Sand Dog XI, St. Lawrence River, July 2014

[Ron]

I hope you feel better Joe

[JES]

I hope you feel better Joe

Thank you Ron. I'll be sure to reach out to you (as soon as I'm cleared) so that we can do some diving with our Argonaut Krakens.

[rhwestfall]

63 degrees at 120' on the A. E. Vickery on 7/10 with the vis in excess of 30'. My first dive with my Kraken was an absolute joy on the Islander on 7/8....

[1969ivan1]

63 degrees, YIKES. I hope it warms up a lot in the next few days.

Barb and I are loading the Scuba Buggy. Anybody that wants to save on shipping should speak up and PAYPAL ASAP. I already have your items loaded Allan. So if you want a shirt or hoses or whatever speak now.

Email me what you need and Barb and I can't wait to see you all. Allan really knows the area and it will be one of the coolest wreck diving adventures ever. I promise.

[frogman63]

Where and at what time will we be meeting on Friday morning?
Are there plans to meet for breakfast?

Brian

[simonbeans]

We will meet at Otter Creek Motel which will be our base. We can go to breakfast before we go to the Islander. I will give you my cell number via PM.

[jbrians]

we dive the wrecks on your list all the time. This yr the current is much quicker than normal because of the high water levels in the lakes. We had current too strong to swim against 3 weeks ago which also meant it was too much effort to try to take video/pics.
The Lillie P is a great dive! At the stern of the boat it's possible to get up and into the wreck which is very spacious. The current is manageable here. The cargo was coal and inside, when you swim over the top of it, you can head down river into the bow section. It is tight in places so be confident in your own abilities/equipment. on the channel side (left) half way down the wreck one of the masts points off in the direction of the bottom. It is a long ways down! The crow's nest is an interesting sight but I don't think it's doable this yr.
The water temps have warmed up a bit. You can expect to see mid 70's

[BigMike]

I'm leaving in the morning for Ontario and will be driving from there to Alexandria Bay early Friday morning. If some of the group are meeting for breakfast, could you let me know when and where so I can join you? Looking forward to not being the "new guy" this year. Mike

[Bryan]

The adventure begins!

[rhwestfall]

darn... missing you guys by a couple days. Looks like I am back up there 7/22 & 7/23... Forecast looks awesome. Have fun!

[ivan's mermaid]

Thanx, thanx, and thanx to Allan for sharing the beautiful 1000 Islands with us for Sand Dog XI I had a great time. We had great weather and in a five mil with a core warmer, gloves, hood, I was never cold. I'll be sharing some photos shortly. It was great to see everyone who made it and to meet a couple of new friends.

[frogman63]

I also have to say thanks to Allen for everything he did (including the tour of Davey Jones' locker). Both the weather and the diving were perfect. Also a thanks to Rob for the special T shirt delivery and Mike my dive buddy; your white doubles where easy to track when we were on those larger wrecks. It was very cool to see Pete and his dad (Barry) diving together. Last but not least, my wife was able to pick up something from the Thousand Island Winery; very tasty.
Brian

[1969ivan1]

Some of the best Sand Dogs have been planned out and organized by Allan. This was no exception. The extra bonus day in Canada was the deal. We where crowded on a boat for 22 divers out of Rockport Ontario. There was only 4 of us divers on the giant boat . We dived 3 different wrecks of significant age and depth. The current was brisk and challenging, but the wrecks made the challenge all the more rewarding. Day two of SD we dived the ISlader wreck which sank back in 1905 at the Alex Bay dock and the Vickary wreck at a max depth of 125 feet. This is by far my favorite wreck in the 1000 islands. The Kraken dived it without a hitch. The Vickary looks like a Spanish Galleon and is upright and covered with large sheepshead and other fishes. You can even swim inside the wreck and the anchor chain is still on the deck after all these years! On Saturday we dived a giant tanker shipwreck called the Keystorm. It is giant and on its side making for some great photo ops. Just a hour surface interval later we motored over to the shore of the Singer Castle tot he wreck of the America, a really large upside down barge. Penetration of the America is easy and once inside can be rather well explored and the diver is rewarded with giant catfish and walleye. We finished up the day with another trip to the Vickary. Nobody got tired of diving this wreck Sunday was a short day with a final trip to the vickary where Bryan was almost attacked by an eel. Thanks to his cat like reflexes he was able to catch the eel and send it on it's way without hurting it, no foolin'.
I am leaving out a lot of neat stuff, but it is safe to say that a great time was had by all.
A special thanks to Capt Pete and Capt Allan for taking us out and returning us back to land safely every time we went out. Also a special thanks to VDH for some awesome Argonauts seen on almost all of the dives. Those red hoses really pop on the water and get other divers asking a lot of questions. The Otter Creek Motel was also really well run and super clean and with having the boat slip right there at the motel loading the dive gear was a snap.
All my dives with exception of the shallow Islander wreck dives was done with my prototype Kraken. It performed without a hitch as it had in Cozumel and other places. I want to retire this regulator as it is very rare and I do not wish to loose or otherwise damage it, but demand is so strong I can't even get another one from VDH right now. I am way down on the list behind a lot of other folks!

[scubapeter]

+1 to what Rob said!!! I had such a good time at my first Sand Dog! Thanks to all...

[ivan's mermaid]

Thanx again to Cap'n Allan

Capn Allan2.jpg

Also to Cap'n Pete

Capn Pete2.jpg