OK, yesterday was a FUN day. After the last few weeks of disappointments (Don't ask) I found all the good karma I have spread in the last two years come back to me in one single moment.
I went to St. Andrews, NB (That's in Canada, eh) around 3PM to get my tanks filled at the local dive shop. All the local businesses were decked out in flags. There were face painters and food booths set up on the main drag. It was raining steadily when I pulled into town. I bummed around the shop talking to friends and in a few minutes the rain stopped, the sun came out and it transformed into a really nice day.
During night dives you are supposed to make an orientation dive during the day to learn the 'lay of the land'. It was just coming up on low tide and as the level of the water fluctuates 25+ feet in 7 hours, I was able to grab my compass and walk the same route I would be taking on my night dive. I fixed a few navigation points and determined the compass headings while walking from one to the other.
Here are two pictures I took during the day. This is the Market Wharf as seen from the Navy Island Dive Shop. Mack, the owner, has his house right on the bay in behind the shop. As you can see from the two pics, the water travels about 300 feet up the shore. On the low tide picture, the dark spots on the pilings show the water height. You can also see the firework mortars in white near the end.
I went for a nice meal on a patio overlooking the bay watching sailboats come and go. Then around 7 PM I went back to the dive shop and started to set up my gear. When that was done we relaxed on the porch and I showed off the lights I would be using. Three of the lights had been taken to the Bahamas, but were in a lost bag and never got wet. Mack also gave me a brand new light he had just gotten in and wanted me to try it. So I had 6 lights with me total to test out. Two were hands free models mounted on the back of my hand. An MP-1 and Nocturnal Lights SLX.
Every year, St. Andrews puts on a Canada Day fireworks show. I had wanted to dive it last year, but weather and the tides conspired against me. I had invited a series of friends to go with me, but no one else was available. I am a rated Solo diver so I decided to go alone. This year, the high tide was at 9:47 PM and the fireworks were set to go off at 10:00 PM. So I could literally walk from Mack's porch right into the water. The weather was calm with a slight northern breeze. The water was perfectly calm and flat and the sunset was exceptional.
At 9:30 locals and tourists were gathering on the shore and I started getting ready. As soon as I got my BCD on I was surrounded by a half dozen kids asking all sorts of questions. "Whats that?" "What does that do?" "Why is that tank yellow?" "Where are you going?" "Are there sharks down there?" My favorite comment was, "Wow, look Mom. He must go really fast. That tank says NITRO...!" Their parents were trying to pull them away thinking they were bothering me, but I told them it was fine and gave them an intro to my gear. After a few moments I was starting to get hot so I walked into the water with kids on the waters edge behind me. I flipped on all my lights and an impressive amount of illumination was created. The spot lights gave a nice background light and the SLX on my right hand lanced through the water. A dozen tourists were taking so many flash pictures I had to turn my back on them to put my fins on. I purged the remaining air from my dry suit and the bubbles made the kids yell more.
I gave a final OK to my shore support and descended. Quick equipment adjustment on my belly 4 feet down. All was good so I grabbed my compass and headed off on my first bearing. Viz was great at 15-20 feet. It was 9:47 PM. The bay is not deep and slopes away gently. My max depth for this night dive was only 19 feet and water temp was 54F. It was a nice slow dive. With no buddy to keep and eye on I could just swim, breathe and relax. Spent a few minutes sorting out the lights and found the new one (130 lumens) to be an excellent spot light. I tried all of them in turn and made mental notes. I looked at my watch and saw it was 9:59 when I made it to my first destination. I stopped and knelt on the bottom. I waited a few minutes and... ...nothing. So I swam on my second nav leg and after 5 more minutes stopped and again saw nothing. I thought the water was absorbing all the light from the fireworks and was disappointed I was missing the show. However, it was a great night dive with all sorts of sealife. Crabs, snails, shrimp and some small fish darted about the rocky floor.
I started on the third and final leg back to the entry point and noticed my boot prints in the mud. I was 14 feet down. Talk about surreal. In a heartbeat everything turned bright white in a strobe effect. I stopped, killed all the lights but one and looked up to see reds, blues and golds exploding over me. The breeze was carrying the fireworks from the wharf right over my head. Hard to describe what it looked like, but a kaleidoscope would be similar. The waters surface, my exhaled bubbles and the lights all mixed together and the light diffused into a spectacular show. I looked around me and in a second to a second and a half, three different color lights went off (red, green and white) in different locations and the scenery looked different in all three flashes. There was no noise, I could not hear the booms and bangs. Just the sound of my bubbles. Very, very cool. I stayed there for 10 minutes with very slow breathing and enjoyed the show. I ascended to see what they looked like on the surface and while it was a decent show, it looked far better underwater.
While I was on the surface, I saw a series of low arcing fireworks come from the wharf which flew into the bay about 300 feet from me. I thought they were duds and then they exploded throwing up plumes of water. There must have been planned as there were a half dozen of them and I could feel the vibration in my chest. Never seen those type of fireworks before.
I descended and grabbed my compass again and started heading back to the exit point. It was an unusually long fireworks display and I was able to navigate my way through seaweed just by the illumination in the shallow water. I was able to get back before I knew it. I was out of the water and had taken off my BCD with fireworks still flying.
The weather, tides, viz, wind and setting were absolutely perfect and I am still smiling 24 hours later. Total dive time was 44 minutes and it was without a doubt the singular most memorable night dive I have ever done. If you ever have the same opportunity then take it. You will not be disappointed.
