I usually try to get up to Alexandria Bay, NY towards the end of the year to get a couple dives on the Jodrey once visibility improves. This weekend did not disappoint. Andrew (Blue Foot Diving) will usually keep his boat in the water until the end of December so it’s a good opportunity to dive the Jodrey with peak visibility.
I drove up Friday early morning and we got a dive in on the Islander in the late afternoon for a bit of a shakedown dive. The water temperature was 44f degrees and the visibility I would estimate was approximately 60-70′. We geared up around 3:45pm and got out of the water a little bit after dark. The air temperature was below freezing and every bolt snap on me froze. My drysuit zipper also froze closed. Why do I do this again? It was good to get a shakedown dive in. I actually had not been in the water in a couple weekends so I wanted to make sure my drysuit was dry and everything was working.
Oscar and Sebastien also joined on the shore dive. They had only ever dove Bonnie Castle before so I figured it would be good to show them another easy shore dive that you can do in Alexandria Bay. We stayed in the water about an hour.
We dove the Jodrey both Saturday and Sunday and met Andrew (Blue Foot Diving) in downtown Alexandria Bay near Uncle Sam’s Boat Tours since he had temporarily moved the boat. 
The visibility was great both days but unfortunately the dark overcast conditions and cloudy skies meant we did not have as much natural light on the wreck as I had hoped. I would say we had at least 60′ of visibility on the wreck and maybe even 70′ on the stern in some spots.
On Saturday unfortunately I just stayed on the bow because I had some minor equipment issues, more about that in a second. Since it was Oscar and Sebastien’s first time on the wreck I wanted to show them how to get to the intake pipe and down to the wreck. While it is pretty straight forward and we talked about it beforehand, it’s nice to have someone else show you the ropes the first time.
I had planned to scooter to the stern with Marc but when I got to the intake pipe was about the time I discovered that I did not have a working wing on my rebreather. It seems like what might have happened was I left the wing my car overnight, the water inside froze in 15-18 degree air temperatures and cracked the inflator mechanism. I know I jumped in with a working wing but by the time I had gotten to the intake pipe, the entire deflate button on my inflator assembly decided to have some sort of Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly (RUD) event. The wing would not hold any gas since the button was completely missing.
It’s never a good idea to start a dive with a known failure and I realize it’s honestly not the safest thing in the world. Luckily I had a drysuit, counterlung, and scooter that I could use for auxiliary buoyancy. I really wanted to make sure Oscar and Sebastien got down to the bow and settled so I opted to continue the dive and figured I could abort the dive shortly after that. I’m happy to report that, at least in this speific instance, Gareth Lock will not be including me in one of his incident reports or case studies in Human Factors in Diving. Don’t worry though I’m sure I do enough stupid shit that I’ll end up in there someday. 
Marc was already on the wreck when we got down; I met up with him after I got Oscar and Sebastien to the bow. I made the decision to just stay on the bow since I did not have a wing capable of holding gas. I showed Marc my none functioning wing and he just stayed with me rather than continuing to the stern.
It actually worked fine but I had way more gas in my counterlung and drysuit than I typically would like. So much for minimum loop volume and minimum drysuit gas. Again, not something I recommend although that much gas in my drysuit definitely kept my warmer. Marc on the other hand was not so lucky. His neck seal had a small tear so he got a bit of water down his neck. It was not ideal. He came out of the water pretty cold and wet. It was a good thing we only did 90 minutes.
Other than a none working wing, the dive went very well. Conditions were excellent. I had an extra inflator assembly so I just replaced that overnight and Marc was able to swap out his neck seal since it was a zipseal. Oscar and Sebastien needed open circuit trimix fills so we dropped tanks off at All About Scuba 1000 Islands and then went to the Dockside Pub for burger and beers.
On Sunday, Marc and I went to the stern. My wing was working great and his drysuit was bone dry. Marc showed me the entry to the engine room and I spent a little time in there. It is definitely very silty. Not going to lie I was a little sloppy and made a little bit of a mess on the way out. I should have taken my 50% bottle off but I opted to leave everything on. The next time I do the engine room I will definitely take my 50% bottle off. I’d like to go a little further next time and spend a bit more time in there but for my first time in the engine room it was enough for me. Marc waited outside. For me the goal here was to see the entrance to the engine room and make sure I understood the hazards and entry. I did not bother taking any GoPro footage since I left it attached to the scooter.
We then did our usual scooter around the props and then headed back to the bow. Our total dive time was around 121 minutes. To be honest 2 hours is about the most I really want to do in 43 degree water temperatures. I can and have done longer but my comfort level goes down significantly after the 2 hour mark, even with the heated vest running on high.
To be fair – I could also have probably put another thicker base layer on but then I feel a bit like the Michelin man. I’ll take increased flexibility over comfort if I can. The 3 layers of socks works excellent in these temperatures. I use a really thin Merino Wool Liner, followed by another thick merino wool sock and finally Fourth Element Hot Foot socks. If you can fit all those layers in your boots it definitely helps. Also, add to the fact that we were scootering and not swimming. That definitely makes you colder.
Overall it was an excellent weekend of diving. I look forward to getting back up here in the spring and checking out the engine room again now that I know the entry and access point.
