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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Jodrey ~ Take Two

29 10 2008

Sunday, October 5th, 2008 ~

 

Four of us headed out to the Jodrey again. The air was pretty brisk, and we had hopes of the sun peering out sometime in the day. We loaded our gear on Jeff’s boat, and headed out to customs, then to the site of the Roy A. Jodrey.

 

We geared up and splashed in. We swam past another boat and drifted a bit, then descended down to the wreck. There seemed to be slightly more ambient light this time around, but it was still pretty dark at the crow’s nest.

We checked out different parts of the wreck than our last dive on the Jodrey, and I was still in awe of this thing. It is just huge. There are so many places to see on this magnificent wreck, that I still need many more dives on her to really get a perspective on where everything is. I imagine it will also be many dives before I get any photos as well…. That, and the fact that I still do not have a lens for my camera… 😮

 

Sadly, our bottom time was up, and we made our way up the wall, doing our deco. We had a nice, relaxing deco, and James even had Fin Solo along for the ride. We finished deco and made our way back to the boat. This was a very valuable dive for me, as I learned a few things, and learned a bit about myself as a diver. Truly a good day. 😮

A “small” boat went by (taken by James, with my camera)…

 

 

 

James was a superstar, and had along a surprise for us…

 


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Morrisburg ~

29 09 2008

Saturday, September 26th, 2008 ~

 

We packed up the van and headed down to Morrisburg. Francois was visiting us, and another friend joined us for diving goodness as well. We met at the Marina, then headed west to our preferred entry point. The current is always ripping here, so a scooter is a great tool, should you want to swim against it. We had just planned on doing some exploring, and head out towards the island to the South West. We had tried to reach this island before, but the current was just way too strong, even with the scooters. We took a bearing to the South, and hoped to come across it.

 

The boys before the dive…

 

 

Frankie, playing with his camera…

 

 

We dropped down and headed out.  We found various pieces of wreckage, an anchor, a rope that Kevin played flag pole with, and some pretty cool rock formations. The current did not disappoint… It was as strong as ever. Francois did get some footage, and during our drifting portion of the dive, the camera caught how fast we were flying with the current.

 

We were down for just under two hours, with a max. depth of 66′, water temperature was 67.

 

 

We headed out for some truck stop food, where I won a pretty funny looking stuffed animal…lol…

 


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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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