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.

Shark Tank, Florida Aquarium, Tampa, Florida			N 27° 56.6', W 82° 26.5'
Dive Number 168		Buddy Aquarium Divemaster	Surface temp 24°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 20ft	Visibility excellent	Time 40m	Water temp 21°C	Ending pressure 1700psi
Notes:	I thought it would be fun to do a dive in the Florida Aquarium shark tank, and also thought the kids would think I was brave if I did it, so we signed up (also signed up Neva and Hugh for a snorkel in the reef exhibit). We were greeted by one of the aquarium hosts and given a short introduction, and the kids and Cheryl were escorted to the outside of the tank (where they saw "Shark Tank" TV personality Lori Greiner filming a promo). The divemaster and I descended in a cage, stepped out and spent about three quarters of an hour with a few sand tiger sharks. The kids didn't think this activity was particularly brave (Neva and Hugh both wanted to try it), but it was fun!

Glendora, Kingston ON			N 44° 8.6', W 76° 38.1'
Dive Number 167		Buddy Jason	Surface temp 22°C	Starting pressure 3100psi
Depth 74ft	Visibility good	Time 38m	Water temp 10°C	Ending pressure 900psi
Notes:	Anne graciously agreed to take and Jason and I out for another dive on Friday, and Nancy and her buddy Suzanne joined us for a calmer milder trip out to the Glendora. I found this morning's dive more entertaining than the night before. Intact hull, extended swimthroughs, and a magnificent propellor at the stern! Usually I post that we finished the dive and I post a note about going out for food; this time, Jason and I drove to Montreal for supper at Au Pied de Cochon and a Lionel Loueke concert at Jazzfest Montreal!

Maple Glen, Kingston ON			N 44° 8.7' W 76° 37.2'
Dive Number 166		Buddy Jason	Surface temp 25°C	Starting pressure 3300psi
Depth 68ft	Visibility good	Time 33m	Water temp 10°C	Ending pressure 1400psi
Notes	Jason and I made plans to dive together, so he arrived this afternoon and we head down to Collins Bay to join Anne of Kingston Dive Charters. Two other Dolphin divers, Ross and Lorna, joined us for four on the boat. Jason and I remembered all our gear, but I neglected to get my belt on prior to donning my BCD, so I was quite hot by the time I got in the water. The 10 degree water on the wreck soon fixed that problem, and we took a quick tour of the timbers that had once been the Maple Glen. I was glad to get up into the warm, and follow the dive with a fine supper at Dianne's Fish Bar!

The Rothesay, Brockville ON			N 44° 42.0', W 75° 31.2'
Dive Number 165		Buddy Jason	Surface temp 6°C	Starting pressure 2850psi
Depth 27ft	Visibility fair	Time 46m	Water temp 13°C	Ending pressure 1300psi
Notes:	For our second dive, Jason and I returned to the wreck of the Rothesay in Prescott which we last dove in the summer, with a surface temperature of 29°C and water temp of 20°C. Jason had a new housing for his GoPro, and was keen to see the pike that eluded him last visit (I previously thought this to be a muskellonge). Despite cool dressings and undressings in the wind and rain, we were treated to the usual good dive, with abundant large bass, the largest walleye I have ever seen, and we both got to see the resident pike, pictured here. Afterwards, we returned to Kingston for hamburgers at Five Guys. Since this is almost certainly my last dive of the calendar year, it was a nice one to end on.

Round Lake, South Frontenac ON			N 44° 24.9', W 76° 25.6'
Dive Number 164		Buddy Jason	Surface temp 14°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 44ft	Visibility fair	Time 52m	Water temp 10°C	Ending pressure 1200psi
Notes:	Jason made the drive from Toronto for a fall dive today. We head over to round lake and braved the chilly water to go for a swim over our usual shoal, and were treated to views of plenty of sunfish, a few walleye, and what we think was a large Northern pike. Below the 40 foot thermocline, the ground was covered with some sort of red algae, and as we exited, we saw a little snapping turtle. Enjoy! Where shall we go for supper?