To Dive Or Not To Dive? That Is The Question…

25 11 2010

Saturday, November 20th, 2010 ~

Steve and I headed down to Kingston, to pick up Steve’s new drysuit. Oren was also going to meet us there, in the hopes of getting in some Diving Goodness.

Raluca and Cory also made the trek, as they were picking up their new scooters, and Raluca’s new suit. Cory’s was still in production.

We hung about for a while, while suits were tried on, seals were cut, and pics were taken.

From there, we headed to the Loyal Oarsman for some grub. I was beginning to think that our dive would be postponed. It was starting to get dark, and the air was pretty chilly.

Cory and Ral…

After dinner, the decision was made… Oren, Steve, and I were going to swing by Centeen Park, for a night dip on the Gaskin. It had been a while since Steve and I had done a night dive, so we were in!

We geared up pretty quickly, brought our short bodies to the water, and got in. 

Gear checks were done, and away we went. It seems the line that we laid a few weeks back was in good order. The visibility in the water wasn’t as good as we thought it would be, but it wasn’t too bad.

Once we got to the wreck, we noticed that there was a bit more damage, and the block had moved. It was very difficult to distinguish what exactly had happened, due to the darkness, but there were a few drag marks in the silt.

We did a quick tour inside the wreck, then decided to drift a little bit. We did a little investigating, but all was barren. We headed back to shore.

Once in the shallows, we noticed quite a few mud puppies and crayfish, so we played amongst them for a bit, before coming in. It was a short dive, but worth getting in the water. I missed diving last weekend!!

Bottom Time ~ 34 minutes
Max. Depth ~ 67′
Water Temp. ~ 47
Visibility ~ Dark 😉


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Categories : It's 2010!

Centeen Or Bust…ed…

19 10 2010

Sunday, October 17th, 2010 ~

 

 

After having a very lazy Saturday, Steve and I had our arms twisted for some Sunday Diving Goodness. Yes, it was quite difficult to do that arm twisting…

Cory and Raluca were going to head to the Gaskin, and Steve, Eric, and I were going to have another look for that truck. Apparently, it does exist, as Kelly, Dave, and Warren found it last week! We gave Cory and Raluca a lift to the Gaskin, then headed off in search. We took a bearing south, hit the channel, then back up on the other side, where we started to drift. Steve was in the middle, I was on the left, and Eric was on the right. The visibility wasn’t the greatest, but we stayed just far enough where we could still see each others’ lights, and were still able to mow the lawn a bit.

We found another sleigh, some pots, bottles, and drifted amongst the periwinkle shells, but still no truck. I had the camera rolling, in case we came upon it, and I could have that magic moment on film! Yeah.. not… lol. I had the little Go Pro HD960 with me for the first time, and wondered what kind of footage I would get, not having any lights for it. The standard one is alot of fun, but does not pick up alot of ambient light at around 100′. I guess we’ll see with this one!

We decided to cross back over, and hit the trigger upstream again, to see if we could locate it there. We did find alot of very interesting bits of wood, bottles, and even a science beaker, but alas.. no truck. We decided to move a bit more shallow, and were amazed at how upstream we were, as the current was pretty strong, and we had drifted quite a bit, before going back upstream. We decided not to go back to the wreck, but check out the route back from the shallows. We came across some people carving pumpkins, so I got a very quick shot of that. I have still never done that…

We got back to the park, and played around in the shallows some more. Steve and Eric pulled out their Kool Aids… Mmm… Blue Raspberry!

Eric…

When we came in, Cory and Raluca were also in the shallows, working on some skills. We all finished up, doffed our gear, and headed to “Santa Fe.” We tried to go there last week, but it was closed for Thanksgiving. It was a new place for us, and we were anxious to try it. Southwestern food, and it happened to be All You Can Eat Fajita night! Oh boy… They were definitely yummy!

Bottom Time ~ 98 minutes
Max. Depth ~ 102′
Water Temp. ~ 57
Visibility ~ 15′

Steve…

Cory and Raluca…

I couldn’t resist taking a pic of this. There are election signs all over the place, but these ones stood out a little…

Yet another excellent adventure, even though we still have not found that elusive truck!


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The Oconto

28 09 2010

Saturday, September 25th, 2010 ~

On Friday afternoon, I received word that our planned dive to the Jodrey for today, was not going to happen. The rumour was that it was closed down to divers, due to an oil leak, and that it would to be assessed. It has happened before, and was closed down a few years ago as well.

There were six of us ready and mixed for the Jodrey, so we tried to think of another option for today’s dive. We finally decided on the Oconto. Only 1 out of 6 of us had done it before, and the 6th last did it 9 years ago, so we thought we’d give it a go.

Jeff, at the customs dock…

We knew that the currents here were a bit rock and roll, so we made plans accordingly. We were three teams of two, and would let one team of two go, then another, then another. We planned on entering the water, clipping off to the gear line while attaching deco bottles, then heading over to the channel marker, where we would be sheltered from the worst of the current.

