Welcome to 2019! (well as far as anything scuba diving goes)

After my crappy 2017, and my almost equally crappy 2018, (I at LEAST ended it with a dive) today was my first of 2019! (which I guess is better since my first 2018 dive was June 13^th)  After rumblings online back and forth, and the odd text or two, we were finally able to settle upon a date to go to Dutch Springs.  (technically, we firmed up our plans Thursday night at almost 9:00pm)  Meet at Sheetz at 7:00am, and go from there.

I spent a few hours checking and packing my gear and getting up to my garage. Considered changing my neck seal, but decided not to do it. (it worked)  Woke up around 6:00am, had some coffee, puttered around the house for a while, and noticed it was about ten-of-seven, so I went to Sheetz.

When I got there, no one was there (and I was like a minute late)  I thought for a second; “wait… THIS Sheetz, or the new Sheetz out off of Rt. 22 and 743”?  But then I saw Rob’s truck, and I breathed a sigh of relief.  John showed up about two minutes later, so we packed the truck, and expressed our slight terror of actually diving.  Rob and I hadn’t been in for almost six months, John almost SEVEN!  (I know I sound like a broken record, but we sure miss Bainbridge) 

We got to Dutch, and found our table space and unpacked.  Then we ran over to Wegman’s for our lunches, then came back to set up our gear.  We all took our time, because, we had to remember where everything went.  I looked at my cylinders set up, and made sure that it seemed like everything was where it belonged. I tested my Nitrox,  then I started getting into my thermals and dry suit.  I put on my hood, and picked up my doubles.  At THAT point, I proceeded to get tangled up in all of my wires and hoses, and had to have John help me untangle.  I hate feeling like I don’t have a clue, I was almost considering staying out of the water.  But I went.

We waddled down to the entry, and finished setting things up, I felt my left glove leaking, so I had to play with that a little bit, and thought I had it fixed.  I put my fins on, then my mask.  I put my head under water and took a few breaths out of my regulators to make sure the mask wasn’t leaking, and waited for John and Rob to give the down signal. We all looked at each other and Rob said “ready? 20 feet!”  So down we went.  As we were descending, John noticed that I had a little trickle coming out of the low pressure inflator that was attached to my wing, we messed with it a little, and it seemed to stop, but I kept an eye on it.  We then headed over to the platforms, to make sure everything felt ok.  As we were swimming there, my mask felt like it was leaking, so I fiddled with it and reseated it and it seemed to work (for a little while)  Probably about five minutes into the dive, I felt semi comfortable (other than the mask) and seemed to settle down, and get my breathing (and head clearing) in order. By that time we were at the Trolley, so I swam through it.  At the top of the hill, Rob gave the down signal, and we followed down the wall to the Deuce-and-a-Half, then back up the wall.  We swam across the barren wasteland, and headed towards the crane.  We all checked in at the crane, and kept going towards the Comet.  John and Rob swam through the comet, and I kept clearing my mask.  From there we headed up to the platforms for a safety stop.  After that we went back in and finished the dive.

Duration: 39 minutes

Deepest Depth: 81 ft.

Coldest Temp: 40º

Sloppy, and wet, but it was a dive.  Got some bugs worked out, and did a little fidgeting with my gear.  I put the mask on, and tried to see what the issue might have been, but it felt ok. I greased the o-ring in my left glove, and hoped for the best.  We had our subs, and talked about our next dive.

After about an hour (and a half) we decided to gear up again, and go for round two.  THIS time it seemed that suiting up went MUCH better than the last dive.  (Not as much cursing, too) We waddled back down to the water, and finished suiting up.  The glove didn’t seem like it was leaking, so I kept my fingers crossed.  I tested and re-tested my mask seating, and it felt ok, so I was happy.  Everyone was set so down we went.

At 20 feet, everything seemed to be fine, so we kept going. When we hit the platforms, I was thankful that the mask wasn’t leaking, but the glove was, so I have to work on that for the next time. We took a left and went past the Comet to head out towards the Bus.  John and Rob went through the Bus, but I stayed out to adjust myself a little, we then headed over towards the Plane.  John spotted the Helicopter debris on the quarry floor, and quickly went to grab Rob.  We swam up to the Plane, and gave it a good “once over” (it’s getting cruddy looking) While Rob and John penetrated, I gave a wave to a free diver that just swam down and looked over at me. After the plane, we stayed along the front of the island, and just swam through the massive amounts of Zebra Mussels, until we got to the line that goes up to the platforms.  As I swam up to the platform, my mask started leaking again, so I had to keep messing with that throughout my safety stop.  After we were done, we gave the thumbs up, and headed back in to finish the dive.

