Shad-tastic..!

It's not entirely clear just what species we encountered in the waters near the Marine Museum yesterday and today, but what's quite certain is that we enjoyed an experience that is rare in local water. This link will take you to video that shows just what we were privileged to enjoy. So numerous were the fish, and so intent on shoaling, that they actually collided with the divers. If you listen carefully, on a couple of occasions you can hear a fish bump into the camera housing.

Happy New Year everyone!

Munson Reputation Restored..

Today provided the opportunity to restore the reputation of the Munson as a benevolent, exciting dive site. With two good friends from Virginia, Celia and Gavin, Dianne and I made the trip with Gaétan and Jack. Despite blustery conditions topsides - and the dire reports of last week's dive, we had a great experience. The line took us straight past the tallest pylon onto the main deck. Visibility was good enough to see the whole wreck from any position and only the gentlest of currents crossed the deck. Behind the dredge, near the bucket, a large shoal of Lake Shad was criss-crossing the bottom. Bottom temp 48℉ (8℃). The thermocline lay at about 60', the same depth as we'd observed it to lie on the KGH wreck earlier in the day.

Back in the swing..

Two dives today = and both in good company. The first, having turned down the chance to go dive the Kinghorn in Rockport, was at the Marine Museum. This was the Club's Sunday Shore Dive and we had 8 divers in the water, which is great by any standards. My strongest interest was to give Ben, who was only making his 6th dive, a good experience and sight of yet another local wreck. That worked out well, and he enjoyed a gentle, interesting dive. He also had fun bothering various fish.

The second dive - prompted by who else but Todd - was at KPH. We were joined on a beautiful calm evening by Jack, who is in town on duty from Manitoba for a couple of months and keen to dive (so keen that he joined the Club right away). Our first order of business was to have a look around the giant stride entry area for a missing scuba component lost about 10 days ago Eagle-eyed Jack spotted it within a couple of minutes and that released us down the pipe. We followed that, in about 10 feet of visibility (that may be an optimistic assessment) out to, and beyond, the thermocline at 38 feet. Then, the visibility really opened up to something like 40 feet or more. The greatest surprise, and absolute delight, was encountering a large shoal of Lake Shad on the return journey. They made several flashing, silver-scaled passes before disappearing off into the distance. These unpredictable and unexpected meetings with this species are rare. I reckon on about one a year.. For the record, the temperature below the thermocline remains at 46℉ (8℃). That put it just on the bottom beside the Marine Museum Barge - Brrr!

Cracking good dive...!

There's a brief time of year between ice free and frozen when the Lake can be entered with a minimum of effort by cracking light icing at the margins. Today was one of those rare days. With a brisk wind piling drift ice up on the breakwaters and making shore entry challenging, the decision was made to enter at KGH and swim out into the Lake. There were no great issues and navigation proved reasonably easy; the area around the outer breakwater is quite familiar. Visibility wasn't great, probably about 20 feet at best, but the dive was worthwhile.


Besides the car that lies south of the wall, a bicycle was found and a shoal of Lake Shad spotted close to the rocks. The water temperature was as close to freezing as it gets before it gets a little firmer.