Channel Marker, where you can get a bit of shelter…

Eric B was my buddy, and once we got in, and deco bottles on, we made our way to the channel marker. We had done most of our gear checks on the boat, but did our remaining ones there.

Very long tag line.. just in case…

Since we didn’t know what to expect, other than raging current, our plan was to descend on the trigger, five minutes, heading upstream, and drift onto the wreck. We followed our plan, and at 5 minutes, started to drift, and finish our descent. We weren’t sure what the wreck looked like, so we kept our eyes peeled. There were some seriously massive boulders along the way, which could have easily been mistaken for pieces of wreckage. Yes, I did mistake a giant one for a piece of something…

We did come upon some wooden wreckage though, that looked like a piece of a hull. There wasn’t much to it, so I wondered if that was it. Did we miss it?? We drifted on, and came upon a giant mast-like structure, sticking out of the periwinkle shells. Ok.. how about this? No, this was not the Oconto.

Just past this area, we came upon some large, wooden wreckage. Jackpot!! Ok.. this was not easy to miss. We checked out both large pieces of the wreck.. Half of it was laying upright, on an angle, with the other half laying upside down. Apparently, there is some wonder of whether or not there are actually two wrecks at this site. When we got to it, we saw one of the other teams of two inside a swim through. We did a little investigating, then met up with both teams in between the two pieces. I gave them a wave as we passed by.

When it was time for us to turn the dive, Eric and I decided once again, to hit the trigger, and move upstream, so that we could drift a little, on deco. We prepared for our gas switch a little early, so that there were no issues when it was time. Everything went smoothly and quickly at the 70′ stop. Once we got to our 20′ stop, Eric found a sweet spot to move into, where he was sheltered from most of the blasting current. I tried to tuck in as well, but didn’t get as sweet of a spot.

Up ahead, I noticed a bit of a cubby, where I thought it might be easier, so I signaled to Eric, and we moved up. Yes, this was much better. The current was still moving, but there was a little bit of alleviation here. Jeremy also noticed our little spot, and he and Kevin moved in as we moved up.

When surfacing, we tucked in behind the marker buoy once again, and did our 1 ATA deco stop… 😛 We all seemed to surface in perfect succession, and we all made our way back to the boat, taking turns, as we had gone out.

Max. Depth ~ 178′
Bottom Time ~ 67 minutes
Water Temp. ~ 64
Visibility ~ 40′

Frankie, clinging for a quick, “Rock On, Dood!”

Steve, coming up the ladder…

Jeremy…

Kevin…

Eric – Thanks for the dive, my friend! Thanks to Andy, for the loan of his scooter too!

Me…

On our way back, we saw buoys over the stern of the Jodrey, where there were divers earlier, assessing the oil. We did actually see a few splotches of oil on the surface. Let’s hope there isn’t much damage to the water, and that the leak can be contained.


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St. Lawrence Rivaaa…

28 07 2010

Sunday, July 25th, 2010 ~

To start off the day, we were very surprised to see a few visitors on our street. There were a few neighbours outside, wondering where these little ones came from…

Since I had to miss Steve and Jay’s epic 5 1/2 hour dive yesterday, I was definitely coming out for some fun today. Myself, Steve, Eric, Jay, Chris P., and Oren all met at our usual Centeen Park spot, for some more adventure.

Steve and I got special presents from Netherlands…

We got ourselves down to the water, put gear in, did our checks, and discussed our dive plan. We were in two groups of three, and planned on scootering 40 minutes upstream, then duck into the channel to drift and explore. This would be scootering longer in the shallows than we normally do, so we were hoping to find some neat things. Chris, Oren, and I were the second team of three, and since the visibility wasn’t great in the first bit of our journey, we quickly came upon a few single tank divers, that were very surprised to see a bunch of divers on big, black machines. We stayed out of their way, and continued on. Passing our “regular” spot that we drop in, we did see some really interesting formations, some debris from boats, and a few lines that didn’t really lead anywhere. We had reached the 40 minute mark, gathered up, ok’d each other, and off to the races..

Wait a sec… Oren… ok? Nope… scooter not ok… Scooter not feeling well… Doh! Time to head back. The other three continued on, and we headed in the other direction. Since we had plenty of gas, and could use the current to our advantage, we decided to drift back at 65′, so we could at least make our way to the Gaskin. I towed Oren for a little bit, then we drifted. There wasn’t a whole lot to see, where we were, but there were a few nice bottles here and there. We were all very aware of our gas, and still had plenty. Our original dive plan was somewhat still in the works, we just didn’t go as far as the other three, and didn’t go down into the middle of the channel. We knew we were getting close to the wreck, as the visibility got a bit worse, and we were at the right depth. It was at this time, that we just happened to see three lights come up on us. Now.. how on earth we were in the same place at the same time, was pretty cool! Since we had still followed our drifting portion of the plan, we just happened to sync up in the right place.

