Gidd-Ee-Yup!

21 10 2017

Saturday, October 21st, 2017 ~ 

It feels like forever, since I’ve posted about Diving Goodness, so here it goes! Steve and I were packed and ready to go DIVING! We met Geneviève and Stéphane at Centeen Park, to do some skills, which went absolutely fabulous. We didn’t think the park would be too busy, since it is nearing the end of October, but we were wrong, wrong, wrong. We had to park quite a bit further than usual, but all was worth it.

As we were gearing up, an older fella walked into the park, and started playing the bag pipes. Ahhhhh… I loved it! Excellent gear-up music.

We got in, and went through a bunch of skills! *Enter GUE skills, here* 😛 Geneviève and Stéphane have worked so hard, and are ready for Cave 1! Way to go, friends!!!

Bottom Time: 56 mins.
Max. Depth: 28′
Water Temp.: 60F

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Since we hadn’t been in the channel for a while, Steve and I brought our scooters out, and went for a second dive. w00t w00t! I was already a little chilly, thanks to a leak in my drysuit boot, but I wasn’t cold enough to turn the dive. Off we went!

Of course, I didn’t have my camera with me today, and… we found the carriage with the horse bones! We have only seen it once before, and this time, the skull was missing. There were still other large bones, and some of the teeth. By the looks of it, it was an older horsey. WHY COULDN’T I HAVE BROUGHT THE CAMERA??? I guess we’ll have to go on a mission, to find it, again! We continued on, through the channel, and had a fun drift, before we came back up. We overshot the exit, but only by a very small margin. What a fun day of DIVING GOODNESS!

Bottom Time: 44 mins.
Max. Depth: 105′
Water Temp.: 60F

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Categories : Two-Oh-One-Seven

Sauntering Through Moulinette

23 05 2016

Sunday, May 22nd, 2016 ~

So… Today’s dive started out with a bang, or a flush, or a swift, cold current… inside my drysuit. Totally my fault.

After bringing our gear down to the water, Steve, Eric, Jen, and I got into our drysuits, and put the gear IN the water. Jen was with me, when I was bringing my camera down, and as we were chatting, and at our scooters, I asked if she would mind clipping my camera to my stage. I didn’t have my dry gloves on, and I didn’t want to let water into my wrist seals. As I am handing it to her, I swear, I felt like I had hit some kind of frigid electric shock system.

Yes… I had forgotten to completely zip my drysuit zipper. After 10 years of diving dry, I finally did it. I mindlessly walked in, and let the flows of the St. Lawrence River completely soak me. *SRLSY*  I may have actually breached the water, as it dripped down, into my feet. Thank goodness, we were only in water up to our waists… er… up to the bottom of our drysuit zippers. *Dork*

Ok… I hung my head in open zipper shame, as Jen was telling an interested passer-by about my “damp” misfortune. I guess the silver lining is that I didn’t pee myself.

I fixed myself up (closed my zipper), and since the water was 50F’ish, I decided to soldier on. There would be no ridiculing in the locker room, for this girl.

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Ok… tanks on, in the water, went over our plan, gear checks, before we made a compass bearing. Our objective was to find the old Grist Mill, that was covered over, as part of the flooding of the St. Lawrence River. There is significant current in most of this area, so it is either a scooter-dependent dive, or a boat dive (we have no idea what the coordinates are, since we are trying to find it). 🙂

We found some foundations, Old Hwy. 2, a lot of tree stumps, and some remnants of what used to be the town of Moulinette. Always a fascinating place to dive, and to wonder how many people once lived here (311, according to the Historical Society), and lived in a thriving small town.

Remnants of the old town of Moulinette…

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We didn’t end up finding the Grist Mill on this dive, but we sure had a lot of fun looking for it!

As we scootered back, in the shallower water, the sun was shining down, and we could see our reflections in the top of the water. I tried to stop and take a photo, but due to the shallowy’ness (new word), I couldn’t get the shot, after we had stopped. I still tried (unsuccessfully)…

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Bottom Time: 1 Hour, 10 Mins.
Max. Depth: 56′
Water Temp.: 51F (53F, in some places)
Visibility: 25′, and milky

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Once we got out, and I dumped the water out of my drysuit (from my earlier self-inflicted zipper misfortune, ending up with chilly feet) and packed up, we went over to Ault Park, where the Lost Villages Museum sits. It wasn’t open, but we did manage to take some photos of some of the buildings that were moved, before the river flooding. I absolutely love this place, and look forward to going back, once it’s open for the season!

Just a couple of photos…

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Here is a link to the Historical Society web site:

Moulinette

We finished up the evening, with dinner at the Pizzeria/Restaurant, just west of the park. Their fries and gravy were really delicious. Oh yeah, and the Jello. That was pretty yummy, too. I think it was my first time, having blue jello! 😛 Blue, for what my toes must have been, at the end of the dive. Thank goodness, the water temp wasn’t too bad!

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Categories : 20 Sweet 16

Feeling Like A Spring Turtle

15 05 2016

Saturday, May 14th, 2016 ~

Ahhhh… Back in the water! The water was a balmy 50F, so I went with the thin liners, today. The dry gloves are still on, but what goes under them are just a little bit thinner!

Steve and I met Jen at the camp grounds, and it was opening weekend. For the season, divers must pay $16.99 + tax/day, to dive there.

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Today, was “Visit The Turtles Day!” This seems to be a breeding ground for them, so we are very careful not to disturb them. We just like to document them, and take photos of them. We saw at least two different species, and will be taking notes of our findings.

