TTPaws
For at least three years out of the eight that I have been coming to dive in Canada, I've been trying to dive the Milles Roche Powerhouse (http://lostvillages.ca/history/the-lost-villages/mille-roches/the-power-house/ or http://saveontarioshipwrecks.ca/content/mille-roches-power-house). But because of scheduling conflicts I have not been able to dive it. Well this last Labor Day weekend changed that. I now know what I was missing.Up front I am not associated in any way with any of the companies that I mention, other than as a satisfied customer.Since it looked like this trip it would work out to dive the powerhouse, I contacted Andy Bennis at Bottom Time Diving (bottomtimediving.com). His schedule was good and we were on. Although it steps from 25 (7 meters) to 75 (23 meters) feet in depth, the current makes it an advanced dive.Andy's boat was once an RMCP water craft and it is pretty comfortable as well as fast. He takes up to six divers out at a time. In the cockpit are padded seats for three and in the stern there is plenty of room for tanks and gear.So the above sites give a pretty detailed description of the site, so I'll just point out a few highlights of the dive. I will warn that I have become a 'fanboy' of this site and will go back next year and dive at least a two tank dive on it. If you want to go in to any of the holes you need to have a really bright light to do it justice. I had my 21 watt LED Lightmonkey and in the stone discharge area (75 feet) it didn't light even half of it. Visibility was about 25 to 30 feet and the current was pretty strong. Water temperature was about 70 F (21 C)We started out by going down the line (remember to save air by using your arms not you legs :) and start at the winches for the sluices (or headgates, at least that's what they appear to be). You then head with the current, perpendicular to the dam and proceed to the next level (may be 20 feet, ~6 meters). we did not spend a lot of time checking out the backs of the flywheels, as we would see them on the return. About 40 feet (12 meters) and you drop down to the lower level and the huge arches (tailraces?). We entered the right hand one and it was huge. We went to the back and saw the giant tubes where the water would leave the powerhouse. Did I mention that they were huge. After investigating the arches we went back to the second level and the two water turbines. On the left is a room where the turbine was removed. If your buoyancy is good you can enter the room, there is a significant amount of very silty mud . The walls are pretty cool. After spending a bit of time around the ends of the flywheels/turbines we headed back to the top level. This is where I received a really great surprise. You can't see it from any of the pictures but on top of the rooms where the turbines are, the domes have been slid back so you can drop down into the room. Did I mention they are huge. Again buoyancy is really important as it seems like five feet of really silty mud at the bottom. The turbines are so cool; I spent at least 10 minutes just moving around the turbines, some of the walls are partially wood and in good shape considering they have been underwater almost 60 years. I need to spend a lot more time in these rooms, as I want to figure out where the water came and went. After I exited the rooms, we went to the front of the power where there is a grate to keep large floaters from entering the gates. We dropped down between the grate and the forward wall of the powerhouse and travelled from one side and back. It was really cool. But all to soon the dive was over and we headed up.Once on the boat it was decided, because I needed to get back to Dive Tech for gas, that we would head over to the weir (spillover dam) that was built to control water for the powerhouse. If you like seeing architecture under water then you will enjoy this dive. I found it to be a wonderful dive. We dropped down on to the weir, and circumnavigated it. swimming through the spillover was cool. As you drift over the weir you'll see the road. On one side is a rock railing and on the other is a metal railing. It was so eerie, to picture this being the road that they drove across. All in all a really pleasant dive.
