Deadman's Turtle Tales - Part 2

Todd 'sneaking up' on a turtle..


Painted Turtle..


Bow section of the Princess Charlotte..


Stern section of the Princess Charlotte..

Today's near-ideal conditions prompted Todd and I to make another expedition out to the Princess Charlotte. Todd navigated today and put us, near as dammit, right on the wreck. I was experimenting with photography using a tripod and the results were pleasing. It gives you the opportunity to obtain maximum depth of field and a sharp result. We both took some time to 'bother' the resident turtles. Please understand that this does NOT involve actually touching or otherwise disturbing these animals; something which no diver should do. For those who care about the cooling of the Lake, note that the lowest temperature observed during this dive was 36℉ (2℃).

By the way, Todd left the dive site to go and collect a spiffy new DUI drysuit. Look out for news and pictures of this very shortly.

DIVE - ER HARD OR NOT AT ALL!!!

Today, Mike and I decided to venture out in the frigid icy cold water (4 C). With the sun shining, the air temp. was - 14 C. We were in the water by 10:30 making our way, at a very leisurely pace on a bearing of 205 deg. After a 5 min swim we were upon the Princess Charlotte. This is one of the wrecks in the local area from the war of 1812 that is accessible from shore. She must have been a fascinating ship in her day. Her ribs are proof she was not only built with pride, but more importantly, (being a warship) she was built to give and take punishment. She lays in 13 to 19 ft of water (time of year), with visibility between 20 to 30 ft. Not just visited by divers, she has a host of fish that lay claim her home. Today, Gobi's were the only species of fish present, however we were welcomed by a couple of Painted Turtles. They too, were making the best of the day by absorbing the sun on the rocks at the bottom and not buried in the mud. Once out of the water, it became a rush to get our gear off so we could unzip our dry suits. Definitely worth diving again, however, I think there will be more pictures taken tomorrow, and the weather shouldn't be as cold as today.

Drysuits Rock..!

Today was the final dive of Suzanne's drysuit course and she completed it in Deadman Bay on the wreck of the Princess Charlotte. Cold water holds no terrors for the drysuited diver, but Ken, Suzanne's buddy was diving wet - and that's a different story altogether. Ken did really well to enjoy the 30 minutes or so of the dive - in 46℉ (8℃) water.

Before we entered the water, I had mentioned that this is a particularly good time of year to see turtles settling on the bottom of the Lake. Sure enough, up at the stern of the wreck, we encountered a very large Painted Turtle nestled in amongst the timbers. It showed no fear and we were careful to avoid disturbing it beyond taking a couple of pictures.

The pictures show that it's clearly possible to have fun in the water, even at this time of year.

Double Dipping

Today Matt, Sebastien, Andrew, and myself attempted to get two dives in before noon. After meeting at the club for 9 am we made our way to the HMS Princess Charlotte. We spent a little over 30 mins in the water in the enjoyable warm water. we were all in 3 mm suits with no hoods. After I steered the group in the wrong direction for a bit we came upon an interesting debris field that will require another visit and closer inspection. After our dive we headed towards the marine museum. We spent almost 40 mins in the water. the visibility here was noticeable worse as we had close to 10 ft. We made our way to the barge but the line looks to have frayed and broke but is still quite usable. During our dives we spotted a variety of fish from pike to gobies and just about everything in between. Over all I can not think of a better way to spend a nice sunny warm Sunday morning then diving. The coldest we had the water was 70f/21c.