On June 28-29, 7 NEUE divers headed north to do a little camping and experience well preserved wooden shipwrecks as well as current-bathed, metal shipwrecks. Weather was great, lake calm and vis good.

Thanks to Jackie and Mark for contributing pictures.

Other than some rain this morning, diving's been amazing. Fran F, Gina W, Ralph C, Jackie K, Mark N, Leo L and myself were in Kingston on Northern Tech Diver's Spike Jr. today with Captain Vinnie on Lake Ontario. Hit the Katie Eccles, an intact schooner with a beautiful bow sprit... and amazing vis. Then the Cornwall, a side paddlewheeler. Fran keeps wanting to call it the Cornhole. Intact paddlewheels, boilers, undisturbed porholes, keel and the wreck itself is massive.

The Katie is a schooner that is off Picton and one of the father wrecks reasonable reached from Kingston. Although she is small (under 100ft long), she is a real wreck and no lives were lost in the sinking. The intact bow sprit is amazing, lots of other details too. Cold, 46deg water on the bottom at about 102ft but amazing visibility (60-80ft). Nice wooden wreck and wonderfully preserved for being on the bottom over 100 years. We are all together on the bottom, cruising around in our respective buddy teams. Vis was worse on deco as the water warmed near the surface. Thermoclines were as deep as 50-60ft.

This side paddlewheeler was a wrecker before be scuttled in the Kingston Ship Graveyard. It is very long with the outline of the hull splayed out and very visible, complete with intact portholes. The stern post, prow, mast steps, twin boilers and paddlewheels are the main attractions. One paddlewheel is upright while the other is tiled at 45deg. The bottom here is around 80ft and water tends to be a little warmer, in this case in the high 50s. Vis was slightly less, in the 30ft range, but was better when the sun poked through the clouds from time to time.

Then, while we were at the camp store getting some evening sodas, our Canadian camping neighbors took pity on the stupid-Americans' fire-incompetence. We returned to a nice big roaring campfire. (Dry, non-punky wood helps.) The Canadians’ said that the look on our faces as we rounded the corner returning to our campsite was worth it!
We enjoyed the fire for a little, then crashed early. Other than some 3am mosquito emergencies (is OFF a carcinogen?) and the wonder of clear, star-filled skies overhead while massive thunderstorms rage to the north and south.
Broke camp early in the AM to go diving. We left the Canadians the rest of our wood, piled nicely in their firepit.

This morning greeted us with brilliant sunshine. We rolled down the road a few miles to Caiger's Resort where Thousand Island Pleasure Diving departs for charters on the upper St. Lawrence - 1000 Islands Region. After a tasty sit-down breakfast at Caiger's, we loaded up on two of TIPD's 4 boats. Fran, Jackie, Leo and Mark had the six pack, Island Diver, all to themselves heading to the Keystorm and America with Capt Scott. Ralph, Gina and I took the well-outfitted River Diver to the Jodrey with Capt Rick.

The Jodrey is a 640' long freighter that sank in 1974 after hitting Pullman Shoal on Wellesley Island at the USCG station. Fog, booze and hookers don't mix... just ask the Jodrey's last Captain. She sank at the spot, her bow sliding down the shipping channel wall. The bow, with its forward wheelhouse starts at 135' and goes down to 240'. We were on the boat with Vlada and Tom Wilson (who's websites I used in the "Inspiration" portion of the trip planning thread). After a quick visit to Boldt Castle to go through customs (Jodrey is in US waters). Vlada and Tom dropped on the stern, which is just to east of the Coast Guard station docks, then we headed over to the bow, in the small bay to the west of the docks.

We splashed in and down the slope to about 50' where the channel wall begins to step down and dropped to 150' where we drifted into the wreck in about 4 minutes, screaming current today. We checked out the wheelhouse and the top of the superstructure. Good visability, about 40'+ and 64deg top to bottom with good ambient light on the wreck. (Great since Vlada and Tom said that they had 20' vis yesterday and some of the best vis in the last five years today.) Other than the very tip of the bow, which is smashed into the wall, the superstructure is rather intact although listing to starboard. Unfortunately, my camera didn't work at depth... note to self, service housing. When time was up, we threw the thumb and headed up the scar the bow created in the wall when it sank and worked our way back up-current towards the bay we started in. Zebra muscles are crunchy! Got a little pucker factor when a Laker went overhead while we were at our 80' stop... man can you feel it in your chest. Picked up Vlada and Tom at the stern and headed home, clearing Canadian customs by phone.

Gina... congrats on your first tech dive post-class! Amazing wreck to break in on!

Keystorm is a 300' ish long tanker that sank on a shoal on the US side. There were several unsuccessful attempts to raise her that can be evidenced by the lifting cables still wraped her. She lies up a shoal, with the bow and wheelhouse around 30-40' and the propeller at 115'. Big boat in whatever depth range you want.

The America was (I think - unless I'm screwing this up) is barge used to salvage other ships before it sunk in the channel itself. It's upside down with tons of stuff to look at.

The first dive was on the Keystorm. Mer has given a good job of describing it, so I'll just talk about our dives. Fran, Mark and I buddies up for a nice dive up and down the wreck. I hit a max depth of 81ffw. What a beautiful wreck. Even the zebra mussels couldn't hold back my excitement as I looked at this ship.

The second dive was on the America. I was a bit apprehensive because I was worried something would happen and we'd shutdown the shipping channel(this carries a 10000$ fine). Myself and Mark did a nice 33 minute dive with us swimming around the wreck. We found out later that the rocks piled up next to the wreck are actually the last things it blasted before the America blew up its own blasting caps(oops!). One thing we made sure to steer clear from was the bottom, because we were told that if you touch it, it never comes off your gear. It seems like the fish population is slowly restoring itself despite the zebra's damage.