Sunday Divers

Well, my original plans for how I was spending my weekend changed a bit, and I found that I was going to actually be home on Sunday, and if my estimation was correct, I’d be home at a decent enough time to be able to get a good night sleep, and possible go diving if we went maybe a little later than we normally do on a weekend. So I shot Rob an email and asked what he thought.  He seemed to agree that it was workable so I told him I’d be in touch after the game to let him know for certain.  On my way home I texted him and we agreed upon a time, so life is good! (Don’t worry, I was stuck in traffic when I was texting)

Being the proactive and efficient person I am, I had my car already packed, and had an exit plan for the tailgating items in my other car…anything perishable would get refrigerated, anything else could wait until the next day.  All was good, so when I got home last night, I was able to hit the sack at a decent hour, and get up at a decent hour.  As I found my way to my computer while having my coffee,  Rob noticed I was up and asked if going a little earlier would work, and it did!   So 12:00 because 11:30 and I was on my way!   When I got to Upper A there was a dive class, and the DM of the day was none other than Lee who we haven’t seen in a while. (Diving wet, and one of his sons was in the class)  It was good to catch up with the Captain!  Rob showed up shortly after I got there and we set about getting ready to get wet.  Neither of us got fills since Wednesday night, but had plenty of gas in our cylinders to perform at least a 30-40 minute dive, safely!

After we set it all up, we waddled down to Upper A and were soon getting down to 20 ft.  All systems go and we were off.  Lee warned us that they kicked it up good for us, and he wasn’t kidding, although I think their kicking up didn’t do much to the foggy viz.  Past the boats, and through the trees, and we were soon passing under the pipeline.  Making a slight left, we followed the pipe and went down in the direction of where we thought the CAT would be.  Rob noticed that it was a little further off to our left, and after checking in, we continued down.  I felt that we guessed where the Deep Boat was in relation to where we started our descent, and were soon spying the back end of it.  Passing on the right, and around the front, Rob turned to the right and gave me the OK, I returned it and he pointed to the far wall, so I agreed.  Following over bottom muck and passing some of the debris landmarks, we were soon at the base of the wall, and following along past the Pump House.  Rob took the higher plane over the rocks, and took a little more of a lower trajectory, going around some of the boulders rather than over them. (I felt a little lighter than usual, and didn’t want to get floaty)  Passing the trees, and over more rocks, we soon were staring at the Tripod Tree, and heading towards the Outhouse. Rob went a little right of the Outhouse, and looked off in that distance (well what he could see)  He turned and checked in with me, and pointed in the direction we came, but were seemingly off closer to the wall.  As we passed back by the Tripod Tree and other trees we were now over the 110 Foot Trench.  Rob was tempted to go down into it further, but opted to stay at his depth.  I was a little lower and swam through some of the fog which was pretty neat.  After we passed over it, we were ascending by the Pump House.  Rob noticed that someone made a little fort for the Lobster, so I pulled him out, brushed him off and put him back on his usual perch.  We exchanged OK’s and were starting our ascent up the wall.  Seeing that we weren’t playing with a full deck…I mean diving with full tanks, Rob gave me a quick gas check, and I was good.   We continued and found the line that goes out to the CAT, and did a nice deep stop at 60 ft.  We turned and started back into the Bowl, and were soon passing the Pennsy.  The bowl was pretty kicked up, so I just made sure that I could either see Rob’s light, or his fins, and followed him through the dense fog.   We soon passed the boats again and Rob gave me the thumbs up signal so I agreed, and we headed to our safety stop.  Rob did a successful valve drill, and we ended the dive.

Duration: 43 Minutes

Deepest Depth: 97 feet

Coldest Temp: 37º

Probably THE most relaxing dive I’ve had this year!   No pressure, no problems, no issues to speak of. I felt like I was gliding through the water, but felt MAYBE a little lighter due to how much gas I started with, but had no major issues.  Rob is still working the kinks out of using his new computer, and was able to figure out how a few more things worked. 

We talked to Lee again, and saw that the dive class he was working with all passed, so welcome some more new divers to our realm! After we packed we went to PizzAtown and had a nice later than usual lunch.  After getting home, I finished unpacking the tailgating items from my other car, then unpacked my dive gear… So the ending to a perfect weekend!  Nothing like attending a college football game AND diving in the same weekend!  Let’s see how I can do this again!

Ok, I’m out of here. The last Wednesday night is upon us, and who knows how often we’ll get to this as the fall rolls in, but I’ll be sure to keep you posted!