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.

Fish sighted - Cayman Brac

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Fish sighted - Cayman Brac

Here's an update. Started scootering from shore. Its a hoot, especially when the current us up. Save a lot on air. But you have to be careful not to go to far. Water temp is between 81 and 83.

No pictures, but here is a short list of what we saw:
-Spotted Eagle Ray, 6 turtles (on the last dive), peacock flounder, Yellowtail Snapper (very tasty), Queen Couch (in season and very tasty too), Stingray, Spotted Moray Eel, etc,

There are 41 positively identified and more the I am not sure about.
http://www.tropicalrunaway.com/

Night Time Survey Work - not so much..

Todd and I dropped in to visit Morton's Wharf tonight with the intention of getting some measurements for his Divemaster Mapping Project. It turned out that working at night is not so easy. Our basic error was trying to run a tape along the bottom, rather than the top, of the various wall lines. The fact that several sections of the walls have collapsed, and that there are many logs and timbers lying adjacent to the bottom of the wall, makes running the line out difficult. We'll have another go before long, using the top of the wall to capture the relevant figures.

Otherwise, our dive was pretty good. Surface temperatures above freezing, despite light rain, were quite easy to work with. The water temperature though has dropped quite a lot over the last week. It registered 41℉ (5℃) on our computers ( drop of about 5℉ since this time last week).

There were the usual Bass and Gobies around, and Todd played with a couple of Mudpuppies. He also managed to spot a Pike lurking in the usual NW corner. I missed it.

Cayman Brac - Tropical Run-A-Way

Hi All:
Just wanted to say hi from Cayman Brac. Lucky it is not to hot. Just sweating when I work. The wind has been from the wrong direction and the vis is only 50 feet. Hope these photos warm you up:

Rain stopped play ? Not likely...

When the weather makes diving less pleasant, there are always alternative ways to keep yourself busy. Todd is one of many Divemaster candidates the Club is currently lucky enough to be preparing for service next season. Although his preference today would certainly have been to add to his annual dive tally (he's closing in on 100 dives this calendar year) he contented himself with polishing off another of the 8 exam papers he has to complete for his Divemaster certification. Today, it was Decompression Theory and the Recreational Dive Planner, and he scored a very creditable 95%.

If there are other Club members looking to take this entry-level step into the conduct of training, they should contact myself, or one of the other instructors. All of us would be delighted to discuss the options open to you - and the syllabus that has to be addressed.

Night Time Photo Foray...

This evening Todd and Matt let me join them on a night dive from Morton's Wharf. They were both keen to experiment with new, or fairly new camera gear, especially external strobes for their setups. The results will likely appear in due course on their Facebook pages or elsewhere. In the meantime, the pic above was taken the old-fashioned way, with in-camera flash.

For record keepers, the conditions were quite good. Water temp - as expected - 45℉ (7℃). The air temperature a little cooler at just 2℃. Viz, thanks to a stiff SW wind, which was driving some good waves up on to the entry point - about 20'.

Kinghorn Quest...

It's becoming a weekend staple, but there's no harm in that, while the weather cooperates. This morning, Todd, Dianne, Kevin, Jim, Adam, Vinnie and I took a dip in the water again at Rockport, visiting the Kinghorn from shore. The viz was OK - at about 25'. Water temperatures hover at about the same as the Lake - 45℉ (7℃). There was little to see in the way of wildlife. The more cunning divers exited by using a ladder on the back of a berthed diveboat. Others (and yes, I was one) took the hard way out at the corner of the dock. "Time spent in reconnaissance and all that . . . "

Jack Frost nipping at your heels!

Jack frost nipping at your heels!

Testing testing .. 1....2.... 3.... Is this thing working?
Ok so its been forever and a day since I got the urge to put fingers to keyboard.
Just becuase its winter doesnt mean you can't dive! You just have to be prepared.. for things like frozen masks and freeflowing regulators. Fortunatly none of that happened.
Mike Todd and I all decided to get some quality time in the drink today.

No video today file size is to large unfortunatly, However its on my face book.

Mike had a couple of freinds up from Belleville to add to the fun. However underweighting was a problem and they had to cut the dive short. Funny that nearly happend to me, as i like to rotate the gear I wear to varying degrees of warm as the season gets colder.
I took the oppurtunity to test out a new ikelite camera rig based on the canon SD780 IS. Ironically the camera was the cheapest part of the whole damn thing. The flash diffuser was n/s right off the bat so the particulate on my pictures were a bit fuzzy from the crap in the drink. Overall its a success and I look forward to more time with this system.
Conditions were good with great vis till we got to the wreck. waters were calm, and no current to notice. The water temp is dropping, as Mike mentioned todays was somewhere around 44F.

As allways dive with a knife!

Post Dive Chills.. no way !

It was fun diving with Paul this afternoon, a friend from the Sport Divers in Belleville, but I was mildly concerned at his decision to dive wet.. Well, that was before I saw how he deals with the après dive cool-down period. I had been slightly curious about the large propane canister he was carrying in the back of his van, but all became clear when he was stripping down his gear.

Administration aside, this was a fun dive. The recent rains had left more than a little bit of residue in the water, cutting excellent visibility before the storms back to about 15' now. Nevertheless, we spent a very pleasant dive of about 30 minutes making our way out to, around and back from the wreck off KGH. The water temperature is down to 45℉ (7℃). I guess the snow yesterday didn't help things too much.

Other highlights on the dive; many large Bass on the stern of the wreck and a number of large shoals of small gobies.