Not much better then a nice evening swim 2 nights in a row

Its catch up time. After the summer that mostly wasnt, we finally managed to get some fantastic warm weather and with that comes even better diving. I tell all my out of town friends that Ktown is arguably the mecca of freshwater diving, with its abundance of wrecks, and reasonalby decent water conditions. So any chance to snag a dive is a good chance in my book!

This week the club snaged two evening dives. One at the Wolfe and the other on Howe islandThe other great thing is when you get to introduce new people to the diving around here. Everyone says the same thing " I never knew how good it was untill I saw it with my own eyes" or words to that effect.

To quote Scott "the Wolfe is like moms apple pie, allways good even when youve had to much" Info about this dive is all over the blogosphere in Kingston so I wont bore you with the details. Save one: Diving this boat is like diving down south - there are so many fish on this thing you could feed a small town in "insert 3rd world nation here". A good sized gang of us snaged a quick trip on Proteus to this river reef. Owen (on his first ever boat trip wreck dive in Ktown) and I even had the pleasure of seeing a small school of 5 sheepshead (2ft long fresh water drums) on the stern of the ship. They allways seem to hang around there and tonight was a great display.

If there is one lesson learned though its this: allways check your gear bag to make sure you have everything before you leave to dock. I know of a certain diver (me) who completly forgot his wet suit ( or fins or mask or other accoutrements) once many moons ago and had to borrow someone elses. Last nights escapade was someone elses to chance to forget thier gloves and fortunatly it was a short drive back to the docks. Dive saved!

Thursday night 4 of us snaged a quickie dive on Howe Island. This is a simple slow drift dive that does demand some planning on entry and exit. You need to know how to take a bearing and follow it or you will get lost. The highlight of the dive is a small barge with a few bricks it was carrying to peek at. Basic plan is go in head for 39 ft and there is a line along that contour heading east that (at least tonight) was in good shape. Approximatly 10 min into the dive you will find the wreck. You can go deep to 90 feet if you follow a south westerly route and I am told there is a wagon wheel along the way. to get back to the lighthouse you need to take a north westerly route then you should end up near the tower you came in by. Thank god we had a Master Corperal navigating or we would of been screwed!

We had the extra bonus of taking along a new member Ken on his first ever ontario dive and his 9th dive ever. For him this was a great intro into diving in the area. We hope to see him more as his truck can take a small armies worth of gear. Take the time when heading over to enjoy the ferry ride but be aware the price has gone up to $4.50 now as of april 1st 2009

Pics or it didnt happen:

Howe Island: Kevin, Jim, the barge in the dark, Ken, and the entry way.

The Wolfe Islander II

I am still learning (after a year and change) how to play with the lighting at depth with a remote flash unit. Not many of my pics have really turned out so far. Oh well guess I need to dive and practice more!

a couple of Marc-Etienne shots:

the perch and a fresh water drum.

As allways keep blowing bubbles!