Wow…Already?

It’s hard to believe that the Wednesday night dive season is OVER!   Like most any other anticipated activity, it takes forever to get here, and then is over in a snap!   It’s also hard to believe that my life is going that fast as well. (another dilemma to discuss another day…)

On most Wednesday nights, the logistics of getting my wife home from work, and on to HER evening, and then me driving to Bainbridge is an issue, but her timing was about 45 minutes earlier than usual tonight, and I was on the road with a swiftness not often anticipated!  When I arrived, there were two guys that were in the office chatting with Susie and Steve, and I was the first one back to the water!  I had my pick of tables, but opted for my usual spot.  Not long after I was unloaded, a few people started to arrive, including Ron who asked if he could tag along with Rob and me. His partner for the evening was having some sinus issues, and his other usual partners were doing other things tonight.  I didn’t think it would be a problem, and when Rob showed up, he agreed.  The usual crew (other than ours) that is usually there was sort of small, I was surprised at the lack of people setting up at Upper A.  Right as we were heading down to the water, one of the other groups drove up, but it was still a small contingency for the last Wednesday night.

After we set up our gear, we wandered down the steep path, and submerged beneath the rolling waves to about 20 feet to do a quick bubble check. We were fine, so we continued on. Rob was leading, I was in the center, and was Ron sort of behind and to the left of me. (thankfully that he has a better light with him than the last time we had him tag along, which ironically was the FIRST Wednesday night dive!?  Did he plan this?)  We passed the boat with the fuzzy caterpillar on it, then swam through the trees. Rob found the pipeline rather quickly, he turned and checked with us, and we were all good, so we continued along the pipe.  With the recent change in weather, my sinus’s were in a bit of a weird way, and my ears were really singing each time I cleared.  I was hoping that I would be ok, and was getting slightly worried, but as we came upon the CAT I could feel that “pop” and I knew that things were good.  We followed down the slope and were soon taking a lap around the Deep Boat. Rob checked with us, and we were both good, and then pointed out towards the wall.  We followed along, and as we hit the wall, took a left, and passed under the Pump House.  Rob was on a higher plane, and I was a little lower than I wanted to be. As we got closer to the rocks, I decided to go around them rather than up closer to Rob and over them. Ron stayed with me, and I kept Rob in my sights.  We were soon passing the group of trees, and over more boulders. I stayed in my lower plane, and couldn’t get to a comfortable spot so much that I felt like I swam UNDER the tripod tree.  We got out to the Outhouse, and I was able to pop up a slight bit. Rob pointed out that I did a little bit of kicking up, on the way back there, which I figured I would with where I was in the water. I actually think some of it was my reel dragging more than anything at a point where the ground came up to meet me.  We followed the bottom of the wall back and were soon beneath the Pump House.  I ascended and checked on the Lobster, and we made our way up the cliff.  As we got close to the line, the “late” group was swimming near the Aqua Adventures truck, so we took a right, and hit the line to go back out to the CAT.  At the CAT, we came back in and noticed that it was REALLY kicked up, (not my fault this time) but continued on along the wall.  We followed Rob for a while until he turned, and we followed him back into the Bowl.  When we hit the Bowl, it was just dark, and I almost ran into the Pennsy.  I kept my light on Rob’s fins (and Ron said he kept his light on me) and we followed him around through some trees until we were at one of the boats.  At the boats, Rob pointed to the exit point so we followed and were soon doing our safety stop.  Rob did a successful valve drill, and Ron and I watched. Once he was done, we found our exit point and finished our dive.

Duration: 44 minutes

Deepest Depth: 95 ft.

Coldest Temp:  37º

Not my most comfortable dive, but not a bad dive.  The visibility is getting pretty bad, and for a short time it was tough keeping track of Rob, but none of us ever got completely separated. (and thankfully Rob still has the yellow fins)  I had some depth issues again tonight, not sure why, but just another thing to keep working on.  Sometimes I feel that I can’t find my “spot”, and have trouble trying to get back to it. I just felt like I was always at least two to three feet below Rob.  Ron said my trim looked pretty good so that’s a plus!

Looking over the summer, I only ended up missing three Wednesday nights.  Two of which weren’t my fault; one week was closed because of a storm knocking trees all over the road the night before, and another from a storm that just kicked up when we got there. (and soaked rob while he napped on a picnic table) So if it weren’t for weather related issues, I would have only missed one! (and Rob wouldn’t have missed any!)   I’m not a big fan of this time of year, because usually the Wednesday nights helped when the weekends were occupied. We’re getting into the crazy part of the football season, and I have plenty of games to go to, both home and away, so the weekends are getting tough.  Looking at my calendar, I think my next outing will be the John Weaver Invitational Columbus Day Adventure at Dutch Springs. I didn’t think I was going to make it at first, but I was informed that we’ll be home on Sunday. (I’ll be at the Penn State-Michigan football game out in Ann Arbor the previous few days)

After packing we all went to PizzAtown where they’re getting stingy with the buzzers for alerting you that your food is ready.  We must have embarrassed Ron last week when he drank “non-beer-snob” beers, he actually had a couple Tröegenators tonight! (Hope he made it home ok)

OK, so that’s it for the Wednesday night diving for the Summer (and the Summer in general since we’re now in Autumn)(and probably September...well for me at least)  so I am OUT of here…See you on June 3^rd  2015 for the beginning of NEXT year’s Wednesday night dive season!