Ok, so last night was classroom take #2...lol. As those of you who read Andrew to the Rescue.... Or Not?
you are well aware that in February I completed the classroom session with the one other student enrolled in the Rescue course at that time but the following weekend when Virpi was to take us to Wytecliff to drown us and have us rescue each other.... just kidding Moms, nobody drowns, we just pretend... my partner was unable to join us! So the course unfortunately, was put on hold until we could find a suitable date. So, inevitably, in March we finally settled on the end of April to get the Rescue course back on track, so then it was just time to hurry up and wait.... This brought us to Thursday where (since new people had joined the group) we had our second classroom time. Showing up right in time for class and greeted by my good friend Ward... apparently the Wonder Woman herself, the one who never catches anything and, through absolute sheer will, doesn't get sick.... got sick!! No worries though, Ward is an amazing teacher... and besides the irony still play true... he was one of the three divers from the shop that went into the water during Seals to Emergencies to demonstrate a live rescue scenario for us brand new students (how kind of them...) I had decided to attend class to brush up on my Rescue theory, besides, if I was gonna rescue you, wouldn't you want me to have as much training and knowledge as possible.... I thought so!
So as Ward took us through the book, the videos and the review questions, taking his time to highlight specific things and open others up for discussion, the group of us all reached a solid understanding of not only what to do, but why to do it and what to expect when it happens. All in all, as usual, a GREAT class!
The end of Wards class' always come too early, I don't think I could ever talk about diving too much, at least for me, I know it's too much for a lot of people who hear me talk about it but that is also why I type this, so I can talk and for anyone who's interested, they can listen (or read). Class ended and of course the question comes up, who's teaching on the weekend? Was Virpi going to be better by then? Unfortunately this is when things turned, you see Virpi was REALLY sick, so the weekend was out, Ward had a class to teach on Sunday and a previous, unchangeable (believe me we tried to convince him) commitment on the Saturday so he would not be available but as fortune would have it Dennis was available for Sunday! Another instructor you say.... yes, instructor number 3!! But would you believe the fates!!! Dennis, as some of you already knew and others have guessed, was diver number three from the shop that was involved in my famous Whytecliff Seals to Emergencies adventure.... what are the odds of all three of the shop divers involved in the rescue attempt at Whytecliff to be the ones to teach me how to rescue people! So it looks like I will only finish half of my Rescue dives this weekend... who knew you could spread a one evening and one weekend course across 4 months...lol. Talk to you Monday!!
Friday, April 29, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Flutter kick, flutter kick goes the Easter Bunny....
Well, I guess if fish can lay eggs under the water, why couldn't a bunny... or bunnies... bunnies from Langley Diving. Last week I was fortunate enough to receive an email from Langley Dive inviting me to join them on the weekend for their Easter Egg hunt at Porteau Cove. I am assuming that because Langley Dive were involved in the Whites Demo that I participated in they ended up with my email address. However they got it, they did, and I was off to Porteau to hunt for eggs for the first time since being a kid, and for the very first time under-water.
Saturday was a beautiful day and with the meet time scheduled for 10:00 am it was late enough to get a good sleep and enjoy a leisurely drive and still have tons of time to assemble my gear before anyone else arrived for the day. Up at the dive site at just after 9:00 allowed me ample time to pull out my kit and take my time to assemble everything then walk out an look at the conditions, and then head over to the Langley Dive van to see what the plan was. After a couple of minutes, one of the Bunnies, Monique Score, having finished her dive, came over to say hello and welcome me to the dive. A few minutes later I met Rebecca Barrett, another Instructor from Langley Dive and the second Dive Bunny. Soon a group had formed, and Monique and Rebecca called everyone together to welcome us and let us know the details of today's adventure.
Earlier in the day Monique and Rebecca had placed twenty-seven (27) eggs beneath the surface of the water, no deeper than 50 feet, on the surfaces of the Granthall, Centennial, Sailboat Hull, Jungle Gym, Tire Reef and along the Fire Hose. The idea was simple, go, collect, return, YEAH!...lol.
Monique had already introduced me to my dive buddy for the day, a recent graduate of the Open Water program at Langley Dive in January and excited about his 5th dive and first time in Porteau Cove. I was also able to meet another diver, excited to get back in the water for his 6the dive following his completion of his Open Water back in September. Both divers (and even Monique) seemed a bit surprised to hear I have not been certified all that long myself (end of August) and was headed out for dives 36 and 37...lol. I was also delighted to speak with one of the new divers as he is also a Detroit Red Wings fan, and amidst a sea of Canucks fans these days as the team throws away game after game it was interesting to see the Red Wings hat from across the parking lot... too bad I forgot mine. After some hockey talk and more importantly red Wings nostalgic talk, he headed to meet up with his buddy and me with mine as we all donned gear, finished our buddy checks, being very thorough as this was the most junior group of divers I had been out with to date, odd being the experienced diver for once...lol. With everything secure where it needed to be and dive plan discussed it was time to get in the water.