Instead of heading to the wreck, we decided to keep on going past it, then moved up a bit more shallow. The six of us drifted together for a bit, then the other three scootered away. We made our way a bit more shallow, and followed the wall back to our entry.

Although we didn’t get to see some of the amazing things that the other three saw, we still had fun, and still had an adventure. It was good that we had discussed our “failure” plans at the beginning of the dive, and we were on the same page.

Bottom Time ~ 2 hours, 21 minutes
Max. Depth ~ 72′
Visibility ~ 5′ – 40′

Along the way, I found a neat sun hat, that I had to bring along with me. I ended up scootering with it on for a while, and I think Chris and Oren nearly choked on their mouthpieces…

Jay…

Eric, analyzing gas…

Steve, while we were unloading gear…

Oren and Eric…

Chris P….

Eric, with his magic carpet.. that he left behind.. doh…

This little guy snuck in for a shot, as I was taking a pic of the gear. I didn’t even see him until afterwards!

It was nice to see Stephanie and Carmine again too!

Until next week’s adventure!


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A Ride At Centeen Park…

21 07 2010

Sunday, July 19th, 2010 ~

Myself, Steve, Jay, Andy, and Eric met up at the mighty St. Lawrence, for some adventure out of Centeen Park. It was a pretty busy place, and we ran into quite a few people that we both had and hadn’t seen in a while. Apparently, there had been about 5 charter boats on the Gaskin, with another couple of boats circling, waiting for their turn on one of the two mooring blocks. I guess visibility wasn’t going to be the best today…

By the time we got into the water, did our pre-dive checks, and ducked under, we saw that not only was the visibility bad, it was horrible. The five of us stretched out, checked for bubbles, then Steve gave us all the “ok” sign, in which we all returned… we’re off…

Ok.. so.. Jay and Steve were in the lead, with Andy, myself, and Eric behind.. wait a second… I don’t see Eric… “One, two, three..” sets of bubbles… *look behind me*… no Eric. So.. I stopped to wait for him, as I watched the others go off into the abyss. Hmm… still no Eric… I did a quick pass back, then back up. I was about to surface, when I heard his scooter, and went directly to him. *Phew!* We decided to continue on, in hopes of running into the others. We past the corner of the park, then surfaced, to see if the others were there. Ok… not here… We discussed it, and since we knew the plan, we decided to descend and continue on with the plan. Perhaps they were waiting for us near the channel drop.

I swear I thought I heard their scooters at least once, along the way, but you really couldn’t see anything more than about 7′ away from you. We continued along the wall, and still no friends. We reached the spot where the channel drop was to be, and decided to head back to the entry. We weren’t sure whether or not they would have dropped into the channel without us, so we scootered back.

Once we got there, there were no signs of them. We had another discussion, and decided to head over to the Gaskin. If the visibility was that stinky, we would just turn around.

Finding the line out wasn’t very hard, but I had to look twice at the hoop, to get the right bearing on it. Voila.. we have a line! We came close to thumbing it, but we were very close to the wreck, and this is where we always end up after a channel drift dive, so we proceeded. The visibility was horrible, but we plugged on.

Once we got there, we went for a couple of tours through the wreck, which is in such poor shape. It’s sad to see the state of it now, even the changes over the last five years. The visibility actually improved on the wreck. We messed around a bit, then gathered up to head back. Wait a second.. what’s that??

A light! Another light! Holy smokes.. and another! w00t! We had found our friends! We played around some more, then drifted off for a bit, before heading for home. This is about the time that my little video camera malfunctioned, so some of the most fun video bits never made it.

Upon discussing our separating with the other three, it turns out we surfaced within 120 seconds of each other, and must have passed each other at least once, without being able to see each other. They tell us that the visibility was much better in the channel. Bah!

Oh well.. Eric and I still had alot of fun, and it was kind of fun doing the navigating. 🙂

Bottom Time ~ 110 minutes
Max. Depth ~ 70′
Water Temp. ~ 73
Visibility ~ 2′ – 20′

Andy…

Jay…

Eric and Steve…

Eric and I… (Congrats on your Tech 1, Eric!)

As we were doffing gear and getting changed, a little boat went over the Gaskin…

We finished the day off with some Swiss Chalet, wished Jay a “Happy Almost Birthday,” then to Dairy Queen for dessert… Eric’s favourite! Dairy Queen was decorated with sunflowers, which I thought was quite nice…

We also saw a fellow pull up in a rather large pickup truck…

From there, we pan over to Eric’s divemobile. It is entirely possible to dive out of a mini.. doubles, a stage, and a standard body…

I caught a picture of a really old car, about to pull out of a driveway, in Brockville…

It was another day of Diving Goodness out in the River, with friends!


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