Duration: 40 minutes

Deepest Depth: 65 ft.

Coldest Temp: 41º

Well… other than the mask leak on the safety stop, it was a MUCH better dive (well for me) than the first one.  I’m considering getting rid of the doubles, the dry suit, and wearing a hood, and only doing warm water dives in my 3mm wetsuit, down in the Florida Keys… I just need to talk my wife into moving there!

So we packed our gear, ran back to Wegman’s for a little post-dive libation, and came back home.  Thanks (as always) to Rob for driving! Until the next time, be careful out there!

One More…Why not?

After my bad 2017, I was hoping that my 2018 diving would be much better, but sadly it really wasn’t MUCH better.  After my slight mishap last year, I didn’t think I was mentally prepared to go do one on New Year’s Eve, especially since the weather was cold. I honestly didn’t think I could handle any extreme task loading after six months of not diving, so I decided to not go with Rob and John. 

When I knew that we weren’t going to go to Orlando for the Citrus Bowl, I shot Rob a note and checked to see if he was interested in diving.  He was, I just had to make sure that my dry suit would return from getting some repairs, and I would be set!  The suit DID come back, and I texted him again. He was in, but John wasn’t able due to unforeseen circumstances.  Once we knew what time the gates would be open we set a time to go and just waited.

 Keeping an eye on the weather, we weren’t sure what to think other than it would not be as cold as last year, but possibly some showers. No big deal, we were going to get wet somehow anyway.  When we got to the quarry, it wasn’t as packed as the last time I was there for NYE, so we went straight in, and got some tables near Ron and his nephew. (a newer diver, who was diving wet…. YIKES!)  Although, Rob decided to give the young man his old dry suit (which needs minimal work) to get him started along THAT path! (which I thought was pretty cool!)(But he told him that he can’t use it today)

Rob decided to dive with a single tank since Dutch only lets you do ONE dive on this day, I had my 130’s hydro’d recently, but they filled them with air, so I didn’t care. (I’ll probably let them drain a little before I take them for my next fill)  So we weren’t diving our usual plans.  When I dove last month, I realized that my neck seal was starting to get a little frayed, so I decided to trim it a little last night, I had about three-four inches left to trim, and it ripped! (didn’t expect to need to replace my neck seal, but I was glad I had one)

We seemed to stall getting ready, but we figured that we’re here, let’s just go do it!  So we started getting ready.  Rob needed to change his computers to the number on his transmitter, and was having issues, he finally was able to get it set up correctly, and decided that we weren’t going to do anything crazy. (Now while THIS was going on, Ron was pouring hot water in his nephew’s wetsuit….)  Once Rob was ready, I had him help me get my neck seal straightened out (I hate new ones) and we were soon ready to go jump in.

Due to the massive amounts of rain we’ve been having, the water in the quarry is WAY up, and you almost need to float out to the entry platforms.  Once we were set up, we ducked our heads under water. (and waited for the ice cream headache) Rob pointed to the platforms, and I followed. When we got there, he was having an issue with something, and it took me a few minutes to figure out what he needed, but once I did, he was fine, and we started towards the Crane. (His computer wasn’t registering his breathing gas, so he needed his analog gauge)  We got to the Crane, and waited for a few people to leave before swimming around it, then we started along the bottom of the island diving clockwise instead of our usual counter clockwise (nothing like a little danger on the last dive of the year) I settled in rather nicely, and was using minimal effort moving. A lot of odd debris was floating around, some of the ”clouds-o-crud” resembled odd fish when you first looked at them (or I was narced… I WAS diving air for the first time in a LONG time!)  We made it back to the Crane (which was kicked up a lot more) and Rob pointed towards the Trolley, or the Comet (well that’s where I thought he was pointing) and I chose the Comet, figuring that we could swim around that a little, and then up to line to our safety stop. (and that I wouldn’t be tempted to pop over the hill to see the car)  I was wrong, we headed right back to the platforms, so I figured we were doing our safety stop.  When I saw Rob grab onto one of the up lines coming off of the platform, I knew that he must have been light, and was trying not to ascend. (he said he knew he should have added more weight or grabbed some rocks)   I stayed close and was getting cold, so I tried unloading some air from my wing, and adding it to my suit, and had to struggle myself for a minute or so.  When Rob was done with his stop, he pointed UP as opposed to over along the line, so I knew that he was floaty! I ascended with him, and he told me what I suspected, so we just surface swam back to the exit and were done!

Deepest Depth: 63 ft.

