Sunday, August 31, 2008

Exploring in front of the KGH


Today three of us went for a dive just east of the new line put in. We ended up following the line towards the end of our dive but for the first part we explored off shore in 20-30 feet of water. our big find was what appears to be an old life guard structure that has been left in the water. other then that seeing the odd fish was the most of our adventure. We made it down to 56 feet and the water temperature was 70F at the coldest. Our little adventure made for a very pleasant dive.

Cory completes certification in style...


Completing the course that began three weeks ago, Cory enjoyed near perfect conditions for his last two open water dives. He made it out to the KGH wreck in good form and then moved down to the Psych Hospital for a shallower dive to round off his training. It's been great to work with him and he's going to be a great addition to the Club. He's keen to get more dives in this season, so keep him in mind when you're planning outings, please.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Lining up to visit the KGH wreck..

No fewer than seven divers hit the water by Murney Tower tonight to take advantage of the recently-laid line that goes to what is, for the meantime, being called the KGH wreck. Transit times from shore are generally about 15 minutes - at a leisurely pace. Everyone had lots of time to enjoy the features of the site, including examination of the wooden knees (one pictured here) that are quite conspicuous on either side. I think that everyone is looking forward to seeing some high quality pics of the wreck. It's great to note that divers from the Great Lakes Underwater Explorers have improved access further by laying a right-angled, white guideline at the 15 foot level running eastward from the yellow line's start point. This makes location of the start really easy. Thanks to all concerned.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

New shore dive for your delight...

Following up on an exploratory dive last week, local divers tonight placed a line from shore near Kingston General Hospital to a wreck that lies in 60 feet of water, just 20 minutes gentle swim away. The line starts around the 20 foot depth contour and is most easily located by entering the water somewhere near the middle of the car park close to Murney Tower and swimming eastwards along the 20 foot contour until you pick it up. It's bright yellow and leads almost directly south to the bow of the wreck.

The wreck is in very good condition; one of the more intact examples of what is certainly a sailing vessel and probably associated with use on the canal systems. It's almost a hundred feet long and about 24 feet wide. Care should be taken by visiting divers to avoid disturbing and damaging many upright features that have stood the test of time.

The wreck is well known already; it features on local charts, but it has not previously been of great interest, since it lies in the path of frequent boat traffic and didn't have any line to it from shore. For ease of reference, it may be useful (borrowing the example of the KPH wreck) to refer to it as the KGH wreck, unless and until someone can provide a precise identity.

Visibility tonight was about 40 feet on the wreck and the water temperature about 64F.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Low Vis at Upper Brewers Mills

Three of us got out to dive at upper brewers mills this morning. We took our time and enjoyed the sites and debris. There was a fair bit of fish from sun fish to carp. With the water temperature at 75F we were able to stay in for about 65 minutes before returning to the surface. It was a nice relaxing dive which is perfect for a lazy Sunday.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Laying some Line


Today the plan was to head to the stacked hulls and straighten the existing line and make some improvement in the area. Unfortunately the high winds made this something that is going to have to wait for another day. With the wind whipping up the waves we headed to Deadmans bay to dive on the HMS Princess Charlotte. The task here was to lay line to this wreck in shallow water. It took five of us a little over 30 minutes to put some stakes in the ground and get the line in place. The visibility was not the best as the wind was whipping up the water but any dive is a good dive. The depth was around 20 feet with a balmy water temperature of 73f. The nice thing is we did get a trial run at laying line.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Final Basic Course Cancelled...


Recent announcements that the pool at the KMCSC will be closed for much of October have made it necessary to cancel the final basic course scheduled to be run by the Club this year. This is unfortunate, but we are very lucky to have the facilities at KMCSC and occasional upsets to our plans (and theirs) are just a fact of life.

Please encourage anyone you know, who is going to miss this course, to keep in touch with the Club over the 'closed' season and to enrol in next year's courses early.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Twofer downriver...


Some of my friends from my days in Virginia came North this weekend to conduct some technical dives on the Roy Jodrey, an intimidating deep wreck in the St Lawrence. However, today, they contented themselves with a shake-out two-tank expedition with Wayne Green's Thousand Island Pleasure Diving operation. That provided the opportunity to join them. The two wrecks chosen - for convenience from Brockville - were the Muscallonge (sitting in about 100 feet) and the Gaskin (about 65 feet to the bottom). Both wrecks were great to see, and it was my first dive on the Muskie. Sitting in a narrower part of the River, she enjoys a brisk current, which makes getting into the wreck's shadow a high priority. Moving on to the Gaskin, where the River is much wider, the current was less of an issue and the fish life was spectacular. Making the swim-through, from the stern forwards, a shoal of Bass and Perch was encountered in a calm, back eddy of the wreck. Larger, very bold fish were relishing the current and the foodstuffs it carries to them all over the deck and around the lower, protected sections. Visibility was pretty good (I'd heard some stories of poor viz in the River this year, but they proved to be false). I'd estimate it to be in the 60 foot range. The temperature - top to bottom - was 70°F (21°C).

In Search Of The Monarch

Going back to the spot where I took my open water course usually means the chance for a couple dives. This weekend the goal was to hit the Monarch. This was a tug that sank in the current at the mouth of the St Clair river, Sarnia. It is an enjoyable dive but there is the current. The current here has been known to pull off your mask or push you into the US, so diving this wreck is definitely a challenge. Usually this wreck has a chain going to it or a line. Upon getting in the water we found the remains of both chain and line but they did not lead to the wreck in 58 feet of water. Never wanting to lose out on an enjoyable dive we continued on to a debris field in front of a casino that use to be a Canadian Steamship line dock. Here all three divers managed to find remains and debris. After spending one hour in the water we came ashore to check out the parts of the plates we had found. My highlight was finding a piece that actually did say Canadian Steam Ship Lines. The visibility on this day was not terrible good in the range of 10 feet but the water temperature was a very comfortable 72f/22.5C.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Bonus Charter...

