First Charter of the Season..

Follow this link to view a short video of the first charter dive of the season - Good Friday - on the Wolfe Islander II..

Many thanks to Todd for organising this dive - and to Frank and Proteus for the opportunity.

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...

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 Gaétan. Their support was invaluable and appreciated every bit as much by the three divers as by myself.

Jack's Last Dive...

Right away - let's clarify the slightly alarming title. What we mean to say is 'Jack's last dive in Kingston for a while'.. Jack, who has brought a certain Western tone to Club life for the last 7 weeks, while here on temporary duty, is heading home to Winnipeg. Several of us considered it a good idea to mark his final immersion in Lake Ontario (for the time being) with something special. Only Matt did anything substantial about the idea. He chartered Proteus for a dive on the Wolfe. And we got a full turnout for the trip, including a couple of lovely bubblewatchers. Every trip should have those. Otherwise, it's like a car show without scantily clad models.

Anyhoo, the dive was a great success - even before Matt broke out the beers on the return journey. The wreck presented many large Freshwater Drum besides the usual host of Rock Bass, Bluegills and Gobies. Jack also had a chance to try out Frank's very handy Bladefish DPV. The thermocline was at about 55' and could be easily seen as a shimmering layer. Temps above - about 64℉. Below, who cares? I didn't stay long enough to find out. Safe journey home, Jack. It's been fun diving with you. Don't forget to return. We still have a bunch of great wrecks to show you.



The evening was also memorable for Ben. Who was making his first boat dive and first real, Open Water wreck dive since certification this year. Cool dive, Ben..

Hats Off to Kingston Dive Charters...

Check out this excellent promotional video featuring Anne and Harold's Kingston Dive Charters. It's great to see Kingston's amazing riches presented so positively and so well. What a shame the City can't get behind the dive community. Brochures advertising tourism opportunities produced by the City don't even mention diving.

Well done to the team in Collins Bay - thanks for serving the whole local dive community so well...

Wildlife on the Wolfe...

The opportunity arose today to get out to the Wolfe Islander and enjoy the extraordinary wildlife that abounds there at this time of year. Disappointingly (perhaps the dive traffic is proving to be a little intimidating) there were only fleeting glimpses of the Freshwater Drum that have been haunting the after portions of the wreck recently. There were, however, abundant shoals of Bluegill Sunfish. I think that the video tells the story quite well...

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!

Wolfe Islander II available to divers...

I had the chance to work on the mooring for the Wolfe Islander today. Pat Coyne (Pat's Charters) was good enough to take his boat out and dive with me. Finding the Wolfe is never too difficult, but we faced a couple of challenges raising the two lines. The bow line, the first we raised, had become twisted round a forward mast during the winter. That took a bit of work to untangle, then a lift bag sent it up without any further fuss. The stern line (with the Preserve Our Wrecks buoy) took a little more work. A completely new line had to be installed after we lost the previous buoy and line late last year. Fortunately, a little bit of brainstorming and a quick rehearsal at the surface allowed us to work together smoothly below. Conditions couldn't have been better on the Lake - and the presence of a few power boaters and at least one sailboat proved the point. The only issue we had was with swarms of mayflies. Small price to pay for two really enjoyable dives...

Members turn out for Preserve Our Wrecks...

Several members of the Club attended the Dive 'n Dine event held by Preserve Our Wrecks this evening. A dive outing to the Wolfe Islander was followed by a delicious barbecue. Despite relatively poor visibility on the wreck, the dive was enjoyed by everyone in attendance. It was an opportunity for many to see the recently parked second motorcycle, a Yamaha and to play, 'count the gnomes'. A special treat for a few of the 14 divers was a rare sighting of an American Eel. For the record, there was no discernible thermocline and the water temperature was 68F (20C).

Wolfe Islander II

This week the Dolphins had Captain Steve (Limestone) take them out to the Wolfe Islander II because the winds were high. The weather was warm and the water much warmer than previous dives. The visibility was not very good but that was expected with the storms that went through recently. We went down the bow line to the bottom and circled the boat clockwise. When we came back around the far side of the boat we came up over the side to the car deck. We had a look in the hatch and then moved on to the motorcycle. The ten speed was beside the motorcycle and the bowling ball wasn't very from from that . We then went and had a look at the winch on the front. After a short time here we followed the line back to the stern and had a look inside the doors and windows. We spend about 5 minutes here and then turned the dive. After getting changed we shared a few stories and a couple of laughs on the way back to shore. As always we then went to Tim Horton's to debrief and have a much needed coffee.

