Lillie Parsons, Brockville ON			N 44° 33.3', W 75° 43.1'
Dive Number 229		Buddy Jason	Surface temp 27°C	Starting pressure 3100psi
Depth 65ft	Visibility good	Time 23m	Water temp 20°C	Ending pressure 1500psi
Notes:	Next up, Jason and I dove the Lillie Parsons. I would have estimated that I'd been on it plenty of times before, but records indicate that this is my third visit there. It allows a dive around the deep side and return up the chain on the shallow side, and/or a drift over the upturned hull, from where the centreboard is visible. A short or long drift is possible afterwards, but for the long drift we would have needed either a larger tank for Jason or would have had to depart immediately instead of touring the wreck. The drift along the Western shore of Sparrow Island was supposed to be 30 ft, but we both ended up more shallow, and the current was strong enough that finding places to stay stationary and wait for Jason was difficult. We quickly found ourselves on the line for retrieval - My computer no longer suggested a safety stop was necessary but I did one anyway. Then back to the dock to pick up two more divers for the evening dive.

Lillie Parsons, Brockville ON			N 44° 33.3', W 75° 43.1'
Dive Number 229		Buddy Jason	Surface temp 27°C	Starting pressure 3100psi
Depth 72ft	Visibility good	Time 35m	Water temp 20°C	Ending pressure 500psi
Notes:	For our second dive, Jason and I dove the Lillie Parsons whch is both a wreck and also a drift. He managed to swap his tank for another diver's steel 130 which allowed enough time for him to complete the drift and also last longer than me with his air. Post dive meal was at Dianne's fish Bar in Kingston, and then we went to Toronto with Chandra for supper at one of their favourite Chinese places!

Palencar Caves, Cozumel, Mexico			N 20° 20.2' W 87° 1.6'
Dive Number 175		Buddies Neva, Kevin, Josée	Surface temp 25°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 61ft	Visibility excellent	Time 54m	Water temp 26°C	Ending pressure 1200psi
Notes:	Neva had four "wishes" for her diving here. She had already seen free swimming sharks and planty of turtles, but so far no rays or eels. Josée's sinuses had improved enough that she and Kevin both joined Neva and I for this afternoon's dives. Our divemaster indicated that there would be several swimthroughs on this dive, but that as a junior diver, that Neva and I ought to stick to the simplest of these only. The terrain and swimthroughs made the topology interesting, and Neva and I joined in all but a couple of the deepest swimthroughs. Early in the dive, Josée spied both a spotted moray and a stingray fluttering around the bottom. Later we also saw a freeswimming green moray! It rained for much of the dive, but the skies were clear as we exited the water. Neva was feeling cold, so we scrubbed our remaining afternoon dive, and I used the credit to pay for PADI's Enriched Air certification. Here's a picture of the spotted moray: And here are buddies topside... ... and underwater!

La Francesca, Cozumel, Mexico			N 20° 20.5' W 87° 1.2'
Dive Number 174		Buddy Neva	Surface temp 24°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 54ft	Visibility excellent	Time 53m	Water temp 27°C	Ending pressure 1200psi
Notes:	It was a little milder today. Neva and I joined the morning dive to the Francesca reef. We got in a few turtle sightings and another couple free-swimming nurse sharks, like the one you might be able to make out in the distance of this photo.

San Francisco, Cozumel, Mexico			N 20° 22.2' W 87° 1.6'
Dive Number 173		Buddies Neva, Kevin	Surface temp 25°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 57ft	Visibility excellent	Time 58m	Water temp 27°C	Ending pressure 900psi
Notes:	Two evenings earlier, as we were walking back to our room after diving, we ran into my old Dolphin Scuba Club buddy Kevin Leblanc and his wife Josée, who just happened to be vacationing at the same resort as us! By this morning, Neva had successfully completed her course and Kevin joined us for a dive on one of the morning's charter excursions. Diving was good, and we were particularly enchanted by a juvenile queen angelfish that eluded my attempts to photograph it. Here's a stock photo for reference: For part of this dive, Neva continued to work on her buoyancy with legs crossed in the lotus position. Topside, we took another group shot to share with Dolphin dive buddies back home.

Columbia Shallows, Cozumel, Mexico			N 20° 19.0' W 87° 1.0'
Dive Number 172		Buddy Neva, Jay	Surface temp 25°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 42ft	Visibility excellent	Time 40m	Water temp 27°C	Ending pressure 1500psi
NITROX		O2 % 33%	Depth Limit 107ft	CNS Toxicity 5%
Notes:	Well, this was interesting: Our resort had a problem with one of its air compressors, so we had picked up a few extra tanks from a neighbouring resort. While preparing for the dive, a detected a leak coming from the connection between the tank and Neva's regulator. When the problem persisted with other tanks we figured out that the loaner tanks were DIN-type instead of standard yoke-type that would match our regs. Jay asked if I would be OK to dive with one of the nitrox tanks they had and I agreed, so we swapped Neva to my [air] tank and I got a quick briefing in nitrox, and dove with it. A can't say I felt any different at the end of the dive, but was glad for the intro to nitrox. I would go on to complete the PADI Enriched Air course before we left Cozumel four days later. Neva successfully completed her last open water training dive, and it only remained for her to challenge the exam for certification card! There were lots of [hawksbill] turtles on this dive. Here's a picture of one.