Our plan for dive one, to keep it simple, was to swim out to the first marker buoy descend and follow the fire hose out and over to the sailboat and reef and eventually the Granthall and all going well and air holding out, slowly make our way back in and reduce our surface swim as much as possible. For those divers who have only ever done Porteau Cove, their first dive at Whytecliff is a shock because there is a long walk to the beach with all your gear on, for those who have only ever done Whytecliff Park and come to Porteau, you are blessed by the amazingly short walk (unless the tide is way out) but the ground slopes so slowly you need to surface swim a good distance before you can get anywhere that has some depth... all about what you want...lol. So my new buddy and I got in the water, fins on, masks on and started our surface swim... fortunately doing the first buoy it is not really a long swim and we managed to talk a bit on the way out comparing Whytecliff to some of the things he would see here at Porteau. Once close to the buoy, we caught our breath, put in our regulators and signaled for descent and BAM! it hit me... I was in charge of this dive... I was the senior diver... if we got lost... or had issues... or got eaten by a ravenous squid-a-pus (you can meet Kraken in Diving, Dinner, Demo's and the RCMP...) it would all be my fault...lol. My nerves were not really put at ease when we descended either, as we broke the surface I quickly realized that seeing my buddy 5 feet away was a bit of a struggle, never mind seeing something further away than that....like the chain we were supposed to be following down...lol. So on the ground we headed in what I "thought:" was the right direction... and with a couple glances at my compass.. someone had moved the hose!...lol That had to be it.. there was no way I was lost... could I be?... yup... I was lost....and realizing nothing was where I left it...lol.. I signalled to my buddy and we ascended back up to re-orient to our target.
We actually didn't end up too far off target, we were further North-East then I had planned so a little plan change and a solid compass bearing marked us dead online to the second buoy. Descending again and watching my compass we made a straight line to the 2nd marker, found the fire hose with no issue and continued on through the jungle gym and to the surface of the Centennial where I found a rock painted like an Easter egg. With the egg in my pocket, and my buddy beside it was off to the Granthall where I managed to find 2 plastic Easter eggs that had been placed beside the Plumose Anemone so they were each almost invisible as the colors were blending in. Our return trip over the Centennial led to my buddy finding a painted rock similar to mine before we turned towards shore and then towards the surface for a decent surface swim.
Back up at the vehicles with the tanks off our back it was time to grab our lunches and check in with Monique and Rebecca. A couple sandwiches later, a nice cup of hot chocolate and a couple cookies and I was all good to go again...lol. Gathered around the Langley Dive van Monique showed us where the numbers were on the bottom of our plastic eggs, turned out the painted rocks... not part of our search...lol, must have been another group out earlier in the week, perhaps Friday, that missed a couple...lol. So with two plastic eggs I gave one to my buddy (we were a team after-all) and listened as Rebecca called out numbers and passed us all prizes. Then when all the eggs (the ones that had been returned at least) were called, Monique and Rebecca gave out prizes to anyone who was unable to come across an egg in their first dive, so everyone got something anyways.
Dive 2 was my Navigation challenge, I knew (this time) that visibility was going to be tough. So with the plan being similar to dive 1 we decided we would get right up to the buoy and follow the chain to the ground, with a little searching (it's not attached right at the bottom) we found the hose. Then following it we made our slow swim towards the 2nd buoy over the Sailboat hull, passed the Centennial, over the tire reef, through the jungle gym, and around the Granthall (where we each found another egg.) The return trip, with my compass bearing in mind, came almost natural, after looping the Granthall, we headed back through the jungle gym, above the tires around the Centennial (man there are some HUGE ling cod sleeping on that deck) passed the sailboat hull and right back onto the fire hose... Then, following the hose, we made the trek back to the first buoy which was not hard to find this time. You see, this buoy is often used by Open Water classes, so really all you have to look for is large clouds of disturbed silt and you can see where the students are landing at the bottom...lol. A turn to the left through the cloud and sure enough there fighting for their buoyancy were a couple Open Water students..lol. Then keeping on that line it was a straight swim all the way back in. We were able to get so close in that my computer actually turned off, I guess I had been swimming in less than 5 feet of water too long...lol. We actually had to back out into the bay again to take our fins off but it was definitely the closest I have ever come to swimming to the stairs, and certainly without a doubt the best navigation I have ever done.
The route we followed is below:
Well, I always say, it's a great dive if you learned something new and I learned that I can navigate and with a little practice I might actually get good at it. Here's looking forward to Rescue this weekend, Photography the weekend after along with a fun dive and very soon.. the Aquarium!
