Fort Mississauga Dive Number 120

Sunday, September 30 – 2007
13:15 – 15:20
Dive Number 120
Start: 13:00
Roads: Dry / clear
Visibility: 24km
Temp: +23C
Water Temp: +19C
Area: Niagara Region
Vehicle: Black Sunfire
Weather: Clear and Sunny
Visibility: 3m
Divers: Wolf, Chuck
Dive Wench(es): None!
Maximum Depth: 2m
Plan: Explore the Fort Mississauga Area

Chuck and I kitted up at the parking lot near Ft. Mississauga and made our way down to the beach and into the water which was crystal clear and smooth as glass. We swam out eastbound towards the fort at the mouth of the Niagara River and past the golf course. The bottom was mostly sand with large patches of algae all over it. Some of the algae conformed to the lines of the sand bars. It was a long dive and I found a large metal disc attached to a pipe. Chuck observed what may have been an old cannon ball about the size of a baseball, which he left in the pile of rocks where he observed it.

We swarm around the fort and there wasn't much to see really.

I used the hot-pink 12L aluminum Tank of Tori's as well as my Sherwood 1st stage and Suunto Lux dive computer and aga mask, seaQuest diamond BCD and Tusa Liberator fins. The visibility was not bad at 3m with a maximum depth of only 2m. After the dive we had to use chucks car to help out two blokes in kilts from Ohio as their green Ford car had a dead battery. After we visited Tori who was at work in the government offices, we went to the Cheese Shop in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Welland Canal Dive Number 117

Sunday, September 23 – 2007
13:00 – 13:30
Dive Number 117
Start: 13:00
Roads: Dry / clear
Visibility: 24km
Temp: +25C
Water Temp: +20C
Area: Welland Canal – Port Robinson
Vehicle: Black Sunfire
Weather: Clear and Sunny
Visibility: ½ m
Divers: Wolf, Chuck
Dive Wench(es): Tori
Maximum Depth: 6m
Plan: Try exploring this location again

We parked Chucks car by E.S. Fox in Port Robinson and the large boat ramp. This is the second attempt at diving this location. We kitted up and entered the canal. Bisibility near the shore was very good. As we descended to 6m, the visibility dropped to less than ½ metre. There was a bad algae plume here and we decided to abort the dive again. Perhaps when the water is very cold later in the year we can try again. My aga mask still has the small leak in the forehead.

Old Welland Canal Dive Number 118

Sunday, September 23 – 2007
13:45 – 14:20
Dive Number 118
Start: 13:45
Roads: Dry / clear
Visibility: 24km
Temp: +28C
Water Temp: +20C
Area: Old Welland Canal (Hwy 58 and Canal Bank Road)
Vehicle: Black Sunfire
Weather: Clear and Sunny
Visibility: 4m
Divers: Wolf, Chuck
Dive Wench(es): Tori
Maximum Depth: 10m
Plan: Explore the Boat Ramp area

We arrived at the boat ramp and kitted up and did I did a giant stride entry and waited in 2m of water for for a few mins until Chuck entered the water and we started our dive and descended to 10m. There wasn't much to see at first, and then the float got caught up in some kind of steel line drawn across the canal which may have been put there for the regattas which go on here from time to time. Chuck freed the float and we continued. We found a few bottles to smash and even Chuck got into the action for a change! We saw lots of discarded rope and flooded marker buoys.

At one point we found a very nice condition dirt-bike tyre lying on it's side on the bottom. I tipped it up, filled it with air and watched it rush up to the surface. We swam away fast so it didn't come back and knock us on the noggin. It was very funny and we both laughed watching the tyre rush to the surface.

Eventually I ran out of air and we surfaced and swam back to the dock. I came out with only 12L in my blue steel tank and my aga mask. This high air useage could be from the seal problem in my aga mask.

Tiller Shipwreck Dive 116

Saturday, September 22 – 2007
09:30 – 10:00
Dive Number 116
Start: 08:30
Roads: Dry / clear
Visibility: 24km
Temp: +25C
Water Temp: +8C
Area: Tiller Wreck, Lake Ontario
Vehicle: Black Sunfire
Weather: Clear and Sunny
Visibility: 7m
Divers: Wolf, Chuck, Dave, Bruce
Dive Wench(es): None
Maximum Depth: 24m
Plan: See the Tiller Wreck Again

Chuck and I arrived at the Beacon Harbourside marine and took a small dive charter boat called "Bottom Time" out to the Tiller Wreck and kitted up. I decided to leave my shoes at the dock so it was one less thing to loose. This left me barefoot for the entire trip. We did a backwards rear-entry into the water then down the buoy line down to 24m where we saw the wreck loom into view. We started on the port side where we could see the large tiller sticking up out of the silt. The wreck was encrusted in zebra muscles. Visibility was amasing but we froze as it was very, very cold at this depth.

It was a great dive, although only 30 mins long due to the great depth.

I met someone on the boat who will send me some photos of the dive.

Bridge Of DEATH (Dive 114)

Monday, September 16 – 2007
16:00 – 18:00
Dive Number 114
Start: 11:00
Roads: Dry / clear
Visibility: 24km
Temp: +08C
Water Temp: +10C
Area: Bridge Of Death, Welland, Ontario
Vehicle: Black Sunfire
Weather: Clear and Sunny
Visibility: 1m
Divers: Wolf, Chuck
Dive Wench(es): Tori, Lise
Maximum Depth: 4m
Plan: Not die

Locals say that the bridge on Niagara Street and River Bank road is rarely fished and never swam in. There are rumors of bad undertows as well.