As we entered the water, we had some rocks to stand on, but we had to be a little careful, since the crayfish were sunbathing on them (in the water, of course). After gear checks, and going over our plan, we dropped down, where the current was already really moving. We went upstream for a bit, then drifted down, visiting our wonderful hard-shelled friends. There were big ones, little ones, and I took some photos of them.

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This guy came right up, to say hello…

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We even saw a massive muskie, that followed us, for a bit. I passed my camera to Steve, and he got a couple of photos of him. I wish that we had some kind of measuring tool with us, ‘cos he was freakin’ massive! Close to the same length as I am!

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The turtles are always amazing to see, and I love that some of them seem to pose for us!

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Bottom Time: 49 mins.
Max. Depth: 56′
Water Temp.: 50F
Visibility: 45′

We took a few photos of a few other turtles, after our dive (us, that is)…

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It was also the maiden voyage, for my new, custom Halcyon wing!

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Another day of fabulous River Turtle Diving Goodness!!

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Categories : 20 Sweet 16

Might Have Been The Jodrey…

14 09 2015

Sunday, September 13th, 2015 ~ 

Well, holy smokes… It’s boat diving day! Steve, Frankie, Eric B., and I joined in on Eric V., Dany D., Christian St-P., and Guy’s T2 course charter, to the Jodrey. Steve and Frankie were doing some cool penetration, and Eric and I had also planned to go inside.

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We dropped down the wall, landed on the wreck, and… well… we couldn’t see much of anything. We toured around the crane and conveyer belt for a bit, and looked for the door that we had planned on entering. Yeah… no such luck. We did see the winch, a port hole, and a hellovalotta nothing much. The currents were also all over the place, here. The down currents were stronger, the up currents weren’t there, and there were varying degrees of current, in other places. We have pretty much learned the lay of the currents here, but they did their best to fool us, today! Eric and I decided to end our dive a little earlier than planned, since we couldn’t really see anything, and Eric may have had an encounter with a rare “jumping zebra mussel.” Buggers… 😛

As we ascended, I caught sight of an eel, at 138′. It’s the first time that I’ve seen one just hanging out, under a rock, going up the wall. Kind of neat, since we have been seeing dead ones again, this year. We were able to catch the back eddy, on deco, which was really relaxing. It’s not always there, but when it is, it makes deco all the much “more gooder.”

We had found a sweet resting spot, at 20′, and were chilling there, for a while… until the three on course came up beside us. As they neared, the current changed again, and Eric and I decided to give them their space, instead of harassing them, and making them anxious. 😛

We drifted a bit more, finished most of our deco obligation, and scootered back around to the deco bowl, where we stayed for the last couple of minutes. Our 6-up was insane. Lots of weeds, and a lot of current (nothing unusual). It was nice to have the XK-1 scooters, to turn right down, and keep us in one spot, against the blistery water. 🙂

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 27 mins.
Max. Depth: 187′
Water Temp.: 69F
Vis.: What vis???

Eric and I, after our mostly non-existent visibility dive!

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Saaaaaave meeeeee!

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Also… a big congratulations to Eric V., Dany D., and Christian St-P., for becoming the newest GUE Tech 2 divers! Most of our GUE T2 community was on the boat, that day! w00t w00t!

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Steve and Frankie eventually surfaced (#TeamRB80), and we were able to make our way back to Canada-land!

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Thanks, to Captain Rick, for another amazing day of Diving Goodness!

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Categories : Twenty Fifteen

Brail Diving

14 09 2015

Saturday, September 12th, 2015~ 

We had a bit of a late start to the day, but we still wanted to get in the water. It was chilly and raining, but… DIVING!

Frankie had his heart set on going to the Paper Factory Basement, so that’s where we headed – at least, that is the destination that we attempted to travel to. There were a few cars there, and one boat in the water (we saw the trailer), so we knew to look out for a boat. 🙂 The water was extraordinarily low. Probably the lowest that we have seen, here.

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We put our gear in the water, and as we were getting in, Eric came by to pick up his gear, for the next day’s Diving Goodness. It felt really weird to see him on the dock, instead of in the water.

Once we did our gear checks, we surface scootered out to a spot that we would be able to see a bubble check, and descended.

Ay carumba… Talk about no visibility! We saw the ends of our scooters, but that’s about it. The water was full of particulate, and… just… MILK. All I could think of were Leigh’s words: “I do not dive in milk.” Too bad that I was wearing black wet gloves, because I wanted to pull Leigh’s big, blue thumb. We carried on.

I saw a couple of pike, which was nice. I hadn’t seen any, this year. Also, a couple of sheepshead carp, and some bass.

We dipped into the first bit of channel, then the second, and drifted for a bit. The currents were all over the place – non-existent in some areas, and absolutely ripping in others. There was one spot, where our scooters were not even moving, at half-pitch. If we hit the “turbo,” on the trigger, we did make ground.

It got to the point where there really was no point in continuing. We think we actually were on top of the Power House, but we couldn’t see anything, to really confirm it.

We turned around, and headed back to the entry. Frankie saw a couple of nice carp, on the way back. 😀

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 14 minutes
Max. Depth: 68′
Water Temp.: 71F
Vis.: 5′ of milky, particulatey crap – maybe the worst that we’ve seen, here

Oh, well… We went diving, and were able to practice our no-vis, scootering drills!

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Categories : Twenty Fifteen

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