coldest dive I have done

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I've did 9 dives in March and April of this year in the tailrace near our locks. Coldest was 34F ranging to 38F on those dives, and I used my 7mm Bare suit. Times were anywhere from 25-40 minutes. Yes, I was cool, but not frozen - I still had dexterity in all digits. Am I proud? No. Do I really want a drysuit? Yes. That logic aside, when you get the itch to get wet, sometimes you have to give in......

I'm glad were up to the balmy mid 40's now...... my face doesn't go numb anymore.

SS
 
you are a hardy sole.... the problem i would have is, at the 40 minute mark i would only be getting off the bottom and would be stairing at an hour of deco. if i was in a wet suit when they pulled me from the rive,r my wet suit would be called a body bag.

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

talk to me in August, then i get the wet suit out.

cheers
 
Hi JimC:

I'm invited to dive lock 21 this coming weekend- Saturday.
I have no idea where it is. Do you have a map I can download?
You mentioned poor vis and fast current - is this normal for this site? I found the vis. very poor this past weekend in Bkvl..
I like a good drift dive but 2-3 knots sounds fast when you're close to the shipping channel. Any tips for someone that's never been to the site?
 
Originally posted by barb
Hi JimC:

I'm invited to dive lock 21 this coming weekend- Saturday.
I have no idea where it is. Do you have a map I can download?
You mentioned poor vis and fast current - is this normal for this site? I found the vis. very poor this past weekend in Bkvl..
I like a good drift dive but 2-3 knots sounds fast when you're close to the shipping channel. Any tips for someone that's never been to the site?

Many of the local dive shops carry the SOS Dive Guides (they're also available through SOS), one of which is for Lock 21. From the guide:

located off the south western end of Macdonell Isalnd, is accessible by land from the Historic plaque. From Highway 401, follow the exits to Ingleside or Long Sault to Highway 2. Enter the Long Sault Parkway (fee per car) to Macdonell Island.

The guides are excellent for not only providing information on how to find various dive sites, but they also provide sketches of the sites themselves.
 
Last time i dove lock 21 it was a ripping current and really poor vis and with all the rain lately i certainly don't think it has improved any, keep in mind it's down stream from Brockville so if the current there and vis is not great it will be just as bad or worse down river.
 
Thank you for the info Divingal and FredK
I'll check out the SOS maps and maybe wait on the Lock 21 trip.
A fast current is fun but not with low vis.
 
I was there again this weekend. (I LOVE Lock 21)

First dive, vis was 10 feet (which is good for this site) and current was fast (3-4 knot range). Had a great dive.

Came up, did a nice sit, basking in the sun for a while chatting with the campers, and watching the hundreds of Canadain Gease swim around.

Second dive, we wen't in as these nasty black clouds were comming down the river. We didn't see the clouds, all we noticed was the chop on the water picking up a bit.

Vis was probably down to 3 feet toward the end of the dive. But the current. Hot damn, thats the fastest I have ever seen it. I could just make headway swining against it.. and I am a very good swimmer. I am guessing 6+ knots. Hot damn, the 2 drifts we did were a rush.

When we get there is a mamoth storm, wich you may have heard about.


----

As an aside, there are ropes and lots of stuff to pull your self along around the lock, so you typicaly pull your self up and drift down the lock, repeating if you have air. My normal route is to go in down stream, where there are some ropes along the bottom. Pull along the ropes to the lock, pull along the bottom to the frount of the lock, drift down the lock, pull back up to the frount. Play along the slush gates, then drift back to the rope we came in on.

When your in behind the slush gates, the current actualy reverses and pushes you toward them. So its not that hard to get back to the top of the locks. :)

You are also quite far from the shipping channel, there is a rather large island between the lock and it. You do see a fiar number of smaller personal boats dirve passed, so use a flag.

---

If you had planed on diveing on Sunday, you would probably have had to turn the dive anyway. Sunday was not a good day to learn the lock. Most of the other people there swam like mad for 15 minutes to get to the "start" bouy, exausting them selves against the current. Some didn't even bother decending, just swam back. Most of the ones who went down were up 10 minutes later, drifting passed the lock system and fighting to get back to shore.
 
JimC
You sound like a bit of a speed/drift junkie!!!
I really like a fast drift to but not if I have to swim against it later on. I prefer drifts where there is a boat to pick me up at the end - a bit of a princess maybe?
I'm definitely going to Lock 21. My plan is to go this Saturday. Some diver friends are going and I'm going to hook-up with them and they'll show me around.
I'm going to bring along your suggested route and see if they concur.
Thanks Jim you've got me excited now!!!!:D
 
Hopfully this helps some. The red line is my typical route. Most ppl will go in at the floating bouy, but I'd rather be under water on the ropes than on the serface kicking like mad.

lock21.bmp
 

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