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Successful dive! Successful party! Check out the BBQ photos on our Facebook page

Welcome divers to our 2022 summer diving season! Diving starts with a Refresher shore dive at Humber Bay to get psyched for the real diving season — We are going back to Western Islands in beautiful Georgian Bay in July, and an exciting trip to the clean, clear waters and shipwrecks of Tobermory in August. And we are planning a dive trip to Brockville later in the summer. Signup for a diving membership and join us on these excellent trips. Blue North Scuba is an independent scuba organization, open to all divers who are looking for adventure, friendship and safe diving. Blue North Dive Notices Humber Bay West Saturday morning June 25, 2022 for a Humber Bay Refresher Dive  $10 shore dive fee due now Reacquaint yourself with your scuba gear, diving techniques, and try out your new scuba equipment before heading out on our dive trips to Georgian Bay, Toby and Brockville. Western Islands in Georgian Bay July 23-24, 2022 at Western Islands Only a few spots left, register asap Boat dive fee, due now, $270 payable by eTransfer to bluenorthscuba@gmail.com Diving from the Georgian Ranger out of Penetanguishene in the beautiful warm waters of Georgian Bay. The dives are suitable for a range of experience in diving, and are ideal for getting back underwater again. Some of the shipwrecks include the Mapledawn (Steel Bulk Carrier), Lottie Wolfe (Schooner), Michigan (Lifting Barge), Thomas Cranage (Lake’s Longest Wooden Steamer) and Marquette (Schooner).  Tobermory August 6-7, 2022 in Toby  Sold out, get on the waiting list now  Enjoy a weekend diving at Canada’s first National Marine Park, Fathom Five, “The Freshwater Shipwreck Diving Capital of Canada”. Clear, clean water, more than 20 historic shipwrecks, submerged geological formations, cliffs, caves and overhangs offer a variety of underwater experiences. Register Sign up for the Blue North Dive Weekends Now!   Payment for the Western Islands dive in Georgian Bay Pay $270 for the boat fee now by eTransfer to bluenorthscuba@gmail.com Trip Report: Bohio, Grand Turk Island, May 2022  by Bob Belcher Arrival at Bohio Dive Resort On April 30, 2020, fifteen members of Blue North Scuba Club flew south to Turks & Caicos Islands for a ten-day excursion, marking the opening of the Club’s 2022 diving season. The long-anticipated trip required the participants to provide many travel, health and insurance documents in advance to be able to board the plane and reach our destination: Bohio Dive Resort (pronounced BOH-ee-oh meaning ‘dwelling’ in Spanish) The trip was led by our very experienced trip leader, Rebecca Metcalfe, who has been leading dive trips for twenty years and can be counted on for top notch travel experiences. Other Club members on this adventure were a mixture of scuba divers, snorkellers and non-divers including Bob and Peggy Belcher, David and Patti Bragg, Kathryn Cullen, Jim and Sonya Elliott, Deborah Hunt, Agi and Terry Johnston, Karen Parisien, Marianna Richardson, and Dave and Natalie Tanner.  After a long travel day, our group was greeted enthusiastically by the Bohio staff and by the owners, Ginny and Tom, fellow Canadians, at our home for the next ten days. The welcome punch was well received while staff delivered our bags to the rooms which all offered an ocean view through the palms, over the amazing white sand beach stretching the length of the resort property and beyond. After checking out the rooms, we quickly reconvened to partake in a delicious outdoor BBQ buffet dinner at the beach-side bar. A local band kept us entertained for the rest of the night. Turks and Caicos is an archipelago of 40 low-lying coral islands in the Atlantic Ocean, a British Overseas Territory southeast of the Bahamas and north of the Dominican Republic. Christopher Columbus is reported to be the first European visitor to these islands in 1492. Our resort was on the outskirts of Cockburn Town on Grand Turk Island that features a barrier reef and coral wall close to shore, over 2 km long. The weather was always sunny and 27o C each day with a breeze. And the water was the same temperature. It cooled off a bit at night but we never needed a jacket or sweater. Most of our meals were outdoors or in the open-air dining area. Delicious breakfasts and lunches were included in our package, and we ordered dinner a la carte. There was no charge for the sunsets at dinner each night! Evening musical entertainment was provided three nights each week, plus a movie night – popcorn included!  As it was near the end of the resort’s “high season”, we were by far the largest group, and we pretty well had the place to ourselves. Snorkelling Snorkelling equipment was provided for those who didn’t bring their own. Snorkelling was possible off the resort beach, but two optional boat trips provided a better opportunity to see a variety of sea life. One trip took us out to the start of the coral wall. The second boat trip included a snorkelling stop on the way to Gibbs Cay where we could hand-feed sardines to the Southern Stingrays (Hypanus americanus). Keep your thumbs in your fist! The stingrays suck up the fish and bump into you to get your attention, demanding more food as you stood in knee deep water. Also, on that excursion the dive guides, and some of our divers, went free diving for conch. Then staff member, Trevor, prepared fresh conch salad for us while we relaxed at the beach on Gibbs Cay and climbed the dunes to view the open Atlantic on the other side.    Scuba Diving Seventeen dives were included in our package, mostly as 2-tank morning dives for 8 days, plus an additional afternoon dive, and any night dives that we wanted to book. The dives were along the length of the island, on the wall of the barrier reef. Turks and Caicos is on the third largest barrier reef in the world which shields the beach from large waves, keeping the waters at the resort calm and crystal clear. From the resort beach to any dive site was only a few minutes boat ride over sparkling turquoise water of impossibly beautiful colours. The reef is home to a myriad of interesting and colourful marine life: sea turtles, reef sharks, stingrays, coral formations, swim-throughs, and of course the thousands of tiny baby fish of every colour in the rainbow. photo credit: Florent Charpin One of the dive activities was lionfish hunting by our dive guides, Derek, Kelly and Tim. They spear the lionfish and feed them to the sharks and groupers. The reef sharks seem clever enough to know a meal is coming when they see divers in the water. They circle below us on the wall, waiting to be fed! Our luck was a bit off this week because the days we saw the reef sharks, we had no lionfish. And the days they speared lionfish, the sharks were elsewhere. But at least the lionfish were dead and something would eventually make a meal of them. Land Activities Most divers did two morning dives and used the time after lunch to relax and explore the island. Our package included the use of kayaks and a small sailboat which Jim and Sonja put to good use, cruising with the dolphins. Bicycles were well used by our group. Walking offered the opportunity to look into a few shops along the beach road. All the locals seemed very friendly, and greeted you with a wave and a smile. All but two of us piled into four golf carts to venture further and tour the length of the narrow 18 km2 island. We drove by the governor’s estate property, had a delicious lunch overlooking the ocean and explored the lighthouse. On the way back, Jim found us a homemade ice cream shop that turned out to be owned by a Canadian woman. It was high on a spot overlooking our end of the island where the breeze provided welcome relief near the end of our day on the road.  You are never far from the many wild donkeys on the island. There seemed to be one grazing near every home. They would wander through the open-air dive shop and walk along the beach at any time. More than once, if I had our patio door open, their “honking” would wake me up in the middle of the night. I soon learned to keep the patio door closed at night. Neither the donkeys nor the dogs were any problem – just unusual for us to see them wandering around at will — even checking out the local art scene. As you can tell it was an excellent holiday and I would not hesitate to go back, but alas, there are so many other interesting places to dive and visit. Decisions, decisions! The group would like to express our sincere thanks to Rebecca Metcalfe for all the excellent arrangements and for choosing another remarkable destination to enjoy. Pictures courtesy of Dave Tanner, Kathryn Cullen, Sonya Elliott, Deborah Huntley, Bob Belcher  Hawksbill turtle photo by Florent Charpin  More summer dives in the planning stages We are looking forward to another dive this summer at the end of August, or early September, to Brockville for some offshore shipwreck dives such as the Robert Gaskin, Morrisburg Lock 23, exploring the underwater section of a town that was flooded for the St. Lawrence Seaway. Get a membership to Blue North & get diving!  The annual Blue North membership is $80/year for Certified Divers to join Blue North which includes: $40 for your Blue North membership $40 for your OUC membership for liability insurance and other benefits For a total of $80 However, if you are already a member of OUC for the current year, just pay $40 for Blue North and tell us your 2022 OUC Membership Number. And if you are a Trainee who certified in August 2021, we’ve got a special deal for you in your first year of diving – Blue North membership is only $20, plus OUC $40, for a total of only $60 for 2022. This is quite a bargain compared to some other dive groups.  Join now! Send your payment by eTransfer to bluenorthscuba@gmail.com