Punta Dalila, Cozumel, Mexico			N 20° 20.7' W 87° 1.2'
Dive Number 171		Buddies Neva, Jay	Surface temp 24°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 28ft	Visibility excellent	Time 52m	Water temp 27°C	Ending pressure 1400psi
Notes:	Neva's third open water dive. Some other divers joined us for her open water skills, and the skills went fine, although it seemed to me that she might have been distracted during her navigation exercise by the presence of a cute porcupinefish. After, we got to explore a little and were treated to more fishies, turtles and good times. Here's a picture of her pointing at something.

Palencar Gardens, Cozumel, Mexico			N 20° 20.2' W 87° 1.6'
Dive Number 170		Buddies Neva, Jay	Surface temp 25°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 29ft	Visibility excellent	Time 53m	Water temp 27°C	Ending pressure 1300psi
Notes:	Neva's second open water dive. More skills, and no problems. This dive she got see more turtles and a nurse shark under a rock. She's still mugging for the camera, but isn't accidentally making the "thumbs up" any more.

Columbia Shallows, Cozumel, Mexico			N 20° 19.0' W 87° 1.0'
Dive Number 169		Buddy Neva, Jay	Surface temp 25°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 42ft	Visibility excellent	Time 54m	Water temp 27°C	Ending pressure 1600psi
Notes:	Neva and I arrived in Cozumel and I had planned on doing as much snorkelling as she liked, but when she said she'd rather take her open water course, I was glad to go along! She spent much of the day on the 8th watching videos and doing knowledge reviews. After a pool session in the morning, we went out for her first basic open water dive. She completed a quick skills test, and then we went off to explore the reef. We saw some big lobsters, a big crab, and the biggest parrotfist I have ever seen (a midnight parrotfish). We're still working on indicating approval with something other than the thumbs up signal to ascend.

Georgina Island, Rockport ON			N 44° 12.6', W 76° 30.6'
Dive Number 82		Buddy Sylvain	Surface temp 24°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 77ft	Visibility good	Time 32m	Water temp 22°C	Ending pressure 1600psi
Notes:	Sly joined me for a "walk on" with Thousand Island Diving. It was his first dive of the year. Although we had both drifted in the St. Lawrence before, we were both caught off guard by the turbulence of the current through the channel on the south side [clockwise] of Georgina Island: we both got washed a little upstream when entering the main channel before getting swept back to the island. This meant a few disorienting moments without island where we expected it, and we were both briefly tempted to surface, despite the sounds of boat traffic overhead. Luckily, we soon spied the edge we were supposed to be following, and things started going a little more according to plan. We surfaced after a little while in an eddy, in sight of the Thousand Island International Bridge. The dive wasn't "by the book", but I think we both learned a lesson on the subject of handling a small crisis. The best thing was to stop, assess the situation calmly, and proceed slowly and safely.

Eagle Point, Rockport ON			N 44° 12.6', W 76° 30.6'
Dive Number 81		Buddy Matt	Surface temp 24°C	Starting pressure 2750psi
Depth 66ft	Visibility good	Time 34m	Water temp 23°C	Ending pressure 1100psi
Notes:	The third dive of the day was billed as a drift, but the current in this part of the river was negligeable. I hd planned on bringing down a bit of leftover subway sandwich to feed the fish, but remembered this after having descended about 20 feet. Matt and I swam downstream along the edge, and were rewarded with sightings of several large carp, catfish, and bass. The highlight, however, were the curious sunfish that closely followed us, circling our masks, and swimming right into our hands. It was almost like they knew I had planned on bringing them food. Thus ended our third of the three tanks. The weather cooperated, the dives were great, and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Rockport Drift Dive Site, Rockport ON			N 44° 21.4', W 76° 59.8'
Dive Number 53		Buddy Sylvain	Surface temp 22°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 113ft	Visibility good	Time 30m	Water temp 21°C	Ending pressure 1400psi
Notes:	Another excellent club dive, this night in Rockport. Twelve of us saw heaps of fish along the wall of Ash(?) Island, and found a line at the end of the gentle drift which we followed down to a barge that is reported to have been used in the construction of the Thousand Island Bridge. When we got to shore, we were surprised to learn that post-dive pizza was included in the $25 price for the dive!

Stovin Island Drift, Brockville ON			N 44° 33.3', W 75° 43.0'
Dive Number 49		Buddy Sylvain	Surface temp 28°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 89ft	Visibility ~50ft	Time 29m	Water temp 23°C	Ending pressure 1200psi
Notes:	Our second dive was as good as the first; Sylvain got off to a rocky start when the aforementioned experienced but careless [ie ought to have known better] diver descended on top of him and kicked him repeatedly when trying to swim away. Sylvain and I had a relaxing dive and saw lots of medium sized walleye. The other [400 dive] diver failed to follow the directions and ended up on the wrong side of Stovin Island.

Lillie Parsons, Brockville ON			N 44° 33.3', W 75° 43.1'
Dive Number 48		Buddy Sylvain	Surface temp 26°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 89ft	Visibility good	Time 32m	Water temp 23°C	Ending pressure 1200psi
Notes:	On the Treasure Hunt Dive two months ago, I won a two-tank dive from Martin Dive Charters as my prize. This weekend, I took the chance to get two dives in with Sylvain. Most of the other divers were from Ottawa or Gatineau, most of whom were friendly; one kind of loudmouthy guy was present; I feel bad for the person who got buddied up with him. The Lillie was interesting to see, lots of people seemed to be filling their bags with charcoal, but we just enjoyed getting the views of the wreck and the drift.