our escape from the crazy mossies. I think it was close to 9:30pm, when we were unloading our gear. By this time, we were pretty hungry, and made our way to Boston Pizza, in Brockville, then home.

A wonderful day of extreme fun, and most awesome Diving Goodness!! W00t! J

On Monday morning, we gave our hugs goodbye, to Becky, and wished her a safe trip home.

Please come back and play, Becky!! We had a blast!!! There are many wrecks waiting for you to see! w0000000000000000000t! Next time, Dave needs to come, too!! Xoxo J

　

Wait a second.. Perhaps Dave was there!! 😉

　

　

　

　

　


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Categories : Wow... 2011!

Jacob Came To Town!

18 04 2011

Friday, April 8th, 2011 ~

Well.. I have to say that I had an interesting evening, while waiting for Jacob’s late flight to arrive. I was already at the airport when I got the news, so I decided to run a couple of errands, then come back. I went to pick up Jacob’s Suex, then set the GPS on “Find Food.” It said that there was some “fast food,” about 3.8 km from where I was. Yeah… that was also a wild goose chase!

I finally made my way back to the airport, about 2 1/2 hours later than I originally arrived, and was happy to get a call from Jacob, saying that he was in the building! W00t! Out he came, and we set sail for our place! The adventure begins!

Saturday, April 9th, 2011 ~

We set Jacob up with some tanks, and we headed out to the quarry, where we hoped there would still be some ice left for his first ice dive. When we arrived, we saw that there was still quite a bit of ice coverage, but the beach area had a nice, open entry point.

We decided to bring the scooters out to play, as we hadn’t used them all winter, and wanted to give them a go!

Jen, getting her gear together…

There was definitely a bit of “Tom-Foolery” going on, as we broke up some of the slushy stuff.

Diving is serious stuff, you know… 🙂

Jen, bringing her gear to the water…

We even had a supervisor…

We finally got geared up and into the water. Steve and I were taking Jacob on a tour of the quarry, showing him the sub, the car, some rocks, and even the shark. I was able to get some video, with my little Go Pro camera.

*Warning: F-Bomb in the video!*

Bottom Time ~ 42 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 104′ (Avg. 41′)
Water Temp. ~ 39F
Visibility ~ Really nice

Jacob seemed to really enjoy his dive, and we definitely did have alot of fun.

We even fed him some Kool Aid Jammers…

…and we made Jacob an honourary Canadian, by giving him a  Timmy’s Rrrrrrrrrrrrroll Up The Rim To Win coffee!

It was an excellent day of Diving Goodness, and we topped the evening off with some Vietnamese Cuisine!

Sunday, April 10th, 2011 ~

Since Jacob had already met the quarry, we decided to take him down to the St. Lawrence River. We had more friends join us, too!

It wasn’t going to be a very long scooter dive, but at least we could have a little fun in the River.

We split up into teams of two, and poor Eric got stuck with me, again. 🙂 We scootered out along the wall, then dropped into the channel. We didn’t go as far as we normally do, as the water was still a bit chilly, and we only brought our short bodies with us.

Jacob and Steve were in the lead, and the visibility was absolutely crappy. There was a bit of a glove issue, so Oren and Claudia headed back to shore. Eric and I continued on into the channel, and decided to pick our spot to drift back onto the wreck of the Gaskin. We both seemed to have the exact same idea as to where we were, so away we drifted… er.. well.. Where’s the current? Hmm.. Ok.. trigger, it is! We ended up right at the stern of the wreck. *High five!* We played around on the wreck for a little while, and then saw two beams of light approaching. Team 1 had also reached the wreck. We zipped around a little more, then went back in, cleaning off the line, as we went back. Eric and I took our time, and chose to swim back part of the way. It was a nice, relaxing way to finish up our dive.

As we neared the “Stop” sign, Oren and Jacob were heading out. Apparently, Jacob didn’t mind this cold water thing, and joined Oren for some more Goodness!

Bottom Time ~ 51 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 70′ (Avg. 42′)
Water Temp. ~ 39F
Visibility ~ Really crappy, thanks to the rain and grey skies

The rain had held off for most of the day, but started to sprinkle a bit, as we brought our gear up.

Yes, there was definitely some more Tom-Foolery going on… One Milllllllion Kool Aids…

Claudia was all ready for the rain!

I even snagged a picture of John’s fancy cave tattoo…

From the park, we went to our new favourite Brockville dining location, “Santa Fe,” where they have All You Can Eat Fajitas, every Sunday!

We made the trip back to Ottawa, and on to our next adventure: WalMart. Well.. I think we lost Jacob a grand total of three times. There is quite alot to see in the superstore, when you’ve been hanging out in the Mexico cavez for months! 🙂 Thank you, Jacob, for the Hoisen sauce and the pink Duct Tape!

Packing the scooter…

Jacob, I am glad that you were able to fit us into your busy exploring schedule. It was great to see you, and alot of fun getting back in the water with you, again. I didn’t even mind that 4am trip back to the airport! I did, however, find some zip seals under your pillow, and wondered if they were in exchange for the cutting device. 😛

Come back soon, ya hear!?


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