Blue North Newsplash Copyright © Blue North Scuba Club, All rights reserved.

Hi, we’re excited to get diving again with Caribbean dives, as well as shore dives, boat dives and wreck diving in Ontario.

Dive Trips

• Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean, departing April 30, 2022.
• Refresher Shore Dive Humber Bay, Saturday morning, June 25, 2022
• Western Islands, Georgian Bay, July 23 and 24, 2022
• Tobermory, Aug. 6 and 7, 2022

Membership
If you are not already a member of Blue North Scuba Club, join now!

News

• Subscribe to the mailing list for Blue North Newsplash to receive notification of the latest news and events.
• And follow us on facebook/bluenorthscuba for interesting news about the underwater world in Ontario.

Policies
Review our Policies such as the Dive Policy, Covid-19 Policy and Guest Diver Policy among others.

Covid-19 Considerations

Return to Diving Post-Covid – Courtney Gibson
Advice from DAN – Divers Alert Network
Advice from OUC – Ontario Underwater Council

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Blue North Scuba Club is accepting Applications for Membership for the new season of diving.

Hey, check out our dive schedule for divers who are fully vaccinated for Covid-19.

Annual Meeting of Blue North Scuba Club

We’ve lined up some Instructors who are eager to run open water advanced NAUI courses, and we’ve heard from divers who are looking forward to improving their diving and leadership skills. A keen diver says, Blue North is “putting together some leadership courses that I am eager to take. I would be glad to join Blue North even if I am only in the water at the end of the summer.”

Find out what courses we are planning:

List of educational opportunities

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