I went to St. Andrews, NB (That's in Canada, eh) around 3PM to get my tanks filled at the local dive shop. All the local businesses were decked out in flags. There were face painters and food booths set up on the main drag. It was raining steadily when I pulled into town. I bummed around the shop talking to friends and in a few minutes the rain stopped, the sun came out and it transformed into a really nice day.
During night dives you are supposed to make an orientation dive during the day to learn the 'lay of the land'. It was just coming up on low tide and as the level of the water fluctuates 25+ feet in 7 hours, I was able to grab my compass and walk the same route I would be taking on my night dive. I fixed a few navigation points and determined the compass headings while walking from one to the other.
Here are two pictures I took during the day. This is the Market Wharf as seen from the Navy Island Dive Shop. Mack, the owner, has his house right on the bay in behind the shop. As you can see from the two pics, the water travels about 300 feet up the shore. On the low tide picture, the dark spots on the pilings show the water height. You can also see the firework mortars in white near the end.
I went for a nice meal on a patio overlooking the bay watching sailboats come and go. Then around 7 PM I went back to the dive shop and started to set up my gear. When that was done we relaxed on the porch and I showed off the lights I would be using. Three of the lights had been taken to the Bahamas, but were in a lost bag and never got wet. Mack also gave me a brand new light he had just gotten in and wanted me to try it. So I had 6 lights with me total to test out. Two were hands free models mounted on the back of my hand. An MP-1 and Nocturnal Lights SLX.
Every year, St. Andrews puts on a Canada Day fireworks show. I had wanted to dive it last year, but weather and the tides conspired against me. I had invited a series of friends to go with me, but no one else was available. I am a rated Solo diver so I decided to go alone. This year, the high tide was at 9:47 PM and the fireworks were set to go off at 10:00 PM. So I could literally walk from Mack's porch right into the water. The weather was calm with a slight northern breeze. The water was perfectly calm and flat and the sunset was exceptional.
At 9:30 locals and tourists were gathering on the shore and I started getting ready. As soon as I got my BCD on I was surrounded by a half dozen kids asking all sorts of questions. "Whats that?" "What does that do?" "Why is that tank yellow?" "Where are you going?" "Are there sharks down there?" My favorite comment was, "Wow, look Mom. He must go really fast. That tank says NITRO...!" Their parents were trying to pull them away thinking they were bothering me, but I told them it was fine and gave them an intro to my gear. After a few moments I was starting to get hot so I walked into the water with kids on the waters edge behind me. I flipped on all my lights and an impressive amount of illumination was created. The spot lights gave a nice background light and the SLX on my right hand lanced through the water. A dozen tourists were taking so many flash pictures I had to turn my back on them to put my fins on. I purged the remaining air from my dry suit and the bubbles made the kids yell more.
I gave a final OK to my shore support and descended. Quick equipment adjustment on my belly 4 feet down. All was good so I grabbed my compass and headed off on my first bearing. Viz was great at 15-20 feet. It was 9:47 PM. The bay is not deep and slopes away gently. My max depth for this night dive was only 19 feet and water temp was 54F. It was a nice slow dive. With no buddy to keep and eye on I could just swim, breathe and relax. Spent a few minutes sorting out the lights and found the new one (130 lumens) to be an excellent spot light. I tried all of them in turn and made mental notes. I looked at my watch and saw it was 9:59 when I made it to my first destination. I stopped and knelt on the bottom. I waited a few minutes and... ...nothing. So I swam on my second nav leg and after 5 more minutes stopped and again saw nothing. I thought the water was absorbing all the light from the fireworks and was disappointed I was missing the show. However, it was a great night dive with all sorts of sealife. Crabs, snails, shrimp and some small fish darted about the rocky floor.
I started on the third and final leg back to the entry point and noticed my boot prints in the mud. I was 14 feet down. Talk about surreal. In a heartbeat everything turned bright white in a strobe effect. I stopped, killed all the lights but one and looked up to see reds, blues and golds exploding over me. The breeze was carrying the fireworks from the wharf right over my head. Hard to describe what it looked like, but a kaleidoscope would be similar. The waters surface, my exhaled bubbles and the lights all mixed together and the light diffused into a spectacular show. I looked around me and in a second to a second and a half, three different color lights went off (red, green and white) in different locations and the scenery looked different in all three flashes. There was no noise, I could not hear the booms and bangs. Just the sound of my bubbles. Very, very cool. I stayed there for 10 minutes with very slow breathing and enjoyed the show. I ascended to see what they looked like on the surface and while it was a decent show, it looked far better underwater.
While I was on the surface, I saw a series of low arcing fireworks come from the wharf which flew into the bay about 300 feet from me. I thought they were duds and then they exploded throwing up plumes of water. There must have been planned as there were a half dozen of them and I could feel the vibration in my chest. Never seen those type of fireworks before.
I descended and grabbed my compass again and started heading back to the exit point. It was an unusually long fireworks display and I was able to navigate my way through seaweed just by the illumination in the shallow water. I was able to get back before I knew it. I was out of the water and had taken off my BCD with fireworks still flying.
The weather, tides, viz, wind and setting were absolutely perfect and I am still smiling 24 hours later. Total dive time was 44 minutes and it was without a doubt the singular most memorable night dive I have ever done. If you ever have the same opportunity then take it. You will not be disappointed.