Duration: 34 minutes

Coldest Temp: 41º

Truthfully not the best dive, but not the worst dive (Hey, we made it back)  I tend to agree with his opinion that since we aren’t diving as much as we had in the recent past, it takes more thought and prep to do a basic dive like we had been for the past several years, but I guess you DO have to pull it back occasionally, and make sure that you are doing things the right way, and not letting anything become automatic.  But they all can’t be perfect dives, we’re a little more critical of ourselves than we have been from a lot of years ago (Heck, Rob and I have been diving together for over 12 years, so we are pretty critical of our dives) Oh well what are you going to do (get better the next time)

Well after we packed, we went and got our new memberships for 2019, so I guess we’re still going to do this crazy thing!  Thanks to Rob for driving, and diving today!  It’s always good to end the year on a positive note doing something fun!   Happy New Year to all of you!  I wish the best for you and your families during 2019!  I’ll let you know when we get out again!

I don’t get out much….

I get that a lot.  Wow, June 30^th was the last time I dusted off the dive gear, and some people might say “It’s about time!”  I agree!   The past two years have been tough on us physically; Me last year, and Rob and John this year.  Rob and John were able to get out on Columbus Day, but I had to work, and since it’s football season, it’s not as easy for me to get out on the weekends, but my team had an away game, and Sunday seemed like a good time for the three of us!

This was the weekend that we had to put the clocks back, so we were able to sneak in an extra hour of sleep!  That was a plus for today!  We agreed to meet in Grantville about 8:30-ish, and made our merry way to Wegman’s for our lunches.  When we got into Dutch Springs, we were surprised at how many people were there, but we were still able to get a good table or three.  It was a little tough for me to remember how to get everything together, but after staring at it for a little while,  it all came back to me, so I set it all up, checked my gas, and waited for the “go” to put on the suits.

We waddled down to the entry, and set the rest of the gear up; when we were all ready, John gave the thumbs down, and we were off to 20ft.  No bubbles coming from places that they shouldn’t come from, so we agreed to keep moving.  It took a little while for me to get comfortable, but after some time, I felt like I knew what I was doing.  We swam past the old boat, then soon found the Trolley.  We all swam through, and met at the back.  The question was posed to go down the hill, or over to the Deuce and a half, and down it was!   We popped over the hill, and were staring at the rusty car that no one seems to be sure of what kind it is (Monza!!)(although the map says Barracuda)  We swam past, and up the little slope to start our trek behind the island.  This was where I really settled in, and got comfortable, in fact at one point, I had a “Zen” moment, and really felt in the zone!  After we toured the back of the island, John posed the question to go to the plane, so we all agreed.  It took a few kicks to get there, but soon we could see debris from the Helicopter on the ground, and the chains on the plane, so we ascended slightly to visit it.  John and Rob swam in through the door on the bottom, I just swam around it, and met them at the door.  After the “ok’s” were exchanged, we started towards the Comet.  Again, John and Rob swam through and I swam around (I don’t like getting stuck)  So from there we followed the rope and were taking our safety stop on the platform, and were done!

Depth: 93ft.

Duration: 50 minutes

Coldest Temp: 44º

Not a bad dive after my long lay off!   Didn’t take TOO long to get comfy, and once I did, I actually felt like I knew what I was doing!   Time to take a break and eat our wonderful Wegman’s lunches.

After about an hour, we started planning our next dive.  This time we would enter from across the parking lot, and mess around over there.

We dropped in, and were soon headed out towards where the bus is sitting,  Rob and John swam through, and I swam around again, the next point of interest was the Hellcat. After swimming through the murk for a while, (almost felt like a Bainbridge dive in mid-August) we almost gave up, but, Rob turned and saw the wing, and we were there!   John sat on the propeller, and we just laughed at him.   We then headed towards the wall, and just did a nice leisurely dive between 40 and 50 feet, following around it. When we got close to the Comet, John checked to see what we had left gas-wise, and decided that we had more time to kill, so we started out towards the Crane, and swam around that for a few minutes.  After that we popped back up to the platform for another safety stop, and we were soon done!!

Depth: 66ft.

Duration: 50 minutes

Coldest Temp: 50º

Once again, a nice comfortable easy dive!  I’m impressed with myself for being able to do two 50 minute dives after such a long layoff (although I’m sure I’ll probably feel it tomorrow) But as I said, I actually felt good on both dives!

After we finished packing, we popped back over to Wegman’s for a quick snack and a beer, and headed back home.  Hopefully we can figure out someplace to dive when Dutch closes for the season (after next weekend)  But we’ll keep you posted!   Until then!