There is no regular club meeting in December.  We will have a short business meeting at the Christmas Party, and resume normal meetings in January.  There is also no board meeting in December.  Board meetings will also resume in January.

We had 30 members present.  Several guests from the Saint Francis Dive Club and from the Nittany Dive Club also attended the meeting to watch the speaker.  The door prize was a mask strap won by Sylvia Mackinnon.  The daybook had a $96 balance, and was won by Alan Ferra who was not present.  This money will be carried over to the next meeting.

Treasurer’s Report: Income: $137.20, Expenses: $240.74, Current Balance: $2,224.30.

John Ware presented a slide presentation on coral reef ecology at the meeting.  John sits on several international panels working with the health of our coral reefs.  The presentation was excellent, and the information very thought provoking.  Like all of our natural resources, the coral reefs need our help to ensure that mankind’s environmental impact does not continue to endanger this treasure.
 
 

Nominations for our year 2000 board members were held at the meeting.  Our board of directors consists of four members whose terms run on a January to December calendar year basis.  We will vote for our upcoming year board members at the Christmas Party.  Our nominated members are as follows: Sandy Beecher, Paul Brawley, Joe Gordon, Lois Keegan, Dan Kelly, Lance Marks, Bert Sharbaugh, Dan Turcovsky and Barb Wyland.

Our annual audit of the Treasury was performed before the November meeting.  The audit found no discrepancies, and stated that our treasurer was to be commended for her organization and documentation skills.  Thanks to our treasurer, Donna Bender, and to our audit volunteers, Linda Kelley, Lois Keegan and Ron Peterson.

We will begin working on our year 2000 calendar at the January board meeting.  If you would like to run a trip, our suggest one you’d like to see run, please plan on attending the board meeting.  If you’re unable to attend, please let any of our officers or board members know of your proposed trip.

We will hold a small fund-raising raffle at the Christmas Party.  The tickets will sell for $1 each, and the prize is a ceramic underwater scene.  A big thanks to Bill Kimmick who donated the ceramic, and to Donna Bender who hand-painted the prize.

If you have an e-mail address, please let us know.  If you’re not currently listed on the Laurel Diver’s e-mail page at http://Ebensburg.com/scuba/email.htm, then please send an email to Webmaster Ron Peterson at Scuba@Penn.com to let us know your address.

Bob Maurer is searching for his 4-lb weight mold.  If you have it, please return it to him.
 
 

The warm weather was a great benefit for our Annual Halloween Dive and Chili Cook-off, and brought one of our biggest turnouts ever.  Approximately 30 members showed up to dive and eat.  Lois Keegan won the $100 gift certificate for the prize dive.  Maurer’s Dive Shop made a special donation of a $25 shop certificate that was won by Diane Turcovsky.  The chili cook-off was also won by Diane Turcovsky.  A plaque with the name of each year’s chili cook-off winners is kept at Maurer’s Dive Shop.  A special thanks to Bill Duffield who brought enough sausage and side dishes to keep everyone rubbing their bellies and smiling during the event.

Our Annual Thanksgiving Dive at Mount Storm will be held on November 27th.  One group will meet and leave from the Penn Gables Restaurant in Ebensburg at 8:00 for the trip down.  Another group will meet and leave from the Ponderosa Restau>

Transfer interrupted!

Our Annual Christmas Party will be held on December 11th at the Penn Gables Restaurant.  Festivities will begin with a social hour from 6:00 to 7:00, and dinner will be served at 7:00.  We will have a DJ for after dinner entertainment.  Cost for the dinner is $12.25 for stuffed chicken breast, stuffed pork chops, or lasagna, or $14.95 for baked haddock.  Due to the group size, the restaurant is unable to accommodate ala carte orders on the night of the party.  You must be signed up and paid no later than November 29th to attend.

The Liveaboard Trip with Blackbeard will sail from January 15th to January 22nd.  Final payment is due by November 15th.  Call Rose Maurer at 344-6641 or Sandy Beecher at 472-5776 for further details.
 
 

Please keep the information coming.  Did you cross a new dive milestone, receive additional training, or have something else interesting happen?  Let me know at a meeting, call me at 472-5776, or e-mail me at Mosskeetoe@aol.com.

A big welcome to the newest members of the Laurel Divers: John Castle, Dan Kelly, and Karl Bonsell.  Welcome aboard!

Congratulations to Eric Steinbring who received his advanced openwater certification in October during a visit to the Florida Keys.

