Thousand Islands, staying on Wellesley Island beginning of August

[acarter92]

Hi Guys,

The beginning of August (10th-17th) I'm coming north from PA with my girlfriend's family, we are staying on Lake of the Isles which is on Wellesley Island . I'm towing my 19ft Center Console along, my girlfriend and I plan to do as much diving as the weather permits...

I've just started to skim the surface of the information that is available, but I though I'd get a head start and seek for some local knowledge.

So what are some easy sites? We'll be going by boat from the house but don't really mind how far we have to travel as it'll all be sightseeing. Do any of these sites have mooring buoys above them, or will I have to find them with the sonar? Not planning on doing anything to crazy (no more than 60-70ft) and would like to stay out of the shipping channels and away from the worst of the current...

So far I've found the islander, which seems like a good introductory dive to get acquainted to the area!

Also, how are the conditions on the river? Like I said, I'm just starting my info search but so far I've read 30-40ft is not uncommon? And what are the currents like?

Thanks is advance,
Austin

 

[manni-yunk]

Hi Guys,

The beginning of August (10th-17th) I'm coming north from PA with my girlfriend's family, we are staying on Lake of the Isles which is on Wellesley Island . I'm towing my 19ft Center Console along, my girlfriend and I plan to do as much diving as the weather permits...

I've just started to skim the surface of the information that is available, but I though I'd get a head start and seek for some local knowledge.

So what are some easy sites? We'll be going by boat from the house but don't really mind how far we have to travel as it'll all be sightseeing. Do any of these sites have mooring buoys above them, or will I have to find them with the sonar? Not planning on doing anything to crazy (no more than 60-70ft) and would like to stay out of the shipping channels and away from the worst of the current...

So far I've found the islander, which seems like a good introductory dive to get acquainted to the area!

Also, how are the conditions on the river? Like I said, I'm just starting my info search but so far I've read 30-40ft is not uncommon? And what are the currents like?

Thanks is advance,
Austin

Just got back from there.

On the US side, the Vickery, Maggie L, Keystorm, and America all have morings and are very easy to find. I rented a boat with no GPS (but I have navionics app on my phone) and no depth finder.....and we had no problem finding wrecks.



Islander is a beach dive - and easy to find (LOL)

The wrecks in the channel mostly have a moring line OUTSIDE of the channel and a guideline to follow down to the moring, then into the channel and down to the wreck, making it easy to navigate up and down.

Current is there - almost everywhere in some regards - some worse than others. Vickery has some, Keystorm has some - Maggie L is pretty benign and not much current. America can have some - not to bad though.

 

[acarter92]

Thank You, Very helpful!

 

[rjk75]

The Islander is the fifth one down; you can find some others that may be of interest, too.

ScubaQ » Ontario Shore Dive

 

[acarter92]

Do any Dive Shops have a boat accessable fill station? It would be great not to have to carry the tanks from the dock to the truck and then drive to get them filled every day... It would be awesome if we could just stop and get them filled with the boat after the dives, it would save a lot of time, hassle, and fuel. Heck, I don't even mind carrying them a few hundred feet from boat to fill station.

I called Hunt's Dive Shop, but they said that their Islander fill station has no water access...which surprised me after looking on google earth at all the docks around it.

Thanks,
Austin

 

[manni-yunk]

Do any Dive Shops have a boat accessable fill station? It would be great not to have to carry the tanks from the dock to the truck and then drive to get them filled every day... It would be awesome if we could just stop and get them filled with the boat after the dives, it would save a lot of time, hassle, and fuel. Heck, I don't even mind carrying them a few hundred feet from boat to fill station.

I called Hunt's Dive Shop, but they said that their Islander fill station has no water access...which surprised me after looking on google earth at all the docks around it.

Thanks,
Austin

Their islander fill station has docks at the restaraunt around the corner, but it would be a hike to carry your tanks there.


