St.
Lawrence
Seaway
On Thursday, we met Tony in his "dive buggy" and we hit the road. We spent the next 12 hours talking diving and having some great laughs as we made our way to Canada. We stayed at the Caiger's Resort and Dove with Thousand Island Pleasure Diving.
After a big breakfast Friday morning, we hopped on two boats (tech divers on one, rec divers on the other) and hit our first dive site of the trip – the Keystorm. The Keystorm was carrying 2230 tons of bituminous coal on route from Genesee Dock at Charlotte NY on October 12, 1912 when she crossed over Outer Skow Island Shoal and sunk. This steel freighter lies south of the shipping channel off Mallorytown Landing and is resting in deeper water away from the shoal she hit.
The second dive of the day took us to the America – a steel drill barge that sunk June 20, 1932 due to an explosion.
After the diving on Friday Sara had severe back pain from a previous injury so unfortunately she was done diving for the weekend. It really stinks that she had to miss some dives but we will be back again next year.
On Saturday Scott dove the Kingshorn and the Vickery. The Kingshorn is a wooden wreck sitting in about 90 feet of water. She is an old barge that sunk on April 27, 1897. The Vickery was a three-masted 136ft. schooner that struck a rock and sunk on August 17, 1889 while entering the American Narrows and hauling 61,000 bushels of wheat to the Wisers Distillery at Prescott, Ontario.
The last day Scott did the Jodery – *the* wreck of the trip. The Roy A. Jodrey, a ship hauling iron ore, sank Nov. 21, 1974. The 640-foot ship, which split in half, rests at a depth of 242 feet (with her bow at around 150 ft). The craft sank in about five hours, within view of the Coast Guard station. All 29 crew members were rescued.
Given the depth, the wreck was obviously a tech dive. Scott planned to dive to 185 ft for 20 minutes before beginning his ascent with a total dive time of 56 minutes. Last year Sara and I did this dive on air but this year Scott was diving 18/45 trimix. What a diffenernce the mix makes at this depth. Next year we will definitely be using trimix on the Jodrey for the clearer head. Scott swam around the bow and checked out the anchors and the hole in the starboard side of the ship. Scott ascended up the rock wall and completed his deco obligation under the boat. We can’t wait to do it again next year.
The final dive of the trip was on the Keystorm again. It was cool
to see it during the day and was a relaxing way to end the trip.