We arrived at an old unused restaurant and kitted up and found a nice enter point down a bit of a slope and into the water along what may have been an old dock or wharf. There was a lot of debris and garbage. We swam around and got a maximum depth of 4m with very low visibility. There appeared to be a slight current here but the silt stirred up very, very easy. We swam towards the bridge and then along side it then up the other side. Nothing of real value or interest was found at this site however that could be due to the low visibility. Chuck did find a trailer license plate C10-49J (Ontario) still with the mounting hardware on it. We removed our gear and headed home. Lise and Tori were our dive wenches.

Found Musket Balls! (Dive 113)

Monday, September 03 – 2007
16:00 – 18:00
Dive Number 113
Start: 16:00
Roads: Dry / clear
Visibility: 24km
Temp: +22C
Water Temp: +17C
Area: Fort Mississauga, Ontario
Vehicle: Niva, Black Sunfire
Weather: Clear and Sunny
Visibility: 6m
Divers: Wolf, Chuck
Dive Wench(es): Tori, Brian
Maximum Depth: 4m
Plan: Exploration

We kitted up at the monument by For Mississauga and descended onto the beach then into the water to conduct our final preparations and headed North East in the lake towards the mouth of the river. There were a lot of rocks, aquatic moss and tons of goby fish.

We saw a large bass that was very territorial and followed us at a distance.

As we explored we saw quite a few musket balls and even a rifled musket slug from the war between Canada and the United states in 1812. Unfortunately this site is protected under the Marine Heritage act Section 27, Subsections 48(2) and we could not legally take possession of the musket balls and had to leave them on the bottom – It is a summary conviction offense.

We were out about 1km from shore and reached a depth of a whipping 4 metres. We used up just over ½ a tank of air and then headed back to shore. To head home.

When we arrived home Brian said he had to leave early because his cat had gone over 2hrs without food and would start acting crazy. Shortly after he headed out he called us because he had lost his house keys. We returned to the dive site and grid-searched the area to reveal negative results. We returned to our house to grab some tools to break into Brian's house, and discovered his house keys were laying on the driveway. This quickly diffused the stressful situation.

Found Sunken Pick-up Truck! (Dive 112)

Sunday, September 02 – 2007
11:00 – 13:50
Dive Number 112
Start: 11:00
Roads: Dry / clear
Visibility: 24km
Temp: +28C
Water Temp: +16C
Area: Chippawa, Ontario
Vehicle: Niva, Black Sunfire
Weather: Clear and Sunny
Visibility: 6m
Divers: Wolf, Chuck
Dive Wench(es): Tori
Maximum Depth: 12m
Plan: Bottle Dive

We kitted up at the boat ramp and there were only a few boats in the area. As soon as we descended off the end of the boat ramp we discovered a red single cap Dodge Dakota pickup truck with Ontario Plates 608-8AG with a valtag expiry of January 2008!

We surfaced to tell Tori to call the police. The rear plate was very loose and Chuck removed it to bring it up for Tori to call the Police.

After Tori had called the Police we decided to head back out for the dive. We packed the license plate into the dive float to turn it into the police later. Chuck had a problem with Brian's aga mask leaking again and had to go out and change to his normal regulator set.

While he did that I went back to the truck and wrote my name on the bonnet with a dive flag underneath. I started to hear someones regulator breathing and thought "that was fast" and looked over to see two other divers! They were just finishing up their drift dive and getting ready to exit. I wrote Chuck's name on the passenger door with a dive flag as well. The other divers wrote "Wash Me" on the other side of the bonnet of the truck. I surfaced again to find a supervisor in a 'ute had arrived and was talking to Chuck and Tori about the truck, then we descended and started our dive.

As soon as we got to the bottom we saw lots of mailboxes, tons of bottles as this site was once a bottle factory, even pieces of wood, etc. At one point I got separated from Chuck who was experiencing some difficulties when his dive float somehow got filled with water and joined him on the bottom of the river. His float line got caught on a rock and he had to go and free the rock, at the same time seriously binding himself up in the float rope.

I surfaced, being unable to find Chuck and felt somewhat distressed at the fact that I could not see Chuck *or* the dive float for a while!

Eventually I saw Chuck surface and he blew his whistle to let me know he was all right. We joined up to exchange stories and laugh very hard at what happened. We drifted out to our exit point with about 100 bar in my tank. Chuck exited the water and I stayed to burn off the last little bit of air in my tank. I followed the bridge pylons out into the 9m deep water and saw all kinds of debris. Old road marker cones, boat bumpers, computers, televisions and other discarded equipment.

We went to a local Tim Hortons coffee shop afterward and laughed hard about all the adventure. Chuck then turned in the license plate from the pickup truck to the local Niagara Regional Police station on his way home.

Searching For Shipwreck (Dive 111)

Saturday, September 01 – 2007
12:30 – 13:30
Dive Number 111
Start: 12:30
Roads: Dry / clear
Visibility: 24km
Temp: +20C
Water Temp: +18C
Area: Port Colborne, Ontario
Vehicle: Niva, Black Sunfire
Weather: Clear and Sunny
Visibility: 4m
Divers: Wolf, Chuck
Dive Wench(es): Christine, Tori
Maximum Depth: 2m
Plan: Find Shipwreck

A few years back a diver I know by the name of Joe ADAMS told me about a shipwreck. He said go into Port Colborne and follow Lakeshore road Westbound all the way to the end, then turn left on Golf Course Road - follow that road to the end and you will come to a beach In there is a shipwreck still with its cargo of pig iron sitting on the bottom. We followed the directions and arrived at the beach. We kitted up and went out onto the smelly old beach and found nothing but rocks. The depth was very, very shallow. No shipwreck was found. I ripped out the wrist seal on my dry suit taking it off. Catastophic post-dive drysuit failure.