More Diving!

4 08 2014

Sunday, August 3rd, 2014 ~

Steve, Jen, Warren, Mike, and I met at the park, to go for a scooter run!

We scootered out to the park bench, dropped down, before the channel, continued upstream, and came to the Unknown Hull. We puttered around for a little bit, then kept going upstream, until we came to one of the horse carriages. This one does not have horse bones, but there is another one that does, including a horse skull.

We dropped into the channel, for a drift! There were bottles absolutely everywhere! We found a bottle mine! 🙂

Back up to the Gaskin, we went, toured around a little, then back in, for some deco.

Bottom Time: 2 hours
Max. Depth: 106′
Water Temp.: 68F

After-dive chatting…

Group shot, with Jane!

Group shot, with me!

As we were milling around, we saw Chris McMullen, John Bailey, and Leszek, coming in from their dive!

We went for a post-dive meal, then Steve and I made the drive back to Ottawa. Another great day, on and in the Riva!

 


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The Next Day…

3 08 2014

Saturday, August 2nd, 2014 ~

Ok, is there anything better to do, after a week long GUE course, than GO DIVING!? Steve, Eric, Jen, and I went out for a scooter/channel drift dive. We went approximately 40 minutes upstream, on the trigger, and then made our way down into the channel. We came up the embankment a little, on the south side, and started to drift. There was some really good current, in through there… at least, for a while, there was. After drifting for a bit, the current was non-existent, and then picked up, again.

We were in the channel for about an hour, then started to make our way back up, to the Gaskin. We always know when we are nearing it, as the visibility decreases, a bit, on the west side of the wreck.

Back to the shallows, where we did a couple of stops along the way, a bottle rotation, and some deco, at 20′.

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 29 mins.
Max. Depth: 106′
Water Temp.: 68F

I think I must have been a little tired, as I didn’t get any pictures, at all. At least I did get a picture of our celebratory fudge, from The Fudgery!

Also, the celebratory drink, that Jen purchased (thanks, Jen)!


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Courses, Of Course

19 07 2014

July, 2014 ~

The next couple of weeks brought GUE courses, to the front line. Steve was teaching a Primer, a DPV-1, as well as some Fundies Goodness, and hours of in-water time.

Congratulations, to all of the students!

 

A small glimpse of the new under water statues, at Centeen Park…

Between all of this goodness, Eric B and I went out for a skillz dive, in preparation for our upcoming Tech 2 course. We each brought three bottles, so that we could practice our rotations, at the quarry. At 20′, we dropped our bottles, to do valve drills, s-drills, finning techniques, blowing smbs, and all of the usual skills. Then, it was rotation time. I seemed to be having quite an issue, getting my last bottle’s butt clipped to my hip D-ring. I was getting quite frustrated, and my silly, slightly injured wrist was really bothering me. Ok. Deep breath… Let’s try this again… I took off the bottles, laid them on the bottom, and tried again. Yes, the clip that I was using, was a little bit tough, but nothing that should be giving me such an issue. Here I go, again…

Same thing… just couldn’t reach that darn D-Ring… wtf??? I put the bottles down, again, and decided to switch them around, just to test the theory. That’s when I noticed that the bottom clip had been left, wrapped around the hose of the stage bottle. Well, duhhhhh… no wonder I couldn’t reach the inside, with that clip.

I unwrapped it, then had at it, again. This time, success. *Phew* Eric’s went a fair bit smoother than mine did.

*Notes to self*
1) Check to see if bottoms of stage bottle clips are wrapped behind the tubing, before doing bottle rotations.
2) Bottle rotations with full bottles of 32% suck. Yes, I was already aware of this, but now, I am extra aware.

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 6 mins.
Max. Depth: 19′
Water Temp.: 66F
Frustration Level: Varying, but at least I was persistent 🙂

 


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Morrisburg – A Current Affair!

1 07 2014

Sunday, June 29th, 2014 ~

A large gaggle of us met down at the Morrisburg public dock, where we discussed our dive plan. We would enter down the road, then scooter/drift through the old channel, and through Lock 23. Since we had a bit of a distance to drift, we unloaded at our entry, then brought most of the vehicles down to the exit, and drove back to the entry, in our van. We would pick up our van, after the dive!

Some of the gear, unloaded…

It appears that sometimes gear DOES grow on trees!

We were going to scooter/drift in “this” direction (east)…

We entered the water, carefully. There were some slippery rocks, so we took our time. We scootered south, into the old channel, then started to drift. The visibility was not great, so staying together was a bit of a task. We did manage, though.

When we reached the lock wall, we tried to stay on the north side, but the current was absolutely ripping there, so we opted to go up and over, to the North side. I was loving how the XK1 handled the screaming current! Perhaps we can try to scooter upstream, another time… the dives where we always have to resort to “Plan B,” since the current gets to strong, to even scooter against.

Before we made it to the beach area, we found what may have been a dump area. There was some old garbage, and a large pile of bottles, in the silt. We blew an SMB, then swam over to the beach area. It was a beautiful day, so the beach was quite busy. We usually get asked by both kids and adults, “What do you see, down there?”

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 39 mins.
Max. Depth: 58′
Water Temp.: 62F
Vis.: 5′ to 10′ – Milky

Our exit point…

Chris took Steve to pick up our van, while I was the designated gear watcher. Raph had quite a drive ahead of him, so he left right away.

After gear loading…

At our post dive meal, I could not help but think of my friend, Jeff Schrieber, making fun of our mooses aboot the hooses…

Cheers, Jeff! 😛

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Project Baseline: St. Lawrence River – Canada ~ Initial Dive

22 06 2014

Saturday, June 21st, 2014 ~

We didn’t have any GUE Ontario members that were able to join us, for the initial Project Baseline dive, so Steve and I went out in search of the best spot, for one of the stations. Our initial station will be on the bow of the Robert A. Gaskin. Our goals will be to monitor the deterioration of the wreck, as well as the water temperatures, visibility, and any obvious changes (eg. fish, eels).

The ship was originally launched in April, 1863, in Kingston, Ontario.

Since we were the only two divers, we decided to go for a scooter up the St. Lawrence River, and end up at the Gaskin, on our way back. Steve had the camera, in hand.

As we approached the Gaskin, the visibility was not the best. The camera would make it appear better than it was, but it was still tough to get shots, where the camera could focus very easily.

A few different angles:

Taken from 49’…

From above the deck, with the bow to the right…

Taken from 59’…

Water temperature: 60F (top to bottom)
Visibility: 25′ (a bit milky – camera makes it look clearer)

We have established a natural station, for the bow, and will do others on the aft starboard side, as well as the stern, where there is noticeable damage to the wreck. We did see a few small fish.

Project Baseline Dive #1 = Complete!


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