Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, Kingston ON			N 44° 13.0', W 76° 31.1'
Dive Number 194		Buddy Mark	Surface temp 22°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 30ft	Visibility fair	Time 36m	Water temp 19°C	Ending pressure 1800psi
Notes:	Mark and I decided to make another dive on a fall day - It's been a while since I was at the Portsmouth Dive (other than a try-SCUBA experience last year with Mark and Cameron). I figured that I'd have no trouble finding the line and swimming out to the stacked hulls, etc. We couldn't find the line, but instead just swam out into the deep which gave us a chance to navigate back by compass (not challenging but good practice). There were a couple bass and one large drum. Success!

Morton's Wharf, Kingston ON			N 44° 13.0', W 76° 30.3'
Dive Number 193		Buddy Mark	Surface temp 26°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 23ft	Visibility fair	Time 22m	Water temp 22°C	Ending pressure 2250psi
Notes:	My pal Mark who I know from board games nights completed his open water certification this summer, and I had been hoping I'd get the chance to dive with him. Last week we put together a plan to get out today and he proposed a location that I had never tried before: Morton's wharf, just offshore from the Tett Centre on King Street. We met in the parking lot and as he arrived, I worried that I'd forgotten my dive computer, but was prepared to dive without if necessary. Emptying the gear from my car, I realized I had remembered the computer, but forgotten something more essential: my weight belt. Mark and I went through a quick problem solving brainstorm. We could try and find another weight belt (but where?), go to my place and dive there, or scrap the dive? In the end I decided I'd try diving without my wetsuit to make myself less buoyant - the water was going to be warm and I wouldn't need much weight at all without it, and if I couldn't get down we'd scrap or postpone the dive. With a couple small rocks from the shoreline in my BCD, I got in the water and easily descended. During the dive I stayed a few feet off the bottom (good practice anyway, but especially when not wearing neoprene in the zebra-mussel infested water), enjoyed swimming around the wharf, and seeing one large bass. I also took care when slightly inverted to prevent stones from falling from the pocket of my BCD - I wouldn't want a runaway ascent! I would be poor practice to recommend others try beltless diving, but I was glad my bungle did not cost me my first dive with Mark! Here's to more in the future!

The George A. Marsh, Kingston ON			N 44° 7.6', W 76° 36.2'
Dive Number 192		Buddies Jason, John	Surface temp 25°C	Starting pressure 2400psi
Depth 80ft	Visibility fair	Time 28m	Water temp 18°C	Ending pressure 700psi
Notes:	Our second of the day went a bit better. There was a long surface interval since rebreather divers from the first dive took a long time under the water, and we rode up on the Comet, but found several other divers there and decided to press on. I didnt write down the replacement wreck at the time, but if this is right, my dive log suggests that this is my first time here! A large sailboat was moored on the line, but detached so we could tie up. Our dive went well - there is an impressive bowsprit is at the front and a thermocline at about 60 feet was just right for me to stay slightly warmer and conserve air at the same time (recall that my tank was only starting with about 80% capacity). George and Jason and I had a successful dive before returning home. Chez Piggy for supper!

The Munson, Kingston ON			N 44° 12.6', W 76° 36.5'
Dive Number 191		Buddies Jason, John	Surface temp 25°C	Starting pressure 3200psi
Depth 105ft	Visibility poor	Time 22m	Water temp 14°C	Ending pressure 1200psi
Notes:	It took some effort, but Jason and I managed to sort out our details and booked ourselves onto one of Kingston Dive charters for two wreck dives today. Seven divers were aboard including two pairs of techy appearing divers (double tanks, rebreathers), one novice diver and us. Consensus was to dive wreck of the Munson first, a cold dark, deep sttel wreck that I've done a few times before (although not for a couple years). We inherited odd-man-out John as an extra dive buddy and got in the water, once the techy divers went ahead. There were a couple imperfections for me before we even went down. I had forgotten to bring any flashlight and was using one of Jason's. The tank I had mounted had only 2400 psi in it, so we swapped it to use in dive number two and took a full one for the deepest dive. I also had a free flow on my regulator when waiting to descend at the buoy, but took Anne's advice that it might right itself at depth (it did!). We were warned that the visibility would be poor until we got to the depth of the boat, approaching 100 ft. Unfortunately, at the bottom of the descent, the visibility was so poor that I hit bottom before I could see it, yet still could not spy the wreck along the short swim. In short, I became anxious that maintaining visibility might be difficult. I also stressed that we might not find the line if we let it go. I suggested we ascend, and no one seemed to object, so we took it slow and took a long safety stop to make up our 22m underwater time. It's possible that the bottom visibility was made worse by the other divers kicking it up before we got there, but either way, I'm glad we called it as we did. Too many things already seemed to not be right, it felt like continuing might be unsafe. Survival!

The Rothesay, Brockville ON			N 44° 42.0', W 75° 31.2'
Dive Number 190		Buddies Jason, Chandra	Surface temp 23°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 29ft	Visibility fair	Time 48m	Water temp 21°C	Ending pressure 1200psi
Notes:	This was Chandra's first cold open water dive, so after a Golden Rooster lunch and a 401 diversion, we stopped in at Dive Tech, picked her up a few essentials, and got into the water. The dive went smoothly. Visibility was good enough for us to avoid separation, and Chandra dove safely with enough buoyancy control to avoid popping to the surface, even in the shallow water. Post-dive supper was at the Maple Leaf restaurant in Gananoque. Schnitzel!

Unnamed coral reef, Isla Mujeres, Mexico			N 21° 12.1', W 86° 44.0'
Dive Number 189		Buddy Gerry	Surface temp 23°C	Starting pressure 3200psi
Depth 24ft	Visibility very good	Time 48m	Water temp 24°C	Ending pressure 1400psi
Notes:	We had a short surface interval before our second dive while we traveled to the reef. I had packed BCD, regulator and fins but elected to leave them at the hotel and use the dive operator's equipment to spare myself the task of carrying them around Cancun afterwards in case we lingered and dined in Cancun afterwards. Unfortunately I also left my dive computer behind so had to recall the dive details without it. It was fine to log a second dive but this was more of a sandy bottom dive punctuated by a few reef outcroppings than a real reef dive. Another turtle was present, and plenty of the same varieties of fish we'd seen on our earlier dive this morning, but we would have been no poorer if we'd skipped this one. We returned to the resort immediately after and had some lunch with Ursula and Cheryl. Yay!

MUSA, Isla Mujeres, Mexico			N 21° 12.1', W 86° 44.0'
Dive Number 188		Buddy Gerry	Surface temp 23°C	Starting pressure 3200psi
Depth 25ft	Visibility very good	Time 47m	Water temp 24°C	Ending pressure 1500psi
Notes:	We had managed to book a short Cancun getaway with Ursula and Gerry and the one dive that is considered a must is the Museo Subacuático de Arte (MUSA). We dove with an outfit called Aquaworld and our check in time of 7:30 required us to depart our resort shortly after 6am (for Gerry this was equivalent to 4am Pacific Time and for me a slightly less draconian departure of 7am EST). We dove without wetsuits (me bearing 8 lbs weight for salt water) and were rewarded with a few large schools of grunt, French and queen angelfish, and a curious turtle, in addition to the underwater statues.