George Bouloukos

Peacock Springs Cave Diving

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Peacock Springs is a Florida State Park has two major springs, a spring run, and six sinkholes – all in near pristine condition. The springs and sinkholes are openings into the limestone karst and lead to one of the longest underwater cave systems in the continental United States. Approximately 28,000 feet of underwater passages have been explored and surveyed by cave divers. As of June 13, 2008, the Peacock cave system was the 24th longest underwater cave in the world.

The Peacock Springs Cave system was first explored by Vasco Murray in 1956. The first map of the system was completed by a group from the NSS lead by Sheck Exley, in 1995. Exley’s team made over 521 dives to complete the survey. The system was resurveyed in 1996 by a team led by Michael Poucher.

We started our dive from Orange Grove sink, which is generally covered in Duckweed and algae blooms, so the visibility there can vary. There is a large cavern starts that at about 40 feet and extends down to 110 feet. From there, we proceeded along the mainline towards Challenge and Olsen sink, where we turned the dive and proceeded to return to Orange Grove sink.

Maria Bahn

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The Mari Bahn, or the “Wind Jammer” wreck sank December 7, 1912.  She was a three masted iron bark, built in 1874 by Barclay, Curle and Company, Glasgow, Scotland.   The Maria Bahn was schooner rigged on the mizzen mast, fore and aft, and square rigged on the others.  She was 239 feet long, had a 37 foot beam, and weighed 1,378 gross tons.  At the time of her demise, she was sailing from Trinidad to Marseille with a cargo of asphalt.

The Maria Bahn now rests in 200 feet of water off the northwest coast of Bonaire, just off the oil terminal. The masts rest shallow on the reef in 35 feet of water, pointing the way towards her deeper hull.  The Maria Bahn lies on her starboard side with the top of her port side in 160 feet. Her main mast and crows nest extend beyond 200 feet.

Fellow GUE instructor Benji Schwab took care of the logistics for this dive, arranging permits for the site and having all the gases we needed ready to go.  Caribbean Gas Training, is the only DIR/GUE training and technical diving logistics center on Bonaire and in the entire southern Caribbean.

The Maria Bahn was one of the highlights of our trip to Bonaire, one of the worlds last diving paradises.

Cuttlefish

Bonaire 2009

Photos from our recent trip to Bonaire, September 2009

Hawksbill Turtle, Bonaire NA

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Lake Ontario Wreck Diving

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GUE DPV1

The user of a Scooter or DPV brings three main benefits to our diving – increased speed, improved manoeuvrability and lower gas consumption. DPVs add another dimension to our diving and potentially allows us to to do dives that we would not normally be able to do allowing us to,

• Cover a larger area in a dive, potentially seeing multiple sites
• Travel further on a shore dive, extending a previous dive site
• Simply enjoy the fun of the DPV, doing loops, barrel rolls etc.

The DPV1 course has been designed for students that have no prior experience with a DPV – perfect for anyone looking to learn a bit more about this fun tool! The course is designed to introduce divers to the use of underwater propulsion vehicles and covers:

• Set-up and Maintenance of a DPV
• Buoyancy and Trim
• Basic travel
• Turning
• Emergency stops
• Valve drills and S-Drills with the DPV
• Surface Marker use
• Emergency/Contingency measures
• Gas & DPV Power planning and management

The DPV1 course has been designed for students that have no prior experience with a DPV – perfect for anyone looking to learn about the benefits and potential hazards of this fun tool! For divers that have a reasonable amount of experience using a DPV and already have the basic skills in place, the course is a great refresher, with the dive planning aspects potentially being particularly useful.

The course is run over three days and any tow-behind DPV can be used including the following:

• Gavin
• X-Scooter
• Silent Submersion
• Zuexo

You can read more about the course in the GUE DPV1 Course Standards or contact me for further information and course scheduling. DPV1 is a great course and a lot of fun!

Hawksbill Turtle @ Osprey Reef

A Hawksbill Turtle was feeding on algae at Osprey Reef

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Great Barrier Reef & Coral Sea

Photos from our recent Undersea Explorer trip to the Great Barrier Reef, Coral Sea, Osprey Reef December 2008 – January 2009

Roy A Jodrey

Over the Labor Day weekend, 8 NEUE divers headed north to do a little diving and experience well preserved wooden shipwrecks as well as current-bathed, metal shipwrecks in Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River. This is a little video from the technical divers that did two dives on the wreck of the Roy A Jodrey.

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The Jodrey was a Great Lakes Freighter,640′ in length and 72′ wide. The keel was laid on February 11 1965 and she was launched on September 9 of the same year. Like other freighters at that time, the Jodrey is divided into three major sections. The bow where the navigation, steering and propulstion were control from the forward pilothouse. The sterm housed the four diesel engines, generators, pumps, machine shop etc. and took it’s commands from the bow. The mid-body of the ship comprised the cargo hold and the un-loading tunnels, conveyors and elevators.

On November 20th 1974 the Jodrey was headed for the Great Lakes Steel plant in Deetriot MI with a cargo of iron ore pellets. As the ship approached Pullman Shoal on the St Lawrence River, the ship ground herself, 800 yards off the coast guard station on Wellesley Island. The Captain had tried to beach his vessel and with the assistance of the Coast Guard, all 29 members of the crew were safe.

Over the next few hours, the ship began to settle deeper in the water indicating that the pumps could not keep up with the inflow. In a little under five hours after striking the shoal, the Jodrey slipped from the shore and sank into the river.

The wall that she sits below today below drops off almost vertically from 5 feet to over 230. Decending onto the wreck, the first thing that comes to into view is the ships mast (135′), bow railing, and wheel house (150′). As you descend, you reach the main deck between 180 feet and 200 feet. The bow of the Jodrey sits on a 40 to 45 degree list on its starboard side.

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