The GMP Factor…

Don’t ask me what GMP means…it was the result of a conversation with Ron that took a HORRIBLE turn!   (it takes a lot for me to have nothing to say!)  It also was the beginning of a few things that almost kept me from wanting to dive tonight.  Ever have one of those evenings when a few things just DON’T go in the right direction, and you think “Hmmm…maybe not”!  Well I was ALMOST at that point.  It was a “three strikes, you’re out” kind of thing, but I had a full count and the basses were loaded, and I ended up walking, and left it for someone else to hit us in.  I’m NOT going to count that my wife wasn’t exactly on time when I went to pick her up from work… so that’s out, but when I first put my regulators on my 119’s, the Dive Rite reg started to leak a little and I couldn’t get it to stop… Ok, time to get them in for service.  So I quickly converted my computer transmitter to my trusty Zeagles, and they worked straight away!  After I analyzed my gas, and turned on my computer in order to get THAT set up, I got a “battery fault” and thought “crap, I need to change the battery right now”  But I was sort of fooled, and when I turned it back on, it seemed to be fine.  So as a backup, I grabbed my old computer, and set THAT up just in case (even though it’s a few feet different…ok SEVEN feet deeper…but we’ll talk about THAT later)  As I was finishing my set up, I noticed that Rob was anxious to get into the water, and about five minutes ahead of me setting up…no problem, I just kept at my pace, and still made sure that everything I needed was working and in the place I wanted it to be. (and I ended up only a minute slower in walking down the steep path)  (and lived to tell about it!)

Again, we BOTH were experiencing allergy issues, and kept our dive plan at a “we’ll see where we end up” sort of thing.  Once we gave each other a cursory glance and told each other that he looked good, we put our regulators in our mouths and agreed to meet at our favorite tree at 20 ft.  It took a few seconds longer to get down there, but I was able to clear. I didn’t get any problem signals from Rob, so when we looked at each other at 20ft. we were ready to roll.  This time we were able to go through our usual path, and found the correct boats, and correct trees until we hit the correct pipe.  We checked in, and still no major sinus issues. My ears were “singing” each time I cleared, but nothing felt worse than any other time.  Everything felt good, so I kept going. Rob kept giving me “OK” signals, so it was working for him as well.  Following the pipe, we made it to the CAT in the sketchy visibility.  We checked in again, and still were ready to keep moving.  We were going a little slower than usual, but soon enough we were at the Deep Boat.  We kept going at the Deep Boat, and for a minute I thought Rob was going to take a trip down the hill to either the old Pump Building, or even the Deep Deep Boat, but I guess he thought “let’s not push our luck” and we followed back around and headed over towards the wall.  At the wall we kept moving out over the Deep Trench and over the boulders to the Tripod Tree.  A few second later we were at the Outhouse (and saw who we think was the “rebreather guy” on a solo dive)  We turned and started back over the hole and ended up at the bottom of the wall.  We started up and went past the Pump House, and checked on the Lobster who is still surviving “Mini Lobster Season” (although we aren’t in the Florida Keys, so he has a chance)  Up the slope at a little bit of an angle and we surfaced at the top of the wall a bit further to the right of the Aqua Adventures truck. Rob corrected course, and we were at the back of it in no time flat. And swimming along the line at 60 feet as a “deep stop”.  Arriving at the CAT, we turned and followed the line in through the trees, and into the bowl.  We passed a few trees, and some cable, and were soon back around by the Steam Shovel Arm, and headed to the twin boats.  Rob cleaned off the Fuzzy Caterpillar and we were soon at our safety stop. I looked for crawfish, and tried to keep my foot from cramping, and Rob turned over a few rocks.  After five minutes we were ready to roll and headed to the exit point, and we were done! (lots of little fishies in the underbrush)

Duration: 44 minutes

Deepest Depth:   T3- 95ft.  (Atmos 2- 102 ft.)

Coldest Temp: 36º

Despite all of the funky issues prior to the dive, it turned out to be a pretty good one.  I focused on keeping my trim better with the 119’s and felt a lot better than I had in the past.  Except for the foot cramp, I felt good the whole dive.  My allergies were decent for the most part.  Rob said that this was the best he felt in recent dives. So it was all good!

We packed and helped Ron decide on a new dive light (neither one of us knew the model of ours so we weren’t a lot of help)   But pretty much told him that what WE have is already obsolete, and unless he buys used, he’s stuck!  (mine was a close out special so…) 

We headed to PizzAtown for the usual post dive festivities!   I’ll be out of town this weekend, but expect to be back in action again next Wednesday!   We hope to see you soon, August is here already, and we only have so many Wednesday Night dives to go!

Have fun!

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!