Got E.Motion-Al

22 07 2013

Sunday, July 21st. 2013 ~

Today was the day that I was trying out my new Santi E.Motion suit. I had it on deck to dive on Saturday, but our dive did not go ahead, as planned.

Since Steve was teaching, I made my way down to Brockville, and met Jen. We were going on a channel scooter/drift dive. Our plan was to scooter upstream from Centeen Park, then drop into the channel, and have some fun!

We hit the triggers, and away we went. Once we reached our planned channel drop, we started towards the channel. As we were making our way, we ran into some wreckage. A lot of wreckage. We sometimes see the odd plank of wood, but these piles were many, and strewn about for quite a distance. Of course, we had to have a look, so once we did reach the channel, we cut our planned drift time down by a few minutes.

While we were in the channel, there was a freighter that passed overhead. This is nothing new, and happens quite often. This one sounded like it was within spitting distance! There we were, drifting in the channel, in some pretty mild current, when the river bed started to shake, the current went from slow to “spit you out” kind of speed, and it was so loud, that every piece of our beings were pounding. I swear, we could feel our heart beats, in time with the freighter! We were just shy of 100′, so I knew we weren’t in any danger, but sheesh… talk about giving us some wide eyes!  After it passed, the current slowed down… *Sings Twilight Zone music*

We had reached our planned (make that, replanned) drifting time, so we started to make our way back up. Just as we got to 70′, we were staring into the stern of the Gaskin. How was that for planning? We went for a bit of a swim through it, then decided to swim off, a little. Jen found a couple of little treasures (no, they were not of the wreck-finding kind). 😛

As we came back up into the basin of the park, we came upon an extremely tangled Halcyon reel. Since we were going to do a few minutes of deco anyway, we decided to untangle it. Well, holy smokes… It was not an easy task, but we finally did it. It definitely took the both of us, to do it. We figured it belonged to the people running a course there, so we brought it in. As we surfaced, Jen asked if anyone was “missing” one. They were using it for a rescue scenario, and were just about to go back and pick it up! We saved them a bit of time and energy. 😛

Bottom TIme: 2 hours, 8 mins.
Max. Depth: 99′
Water Temp.: 73F
Vis.: 10′ to 40′

Mike met us over at Bud’s, for some dinner!

We caught three ducks on the back of a Sea Doo, but by the time I got my camera out, they were jumping ship. Go figure…

Oh, well! At least we had a really fun dive!

As far as my new Santi E.Motion suit goes, it fits absolutely perfectly, and was so comfortable to wear. I’m sure that if I had not had a P-Valve malfunction (duck bill valve), that I would have been a happier camper, but the suit was awesome. I can’t wait to get some more dives on it!!


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In It For The Long Haul

15 07 2013

Sunday, July 14th, 2013 ~

The St. Lawrence River was good and warm, so we had planned on doing a longer dive. Steve, Eric, and I were starting from Centeen Park, heading upstream in the shallows, into the channel, then back up, for planned deco. It seems we do quite a few dives from this entry point, which is true, but it is a different dive, every time!

The sun was pretty hot, so we got our gear into the water, as soon as we could…

We made our way upstream, switched scooters and stages, and down we went, into the channel. The visibility was pretty horrible, until we got down into the channel, where there was a significant improvement. We drifted for a while, Then started our gradual ascent, with our planned stops.

Bottom Time: 3 hours, 48 mins.
Max. Depth: 112′
Avg. Depth: 58′
Water Temp.: 68F
Vis.: Not very good; better in channel

As we did our 1 ATA deco stop, we heard some familiar voices behind us. Mike, Jen, and Julie greeted us, and gave us a hand with our gear (we were very thankful, for that).

Le Princessi also came out to play, on deco! 😀

We then headed to Boston Pizza, for after Diving Goodness Eats… We ended up getting home pretty late, but when you’re with friends, it doesn’t really matter. 🙂


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The Power House… Or, Thereabouts…

6 07 2013

Sunday, June 30th, 2013 ~ 

The good Doctor Oren decided to come up for the weekend, and we met at Guindon Park.

We decided to get in on the opposite side of the marina…

Getting gear together…

The plan was to go to the Power House, since we hadn’t been in a while.

We headed south, down the embankment, and up the other side. We drifted for a bit, but the visibility was so horrible, that we never ended up getting to the Power House. We did find a lot of other cool things, though!

There were some areas with some absolutely ripping current, and areas with none. It was a pretty fun ride!

We found a large structure, that we really weren’t sure what it was, but it had ties for ships to be tied up to it (obviously, before the River Flooding).

