Ok...Back At It….

Well…the week went faster than expected, but thankfully I got a fill on Monday.  Throughout the week Lisa was wondering what to do this weekend, and kept asking me if I was diving on Saturday (she already knew that Sunday was out because Rob’s helping with a class) So I bugged Rob a few times, and finally he was able to commit! (and she decided what she was going to do…leave town)  I had a concert at the Hershey Theater on Friday night, so I said that my arrival Saturday might be a LITTLE flexible, but I didn’t need any flexibility (had this been the 80’s, then…well we’ll just leave it at...the 80’s were a special time for me)(and I wasn’t diving, so….)  

I got home, and packed my car at 11:00pm, made sure my cat was happy for the evening, and jumped into bed.  I fell asleep fairly easily, of course Lisa’s iPad was plugged in and charging, but wasn’t turned off (…or the sound turned down) so the first time she got an email it made a “BLEEP”-ish sound…and woke me up…12:30am…great, so I quickly went over, and turned the power off, and went back to sleep.  My alarm was set for 7:00, but I forgot to set the cat for the same time, so SHE was up at 6:15-6:30-ish making noise at the top of the steps…so I had to wake up because she wasn’t going to let me sleep…no problem…I think I got enough sleep. I had my breakfast, and my coffee, got the cat squared away for the morning, then got everything I needed ready,  and started down to the quarry at around 9:30, I think I made it down in record time.

Rob got there shortly after me, and there was no one there except for what appeared to be an Open Water class down below.  Upper A was empty. Today’s plan was to get to the Deep Boat, and decide from there.   Not a problem, with the visibility being good to moderate lately, it was a good thing to stay flexible.  This week I also decided to try the rest of my new glove configuration, so I brought the wrist warmers, and decided to use them along with my new inner gloves.  It took a LITTLE longer setting up, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it.  I also noticed that my neck seal looks to be starting to get a little dry rotted, so I MAY need to change that (or trim it) shortly.

We waddled down the steep path and the first thing I noticed about my new glove system is that my wrists don’t get cold (and make me think I may have a leak) as soon as I stick my hands into the water… THAT was a good thing. We set the rest of our gear up, gave each other the once over, and dropped to 20 ft. for a bubble check.  Rob said I looked ok, he looked fine, but I thought I saw a bubble trail coming from behind...but it must have been something just leaving his wing hose, because it stopped as soon as he turned for me, so he looked good, and we kept going.  Down past the trees and the Dolphin Tower, to the pipe, then over to the CAT. We checked in and all was still good, so he pointed to the LEFT of the CAT, so I was thinking “Deep Deep Boat!”  I found the pipe that headed down the hill, and kept my light on that…we were soon at the debris pile that used to be a building, and staring at the steps.  Rob kept going so I followed down the steps until the Deep Deep Boat came into view.  Rob looked at me and gave me the “back up” sign so I agreed and followed, looking in and under the steps as I rose.  At the top, we checked in again, and he pointed in the direction of the Deep Boat.  The visibility was a little foggy, and at one point he looked at me and shrugged. I thought we were still headed in the right direction so I just (guessed and) pointed to where I thought it was.  I was right! (for once) The boat came out of the fog.  We passed by it, and kept along the bottom until we hit the wall, then made a left along the bottom of the wall. I happened to look up at the Trench, and saw the Pump House above me.  We followed along the bottom of the wall and were soon passing the “tripod tree” which meant we were close to the Outhouse.  At the Outhouse, Rob looked at me and gave the “go back” signal, and I agreed.  We followed along a little further out from the wall, but came back in, and were soon at the bottom of the Pump House.  It’s been a while since I got to see the little lobster, so I picked him up, and wiped him off, then put him back on his perch.  Rob was checking out a boulder and part of a Christmas tree stand under the house, trying to figure out if that boulder is new or not?!?! (I don’t recall, but to me all the rocks look alike, but I don’t really remember the Christmas tree stand?)  After wiping down the dirty lobster we ascended to about 55 feet under the Aqua Adventures truck, and Rob pointed out the line to the CAT for a deep stop of sorts.  So we followed the line, and were soon making the left to come back in. Rob looked at me and gave me the “getting cold” sign, so I agreed and we headed to where we could do our safety stop.  After five minutes we gave each other the OK and we headed to the exit and we were done!

