Weekend of diving in Picton, Ontario

Not even a week after returning from Malta I find myself on yet another dive trip to Canada. This weekend the destination is Picton, Ontario. It’s about an hour past Kingston, Ontario which is about an hour away from Alexandria Bay, New York on the St Lawrence River.

I actually stopped in Kingston, Ontario on the way for dinner to visit some Canadian friends at the Kingston Brewing Company. Some of the same Canadian friends I was just diving with last week in Malta. They can’t seem to get rid of me!

Ironically (or not really ironic at all) the drive takes me through Alexandria Bay, New York. A drive that I have begun to know exceedingly well over the years. The total drive is about 8 hours and 15 minutes from my house in Salem, Massachusetts. Probably not the best drive for a weekend of diving but it’s better than staying home and doing absolutely nothing. It’s also a really good excuse to de-salt my dive gear from the Mediterranean Sea (Malta).

A few friends found an AirBNB that was about 15 minutes from the marina in Waupoos, Ontario. Our plan was to dive the Petrie (Petre?) wrecks off Point Traverse / Picton, Ontario. These are a couple small schooners in about the 165-175ft range in Lake Ontario. I have never been on them before but my Canadian friends dive them frequently.

We used Dive Brockville Adventure Centre & Abucs Scuba Charters. Helen basically has a fleet dive boats on the St Lawrence, mostly out of Brockville and Rockport however, The AMG, one of her other dive vessels is located in Waupoos Marina on Lake Ontario. This used to be one of Wayne Green’s boats when he ran Thousand Islands Pleasure Diving. It was actually the dive boat I used the first time that I ever dove the Roy A. Jodrey so it was a surprise to see this boat again. It’s really well setup for diving with two ladders and nice wide dive benches and a top-side deck with additional seating.

The weather was awesome on Saturday. It started off a bit foggy and brisk but the fog quickly burned off as the sun came up and the air temperature improved. Lake Ontario was relatively flat and calm which is quite unusual for mid-October. We decided to dive the Petrie 2 which is more intact than the Petrie 1. For some context, the Petrie 2 is believed to be the schooner Blanche but I’m not 100% sure that it’s identity has been confirmed. Other than that I don’t think that much is known about these wrecks. DAN has a nice article about them from Stu Sheldon called the Mystery Wreck of Prince Edward County h(ttps://dan.org/alert-diver/article/mystery-wreck-of-prince-edward-county/

It’s a really nice schooner sitting in about 170-715 (53m) with masts still standing. The bow, stern and cabin are all fully intact. I took a little video but all six divers crowding around a small schooner definitely kicked up a fair bit of silt and backscatter. Still I thought the visibility was really good. I’d really like to get back out here in the early spring when visibility is better with my big camera.

We were originally going to do something in the recreational depth range for a second dive however given that everyone on the boat was on a rebreather and the weather was cooperating we opted to dive a sidewheel paddle steamer called the Ocean Wave. My friend Tim graciously shared these coordinates with me because he knew we were going to be diving in the area.

Here is some history about the Ocean Wave from Corey from shotlinediving.com

The Ocean Wave was a sidewheel paddle steamer built for transporting wood, passengers, and package freight across Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. The sidewheel design was typical for steamers of the period, providing the vessel with the ability to navigate both lake and river routes.
She was constructed in Montreal in 1852 by the skilled shipbuilder E.D. Merritt. Initially intended for lake navigation, there were also ambitions to use the vessel for routes between Montreal and Quebec.

In 1853, less than six months into its service, the Ocean Wave was involved in a tragic incident that would end its short career. On April 30, 1853, while navigating near Kingston, Ontario, the ship caught fire. Despite the efforts of Captain Kuyer, who was instrumental in saving lives, the fire resulted in the total loss of the vessel.

Out of the passengers and crew aboard, 13 survived, while the number of casualties ranged from 23 to 28, depending on different reports. The incident was a significant loss not only in terms of lives but also in the economic context of the time, as the ship was part of a broader strategy to enhance trade routes between the Great Lakes and New England.

Source:
https://www.shotlinediving.com/docs/lake_ontario/kingston/ocean-wave-c19197/

Today the wreck lies at a depth of 150 feet (45 meters) near Main Duck Island in Lake Ontario. The Ocean Wave is a pretty cool wreck. Even though it’s turtled (upside down) I still found it very interesting especially with the remains of the paddlewheels. You can swim underneath the wreck from bow to stern and there is still a huge boiler present.

On Sunday the weather was a bit windier. We were originally supposed to dive the City of Sheboygan and Katie Eccles which are both schooners in the 100′ (~30m) range since we had other recreational divers also on the boat. Unfortunately the winds started to pick up as we were motoring out to the City of Sheboygan. It was decided to stay and do two dives on the City of Sheboygan which was more sheltered. Helen gave us the option of one longer dive which most of us on rebreathers decided to do.

I did one ~90 minute dive on the City of Sheboygan and watched the mooring line bounce up and down on deco. It wasn’t too bad but it was definitely a little sporty on the ride back into the marina until we got some shelter from land. I still need to edit my video from City of Sheboygan. I’ll edit this post when I finish it.

It was an awesome weekend of diving in Picton! Helen runs an awesome charter boat and Corey was a wealth of information about all the shipwrecks in the area. I actually probably met Helen over 10 years ago in Brockville when I went into her shop but it’s been ages since I done any diving the Brockville or Rockport, Ontario. It used to be so much easier to cross back and forth on a boat from US to Canada or vice-versa. Looking forward to getting back up to this area next season and doing some newer (to me..) wrecks.

Bonus Monday Jodrey stern dive
Of course as I was driving back home I stopped in Alexandria Bay, New York for dinner. Unfortunately we got back at the marina pretty late in Picton and I was not really looking forward to the drive home. Google Maps was saying I would be home by 1AM without any stops. After a burger and beer at the Dockside Inn, that was not exactly what I wanted to do.

I knew James and Jason were planning to dive the Jodrey with Andrew Driver (Blue Foot Diving) so I made the rational and logical choice and opted to stay up in Alexandria Bay on Monday and dive the Jodrey with them. It was not a hard sell at all. I had the gas for it, enough scrubber time left on my rebreather and a fully charged scooter. Twist my arm..

Andrew’s house (Blue Foot Farms) is now setup as sort of diver BNB. He has been diligently working on it getting it ready for a while but unfortunately COVID-19 did not really help his progress. He has 3 guest bedrooms with multiple beds and a huge garage with work benches setup for rebreathers and charging stations. Did I also mention a hot tub? I highly recommend staying at his house if you’re doing charters on the Alexandria Bay side of the St Lawrence. Personally I’d also rather give him the money than stay at Bonnie Castle; I hated staying there. The rooms always smelled moldy and mildewy. Andrew’s place is perfect. Clean, comfortable beds and a great garage setup for dive gear.

Anyway, the three of us had an awesome scooter dive to the stern. The visibility has started to get much better. We had approximately 40-50ft of visibility with 58 degrees Fahrenheit! My DiveVolk housing also worked perfectly and after some fiddling with the finger condom to use the touch screen I was able to watch a movie on Netflix to finish off the rest of our deco. Total runtime was about 130 minutes.

Perfect fall conditions! This is exactly why I love coming up here in late fall and early winter. I will be back up here in early December. I am really hoping for 70-80ft+ visibility like we had a few years ago. Unfortunately the water temperatures will be a bit chilly by then.

Overall a great weekend of diving in Picton, Ontario and Alexandria Bay, New York. Adding third day (Monday) definitely made the drive a bit more bearable. It’s really hard to go wrong with fall weather up in the St Lawrence.