French Creek Marina has a fill station with water access - but there is a very low bridge to go under to get in there. I made it in but I had to lower a bimini top. They open to fill tanks at 8am and stay open all day. Large, fast IR compressor that is 15CFM with the biggest bank bottles you will ever see - old submarine ballast tanks that hold over 20,000 Cu Ft or air. He charged us 5/tank or 10 for a set of doubles and he has the ability to fill to high pressure (3500).

 

[acarter92]

Thanks again!

 

[rhwestfall]

If you are new to boating the St. Lawrence Seaway, I strongly suggest having charts as a minimum. It is quite amazing to be running along with the depth-finder showing "no bottom", and 10 yards to the left, there is a shoal 2" under the water...... Everything is rock, and unforgiving.

As to dive sites, stop in town (Alexandria Bay), and pick up one of the publications that have been compiled by the local divers (there is an art studio at the north end of the strip on the east side that sells them - Store's name is "Treasure Island") - its a "magazine format". The one I have is titled "Dive The Thousand Islands", by Dennis & Kathi McCarthy and Skip Couch from 2012 (they have a few in publication). Well worth the money, and supports the local community.

From where you are, the A.E. Vickery (in the narrows of the Grass Island Light), the Keystorm and the America are some good ones. The last two will be a good run though. If you have someone to watch the boat, drifts are fun, sometimes resulting in finding old bottles, anchors, etc.

Have fun. Its a magical place. I'm there next week on an annual trip after a weekend in Tobermory.

 

[Atom]

The Canadian side may be worth a few trips, lots of wrecks in the river... Here a site with some maps/info...

http://www.neptune-scuba.info/ca/on-en.html

 

[acarter92]

If you are new to boating the St. Lawrence Seaway, I strongly suggest having charts as a minimum. It is quite amazing to be running along with the depth-finder showing "no bottom", and 10 yards to the left, there is a shoal 2" under the water...... Everything is rock, and unforgiving.

As to dive sites, stop in town (Alexandria Bay), and pick up one of the publications that have been compiled by the local divers (there is an art studio at the north end of the strip on the east side that sells them - Store's name is "Treasure Island") - its a "magazine format". The one I have is titled "Dive The Thousand Islands", by Dennis & Kathi McCarthy and Skip Couch from 2012 (they have a few in publication). Well worth the money, and supports the local community.

From where you are, the A.E. Vickery (in the narrows of the Grass Island Light), the Keystorm and the America are some good ones. The last two will be a good run though. If you have someone to watch the boat, drifts are fun, sometimes resulting in finding old bottles, anchors, etc.

Have fun. Its a magical place. I'm there next week on an annual trip after a weekend in Tobermory.

Thanks,

I've never boated (or been to) the thousands islands before... I do have a gps on the boat with charts along with the fishfinder, wouldn't go boating without it. I've been to Maine boating a few trips on lakes and on the coast which should be similar as far as rocks and ledges, it is a whole different world than NJ and MD. Before I go I'll have all the waypoints and routes uploaded for the wrecks.

I'll definately check out the "Treasure Island" when we make it up there. My girlfriend and I have decided to go up 2 days early (before her family rents the house) and are camping at Wellesley Island State Park for 2 nights before we move over to the house... We'll be there form 8/8-8/17 now, should be fun!

So far on the list I have the following: not done yet, but these are what I've gathered info on so far and decided were within our abilities.
Keystorm- really not that far for us considering we will be coming out on the east side of Wellesley island anyways to get into the river (from the lake)
American
Islander- of course we'll be shore diving this one, probably be our first dive up there the day we arive...
Maggie L

I'm still doing some research on the Vickery, but may be doing that also depending on how everything goes...

We will hopefully have sombody on the boat most of the time and definately for the more challenging dives (one of her family members), they are able to pull anchor and drive the boat (and work the radio) however I'm not confident enough in their abilities to do a drift dive.

Atom, Thanks for the link, lots of great info there!

Austin