Duration: 43 minutes

Deepest Depth: 113ft.

Coldest Temp: 35º

Not a bad dive at all! I felt pretty good the whole dive, my hands stayed fairly warm, and everything felt great.  I felt like I was able to keep a little further off of the bottom than I usually do, so hopefully that’s a new trend. (next time I’ll probably make a new trench)  As I was putting my gear away, however, I DID notice that my neck seal DID rip, so I will need to change that out before I get out the next time. (something HAD to go wrong, just glad it ripped AFTER the dive and not before)  I need to pull that video from the website so I can swap out my seals… I may just do the wrist seals while I’m messing with everything.

After we packed, we headed to PizzAtown for a quick bite and a beer as a reward!    Not sure what the future holds for me next weekend, but I’ll still get a fill on Monday night just in case.

Hope you all have a great week!

A Much Better Day!

Ok, after having pretty much the week from Hell, all is just about right with the world.  After last week’s equipment issues, and subsequent “EHHHH” dive (at least we were in the water), this week took it’s toll, but the rewards were worth it (ok, not really, but the efforts of the week paid off)  I did a quick check of  the O-rings on my dry suit, and the right hand O-ring was pretty much dry rotted (the left one was fine) so that was replaced (and both were lubricated)  I looked at the rings holding my dry gloves to their respective “glove rings”, and it seemed that the “spanner rings” (Si-Tech’s description) were a little loose, so I went up to the next size, and that seemed to fit rather nicely and snugly.  So that part was seemingly resolved.  I ran by the dive shop on Monday night and got a new hood (I need to trim the bib a little) and that worked out.  Now having my cell phone give up the ghost on Thursday was another stressful thing that ALMOST kept me from coming today, but I was able to finally get that problem resolved last night, and only a few apps need to be re-downloaded, the rest of what I need on that phone showed up.  (hard to believe how much you rely upon a stupid cell phone) 

This weekend is also Penn State’s annual practice game (AKA the “Blue & White Game”)  but after a few times experiencing that, I decided that I’d much rather go diving than deal with the “tourist season” atmosphere up there.  And thankfully I had this day planned for while, because the weather was beautiful!

My drive to the quarry was very nice, and relaxing, I saw a rather large bird take off at one point (wasn’t sure if it was an eagle or not) that was pretty cool to watch, and I made it down in a nice amount of time listening to some relaxing music.  After checking in at the office, I went back to Upper A, and found some corner tables. John and Rob were soon to follow and we were all setting up in no time at all. Rob was having a slight glitch with his computer transmitter, so he borrowed one of John’s extras.  

We were down the steep path in a few minutes, and ready to do our bubble check at 20 ft.  My day was already good since I had no leaks in my gloves. (although rather than go whole hog with my new inner glove set up, I opted to just use the tubes instead of the half gloves for less of a “task load” while setting up)  I was worried that with the new hood I’d be getting some mask leaks, but the first few minutes were great, so that wasn’t the issue I expected…. So we’re ahead of the game so far!   The plan was to take a “Barn Run” since we haven’t done that in a while, and expected the visibility to be pretty decent.  After our bubble check, we continued out past the Pennsy, and through the trees until we passed the pipe, and met at the CAT.  We all checked in, and we were still a good go, so we continued down to the Deep Boat.  At the Deep Boat, we thought that maybe the visibility was starting to get bad, but as we swam out towards the bow, we noticed that it was clearing up, we soon saw the pipe with the line attached, so we started to follow that.  Swimming along the line, I looked down into the deeper hole, and it looked like the visibility was still pretty decent down there, that’s a consideration for next time. We were soon at the Tool Box and Step Van, and then passing the Water Tank. Everyone was still doing well, so we kept moving, following those lines.  At the wood pile, we continued following the line until we were at the Barn.  John started through it, and I was surprised that Rob went through, he’s usually pretty skeptical to actually go THROUGH it seeing that it’s probably going to be known as “the wood pile formerly known as the barn” pretty soon, it’s in that bad of shape.  After we passed through, we met on the other side, and “John the Navigator” pointed to our next direction.  We followed along the wall out past pretty much everything, and slightly increased our depth as we swam. We were soon, (well not really soon, but sooner than other dives) staring up at the Aqua Adventures Truck.  As we got to the top of that hill, John was already going through it, and surprisingly Rob was following (Rob was in a penetrating mood today, I guess)  I wandered around to the back, then met with them there.  We checked in and started back towards the exit point.  At one point I saw a huge catfish (that Rob thinks was in its last moments) just sitting along a small gulley under a pipe. I shined my light on it, and he didn’t move, but just looked annoyed, so I kept going.  We went past the Pennsy again, and John gave us a “what next”?   Seeing that we were about 43 minutes into the dive, it was about time to start thinking safety stop, so we headed to the exit point.  John wanted to attempt a valve drill, Rob kept watch, and I attempted to work on just staying in one spot (I was a little tired, that was a long swim out and back)  Once we were done, we started to the exit, and were done!