Saturday was a beautiful day and with the meet time scheduled for 10:00 am it was late enough to get a good sleep and enjoy a leisurely drive and still have tons of time to assemble my gear before anyone else arrived for the day. Up at the dive site at just after 9:00 allowed me ample time to pull out my kit and take my time to assemble everything then walk out an look at the conditions, and then head over to the Langley Dive van to see what the plan was. After a couple of minutes, one of the Bunnies, Monique Score, having finished her dive, came over to say hello and welcome me to the dive. A few minutes later I met Rebecca Barrett, another Instructor from Langley Dive and the second Dive Bunny. Soon a group had formed, and Monique and Rebecca called everyone together to welcome us and let us know the details of today's adventure.
Earlier in the day Monique and Rebecca had placed twenty-seven (27) eggs beneath the surface of the water, no deeper than 50 feet, on the surfaces of the Granthall, Centennial, Sailboat Hull, Jungle Gym, Tire Reef and along the Fire Hose. The idea was simple, go, collect, return, YEAH!...lol.
Monique had already introduced me to my dive buddy for the day, a recent graduate of the Open Water program at Langley Dive in January and excited about his 5th dive and first time in Porteau Cove. I was also able to meet another diver, excited to get back in the water for his 6the dive following his completion of his Open Water back in September. Both divers (and even Monique) seemed a bit surprised to hear I have not been certified all that long myself (end of August) and was headed out for dives 36 and 37...lol. I was also delighted to speak with one of the new divers as he is also a Detroit Red Wings fan, and amidst a sea of Canucks fans these days as the team throws away game after game it was interesting to see the Red Wings hat from across the parking lot... too bad I forgot mine. After some hockey talk and more importantly red Wings nostalgic talk, he headed to meet up with his buddy and me with mine as we all donned gear, finished our buddy checks, being very thorough as this was the most junior group of divers I had been out with to date, odd being the experienced diver for once...lol. With everything secure where it needed to be and dive plan discussed it was time to get in the water.
Our plan for dive one, to keep it simple, was to swim out to the first marker buoy descend and follow the fire hose out and over to the sailboat and reef and eventually the Granthall and all going well and air holding out, slowly make our way back in and reduce our surface swim as much as possible. For those divers who have only ever done Porteau Cove, their first dive at Whytecliff is a shock because there is a long walk to the beach with all your gear on, for those who have only ever done Whytecliff Park and come to Porteau, you are blessed by the amazingly short walk (unless the tide is way out) but the ground slopes so slowly you need to surface swim a good distance before you can get anywhere that has some depth... all about what you want...lol. So my new buddy and I got in the water, fins on, masks on and started our surface swim... fortunately doing the first buoy it is not really a long swim and we managed to talk a bit on the way out comparing Whytecliff to some of the things he would see here at Porteau. Once close to the buoy, we caught our breath, put in our regulators and signaled for descent and BAM! it hit me... I was in charge of this dive... I was the senior diver... if we got lost... or had issues... or got eaten by a ravenous squid-a-pus (you can meet Kraken in Diving, Dinner, Demo's and the RCMP...) it would all be my fault...lol. My nerves were not really put at ease when we descended either, as we broke the surface I quickly realized that seeing my buddy 5 feet away was a bit of a struggle, never mind seeing something further away than that....like the chain we were supposed to be following down...lol. So on the ground we headed in what I "thought:" was the right direction... and with a couple glances at my compass.. someone had moved the hose!...lol That had to be it.. there was no way I was lost... could I be?... yup... I was lost....and realizing nothing was where I left it...lol.. I signalled to my buddy and we ascended back up to re-orient to our target.
We actually didn't end up too far off target, we were further North-East then I had planned so a little plan change and a solid compass bearing marked us dead online to the second buoy. Descending again and watching my compass we made a straight line to the 2nd marker, found the fire hose with no issue and continued on through the jungle gym and to the surface of the Centennial where I found a rock painted like an Easter egg. With the egg in my pocket, and my buddy beside it was off to the Granthall where I managed to find 2 plastic Easter eggs that had been placed beside the Plumose Anemone so they were each almost invisible as the colors were blending in. Our return trip over the Centennial led to my buddy finding a painted rock similar to mine before we turned towards shore and then towards the surface for a decent surface swim.
Back up at the vehicles with the tanks off our back it was time to grab our lunches and check in with Monique and Rebecca. A couple sandwiches later, a nice cup of hot chocolate and a couple cookies and I was all good to go again...lol. Gathered around the Langley Dive van Monique showed us where the numbers were on the bottom of our plastic eggs, turned out the painted rocks... not part of our search...lol, must have been another group out earlier in the week, perhaps Friday, that missed a couple...lol. So with two plastic eggs I gave one to my buddy (we were a team after-all) and listened as Rebecca called out numbers and passed us all prizes. Then when all the eggs (the ones that had been returned at least) were called, Monique and Rebecca gave out prizes to anyone who was unable to come across an egg in their first dive, so everyone got something anyways.
