The Comet, Kingston ON			N 44° 08.35', W 76° 35.1'
Dive Number 71		Buddies Jim, Kevin	Surface temp 10°C	Starting pressure 2950psi
Depth 81ft	Visibility excellent	Time 32m	Water temp 7°C	Ending pressure 950psi
Notes:	Today's dive was our club's first chartered dive of the year, and also my first dive of 2008. Of the five divers on the boat, I was the only one diving wet, but managed to stay warm enough to keep up with Kevin Leblanc and Jim Dunfield (Jim was down from Ottawa visiting friends). The excellent visibility was unparalleled, the Comet remains an great wreck. An American eel which has been said to frequent this wreck eluded all of us today. No sign of it was seen. The dive was followed with the traditional Tim Horton's outing, followed for me by a nap.

Playa Coral, Cuba			N 23° 5.4', W 81° 25.5'
Dive Number 70		Buddy Paul	Surface temp 25°C	Starting pressure 200 bar
Depth 37ft	Visibility excellent	Time 38m	Water temp 27°C	Ending pressure 100 bar
Notes:	The second dive went much better, with no major catastrophes, and with the highlight being a small overhead environment which was thick with a few hundred fish or so. The coral on the north shore of Cuba in fact is not the best in the world, but diving in warm water is always a fun and welcome change.

Playa Coral, Cuba			N 23° 5.4', W 81° 25.5'
Dive Number 69		Buddy Paul	Surface temp 25°C	Starting pressure 210 bar
Depth 37ft	Visibility excellent	Time 36m	Water temp 27°C	Ending pressure 120 bar
Notes:	The dive itself was pretty good, but my buddy (a German tourist from the same resort as me) was abominable. He ignored the divemaster's instructions to swim along the bottom of a channel leading out past the deep of the coral, and got tossed about in the waves. He lagged behind, and twice lost sight with us (to be fair, the divemaster didn't look back often). Worst, at one point, he surfaced and got tossed in the waves over the shallow coral, to the detriment of the coral, at his own peril.

Pumpkin Experiment Dive, Nicholson Point, Amherstview ON			N 44° 12.3', W 76° 40.9'
Dive Number 68		Buddies Steve Chew, Jean-Olivier	Surface temp 2°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 100ft	Visibility good	Time 28m	Water temp 12°C	Ending pressure 700psi
Notes:	After the recent Pumpkin dive, some speculation started about whether a pumpkin would "implode" or otherwise get structurally compromised by the rigors of depth and pressure. After a healthy pool of opinion was established within the club, Steve, Jean-Olivier and I got to testing this morning at Nicholson's Point. We towed pumpkins on the surface in nets that Steve built for about 10 minutes from shore, far enough that we hoped to have 100 feet depth to test. At this point, we dropped a line to the bottom, and started our descent. I brought "Jill", the larger of the two pumpkins, and noticed a dent and a crack at about 60 feet. Jean-Olivier saw bubbles emerging from near the stem of "Jack" at about the same depth. Also significantly, both pumpkins were significantly less buoyant than before the dive. After surfacing and swimming back to shore, visible cracks could be seen in both pumpkins, and a post mortem style exam revealed that both had filled more than half full of water during the dive. We warmed up in Jean-Olivier's camper/van with freshly brewed tea. Today, I tried a triple layer - my surfshirt between my shorty and 7mm suit, with double gloves, fine gloves tucked in wetsuit and gauntlets on the outside. I may yet get neoprene socks like Sylvain, but overall I wasn't too cold. Until I got out and changed.

Pumpkin Dive, Winter Dock, Wolfe Island ON			N 44° 12.9', W 76° 25.5'
Dive Number 67		Buddy Sylvain	Surface temp 14°C	Starting pressure 2850psi
Depth 14ft	Visibility fair	Time 23m	Water temp 15°C	Ending pressure 2200psi
Notes:	This was the first year that Sylvain or I participated in the club's annual pumpkin dive. Expecting that we would make foolish mistakes anyway, we tempted fate by choosing the largest pumpkin available, but finessed our experience (or cheated, depending on your point of view) by puncturing two small holes to drain the air from it before descent. We timed our dive between dockings of the ferry, took down ten extra pounds of lead to weigh ourselves and the pumpkin down, and brought a pumpkin carving tool and a bag (to bring up bits). Sadly, we lost the lid to our underwater lantern when our bag everted and the bits floated away. Nevertheless, we managed to carve a striking pumpkin with a menacing smile, and a dive flag etched into the back of it. We assume that we won lots of prizes, but had to leave the reception to catch a 1:15 ferry back to Kingston, so will have to find out later. This may have been my last cold water dive of the year. There's Cuba at the end of next month, though...

