Sunday, October 31, 2010

City of Sheboygan in great shape..

Seven of us went out with Kingston Dive Charters this morning to dive the excellent wreck that is the City of Sheboygan. Conditions could only have been improved by a little bit more sunshine, but the Lake was relatively calm, and the visibility was superb. A water temperature of 52℉ (11℃) ensured that no one got unduly cold. A lot of video was taken - and a short edition of the highlights is on You Tube here..

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Portsmouth Harbour Wrecks..

For all those who have not had the opportunity to visit the wreck fragments that lie just off the Breakwater at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, here's a little video pulled together in October. To view it click here.

It comes as a complete surprise to most Kingstonians that these links to the City's maritime history are literally yards from shore.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Night Dive on the Wolfe Islander...



The Club organized another very successful night dive on the Wolfe Islander tonight (Thanks Todd). We were delighted to be accompanied by several well-equipped and well-trained divers from the Great Lakes Underwater Explorers. (They brought considerable candlepower to the wreck..!). Our last night dive on the Wolfe provided several great American Eel sightings - and this one was no different. The other picture above is of my patient buddy, who was content to hang around while I bothered eels and fiddled with camera settings..! For the record keepers, the water temp at depth was 52℉ (11℃). That beat the heck out of 3℃ back on the boat..!!! Many thanks to Frank and Proteus Diving for another great outing from Treasure Island.. The new onboard heaters below are the bees' knees...

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Discontinued... You won't stop me from photography!



I got told some weeks ago that the batteries holder in my Sealife external flash unit was a discontinued piece and I could replace both of my broken holders... There was no way I was to pay around 600$ to replace my two flashes! There was no way I was to stop underwater photography either... Here is the solution to my problem (pictures below) !



I order cheap batteries holders online for 1,60$ and simply welded them in place to replace the sliding company one. The blue sticky tack is to minimize stress on the weld when I put in and remove the batteries. It works perfectly. I "test dive" today at Morton's wharf and manage over 75 flashes without any miss flash. I know that others suffer with the same problem or will eventually. Sealife is a awesome basic dive camera, but some pieces are made cheap! The next step is custom machined aluminium plates to replace the flashes's bases cracked many times. It will be done for next dive season. For now, good old epoxy will do the trick!

Good luck, and never give up underwater photography because of technical problems!

See you at my 150th dive Saturday!!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Quick and Dirty...


Don't get too excited by the headline, I'm talking about the video summary of yesterday's Pumpkin Dive.. Check it out here.. Many thanks to everyone who came out and supported the event. And apologies for missing most of you underwater. Next event, I'll do my little tour of the dive site AFTER capturing the participants... Oh well - nobody's perfect..!

Thank you Matt for the excellent title pic above

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Rare encounter

Once again today at 1300h, Suzanne, Laurie, Matt and I hit Portsmouth harbor. I have to admit, this easy site haven't deceived me yet this season. The wave breaker always provide either massive schools of perches/basses or a dozen of big healthy basses.

Today was different. There was a little something better than the big basses. Laying on the bottom for a little nap was a rarely encountered Long nose gar. In a 143 dives yet, it was my second. I have the pleasure to share this short video of this funny looking fish.

You can also enjoy a nice video of the big basses often present at the end of the wave breaker.

Finally to give an idea of the site for those that haven't been under the wave breaker yet, here is a video of what it looks like.

See you next dive!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Congratulations to our new Advanced Open Water divers..

Well done, Ben, John and Steve, who completed a tiring training weekend to emerge with their coveted Advanced Open Water Diver certifications today. Conditions were very good for this time of year, but a challenging night dive on the Wolfe (with no moon at all) and some strong surface currents on the Munson, made the course and the diving interesting.

Many thanks to Todd and GaƩtan. Their support was invaluable and appreciated every bit as much by the three divers as by myself.