As we made our way back over to the north side of the embankment, we found a really large anchor. Probably one of the largest that we have ever seen.  We also found a tower, and a swing bridge.  It was a pretty cool day to find stuff!

As we made our way in, we had surfaced, to get a bearing on where we were. We blew a bag, in case there were any boats. Since there did not seem to be many boats at all, we decided to head towards the boat launch, to get out.

Yeah… there weren’t any boats, until the the little one that buzzed us, went overhead. I swear, we were inches from the prop. I felt the vibrations in my head. Normally, you can hear them coming, but this one was especially quiet. Scared the living pachoosies out of me! *Phew!* We were only in 6′ of water!

We came in safely, and parked our gear.

Bottom TIme: 2 hours, 37 minutes
Max. Depth: 77′
Water Temp.: 66F
Vis.: 2′ to 20′ (depending on where we were)

Although we didn’t make it to the Power House, we were all pretty excited to see new things!


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JK, From The UK, In Canada, Eh!

5 07 2013

June 21st, 2013 ~

We had been chatting with John Kendall about coming over to Canada, to do some diving with us. There happened to be a few folks that wanted to take Tech 1 with him, so we were happy to host at our place.

John’s flight was pretty much on time, and collecting him did not take long, at all. With the 5 hour time difference, and a couple of late working nights, John was a little tired. We arrived chez nous, got some gear together for the morning, and went to sleep!

June 22nd, 2013 ~

We had a charter booked for the afternoon, which was nice. We didn’t have to get up at the crack of ridiculous, and had a bit of time before heading down to St. Lawrence Park. Tom Scott had a charter going out, looking for some wreckage. Eric and Cory joined us, too!

Having some fun, before the dive.

I was a total dork, and had forgotten my can light, which did leave me a little light on our 10′ stop (*duhh*). Nothing a rock couldn’t help me with…

We had a fun swimming drift dive, and did manage to find a few clues (chamber basin and some charred wood), as to where some of the wreckage might be. It was great to be in the water, and we are happy that it was warming up, a bit. I did also find a fancy red flag, which I donated to Tom. 😛 We also got to the old truck, and were able to show it to John!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 6 mins.
Max. Depth: 102′
Water Temp.: 60F

Wow… Cory really grew in this pic…

It was then off to dinner, and back home!

June 23rd, 2013 ~

John was starting the first of two GUE T1 courses, today. Steve and I showed him around the quarry, and were going to jump in the water, but… well… we forgot an essential piece of gear… which is just ridiculous. We have had a pretty good track record, up until now. I think we shall blame John. 😛 *Ducks*

I still took some surface shots.

Line Drills… Watch out for that wreck! 😛

Zero Vis Exit..

*The work week went by, for us*

Experience Dive Day! Steve and I made our way down to Caiger’s, and hopped onto Rick’s boat, with the class. Michel and Eric V. were doing their experience dive with John, and Carm and Steph joined us, too! Steve and I had planned on a longer bottom time, and brought scooters with us. We scootered across to the other side, for something new to look at. As we descended, we saw some kind of round, steel structure. We have absolutely no idea what it was, and had not seen it before. It almost looked like a hatch on a freighter (although, we are pretty sure that it wasn’t).

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 44 mins.
Max. Depth: 200′
Water Temp.: 63F
Visibility: Quite nice!

Group shot, taken by Rick Lymer!
Me, Eric V., Michel G., Carm B., John K., Steve B., Steph B.

Congratulations to Michel and Eric!! Well done, guys! GUE Tech 1 divers!

June 30th, 2013 ~

John started another course, and a few of us went down to Guindon Park (separate Bloggy Thing entry).

July 1st, 2013 ~

Steve, Oren, and I slept in (yes… we acquired an Oren, overnight), then made our way up to the quarry, to meet John et. al. I brought my camera, to take a few shots, while Steve and Oren had a bit of a surprise for John.

We first went over to the shark, to show Oren (he hadn’t seen it since it had been fixed up and floated).

Oren, donating to his buddy…

We then went down to the sub, and started up the wall, when we saw “the guys.” 😀

Steve got ready…

Oren got ready…

We snuck back down… I hovered over top, while Steve was on one side of John, and Oren was on the other side… with nice, big, fancy SNORKELS on!

Mission complete!

John must have thought we were completely nuts… (although, he may have figured that out, before that moment).

We made our way back to the plane, where we goofed around a little, then back into the shallows for some pics.

Me!

Dr. O…

Since our very good friend, Laurynn’s, birthday was coming up, we decided to take a few pics for her, too!