Deepest Dept: 93 ft.

Duration: 50 minutes

Coldest Temp: 35º

A MUCH better dive than last week, we were comfortable, and just seemingly in better spirits afterwards. My biggest concerns were all taken care of, and I was glad that my equipment issues were all resolved. Those are usually my biggest worries the next dive.  Other than a slight cramp (and kicking a little tree as a result) I felt pretty good the whole dive!  So no complaints from my end.

After we packed, we headed to PizzAtown for a little lunch and some frothy liquids.  We’re already talking about next Saturday, so I better go get a fill!  Hopefully you can join us!

At Least I didn’t Cramp!

After a few weeks off, (for Beneath the Sea and Easter) it was definitely time to get back into the water.  I talked to Rob earlier in the week, and we were bound and determined to go.  We just had to make sure that everything was good on the home front before we totally committed, and on Friday, the “go?” was a “GO!”   We put it up on the Scared Turtle page, and John was on board within minutes.  We all arrived at the quarry, only to see what appeared to be an Open Water class prepping.  I was thinking “wet suits…yikes!”  But they all had that determined look in their eyes. Not the water I want a wet suit, I was thinking, but you do what you gotta do!

Now in MY case, I have to use the old idiom; “The best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray”.  If there was ever a time that applied, today was the day!   If you remember a few weeks back, I had the slight glove leak that froze my right hand, so I was bound and determined to find a solution that would help if I ever got a tiny leak like that again.   I saw an ad come through that had some dry glove solutions that I thought would be helpful if I ever had a slight leak like that again… I picked up one part online, and figured that I’d get the other part when I got to Beneath the Sea at their booth.  One part was a half glove that went through your wrist seal, to help both the flow of air into your dry glove, and also stop any water leakage if it DID get wet.  (as well as help keep your hands warm) The second part was a thin neoprene glove that went on your hand over the wrist part, and under your dry glove that would work as a warm glove and as a normal neoprene glove would,  should any water get in. I thought that this was a nice combo to try, given my usual slight glove leaks. I got the parts together, and tried them on one of my hands in my garage, and it all seemed like a good combo.

Well…when you have all of this ready to go, it’s about time to have a major dry glove malfunction!  Of course when I was all suited up and ready to put my dry glove on over the new configuration, the ring that holds the glove to the receiver popped off, so I had to figure out in a pinch how to get it back on.  (it’s been at least since this time last year that I had to mess with it) It took a few of us a minute or two to finally figure it out, so we got it.  And then as I put the other glove on, same thing, so once again I had to quickly connect the glove back to the receiver.  I thanked my helper, and ran down to the water.  When I put my hands into the water, they seemed fine, so I put on my fins, then went to put my mask on…as I did, I saw a piece of neoprene floating on the water, I turned to Rob and said “Is my hood ripped”?  He said “yep, you’re missing a part over your eyes”  I was going to just leave it be, and give the dive a shot, figuring that my head will get wet anyway, and the amount of space that would have been covered would be insignificant, but as my hands were in the water, I could feel that they were getting cold, and a little wet, so I decided that I should run up, swap hoods, and get into my 7mm wet gloves.  I guess this only counted for two strike's since one problem was a glove, and one was a hood...so still a go!