Rounding off the RMC Year...

Taking advantage of the small, slack period at the end of the RMC year, some of our most active divers, Marc-Etienne, Donovan and Olivier got in a couple of dives this week just before they departed for phase training over the Summer. As well as a shore dive, they were able to use a boat belonging to the Rod and Gun Club at RMC to get out to the Wolfe Islander. The accompanying photograph, taken by Marc-Etienne, was taken there. All credit to these guys, who have been diving consistently when the opportunity arose - and always in wetsuits.

Hello! If it's Wednesday, it must be the Wolfe Islander...

Well - long story short - weather warnings and the like again sent us to the Wolfe Islander II. Whole trip out and back it rained. Not the light, drizzly rain, but real, ground soaking, my yard loves it rain. Nevertheless, twelve of us got in another dive on the old lady. Viz was reasonable at about 40-50', but the thermocline was very noticeable and dropped the temperature at 60' and below to a chilly 50F (10C).

I guess everyone's spirits were lifted by the unusual sight of me in a wetsuit - first time in home waters in over a year. Did I mention that I love my drysuit? I kept raising my left arm in an effort to vent air on the ascent, with no result at all. Drat that muscle memory...

But a dive's a dive... Where's the Summer gone? My logbook shows the Wolfe enjoying temperatures 10F warmer than this exactly a year ago - Global Warming - Pah! (not a serious comment, I'm with Al Gore on that one...)

Oh! I ought to mention that there was some excitement about a couple of our divers spotting a large, probably Freshwater Drum (Sheepshead) around the bridge of the wreck...

Wolfe wanderings...

I guess it's just too accessible - and has too much to offer. Whatever the reason, today saw me make another trip to the Wolfe Islander, arriving there just before 10am to find Steve and the Lynn Lea already on station. No problem - two moorings. The dive was enjoyable; hardly any current and visibility something like 40' over most of the wreck. The thermocline at about 24' sees the temperature change from 62F (17C) to just 49F (9C) around the car deck. We poked into most of the spaces and meandered through the saloon before completing a very slow ascent to return to the surface in 46 minutes.

Not the Wolfe again - again..

I guess we should have been grateful that the charter went at all tonight. There was a small craft thunderstorm advisory in effect. But a courageous captain agreed to make the trip - with the single proviso that we avoided the relatively high winds on the open lake and dove a more sheltered site. Around Kingston that means just one thing - another trip to the Wolfe Islander.

Some people say that you can never have enough of the Wolfe, but three weeks in a row begins to wear a little thin. However, the dive itself was pretty decent. All twelve divers enjoyed their experiences, despite a little bit of surface chop and some wind-driven current. Visibility was on the average side - somewhere between 30 and 40 feet depending on the area. A lot of drifting particulates were very evident - blown across the wreck by a mild downstream current. Water temperature at 60' - a cool 50F (10C).

Full marks to several divers whose first charter this was - and who coped with less than ideal conditions admirably.

A bonus on the return journey was a close encounter with the Alexander Henry, which is scheduled to move into the Marine Museum's dry dock this coming Friday. The absence of the barrier caisson, which has been moved aside to allow the transition, gave the site a rather different look.

Wolfe Islander II - a Dream Dive early in the season

A remarkable opportunity was seized this afternoon to travel out to the Wolfe Islander II with Dianne and Chris. Dianne, a very competent sailor, permitted us to use her Legend 35 yacht as a dive platform. It proved almost ideal, but we may have to look at a better exit arrangement. The ladder provided a great test of upper body strength. Stainless steel rails do not afford the greatest grip for drygloves.

We found a mild surface current - which all but disappeared at depth. The bow mooring on the Wolfe Islander is in place, although the up line is tangled on the mast just behind the bow. This has artificially shortened the mooring, making tying on a bit of a challenge. The wreck was in great shape, with visibility something like 40-50 feet. We toured the vessel's hull, then rose at the stern to check out the saloon and upperworks. Dozens of small fish, presumably Bass, are still resident in the interior spaces.

For those who follow this saga, the Fire Hydrant is on the second deck, Starboard side, outside the Saloon; today, anyway.

Water temperature 42F (6C).