Barrie-Morrison Report

[diverrobs]

My buddy and I dove the Morrison wreck in Barrie last night (from shore). They put the marker bouys out on Tues. apparently. The line from shore is intact (it starts about 20' from shore). Looks like new lines from the bouys to the wreck and out to the Paddle wheel (we did not go out to the wheel).

Water was a chilly 48F.

Had about 10' of visibility maximum and it decreased as we silted the place up a bit. The dark rainy sky did not help with light levels at the bottom. Spent 27 cold min. on the wreck and decided we had enought. Good dive though.

 

[possem]

I have been meaning to give this wreck a shot, 48 is not that cold when you dive in Canada. Go to toby where the water is 40ish. How is the wreck intact wise. Barrie is a little drive.

 

[tankdiver]

it was 37 in the welland the other day 48 sounds like a hottub

 

[shoredivr]

37 on the Forest City on Saturday, 47 at the Lighthouse in Toby.

 

[Groundhog246]

I have been meaning to give this wreck a shot, 48 is not that cold when you dive in Canada. Go to toby where the water is 40ish. How is the wreck intact wise. Barrie is a little drive.

Not very intact. She burned to the waterline and sank. There's remains of the engine and about 2/3 of one paddlewheel. Keel is mostly there and lower part of the ribs. I like it as a tune up dive or a place to check out a new buddy. A lot of overhead boat traffic sometimes though, especially on a nice day on the weekend. In the warmer months, also a lot of shops checking out students. My best dives have been early season, before the students show up, early morning, before they've stirred it up or late season. Best dive on it ever was late October.

 

[diverrobs]

Sorry I was at the cottage on the weekend and did not get to reply. Groundhog hit it on the head, pretty broken up, really just the ribs. It is a bit of a swim from shore. I recommend swimming out and then going down as you will have no air for the wreck if you go out along the line on bottom. Silting is really really bad here, stay off the bottom if you can. 10' was really our maximum vis. We finally surfaced as the vis dropped to near 0 after being on the wreck for 30min.

 

[Marcin2005]

Sorry I was at the cottage on the weekend and did not get to reply. Groundhog hit it on the head, pretty broken up, really just the ribs. It is a bit of a swim from shore. I recommend swimming out and then going down as you will have no air for the wreck if you go out along the line on bottom. Silting is really really bad here, stay off the bottom if you can. 10' was really our maximum vis. We finally surfaced as the vis dropped to near 0 after being on the wreck for 30min.

Glad you had a good time on the Mo.

Don't mean to sound like I'm preaching but I would discourage you from surface swimming to the Morrison. With the amount of boat traffic and the as***les on Jet Skis you are asking for trouble. An Alu80 should be more than enough to see the wreck and come back to shore under water. If it's not..time to work on your air consumption and buoyancy control


Good luck

 

[gitterdun]

I'm a sucker for that wreck. Not much of it, but a fun playground... always love diving that wreck.

 

[diverrobs]

I will definitely go on the bottom in the summer. Your right I probably should not have recommended swimming out given that the conditions will be really different on a Sat. afternoon in July. On the Wed night we went out (last week), there were not any boats out. The air temperature was 8C (46F) and there was not a single boat on the bay.

 

[Groundhog246]

It is a bit of a swim from shore. I recommend swimming out and then going down as you will have no air for the wreck if you go out along the line on bottom. Silting is really really bad here, stay off the bottom if you can. 10' was really our maximum vis. We finally surfaced as the vis dropped to near 0 after being on the wreck for 30min.

It's really not far from shore. We drop in just off the rocks where it's about 8 feet and follow the line. Usually about 8 minutes to the wreck. 30 to 45 minutes on the wreck and then back along the line till the 8 to 10 foot mark and ascend. We generally finish with 1000 to 1200 PSI in AL80's. We always treat as a virtual overhead and nothing but an emergency would convince me to be on the surface around the wreck. It is very silty and agree with the need to stay of the bottom. You also need to work on good trim (horizontal in the water, not swiming at an incline) and a frog kick will direct the water back, instead of down like a butterfly kick. I also find a good frog kick more efficient, meaning I move farther and or faster with less effort.

I've seen vis there anywhere from 2 feet to 30 foot plus. If you can see your buddy across the widest part of the paddlewheel, that's over 20 feet.