It was a dark and storm...wait, wrong story.
The day started at zero-too-dark-thirty. Driving from Syracuse, NY to cross the border at the 1000 Islands Bridge and drive into Rockport to catch Wayne Green's boat. I dove with him last year but this was the first time this season my s/o and I could get up there.
The drive was rather boring as my s/o and I have been making this drive just about every weekend this summer. We got to the border and were stopped dead for about 20 minutes. We had visions of driving all that way and then missing Wayne by just a few minutes. Luckily, we had given ourselves plenty of time "just in case." We got to the boat ahead of the rest of the folks scuba diving that day. That worked to our advantage as we were able to get the best gear location and seats. The other 6 divers showed up - all from the Syracuse area from my understanding. They had reserved the boat as a charter and we were along for the ride.
We got underway and went to the first dive site. This was a wall dive/drift dive. We let the other divers fall off the boat first. My s/o had never back-rolled off a boat so there was a little apprehension. After watching the others my s/o felt confident. We rolled off and gave Wayne the OK signal. As soon as we had done that, one of the other divers had surfaced in the channel and was calling to Wayne for a pick-up. Guess the current had gotten him and pulled him out into the main boat channel. We had been briefed to stay out of there.
My s/o and I descended. It was pretty close to a shear wall down to about 120 ft. From there it bottomed out about 130 ft. Wayne had encouraged us to find the anchors that were out there by following the cable out to them. I decided not to do that as it would have taken my s/o deeper than we had planned. (This was the first 100+ ft dive for my s/o) My s/o bottomed at 124 foot mine was 120ft on the nose. We drifted with the current while trying to maintain a northerly direction. Well, the current prevented us from really going north so we just drifted. Lots of critters, boulders the size of Waynes' boat, huge walls, no junk, and good viz made this an excellent dive for my s/o's first deep dive. Bottom temp was the same as the surface temp at 75f degrees. Air temp was in the mid 80's and viz was probably 60+ foot. The bottom gradually rises to about 20 ft at the end of the island. So you know your dive is over when you get shallow. We surfaced after our safety stop and were right on the money. Wayne was perfect as he had been following our bubbles and was waiting patiently as we came up. Perfect! Bravo to Wayne.
The second dive was a drift dive between two islands that had a good current going between them. We let the other divers fall off the boot first and then Wayne dropped us in about 30ft of water. We went down and caught the current. Excellent! We went down to 90+ ft and then gradually worked our way up to about 60ft. We tried to stay out of the way of the other divers and in some areas were watching them from above while we drifted over them. My s/o had never expeirenced current so when we went out to swim around a 20ft tall boulder the current grabbed and wrapped my s/o around the rock. Lots of fish, a few eels, long and tall walls that just mesmerized my s/o, boulders, and no junk. Another excellent dive. And again, as we surfaced after our safety stop Wayne was right on the money and waiting for us.
I had originally thought that we would be doing wreck dives that day. I am thankful Wayne showed us drift diving in the St. Lawrence and that the other divers had chartered it as such. That experience was better than the wrecks (imho). Gave my s/o a huge boost in confidence and spent the rest of the weekend telling family and friends what an "awesome" dive it had been. Again, kudos to Wayne.
We docked and loaded up our gear and left. The bad part of the whole day was the crossing back into the US. It took us 1 1/2 hours to get back to the US. But that is to be expected during the weekend. Weekdays aren't nearly as bad.
These dives were great practice for my s/o. They were her 11th and 12th dives post certification. No problems were encountered and now my s/o seems to be hooked on this sport. Our next trip is in 3 weeks as we head to Cozumel for a week. Dive, eat, and sleep - life is good.
The day started at zero-too-dark-thirty. Driving from Syracuse, NY to cross the border at the 1000 Islands Bridge and drive into Rockport to catch Wayne Green's boat. I dove with him last year but this was the first time this season my s/o and I could get up there.
The drive was rather boring as my s/o and I have been making this drive just about every weekend this summer. We got to the border and were stopped dead for about 20 minutes. We had visions of driving all that way and then missing Wayne by just a few minutes. Luckily, we had given ourselves plenty of time "just in case." We got to the boat ahead of the rest of the folks scuba diving that day. That worked to our advantage as we were able to get the best gear location and seats. The other 6 divers showed up - all from the Syracuse area from my understanding. They had reserved the boat as a charter and we were along for the ride.
We got underway and went to the first dive site. This was a wall dive/drift dive. We let the other divers fall off the boat first. My s/o had never back-rolled off a boat so there was a little apprehension. After watching the others my s/o felt confident. We rolled off and gave Wayne the OK signal. As soon as we had done that, one of the other divers had surfaced in the channel and was calling to Wayne for a pick-up. Guess the current had gotten him and pulled him out into the main boat channel. We had been briefed to stay out of there.
My s/o and I descended. It was pretty close to a shear wall down to about 120 ft. From there it bottomed out about 130 ft. Wayne had encouraged us to find the anchors that were out there by following the cable out to them. I decided not to do that as it would have taken my s/o deeper than we had planned. (This was the first 100+ ft dive for my s/o) My s/o bottomed at 124 foot mine was 120ft on the nose. We drifted with the current while trying to maintain a northerly direction. Well, the current prevented us from really going north so we just drifted. Lots of critters, boulders the size of Waynes' boat, huge walls, no junk, and good viz made this an excellent dive for my s/o's first deep dive. Bottom temp was the same as the surface temp at 75f degrees. Air temp was in the mid 80's and viz was probably 60+ foot. The bottom gradually rises to about 20 ft at the end of the island. So you know your dive is over when you get shallow. We surfaced after our safety stop and were right on the money. Wayne was perfect as he had been following our bubbles and was waiting patiently as we came up. Perfect! Bravo to Wayne.
The second dive was a drift dive between two islands that had a good current going between them. We let the other divers fall off the boot first and then Wayne dropped us in about 30ft of water. We went down and caught the current. Excellent! We went down to 90+ ft and then gradually worked our way up to about 60ft. We tried to stay out of the way of the other divers and in some areas were watching them from above while we drifted over them. My s/o had never expeirenced current so when we went out to swim around a 20ft tall boulder the current grabbed and wrapped my s/o around the rock. Lots of fish, a few eels, long and tall walls that just mesmerized my s/o, boulders, and no junk. Another excellent dive. And again, as we surfaced after our safety stop Wayne was right on the money and waiting for us.
I had originally thought that we would be doing wreck dives that day. I am thankful Wayne showed us drift diving in the St. Lawrence and that the other divers had chartered it as such. That experience was better than the wrecks (imho). Gave my s/o a huge boost in confidence and spent the rest of the weekend telling family and friends what an "awesome" dive it had been. Again, kudos to Wayne.
We docked and loaded up our gear and left. The bad part of the whole day was the crossing back into the US. It took us 1 1/2 hours to get back to the US. But that is to be expected during the weekend. Weekdays aren't nearly as bad.
These dives were great practice for my s/o. They were her 11th and 12th dives post certification. No problems were encountered and now my s/o seems to be hooked on this sport. Our next trip is in 3 weeks as we head to Cozumel for a week. Dive, eat, and sleep - life is good.