The milder weather has been making for a pleasant August,
but I find it weird that it seems to rain or storm on Wednesday nights, more so
than any other night during the week. (maybe I’m just more cognizant of
Wednesdays) Anyway, it drizzled a little starting at around 3:00-3:30-ish up in
Hershey. About quarter to four, Rob and I got a text from John asking if we
were planning on heading to the quarry. I was willing to give it a shot since
the weather report made it seem like the rain was moving West to East, and the
line of showers didn’t look like an all-night event. I also figured if someone
got to the quarry first, they’d just
grab some tables in one of the pavilions…although John DID mention that he had
Jane (the tarp)…so I was pretty confident in the weather.
After I picked up my wife from work and dropped her off at
home, I “high tailed” it down to the quarry, only to find that John, Rob and
Jim were the only people ahead of me on the sign in sheet, and all three were
standing there talking about the trespassers on BSC property. I had to off load some Powerade, so I was
ready to run back to the restrooms, John and Rob went down and grabbed tables
in one of the pavilions. (there was a dive class from York Divers in the other
one that was just finishing up) We set
up, and as we did, the weather started to get nicer. (The combination of Jane
and having a spot in a pavilion made nicer weather an almost certain thing!) As we were finishing our set-up and walking
to the water, a few other people came, and occupied the other pavilion, I also
saw a few people setting up in Upper A.
So the hesitant people were coming out slowly.
Rob was diving in a single 120 tonight since his doubles are
up for their annual inspection, that gave us a slight reason for a more
conservative dive tonight (no Bus Stop runs, according to John) But we still
had a decent plan! Since he was diving
his recreational rig tonight, a few modifications were in order, and an item he
needed was still on his Tec Rig. Thankfully, I had the part he needed since I
was considering not diving with my light last weekend. John left his inner
gloves, but Rob soon remedied that! Good
that we all carry extra stuff! (I was worried I forgot an item, or to do
something until we hit 20 feet and there wasn’t a flood!)
We walked over to the long road path, and everyone looked
good, so we headed to 20 feet. No
unsuspected bubbles and everyone’s gloves seemed to be sealed (colder water
than Dutch Springs, so it was easier to notice) so we continued on. John lead, Rob and I followed. We were soon at the CAT and checked in.
Everyone was good so we continued down to the Deep Boat. At the Deep Boat, we kept moving, and looked
for the line out to the Step Van. We
followed the line, and were soon passing the debris out in that area. I’m not sure I recall the back doors of the
Step Van being blue? Maybe I wasn’t as
narced as I usually get tonight, so that was interesting. We checked in with each other and everyone
seemed alright. John took his heading, and soon we were following the area Rob
and I got lost in LAST week (at least it seemed that was where we were)
Approaching the Outhouse from this perspective was a different thing than from
the side. When I saw the roof of it “head
on” I wasn’t sure what we were seeing, but a quick swim alongside got my brain
back to where it needed to be. We passed
it, and took a trip by the big boulder. John
turned, and we were soon following the wall back over our usual path. At the
Pump House, I checked, and the Lobster was where he should be. I gave him a
quick wave, and noticed that someone is building a little structure with rock
on the front of the Pump House. Rob and
John started up the hill, so I followed. We were soon at the Aqua Adventures
truck, and John took a swim through it. Rob and I met him at the back, and it
appeared that John asked Rob how much gas he had left. John started through the bowl, and then went
past the Pennsy. After that, we were
doing a rather nice wall dive, slowly ascending to about 30 feet. Rob and John decided to turn, Rob gave me a signal
that appeared to mean “go to 20ft” which I took as a “rolling safety stop”, and
I guessed right! When we got to where
John wanted to cross over into the Lagoon (which was logical since we could
swim back rather than walk back) we had maybe a minute to two minutes to
wait. John gave the signal to go over
into the Lagoon, and we both agreed. Safety stop wound down, and over the road
we go. The visibility didn’t look great,
but we were at least able to follow each other’s lights or fins. I had my light trained on Rob’s fins, and
still had a tough time following.
Bumping into things and running aground wasn’t fun. Soon I lost Rob’s fins, and tried to continue
hoping to see him in a minute, thinking “we’re all in the Lagoon, if I need to
surface to find someone, or the way out, I’m not going to hesitate” I tried to
see what depth I was swimming at, and had a tough time even seeing my computer,
right up to my mask! The visibility was THAT
BAD! I ran into some grass, and thought
I must be over towards the wall, so since I hadn’t seen anyone for a short time,
I decided to surface. When I looked around,
I saw two sets of bubbles maybe about 10 feet apart and 20 feet away from me,
so I dropped back down and tried to intercept. That didn’t work, so I figured,
I was done. I surfaced again, and soon
saw John’s head break the surface, then Rob’s.
We were done! Not a BAD surface
swim, but enough.
Duration: 45 minutes
Deepest Depth: 95 ft.
Coldest Temp: 37º
Actually a really good dive! No issues to speak of, and I
felt pretty good for the first time in the 119’s! (although I wasn’t overly
comfortable in the 130’s at Dutch last weekend) My air consumption looked a
little skewed this week, probably because I surface swam face down pretty hard
swimming out of the lagoon, but felt pretty good throughout the dive. Rob ended up with a decent amount in his
single, and didn’t seem to have any difficulties. John came back with more air than he started,
so he was good as well!
We packed, and headed to PizzAtown, where they need to get
some more Tröegs in stock!
That’s it for me, I’m out of here! I have a commitment this weekend, that will
probably prevent me from diving, but I’m not ruling out a little later on
Sunday if something (hopefully) changes. (I’ll keep you posted on that) Five more Wednesday nights left, so get them
while you can!
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
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