Dive 2 was my Navigation challenge, I knew (this time) that visibility was going to be tough. So with the plan being similar to dive 1 we decided we would get right up to the buoy and follow the chain to the ground, with a little searching (it's not attached right at the bottom) we found the hose. Then following it we made our slow swim towards the 2nd buoy over the Sailboat hull, passed the Centennial, over the tire reef, through the jungle gym, and around the Granthall (where we each found another egg.) The return trip, with my compass bearing in mind, came almost natural, after looping the Granthall, we headed back through the jungle gym, above the tires around the Centennial (man there are some HUGE ling cod sleeping on that deck) passed the sailboat hull and right back onto the fire hose... Then, following the hose, we made the trek back to the first buoy which was not hard to find this time. You see, this buoy is often used by Open Water classes, so really all you have to look for is large clouds of disturbed silt and you can see where the students are landing at the bottom...lol. A turn to the left through the cloud and sure enough there fighting for their buoyancy were a couple Open Water students..lol. Then keeping on that line it was a straight swim all the way back in. We were able to get so close in that my computer actually turned off, I guess I had been swimming in less than 5 feet of water too long...lol. We actually had to back out into the bay again to take our fins off but it was definitely the closest I have ever come to swimming to the stairs, and certainly without a doubt the best navigation I have ever done.
The route we followed is below:
Well, I always say, it's a great dive if you learned something new and I learned that I can navigate and with a little practice I might actually get good at it. Here's looking forward to Rescue this weekend, Photography the weekend after along with a fun dive and very soon.. the Aquarium!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Cuts, Records and Bad Buddies.....
Woke up this morning still feeling a little tired from yesterday with Ward but still totally jacked up about putting in another 2 dives. For today (thanks to Chloe at Ocean Pro Divers) I had been invited to join Allen Kyte and his advanced class as they ventured into the waters at Wytecliff Park to complete their Deep and their Naturalist dives. Armed with gear and camera I arrived at the shop (early as always) and waited to see who was up to what today. Sure enough shortly after arriving Shannon and Chloe arrived, followed shortly by Michael Klaver and Steve Dunn. Apparently today was instructor training day and some in the class were meeting at the shop before heading to the site. My first few minutes at the shop were spent chasing Shannon and Steve down to hit them up for signatures in my dive log for my Emergency O2 course and EFR courses followed by catching up with Michael and Chloe and then greeting the people I had never met and being introduced to Allen. As it turned out the gentleman who was supposed to be in the course today had suffered some bad luck last night with his vehicle and as a result was not going to be able to join us. This reduced our group down to Allen as instructor, one student and me tagging along behind. Almost as quick as the shop got busy, it was emptied out again leaving our group to finish loading and head out to Whytecliff Park.
Upon arriving at Whytecliff it was the same ritual as always, take a look at the water, thank God I am lucky enough to have this kind of beauty in my back yard, and grab my gear to get it prepped. With everything unloaded and kits being assembled it was time to start planning out our day. The plan was to do our deep dive on what is called the "Cut". Now the cut is exactly what it sounds like, it looks like someone plunged a knife into the rock of Whytecliff park and drew a line back into the bay. Once in the water it drops very fast and runs off to the right to incredible depths and on the left you have the wall. Since this was the deep dive for the advanced certification, depth was the goal. The plan was quite simple, I would buddy up with the student and swim to her right with Allen just back and to the left. We would swim out staying along the wall and slowly make our way to a depth of 90 feet and then see how everyone was doing to see if we would go a little further. Then once in the bay we would circle around the point and head back into the bay making our exit easier....simple!
So with gear on and group together we headed towards the entry and down the rocky path and stairs. In the water, fins on, masks on, regs in, and down. It was almost as if we had been diving together a bunch of times, we descended as a group and in perfect position headed out along the wall. Then with a little signal the student my "buddy" pointed out to the right a bit and we angled a little away from the wall and into deeper water. With almost perfect control of our buoyancy we moved almost as one unit slowly descending and moving through the cut. Now I think it was the relaxed atmosphere or my intermittent ADD that caused it but I saw a fish and thought "Oooh shiny" and stopped to take a picture.. then kicked back to the group only to see another thing to take a picture of and another and another and another... Next thing you know I was swimming back of the group with Allen beside my buddy and me busy taking pictures. This was pretty much how the dive finished, Allen and student together with me bringing up the rear. At 1500 psi, as discussed, we headed up a bit to 50 feet and continued, by this time, further into the bay until about 900 when we ascended to safety stop depth and swam in further before surfacing and kicking in.