Ok, all problems solved, so we were a go; we dropped in and met at the 20 ft. tree.  We all looked for any errant bubbles, and no one had any, so we all gave the “ok’s” and we were off.  We heard from Jim  that the visibility was decent ABOVE 50ft,  and not so great below, but we didn’t think it would be as bad as it was.  Passing along some of the attractions, we were soon at the CAT.  We all checked in and were ready to slide down the hill.  The scenery wasn’t as nice as it HAD been, and as we got closer to the Deep Boat, it got worse. I was wondering if it was someone that might have kicked it up, or if it was just from the odd weather we had over the past several days.  Passing the boat, it appeared that we were continuing along the ridge, and looking for the line that ran us out towards the Box Truck and the Tool Box. After a little swimming, the line was in sight, but I mostly just made sure that I kept Rob’s (thankfully yellow) fins in my light path.  We checked in occasionally, and all was good, (although I was still a little messy and felt slightly floaty here and there, every time I tried to get off of the bottom. I figured that at this rate, If I clogged up the viz more than it was, it MIGHT deter people from coming this way and not seeing anything anyway!)   We were soon at the Tool Box (which was all that I saw) and were then heading out with John in a different direction.  A little while later, we were staring at the Outhouse.  (well I was staring UP at it)  I totally stopped finning and moving, and didn’t drop or ascend, so I think I finally got myself to where I wanted to be, but 10-15 minutes into the dive…(and my hands were freezing)  We all checked in and continued on along the bottom of the slope. We were soon passing the Pump House, so I checked to see if the little lobster was there, he was, but would have to wait for a cleaning.  Up the hill, and we were soon passing the CAT again.  We followed along the slope, and along one of the cliffs, until John turned and pointed back.  I agreed, and followed.  As we approached the Pickup Truck, I saw John hold on to the side of the bed,  then I saw him stand and thought; “cramp?!”  Yep…I could see him standing on his fin, and stretching his leg…must have been a nasty one.  We continued on, and were soon at the safety stop.  I found my spot (at 24 feet) and did my five minutes, which I could barely see since it seemed that the second time I put my mask on, the defog I put on my magnifying lens, must have washed off, and the lens was foggy most of the dive. As soon as we were done, we exited.

Deepest Depth: 95 ft.

Duration: 44 Minutes

Coldest Temp: 35º

Not my best dive ever; but definitely not my worst. And I actually SAID that once I spit my regularot out when we surfaced!   I HATE to say "what else could go wrong" before a dive, because it messes with my head, but that would have just "made my day"!  Honestly,  I love dives when I know there’s room for improvement the next time, because I know that I CAN do better from a technique stand point, but when it’s equipment related, I get a bit annoyed because I have a little work to do, and it’s not guaranteed.  So besides needing to get a fill Monday night, I need to check out new hoods. (I hate my back up hood) and I also need to play with my dry gloves again this week, (got the Si-Tech book back out) And... I might even swap out wrist seals, because I think I MIGHT have a slight leak in the right one (which wasn’t the ‘glove’ that leaked THIS week, so I know that when I pulled my new inner system, it wasn’t wet on that side..the other side worked, so who knows?) I’m not sure if the glove issue had to do with my new inner glove configuration (as I said, it worked in my garage last week) or if I was just trying to make sure they closed,  and closed it too tightly…but I will have to check… I expect major dry glove system work this week, just something else to do.

After we packed, we headed to MooDuck brewery in Elizabethtown for some micro brewed beer, and a nice lunch.   A decent beer if you ask me, if you get down that way, give it a shot!  (The chili was pretty good as well)  That’s it for this week, we’ll see what happens in the coming weeks, it’s only about eight weeks until Wednesday night diving !