Best in Brockville/Kingston area

[ScubaCanada]

As a green diver (not from the seaweed) I'd like to ask all you pro's what you would recommend for a day or two of dives in the Brockville/Kingston area?

What wrecks, and charters or boats could you recommend or compare good points and not so good points?

Any thoughts and advice is appreciated.

[Doppler]

ScubaCanada once bubbled...
As a green diver (not from the seaweed) I'd like to ask all you pro's what you would recommend for a day or two of dives in the Brockville/Kingston area?

What wrecks, and charters or boats could you recommend or compare good points and not so good points?

Any thoughts and advice is appreciated.

Two different kinds of diving in Kingston and Brockville. Kingston is lake with thermoclines and still water... Brockville constant water temperature from top to bottom and current... sometimes a lot of current.

For Kingston diving, you might want to contact Tom from Northern Tech Diver... His shop runs lots of charters.

In Brockville, contact BottomTimes Charters or in Rockport contact Thousand Island Divers... Google with turn up contacts for all.

There are also several shore dives in both areas.

If you are a new diver, I would suggest strongly that you hook up with a group of slightly more experienced divers who know the area. This is a good forum for that and I'm sure you'll make good connections here.

Doppler

[JimC]

My top charter destinations:

- Needles eye drift passed the Lilly
The Lilly is nice, but the wall and current are nicer :)
- Daryaw
Divebomb and drift off on a bag, getting beat around on the mooring line sucks and there is a vertiable treasure trove of droped scuba goodies off the wreck
- Marsh
Wreck is in incredible shape with a large assortment of intact artifacts
- Comet
The paddle wheel is... breath takeing


All sort of advanced dives.

[DivingGal]

with Doppler and Jim...

Good charters, good diving.

When you coming this way? As Doppler says, there always someone wanting to dive.

[ScubaCanada]

Thanks all for the info.

Hope to get up there Sat. Sept 20 or Sunday Sept. 21, with 2 buddies.

Cheers.

[IzzyTahil]

Im diving there this weekend. Just curoius, when does the water start getting colder than 70degF? and how low does it actually get?

[cobaltbabe]

IzzyTahil once bubbled...
Im diving there this weekend. Just curoius, when does the water start getting colder than 70degF? and how low does it actually get?

I think it's colder then that now. The last time I dove the Wolfe Islander it was 40 degrees at 80 feet. That was only a couple of months ago and I don't think it has warmed up that much. You may want to invest in some long johns. :)

[DivingGal]

IzzyTahil once bubbled...
Im diving there this weekend. Just curoius, when does the water start getting colder than 70degF? and how low does it actually get?

Just to clarify something. Lake Ontario has colder thermoclines, and more of them. So any wreck there, you will experience colder temperatures when you dive. e.g. A dive one weekend in the Lake at 100' was 42F, the next weekend in the river at 115' it was 73F.

The Brockville wrecks being in the St Lawrence are in much warmer temperatures. They are still experiencing the high 60 to low 70 range.

How low? When? Depends where you are. The lake definately cools quicker than the river. I've hit 50s in late October, and remember a 33F at New Years (quickly followed by a hot tub dip :D)

[Butch103]

....Wolfe Islander last Sunday was low 60s on deck......Munson was 52 at 104 ft........

Might try Big Jim's charter. He had some open spots for Sunday. Search for DiveDude on this board and then hunt up his website and number.....

NTD as previous mentioned has an excellent reputation also.

[cse]

ScubaCanada

I was in Brockville on Aug 31 and the temp varried between 66-68 degrees f. Last October the temp was around 59. It is nice to have a dry suit with the colder topside temps. Nice wrecks are the Gaskin (easy dive with lots of fish), the Lily Parsons (strong current), Kingshorn (intact and upright), Daryaw (strong current) and the Keystorm (on the US side but definately worth the effort).

Tom from UnderWhere is a great guy with a good fast boat and easy to get on and off of. He usually stays between the Gaskin and the Daryaw.

On Aug 31 I heard the lady who owns Abucs say that they were going over to the Keystorm. She seems very nice.

As well be sure to visit Dive Tech in Mallorytown. Dan and Beth are great.

cse

[ScubaCanada]

I did a couple dives on Sunday in Kingston with Northern Tech Divers charter with Big Jim's boat.

Everything went nice and smooth, water was smooth, boat ran smooth, dives went smooth.

Comet was really interesting.

Jim was great, and so was his cute first mate (wife).

I'll be happy to dive on his boat again.

Really appreciate the info all.

Cheers,
Drew.:pirate:

[Warren_L]

ScubaCanada,

What were the water temps like at depth? I'm thinking about Kingston this weekend. Not sure which sites yet as well.

[ScubaCanada]

wlo93 at 75' it was around 50F, with a thermocline around 65' that was around 65F.

Not bad at all. Still need a hood & gloves though.

Water was very calm as well.

Have a good dive.

[divedude]

ScubaCanada once bubbled...
I did a couple dives on Sunday in Kingston with Northern Tech Divers charter with Big Jim's boat.

Everything went nice and smooth, water was smooth, boat ran smooth, dives went smooth.

Comet was really interesting.

Jim was great, and so was his cute first mate (wife).

I'll be happy to dive on his boat again.

Really appreciate the info all.

Cheers,
Drew.:pirate:
ScubaCanada!!! You made my wife blush ;)
Glad you enjoyed the dives. :)

[Warren_L]

ScubaCanada - you were right on about the water temps. Was about 64 F at about 80', not much of a thermocline I must say. Not that I'm complaining about it :).

Did the Wolfe Islander II twice today, second time with penetration into the engine room. Very cool!

Thanks to Northern Tech Divers too - great day on the Seadeucer with Harold. Waters were a little choppy but we got out there no problems....

[wetman]

Harold is a great captain. Had him a couple times this year for charters.

steve

[JHAM]

The comet is a nice dive and side wheelers are rare so its interesting from a uniqueness stand point.

However, for my two cents, I think the marsh is probably the coolest wreck in Kingston. It's one of the coolest I've done in the great lakes.

For those of you whom do not know it. It is a steam shovel dredger sank in about 120' of water. It has lots of machinery to look at. The tool room has lots of artifacts to see.

The other thing I like about this wreck is the conditions at the site are cool. The water is dark due to tannic acid coming from decaying leaves form the near by shore. However, even with the dark water, it is still very clear and has good vis. It creates a kind of erie enviornment that I haven't seen any where else.

I'm not certain how much the conditions change, but I've dove this wreck three times and the conditions were as I described them on all three dives.

I just love this wereck.

[Tom R]

Must have been diving air if you saw all that on the Marsh:) , I thinks you may mean the Munson.

Tom R