Now, in between dives (good class dives especially) during your surface interval, you debrief and discuss the dive. What went good, what was not so good, what went according to plan, what went sideways and what would we do different next time. Allen (much like Ward in Row, Row, Row Your Boat Gently Into The Rolling Waves.... Merrily Merrily Off To See The Circus...) was great about reviewing the dive with his student and then, bum bum bum, with me.... You see, I broke one of the cardinal rules of diving (and of Top Gun) I left my buddy! My job was to stay to her right side and I decided to drop off to take pictures (hand slap time...ouch!)
Now for dive number 2, our Naturalist / Navigation dive, the plan for this one was quite simple. Gear-up, head into the water, finish the "navigational square" that had been incomplete in their dives the day before, and then proceed out along the wall looking for critters. Not a very involved dive and by keeping shallow and moving slow, this could be a good long dive... boy was I right...lol. For this dive, being a Naturalist one I elected (with Allen's permission) to just be the tag along photographer and not "dive buddy," this allows for me to take LOTS of pictures of all of the wonderful little creatures we find along the way. Everything for this dive went as planned, I once again dropped more weight bringing me down to 22 lbs of weight from the original 42 lbs I started with, and was feeling better than ever about my buoyancy. Down the hill we went and into the water, out to about 10 or 12 feet of water and descend to make a square, ascending upon completion brought us back almost to where we started, always a good start! Then back down again and over to the wall to do a very slow, swim along the wall looking at all the plants and creatures along the way. I must admit after about 20 minutes of our floating along I got concerned when I looked at my air and still had over 2000psi, then at 40 minutes with more than 1500psi left. Now my rational brain didn't take long to figure out that we were shallow and we weren't really kicking, more floating with the current and surge of the tide, so we we're breathing all that much. By about the 50 minute mark we had already started to head back and not going below 30 feet we didn't need a safety stop so we had time, but the most interesting thing started to happen... I got cold! Looking around I realized that I was not the only one, Allen and his student both looked cold too, which was funny because as soon as I looked at Allen, he gave me the "cold" signal to which I responded "cold" and we started moving in closer to shore and closer to the surface.
All in I ended dive 2 with close on 1400 psi left in my tank, still enough for another dive...lol, and we had been in the water for 59.6 minutes, a new record for me smashing my old record and nearly breaking 1hr of dive time!
The walk to the vehicles was a quick one, the wind was kicking up and we were already cold. Up to the cars, gear stripped off, sweatshirts and toques on and something warm in the stomach I was feeling loads better. Then to pack all the gear, fit it in totes and load it into the van. All done, it was time to sit and chat a few about the dive, make sure everyone was happy and everything accomplished. Time for Allen to sign off on the books and forms and then it was time to load up and head home.
Today marked dives 34 and 35, meaning once my Rescue courses are completed later this month (hopefully) and 15 more dives are done (hopefully soon) I will be qualified to receive my Master Scuba Diver designation. As exciting as that is, it is still a scary fact that according to the industry standards I will be recognized (regardless of association) as a Master Scuba Diver. That seems to me to be a whole lot of responsibility. I know it doesn't hold the same qualification or clout and Dive Master but to me it still seems BIG!! lol. Well, until the next time I get my nose wet and take my gear for a tour of the ocean, stay safe and I'll update you all soon... Photography is coming up!!!
Upon arriving at Whytecliff it was the same ritual as always, take a look at the water, thank God I am lucky enough to have this kind of beauty in my back yard, and grab my gear to get it prepped. With everything unloaded and kits being assembled it was time to start planning out our day. The plan was to do our deep dive on what is called the "Cut". Now the cut is exactly what it sounds like, it looks like someone plunged a knife into the rock of Whytecliff park and drew a line back into the bay. Once in the water it drops very fast and runs off to the right to incredible depths and on the left you have the wall. Since this was the deep dive for the advanced certification, depth was the goal. The plan was quite simple, I would buddy up with the student and swim to her right with Allen just back and to the left. We would swim out staying along the wall and slowly make our way to a depth of 90 feet and then see how everyone was doing to see if we would go a little further. Then once in the bay we would circle around the point and head back into the bay making our exit easier....simple!
So with gear on and group together we headed towards the entry and down the rocky path and stairs. In the water, fins on, masks on, regs in, and down. It was almost as if we had been diving together a bunch of times, we descended as a group and in perfect position headed out along the wall. Then with a little signal the student my "buddy" pointed out to the right a bit and we angled a little away from the wall and into deeper water. With almost perfect control of our buoyancy we moved almost as one unit slowly descending and moving through the cut. Now I think it was the relaxed atmosphere or my intermittent ADD that caused it but I saw a fish and thought "Oooh shiny" and stopped to take a picture.. then kicked back to the group only to see another thing to take a picture of and another and another and another... Next thing you know I was swimming back of the group with Allen beside my buddy and me busy taking pictures. This was pretty much how the dive finished, Allen and student together with me bringing up the rear. At 1500 psi, as discussed, we headed up a bit to 50 feet and continued, by this time, further into the bay until about 900 when we ascended to safety stop depth and swam in further before surfacing and kicking in.
