Friday March 28th, some of my dive buddies and myself went up to Fortune Pond to do an ice dive. Friday we did the prep work. I brought along my snow blower just in case. Good thing too, because there was 12 to 18 inches of snow where it wasn't drifted.
The main reason I wanted to do the ice dive was to test the Argonaut Kraken under "
cold" conditions. Here it is mounted on an 80 with a VDH backplate. Note snow blower in the van. Not every day that I bring a snow blower on a dive!
There was 24 inches of ice on Fortune Pond that day. We use a gas powered auger to do the corners and an ice saw to cut out the triangle. It works just as fast as a chain saw and there is no oil in the hole when your finished.
Saturday we did our dives. Here I am in the hole, ready to go!
Once underneath we were greeted with super nice viz. The 37 degree
water posed no challenge for the Kraken. Nice and smooth over this 30 minute dive. We had a 150 foot leash though. When the ice is off I'll take it deeper. Still we did get down 70 feet to the first major ledge. Here are a few underwater pic's.
The Kraken performed without a hitch. Super nice breather! I can't wait to get it underwater again!