It's not every day that a charter captain calls you at ten to eight in the morning and offers you a trip, so when they do, it's generally a good idea to gear up and get going. That's what happened today and, when I got to the boat, who should I find smiling and enjoying life but Rob Bradley. Another familiar face was Gary Gillan, whose company I last enjoyed on a Club charter out of Duck's Diving in 2006. The two-tank outing took in the Frontenac and the Geo T. Davie. Great dive sites and seen in pretty good conditions. Viz on the Frontenac was better than on the Davie; about 50 feet compared to 30 or so. Water temperatures were very similar- somewhere around the 48°F mark (9°C).

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Work on the Frontenac...

Out today to work on mooring options at the Frontenac. The sky was blue and the waters calm - great conditions for getting out to this wreck, which is one of the more distant ones. There has been an ambition for some time to create a mooring off the wreck itself. Currently, the line goes down to the Starboard stern rail of the tug. Some heavy iron wheels, chained together for effect, were dropped some time ago, but they lie just too far from the wreck to serve well as a descent line anchor. We worked today to dig these wheels out to some extent, preparing them for a lift to a position closer to the wreck itself. Bottom times at 110' aren't very long and although the total dive time was 30 minutes on each of two dives, we probably achieved only the minimum desired effect. Another trip - or maybe more - will be required to place a bag on the stack of wheels in an effort to dislodge them and shift them across the bottom. It would have been a travesty to miss a tour of the wreck itself, so that was taken in on the second dive. Visibility was pretty good; certainly in excess of 60 feet. The temperature, however, just to warn those who are exulting in 3mm dives in the shallows, was 42°F (6°).

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Checking out the Marine Museum Barge...

This evening presented a great opportunity to get wet with Kevin and Gaetan at West St. Conditions were great and we entered the water just beside Ahoy Rentals. Kevin was keen to practice navigation and led a faultless dive across to the corner of the pier and on to the barge, where we completed a circuit before reversing our course for an exit at West St Ramp. Conditions in the water were good, though the viz could have been better. It was about 20 feet over most of the range. There weren't many exciting sightings, though a large Sheepshead was spotted near the logs on the return journey and a Pike was cruising the shallows on the ramp; something that is entirely typical of this area. There were also a lot of Bluegills on and around the car below the ramp. Water temperature was a balmy 70°F (21°C).

Sunday, August 10, 2008

3 Tank dive on August 9th

7 adventurous souls made the trek down to 1000 Island Pleasure Divers on Saturday morning forgetting that this was the Poker run weekend. We had a great view of the boats as they ran up and down the river all day Saturday. This was the perfect way to spend a Saturday.

We were joined by three other dives from Carlton Place for the the first two dives. I would like to take the time to thank them for a great day and hope we meet again sometime.

Our first dive was to the Keystorm. We came down the line at the mast. My buddy and I then followed the mast out to the end thinking we would get a great view of the wreck but the visibility only let us see a slight outline. We then came back in to the wreck and turned to our right. This brought us to the wheel house. We had a short swim through and followed the wreck up to the bow. We then swam around to the bottom of the boat to see the holes that were put in it when it hit the shoal. Once having had a look at that, we swam down to about 60 feet and then came over the top of the boat. As we were rising over the top we had a great view of the fish that were hanging out here away from everyone down below. We then came over the side and headed for our up line. I would say we had about 20 feet of visibility and the water temperature was 72 degrees.

After our lunch which consisted of subs as well as banana muffins and chocolate brownies provided by one of our members (Ashley) we headed out on our second dive of the day.

After our surface interval we all jumped into the water behind Singer Castle. Here we were out of the boat traffic and we could look for buried treasure. The water depth was about 45 feet and the water was much clearer than at the Keystorm. Most of the divers found bottles of some kind. Some more interesting than others but all were pretty happy with their find.

We then returned to Caiger's to let off our new friends and one of our members who couldn't stay for the rest of the day. Once customs released us we traveled down to Eagle Point where we did a drift dive. Even though the water on the surface was rough the water below was quite calm. We had a nice slow drift. I had a chance to check out the fish and I found a big mud cat. Scott tells me he saw one bigger than the one I found but I think he is just trying to compete with me. He sure didn't take the time to point it out to me. We then headed back to Caiger's where they had pizza ready for us.

All in all it was a fantastic day.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Short sighted...?

After a week away on the water (sailing), last night was a first chance to get wet again. The site selected - as a proof of concept - was the wreck by the PUC Dock - from shore. Parking on Collingwood St (just beside Queen's Residences) it's a short walk across the green space to the shingle beach entry. The heading for the corner of the Dock is then 210° Mag. Be prepared for a shallow spell in thick weed for the first few minutes. Eventually, the bottom begins to fall away and at about 15 feet the dock side looms out of the murky water. A left turn then takes you straight to the wreck in about 22 feet of depth. Last night's viz was atrocious by our standards - something like 15 feet. Nevertheless, after a good mooch around the wreck, we indulged in a little light exploration of the slightly deeper water to the South, returning to the beach at around the one hour mark. The only thing seen of note was a huge Sheepshead, which kept appearing ghostlike from the gloom. Of course, in this location, it's always possible too to add to the Club's holding of golf balls. For the record - water temperature - 70°F (21°C).