Now, in between dives (good class dives especially) during your surface interval, you debrief and discuss the dive. What went good, what was not so good, what went according to plan, what went sideways and what would we do different next time. Allen (much like Ward in Row, Row, Row Your Boat Gently Into The Rolling Waves.... Merrily Merrily Off To See The Circus...) was great about reviewing the dive with his student and then, bum bum bum, with me.... You see, I broke one of the cardinal rules of diving (and of Top Gun) I left my buddy! My job was to stay to her right side and I decided to drop off to take pictures (hand slap time...ouch!)
Now for dive number 2, our Naturalist / Navigation dive, the plan for this one was quite simple. Gear-up, head into the water, finish the "navigational square" that had been incomplete in their dives the day before, and then proceed out along the wall looking for critters. Not a very involved dive and by keeping shallow and moving slow, this could be a good long dive... boy was I right...lol. For this dive, being a Naturalist one I elected (with Allen's permission) to just be the tag along photographer and not "dive buddy," this allows for me to take LOTS of pictures of all of the wonderful little creatures we find along the way. Everything for this dive went as planned, I once again dropped more weight bringing me down to 22 lbs of weight from the original 42 lbs I started with, and was feeling better than ever about my buoyancy. Down the hill we went and into the water, out to about 10 or 12 feet of water and descend to make a square, ascending upon completion brought us back almost to where we started, always a good start! Then back down again and over to the wall to do a very slow, swim along the wall looking at all the plants and creatures along the way. I must admit after about 20 minutes of our floating along I got concerned when I looked at my air and still had over 2000psi, then at 40 minutes with more than 1500psi left. Now my rational brain didn't take long to figure out that we were shallow and we weren't really kicking, more floating with the current and surge of the tide, so we we're breathing all that much. By about the 50 minute mark we had already started to head back and not going below 30 feet we didn't need a safety stop so we had time, but the most interesting thing started to happen... I got cold! Looking around I realized that I was not the only one, Allen and his student both looked cold too, which was funny because as soon as I looked at Allen, he gave me the "cold" signal to which I responded "cold" and we started moving in closer to shore and closer to the surface.
All in I ended dive 2 with close on 1400 psi left in my tank, still enough for another dive...lol, and we had been in the water for 59.6 minutes, a new record for me smashing my old record and nearly breaking 1hr of dive time!
The walk to the vehicles was a quick one, the wind was kicking up and we were already cold. Up to the cars, gear stripped off, sweatshirts and toques on and something warm in the stomach I was feeling loads better. Then to pack all the gear, fit it in totes and load it into the van. All done, it was time to sit and chat a few about the dive, make sure everyone was happy and everything accomplished. Time for Allen to sign off on the books and forms and then it was time to load up and head home.
Today marked dives 34 and 35, meaning once my Rescue courses are completed later this month (hopefully) and 15 more dives are done (hopefully soon) I will be qualified to receive my Master Scuba Diver designation. As exciting as that is, it is still a scary fact that according to the industry standards I will be recognized (regardless of association) as a Master Scuba Diver. That seems to me to be a whole lot of responsibility. I know it doesn't hold the same qualification or clout and Dive Master but to me it still seems BIG!! lol. Well, until the next time I get my nose wet and take my gear for a tour of the ocean, stay safe and I'll update you all soon... Photography is coming up!!!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
In Search of Whiskey and The VT-100....
I discovered this past week that if you ever want to go diving and have nothing planned... post to Facebook and/or call Ocean Pro...lol. I posted on Thursday, while waiting for Jenn to try on clothes at the mall, that I wanted to go diving this weekend and followed that up with a call to Chloe at the shop to see if there were any fun dives planned. Chloe let me know that nothing had been planned for fun dives but she would make some calls for me and let me know. Before long I had gotten a bunch of messages on Facebook. Ward telling me we should plan a boat dive, Ashley inviting me up to Sechelt to dive with her for the weekend, a couple people letting me know they wish they could go and even an invite to dive in a friends bathtub!....lol. No sooner had I read and responded to these messages, and Chloe called me back to let me know she had gotten me dives...lol. Again, I am very fortunate to have the friends I do and the shop I go to. So my plans for this weekend were to dive on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday with friends if it could be sorted out, and Sunday with Allen Kyte (an instructor from Ocean Pro) and his advanced class up at Whytecliff.
