Morton's Wharf

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!