Bottom Time: 52 mins.
Max. Depth: 60′
Water Temp.: 46F (below thermocline, at sub)

Course #2, cleaning up, to get out…

John, stowing his deco reg…

Bad boyz…

Steve, John, James, Oren…

Congrats to James, for getting GUE Tech 1! w00t! It’s about time! 😛

We had a fun couple of weeks with John, and there are a few more happy GUE-Y folks, too!

Come on back, John!


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Diving With My Arizona Sista!

3 06 2013

Friday, May 31st, 2013 ~

After picking up one of my bestest buddies from the airport the previous night, I brought Karen to work with me, on Friday. It became, “Bring Your Dive Buddy To Work Day!” We were able to leave a little early, and we made our way up to the quarry, to mess around a little, and do some skills. Christian met us up there, too!

Our dive plan was to do a few skills around the plane, drop down to the sub for an ascent, then mess around at the plane again. I did have my camera with me, but put it down for skillz.

We then went down to the sub, where we very quickly noticed one of the thermoclines. *Shiver!* We stuck around there for a bit, then practiced an ascent from 50′. Coming back up through the warmer water was a very welcome thing!

I did take some pictures, too!

Karen… I guess she’s moderately squared away… 😀

Christian is OK!

On our way back in…

….of course, we had to goof around, just a little…

When we surfaced, the sun had begun its descent…

Bottom Time: 42 mins.
Max. Depth: 56′
Water Temp.: 46F (below first thermocline)
Visibility: A little bit crappy

Group shot!

Karen and I headed back, and readied our gear for the weekend!

Saturday, June 1st, 2013 ~

We had loaded the van on Friday night, so we were ready to roll, around 7am, to head down to Mallorytown Landing. We were hitching a ride with Rick Lymer, to the Daryaw!

Joining us, were Lisa, Karen 2, Donna, Hong, Ivor, and Shawn.

The Landing…

When we got to the Daryaw, there was a small boat passing. We waved…

Karen and I splashed in. The surface current wasn’t too bad, but we had drifted a bit, doing our gear checks. We had scooters with us, so we weren’t really concerned. As we descended, we were a slight bit downstream of the wreck, so we made our way over to it. We did a full turn of the wreck, then underneath, where we tied off our scooters and stages, then ran a line inside. We peeked into a few rooms, where there was absolutely no shortage of freshwater eels. A few of them were poking out of their holes. We turned around, made our way out, then checked out one of the holds. We wanted to do a little more looking around, but were getting close to the end of our planned dive time. Very much fun!

On our way out, we did our gas switch, then drifted off. We didn’t follow the line up, so I blew a bag, and we ascended. What a blast!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 4 minutes
Max. Depth: 93′
Water Temp.: 53F
Visibility: 30′ (a bit milky)
Current: Not as strong as usual, for the Daryaw; low surface current

Karen C., checking out the River!

After we were all on board, we headed over to the Lillie. Some did a drift, some.. well… a few missed the current, but still had a good dive! Karen and I chilled on the boat, and helped the others with their gear.

Shawn and Ivor had a good drift!

Rock on, Hong!

Karen H. got photobombed!

Donna had fun, too!

Lisa “forced” me to taste that Vanilla Coke… For someone that doesn’t drink pop often, I was quite liking it!

Lisa, with Mike and Rick, up top!

The gang, minus me! There did seem to be quite a few “Karens,” on the boat. What a fun day! Boston Pizza was our dinner menu!

Sunday, June 2nd, 2013 ~

Today, to the Jodrey!

First, to customs – Leaving Boldt Castle…

There were only four of us, and we had the wreck to ourselves. The visibility was not the best, but at least we could see more than 5′ in front of us. As we descended onto the wreck, there was absolutely no ambient light, thanks to the clouds and to the thunderstorm that hit, earlier that morning. At least the storm had stopped, by the time we were loading gear.

Karen and I did a tour of the bow, peeked in the wheelhouse, and a bit of the crane. There was hardly any current at all, which was very surprising. We were even able to hover on the port side of the wheelhouse, which is usually a place where the current wants to push you up and over the wreck! Craziness! It was pretty cool to show it to Karen, though!

Myself and Karen, on deco. Taken by Kevin Abe.

Bottom Time: 55 mins.
Max. Depth: 175′
Water Temp.: 55F

Neil, chillin’. Is that a Sears catalog pose? 😛

“The Abe,” hangin’ on the bow…

Karen and I, after most awesome Diving Goodness!!!!!!!

Once we got back to Caiger’s, cleared customs, and unloaded, we went to the Family Restaurant, for a delicious meal! Lisa, Karen H., Donna, and Merv joined us too, since their charter was back around the same time as ours.

It was most awesome to have one of my AGGAST sistas visiting, and to meet some really fun and good people! *Cheers,* to next time! 🙂


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