As it turned out Ashley was leaving to Sechelt before we could get anything arranged and that bathtub just didn't have the depth I wanted nor (I hope) any critters....lol. But I was very fortunate to have an amazing offer from Ward to take his boat out for a dive, this was going to be an epic weekend! So out to the shop following work yesterday to pick-up my drysuit rental and get all the times from Chloe for Sundays dives, then home to get a hold of Ward to get the details on where the boat was. With details all gathered and equipment all put together and me bouncing around the house like a kid on Christmas eve, bedtime couldn't come early enough! But, just before bed, Jenn (my much better half) made a comment to me that I probably should have caught hours earlier when speaking to Ward about his boat... it was in the US.... I don't have a passport... this was going to be an issue! With a quick message to Ward to ensure my wife was correct (which she was) and let him know I was unfortunately unable to cross the border we decided to leave the final decision on what to do until this morning. Morning arrived soon enough and with a call to Ward we discussed options and finally decided he would meet at my house, I would drive from there and he could show me a couple new locations I have never seen before.
It wasn't long before we were on our way and headed towards Burnaby and the mysterious Whiskey Cove in the Village of Belcarra. With Ward as navigator it was a nice quick drive and we were on-site in no time with gear ready and changed into our drysuits. A short walk through the woods and down to the shore line brought us out between a few houses and their docks of beautiful boat which I will never be able to afford...lol. For the first part of the dive we decided to go out to the right and work our way along the wall to see what we might find down along there and see if we could get any decent pictures. As it turned out there was not much to see along the wall, a few critters here and there but in the murky water it was difficult at times to see ahead and times when the only thing you could make out of your buddy was the outline or the occasional flash of the camera. Eventually we could see a shelf or a reef just out from the wall heading into slightly deeper water so we turned and followed it to see if there was anything more exciting. With a few fish and an amazingly huge sole laying still on the ground. Good thing Ward pointed it out or I would have swam right past....lol. At about half air Ward signaled for us to ascend for a moment to find our exact bearing, only being in about 25 - 30 feet of water this was no issue. Once we had established our location (not where we thought we were...lol) we realigned with shore (not off by much) and descended back to depth to continue our exploration of the reef, heading in the direction of our exit.
With dive one complete we headed back to the vehicle to strip down our gear and figure out what was next. After a short discussion we concluded we would go and dive the VT-100. Now on the trip up to Belcarra this morning Ward was telling me a bit about the VT-100. You see originally it was called the YMS-159 and served as wooden hulled mine sweeper in the 40's before it was decommissioned and sold to the Vancouver Tug Boat Co in 1955. Now the story goes that back in the day when a ship was decommissioned the weapons had to be shut down but not necessarily removed, so this tug was motoring the waterways with 50mm and two 20mm guns on deck. Now apparently the residents at the time were not fond of having this ship in their marina and according to legend it was set on fire by vandals and burned below the water line and left to sink to the watery grave where it remains to this day.
Now upon arrival at the new site and parked along the side of the road in one of only three available spots for the public along this road, we did a little site tour before donning our gear. Ward took me along the road back about 30 feet behind where we parked to where a small path (more of a goat trail..lol) was cut between the low blackberry bushes and down a steep path to the rocky beach. Now this was our entry point and we would be traversing this with all our gear on...weee. Despite this I was excited, any dive is a good dive, one with a friend is even better, so I was ready to go regardless of the entry and exit. Now again, understand all I can see as I am changing and gearing up is the beautiful houses lining the opposite side of the road and lining our side... well built, gently sloping, stairwells leading to docks right at the water level.. and on the street level... little gates marked "Private". All these beautiful "potential" entries, with their easily accessible docks right on the water and here we are rock climbing with a ton of gear strapped to our backs...lol. Needless to say, it was not the easiest entry to traverse but with the help of a little rope someone tied up, we made it down and across the rocks and into the water. Now, Wards best recollection of the approximate location of the VT-100 was quite a surface swim from the entry point about 300 feet from shore in about 55 - 60 feet of water (sometimes deeper, tide dependent) . Now, keeping in mind that the shoreline and locations of many of the docks changes from year to year we were relying on best guess to find the boat. When reaching the approximate location, masks went on, regs went in and we signaled down... After a slow descent we reached dead on 60 feet and set off, me following behind Ward and keeping my camera ready in case we came across anything of interest. It wasn't more than a few kicks and Ward signaled with his light, right there in front of us was debris... debris of the wooden ship kind... debris of the sunken wooden ship kind...lol. We knew we were close! A little further along was some more debris, and then more, sunken bottles, boards and even an old boot! We continued our swim and photographed many of the items found including a weight pouch with weight inside...lol, but alas, my air was not meant to last forever (Wards apparently is meant to last a lot longer than mine though...lol) and we were forced to head back and start towards our safety stop depth of 50 feet. Then maintain depth and head in the direction of our exit slowly ascending towards safety stop depth. At 750 psi it was time for our safety stop at 15 feet. At depth Ward released his SMB (surface marker buoy) for details on the use of these see To Drift or Not To Drift..... Watching our computers closely and monitoring our time we hovered at 15 feet for our 3 minutes and then making our way to the surface VERY carefully, as not everyone knows what the marker means, we surfaced and looked towards shore to evaluate our surface swim. We were WAY out there...lol. Now with Ward weighed down with an extra 10lbs with the recently found weight pouch he was off center in the water and I am not all that centered at the best of times...lol, this was looking to be an interesting swim in. It didn't take long for Ward, (who's mind never stops working) to realize he could attach his SMB to the weight pouch and float the bag back in saving him a lot of the work... YEAH!!. Our surface swim gave us a chance to look at the docks we would love to have if money were no object and think about the boats we could have if we had those docks... and money were not an object...lol. Back on the beach it was time for the climb... this actually took some talent, timing your steps and pulling on the rope and trying to keep all your weight straight up and down so as to stay balanced... and Ward had to do it twice as he left his SMB and newly acquired weight bag, back on shore to reduce the strain of the first climb.