Josh Keyser also received his advanced openwater certification recently.  Josh’s navy enlistment is now final, and he will be carrying his snorkel to Charleston, SC on June 22nd.
 
 

Last month, I began a two-part series on diving at the Thousand Islands.  It seems that there are three things which every diver looks for at a dive site—something interesting to see, warm water, and good visibility—the Thousand Islands is fortunate to have all three
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The Saint Lawrence Seaway connects the smallest and easternmost of the Great Lakes, Lake Ontario, with the Atlantic Ocean.  All shipments moving between the ocean and lake port cities must pass through the Saint Lawrence.  The Thousand Island region lies at the western end of the seaway where the waters of Lake Ontario begin the last part of their journey toward the ocean.  With hundreds of floating islands, and at least as many submerged, the region has lured an untold number of ships to watery graves.     The abundance of shipping activity and the inevitable wrecks that follow provide the “something interesting” for the diver.  A wealth of fish life also adds interest—we saw muskie, walleye, smallmouth and largemouth bass.  Bluegill, pumpkinseeds, and large schools of rockbass and yellow perch were present on most every dive.

Since the seaway is in actuality a river fed from the warm surface waters of Lake Ontario, the water is pleasantly warm in the summer months.  The biggest bonus is the absence of a thermocline—we dove at 105’ on one wreck and recorded a bottom temperature of 76 degrees!

Visibility was superb.  A proliferation of zebra mussels has had the same effect on the Saint Lawrence as it’s had upon the Great Lakes.  We averaged 50 foot of visibility during our weekend of diving.

Our package at the Thousand Islands Inn was for a wreck / bottle diving combination.  “Bottle Diving” is a whenever you want proposition at the waterfront in the village of Clayton.  We parked in front of the local bank, fed money into the parking meter, and assembled our dive gear alongside our vehicle in the center of Main Street.  It must be a common practice in this small community since we attracted no unusual attention.  Behind the bank is a wooden Warf area that we dove along.  The bottles are the product of an earlier area when it was considered acceptable to drop your trash beneath the water—we found many old bottles and carried a few home with us.

We dove two wrecks that were readily accessible from the shore.  The Islander was my favorite—it was a sidewheel steamer that caught fire and sunk while docked in September of 1909.  The wreck lies within 20 feet of the shore in Alexander Bay.  The stern lies in 15 feet of water and the bow at 50 feet.  The remains of the paddle wheel were truly impressive.
 The wreck of the Harvey J. Kendall lies about 20 miles away in the village of Cape Vincent.  This was a wooden freighter that sunk in the early 1900’s.  This wreck was also readily accessible from the shoreline.  It lies in only about 15 feet of water, consists of only a hull and scattered planking, and is home to large schools of perch and rockbass.

Our charter dive was with Hunt’s Dive Shop.  Moe Hunt has been diving in the Thousand Island region for over 40 years, and is just short of 70 years old.  Since Sandy and I were the only two on the charter, Moe elected to dive with us.  He was interesting and colorful, and proved a great storehouse of knowledge about the region.  It was the first charter that I was ever on which was on no hurried schedule whatsoever—our two-tank dive with Moe took almost the entire day.

We dove the wreck of the Keystorm which is widely regarded as the Thousand Island’s premier wreck.  The Keystorm is huge, 256 feet in length and 43 feet across the beam.  It was a steamer built in Wellsand, England.

The Keystorm was carrying a load of bituminous coal when she struck a shoal in dense fog in October of 1912.  The ship sank within a matter of minutes without fatalities.  She was declared unsalvageable and subsequently abandoned.

The bow section of the wreck now lies only 20 feet beneath the surface.  If there’s another wreck that permits such a multi-level dive, then I’m unaware of it—the stern and propeller of this wreck are at 115 feet!  The wreck lies on her side with a huge mast pointing downstream toward an ocean that she’ll never again sail upon.  The wreck was wonderfully intact, and was home to large schools of fish.  The cargo holds lie open and beckon the adventurous.  The pilothouse is completely intact and is the most impressive feature of this wreck.  Two metal staircases traverse each side.

If you’re interested in a trip to the Thousand Islands, you can call the Thousand Islands Inn at 1-800-544-4241, or visit their website at http://www.1000islands.com/inn/tiinn/htm.  Hunts Dive Shop can be reached by telephone at 315-788-2075, or on the web at http://www.1000islands.com/dive/dive.htm.