Maple Glen, Kingston ON			N 44° 8.7' W 76° 37.2'
Dive Number 66		Buddies Sheila, Steve C	Surface temp 15°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 67ft	Visibility good	Time 41m	Water temp 12°C	Ending pressure 1300psi
Notes	With eleven divers on our weekly club charter, Steve and Sheila and I were the only unmatched divers, and elected to dive together as a threesome. Since Sheila is legendary in our club for her conservative air consumption, I had been eager to dive with her to see how I measured up. Since the mooring had been removed from the wreck called the Queen Mary, we were diverted to another nearby wreck, which I was told at the time was the Titanic, but the club website now indicates was the Maple Glen. The wreck was interesting, and although we descended by daylight, we all required our lights and ascended by night. As I said, it's a good thing we all made a tour by twilight, since you should never dive a site by night that you haven't seen by day. After getting home, I went through my dive profile and worked out an average depth of between 50 and 52 feet. Using an online Surface Air Consumption (SAC) calculator, I worked out my own SAC at just less than .5 cubic feet (about 12 litres) per minute.

Dead Man's Bay, Kingston ON			N 44° 14.0', W 76° 26.9'
Dive Number 65		Buddy Jason	Surface temp 13°C	Starting pressure 2500psi
Depth 15ft	Visibility fair	Time 37m	Water temp 18°C	Ending pressure 1700psi
Notes:	Today was my third dive day in a row - this may be a record for me! Jason and went down to Dead Man's Bay for a clam and shallow dive. There was no visible buoy on the wreck, but we left by compass heading to the place where I thought we'd find it. I steered us far off course, so when we were confident we'd gone too far, we took a look up and found ourselves across the bay. We returned, and navigated under the breakwater to the ramp up to the parking lot, but not before I spied a small mottled fish that I think was a small muskellunge. The dive was not exciting, but was relaxing, and Jason and I both did fine.

The Comet, Kingston ON			N 44° 08.35', W 76° 35.1'
Dive Number 64		Buddy Jason	Surface temp 17°C	Starting pressure 2700psi
Depth 74ft	Visibility fair	Time 22m	Water temp 16°C	Ending pressure 1700psi
Notes:	With the overcast weather, and a storm threatening to arrive, I was surprised and pleased to go to our scheduled dive at the Comet. To be sure to not hold anyone up, Jason and I entered the water last and descended the line gently, to allow ample chance to acclimatize to the depth. Arriving at the bottom of the line, the cold and dark conspired to make Jason a little uncomfortable, so we climbed to a depth of 40 to 50 feet, and just swam overtop of the big paddle-wheels. With air running down, we surfaced early, but gently and safely with our usual 15 foot safety stop. The rain spittled as we rode back to Kingston, and Jason and I enjoyed a tasty supper at Curry Original afterwards.

Pumphouse, Kingston ON			N 44° 12.6', W 76° 30.6'
Dive Number 63		Buddy Jason	Surface temp 13°C	Starting pressure 2800psi
Depth 29ft	Visibility fair	Time 33m	Water temp 17°C	Ending pressure 1900psi
Notes:	For our second dive of the day, Jason and I planned to return to the pumphouse for a night dive. Our distance was much less, and Jason was troubled by some equipment failure - his pistol light flooded so he converted to his backup light and we stayed close. Navigation was trickier for us becuase of the ease of disorientation, and we also got turned around when Jason got a cramp. There were plenty of perch, and lost of catfish. We both saw a medium-large drum, and I caught a glimpse of a medium pike as well.

Pumphouse, Kingston ON			N 44° 12.6', W 76° 30.6'
Dive Number 62		Buddy Jason	Surface temp 13°C	Starting pressure 2800psi
Depth 38ft	Visibility fair	Time 31m	Water temp 17°C	Ending pressure 1500psi
Notes:	Jason came to town so he and I could get a couple dives in. Since he would be coming on the club dive the following night, he was keen to get his feet - and everything else - wet with a refresher dive with me. We braved the spittle and distant thunder to descend the usual route at the pumphouse, where the barge afforded a view of a few bass. We managed to navigate back to the launch to exit at the bend in Ontario Street. The swim was longer than he had intended, but he did well for someone so far out of practice, and we both enjoyed a good dive.