Round Lake, South Frontenac ON			N 44° 24.9', W 76° 25.6'
Dive Number 77		Buddy Lee	Surface temp 24°C	Starting pressure 3100psi
Depth 35ft	Visibility fair	Time 42m	Water temp 9°C	Ending pressure 1800psi
Notes:	When Cheryl and the kids took a week at the Parsons cottage, I figured I'd get out on the Wednesday evening dive. Earlier in the week, I had the idea to email Mike and see if he was up or an afternoon dive before the night. It was uncanny when he pre-emptively emailed me to invite me to join Dianne, Lee and him at nearby Round Lake. The dive was good, but I should have more closely heeded the warnings about the thermoclines in small lakes. At 18 or 19 feet, the water became downright frigid, and wearing a beanie and thin gloves instead of my cold water fare, I was happy to ascend into what felt like a bath above the thermocline for a little tour after seeing the cars. A fantastic school of about a hundred sunfish hung around as we returned to the entry point, and I could have watched them for a long time.

Keystorm, New York			N 44° 25.8', W 75° 49.3'
Dive Number 76		Buddy Kim	Surface temp 26°C	Starting pressure 3200psi
Depth 70ft	Visibility good	Time 37m	Water temp 22°C	Ending pressure 1900psi
Notes:	After an hour surface interval and chimichangas and samosas from the Sleepless Goat, I paired up with Kim for the second dive. We descended part way down the wreck, and entered one of the vast cargo bays. On the way up, I misunderstood and thought she wanted to end earlier than she acutally did; we made it to our 15 foot safety stop, then turned and went down to see the underside of the boat (including the scar of the crash that sunk it, I think). Both dives of the day were excellent, and I'll look forward to the three tank dive on August 9th, if I don't manage to get out before.

Keystorm, New York			N 44° 25.8', W 75° 49.3'
Dive Number 75		Buddy Steve Chew	Surface temp 26°C	Starting pressure 3200psi
Depth 32ft	Visibility good	Time 28m	Water temp 22°C	Ending pressure 1600psi
Notes:	The first of our two-tank dive event on the Keystorm was fun: ten of us piled into the small "Island Diver" boat run by Thousand Island Diving; we worried we wouldn't all fit, but the speedy boat got us to customs and we sped through in time to be the second of seven boats on the wreck. Steve and I dove to the base of the steel freighter, and fought against traffic coming up for our surface interval. The wreck was great, but with seven boats diving it, it was a little busy for my liking.

Treasure Hunt Dive, Navy Bay, Kingston ON			N 44° 13.7', W 76° 27.8'
Dive Number 74		Buddy Kevin	Surface temp 20°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 25ft	Visibility fair	Time 41m	Water temp 12°C	Ending pressure 1500psi
Notes:	The yearly opening event of the club diving season is the Treasure Hunt Dive, which last year took place at Nicholson's point, and involved divers searching for numbered golf balls in order to win prizes. The skies opened up and provided torrential dounpour during the hour prior to our scheduled 10am start time, and only eight of us made the trip out to Nicholson's point. In the end, the organizers wisely rescheduled the event for Navy Bay off the jetty at RMC, which started about an hour later and where Kevin and I took a pleasant dive with a handful of other participants. It was a disorienting one, though - My recorded dive time includes two surfaces for reorientation. I ought to bone up on my compass skills!

The King Horn, Rockport ON			N 44° 22.6', W 75° 55.9'
Dive Number 73		Buddy Jean-Olivier	Surface temp 16°C	Starting pressure 3100psi
Depth 92ft	Visibility good	Time 24m	Water temp 11°C	Ending pressure 1350psi
Notes:	The Lyn Lee was under repair, so we had a last minute change to our planned dive, and ten divers became six when two opted out and two could not be reached. I paired up with Jean-Olivier for the dive, but he lost about 600psi from his steel tank during a free-flow while swimming to the top of the buoy line. The dive itself was pretty good. Fewer divers meant a shorter excursion, and J-O and I had a leisurely swim to the front of the wreck, coming back through the hull. I think J-O was frustrated to end the dive early because of his low air, but we had a good tour. Dive manuals usually recommend that if a diver feels something's not right prior to a dive, that he abandon the dive instead of going under with a bad feeling. One of our divers got such a sense, and called his dive at the last moment, leaving the remaining three to dive as a group. I know we have good divers in our club, and my opinion of the experienced diver in question rose even higher to see how he handled this situation. Next dive will be the annual treasure hunt dive on Saturday!

Kingston Psychiatric Hospital, Kingston ON			N 44° 12.9', W 76° 31.3'
Dive Number 72		Buddy Rob	Surface temp 18°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 49ft	Visibility excellent	Time 25m	Water temp 9°C	Ending pressure 1500psi
Notes:	Today sees a new category in my dive log: Dry. Adam organized a demo of the new Fusion drysuits from Whites. It's my first time wearing a drysuit, so while I'm unqualified to compare the Fusion to other drysuits, everyone else thought it was pretty good. As for me, I need to get a longer belt (maybe the next one I get will be a colour other than hot pink), and will need fins capable of holding bigger boots if I want to dive dry. I needed last minute adjustments to my weight, and ultimately felt a little bunchy inside my suit, but I think I just need to work on my dry technique. Becuase who's kidding who? Eventually I'll want one of these...

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.