HMCS Chaudiere

HMCS CHAUDIERE

Sunday, October 5^th, 2008, Richard Jack, Geoff Couriveau, Doug Steding, Jeanna Edgerton and Brian Wiederspan dived the HMCS Chaudiere, in Sechelt British Columbia.

The Chaudiere was a destroyer escort in the Canadian Navy and the first artificial reef sunk by the ARSBC, in 1992. Richard had dived all the artificial reefs sunk by the ARSBC, including the Chaudiere, and Jeanna and I had dived all the other artificial reefs in British Columbia; HMCS Cape Breton, HMCS Saskatchewan, HMCS Mackenzie, HMCS Columbia, the Rivtow Lion and the GB Church. The Chaudiere was the only one left that we hadn't been on, so this was our chance.

On this dive Richard, Jeanna and me would team up and Bones and Doug would team up.

Since the Chaudiere was the ARSBC's first wreck, it didn't go down quite as planned. It came to rest on it's port side, on a slope, with the stern in about 70fsw and the bow in about 140fsw. Since it's laying on it's side, it made for some pretty cool scooter fun.

Our plan was to keep the average depth at a reasonable level to keep our deco to a minimum. It was a 30 minute boat ride, each way, and we did have a ferry to catch.

Vis was fantastic, probably 70 – 80’, and we had fun on the trigger for 30 minutes solid, before starting our deco. There's not as much life on this one as on some of the other wrecks, but it was certainly fun on the trigger. It's a scooter pilot's playground! Zooming on the deck, in and around the superstructure was like scootering an obstacle course.