George Bouloukos

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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Coyote

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Munson

The Munson was a Steam Dredge that sank while under tow in April 1890.

The barge is an interesting and unique dive, with the steam shovel and two levels providing plenty of opportunity to explore. She is sitting upright in approx. 110′ of water.

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Baleen

The Baleen was towing a barge in 1975 when a fire broke out on board . She was built in 1923 in Wisconsin, and was a steel-hulled ship 102 ft. in length with a 23 ft. beam. There were no fatalities associated with the sinking.

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Today the Baleen rests sitting upright, listing slightly starboard in 170 FSW, with the top of the deckhouse at approximately 150 FSW.

We had great conditions on the wreck, and it is a quintessential New England shipwreck, covered in brightly colored anemones.

Wolffish!

A number of NEUE divers making the trip out to the Chester Poling recent weeks have spotted the resident Atlantic Wolffish in the sand under the break of the wreck.

For those of you unluck enough to have enjoyed the superb conditions, I was lucky enough to get some footage of this fish on our dive this past Sunday.The Woflfish has a large head with a blunt snout and a set of canine teeth. Their body tapers behind the head, with a long dorsal  fin. They are a grey to slate blue color and grow up to 5′ in length !

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For those not familiar with the Wolffish, they are often found in cracks and crevices so next time you’re out diving be sure to poke your light in some of those dark holes, you’ll never know what you might find !

NEUE U853 Weekend

I recently spent and enjoyable and exciting diving the wreck of the U-853. We had great weather and, a great group out diving with Wayne Gordon on the Canned Air. This was my first time on the wreck and an excellent dive. We had up to three teams in the water conducting video doucmentation, survey and debris field search.

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Thanks to Ralph Correia for putting this weekend together, and Fran for giving up his Saturday to come out and hump gear. Everything ran really smoothly, thanks to the solid preparation and the team working to making light work of the surface support.

You can read more reports of the diving and check out some pictures here, NEUE U-853 Reports