Again, back at the vehicle, stripping off gear, and packing it away in our totes, cases and bags. It was a great time to reflect on another amazing day of diving. We didn't find the VT-100, Ward is fairly certain that we were right on it when we dropped but swam away from it instead of in to it. For me it just means there are more mysteries for me to uncover in Bedwell Bay and more reasons for me to return to see if I can locate the boat of legends and be able to say that I too have seen the wooden hulled minesweeper of 1942 that calls the sands of Bedwell Bay home.
As it turned out Ashley was leaving to Sechelt before we could get anything arranged and that bathtub just didn't have the depth I wanted nor (I hope) any critters....lol. But I was very fortunate to have an amazing offer from Ward to take his boat out for a dive, this was going to be an epic weekend! So out to the shop following work yesterday to pick-up my drysuit rental and get all the times from Chloe for Sundays dives, then home to get a hold of Ward to get the details on where the boat was. With details all gathered and equipment all put together and me bouncing around the house like a kid on Christmas eve, bedtime couldn't come early enough! But, just before bed, Jenn (my much better half) made a comment to me that I probably should have caught hours earlier when speaking to Ward about his boat... it was in the US.... I don't have a passport... this was going to be an issue! With a quick message to Ward to ensure my wife was correct (which she was) and let him know I was unfortunately unable to cross the border we decided to leave the final decision on what to do until this morning. Morning arrived soon enough and with a call to Ward we discussed options and finally decided he would meet at my house, I would drive from there and he could show me a couple new locations I have never seen before.
It wasn't long before we were on our way and headed towards Burnaby and the mysterious Whiskey Cove in the Village of Belcarra. With Ward as navigator it was a nice quick drive and we were on-site in no time with gear ready and changed into our drysuits. A short walk through the woods and down to the shore line brought us out between a few houses and their docks of beautiful boat which I will never be able to afford...lol. For the first part of the dive we decided to go out to the right and work our way along the wall to see what we might find down along there and see if we could get any decent pictures. As it turned out there was not much to see along the wall, a few critters here and there but in the murky water it was difficult at times to see ahead and times when the only thing you could make out of your buddy was the outline or the occasional flash of the camera. Eventually we could see a shelf or a reef just out from the wall heading into slightly deeper water so we turned and followed it to see if there was anything more exciting. With a few fish and an amazingly huge sole laying still on the ground. Good thing Ward pointed it out or I would have swam right past....lol. At about half air Ward signaled for us to ascend for a moment to find our exact bearing, only being in about 25 - 30 feet of water this was no issue. Once we had established our location (not where we thought we were...lol) we realigned with shore (not off by much) and descended back to depth to continue our exploration of the reef, heading in the direction of our exit.
With dive one complete we headed back to the vehicle to strip down our gear and figure out what was next. After a short discussion we concluded we would go and dive the VT-100. Now on the trip up to Belcarra this morning Ward was telling me a bit about the VT-100. You see originally it was called the YMS-159 and served as wooden hulled mine sweeper in the 40's before it was decommissioned and sold to the Vancouver Tug Boat Co in 1955. Now the story goes that back in the day when a ship was decommissioned the weapons had to be shut down but not necessarily removed, so this tug was motoring the waterways with 50mm and two 20mm guns on deck. Now apparently the residents at the time were not fond of having this ship in their marina and according to legend it was set on fire by vandals and burned below the water line and left to sink to the watery grave where it remains to this day.
Again, back at the vehicle, stripping off gear, and packing it away in our totes, cases and bags. It was a great time to reflect on another amazing day of diving. We didn't find the VT-100, Ward is fairly certain that we were right on it when we dropped but swam away from it instead of in to it. For me it just means there are more mysteries for me to uncover in Bedwell Bay and more reasons for me to return to see if I can locate the boat of legends and be able to say that I too have seen the wooden hulled minesweeper of 1942 that calls the sands of Bedwell Bay home.
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