Happy New Year!

Since Bainbridge is now out of the question, we had to make the trek to (O Little Town of) Bethlehem to get our “New Year’s” dive in…although we were used to doing it New Year’s DAY (which helped to curb the alcohol intake, sort of like back when I played in a band at NYE parties way back) Might not be possible tonight…Rob’s got some Mad Elf’s cooling as I type this!    We met at Sheetz around nine this morning, and loaded everything into Rob’s truck.  John and I haven’t been able to get our cylinders topped off, so we had to use what we had.  John’s doubles were empty, so he was using a partially filled 100.  My 119’s still had about 1850psi left in them from the Fuller Lake dive, so I felt pretty confident that I would be able to do the “one” that Dutch let you do today.  Seeing how John seemingly “creates air” on some dives, we figured that he’d be ok (I also brought my pony along so John could use that as a contingency, I think we were set!)

The drive out was pretty slow, seeing that there were a lot of moron’s on the road, and a lot of cops with their radar pointed our way,  we had plenty of time since they weren’t opening the gates until 11:00am.  When we got there, there were three lanes of cars several cars deep waiting to get in, we were told where to go since we had our membership cards, and got into line.  Thankfully we were able to get in fairly quickly and get tables.  After a cold-ish set up, we were ready to go!

Seeing that we had limited amounts of breathing gas, we opted for a shallower tour, and stayed out of the deeper crevice.  So off the platform down to 20 to make sure bubbles weren’t coming from places we didn’t want to see, and we were off and swimming.  Out past the old boat, then over to the Trolley in no time flat.  Out of the Trolley, we headed towards the hill and the crane, just to stay out of the deep spots, and were swimming by what looked to be an aging crane.  (or people are beating on that since the helicopter is in pretty bad shape.)  After that, we followed along the bottom of the hill, and were soon staring at the line that led to a very algae covered Cessna.  At the top of the hill, we regrouped, and checked remaining gas supplies, and we were still good.  Rob took a heading and we swam towards the Helicopter.  Word on the street is that the new plane is replacing that, and it’s probably a good idea, the helo is in pretty bad shape, and looks like it could just disintegrate any day, now.  We still swam through it (kind of like the barn, we’re daring!)  After that we ran back along the hill, and found the line that lead to the Comet, and swam around that for a few.  Free divers were getting in the way, and people with rebreathers were messing up the visibility, I’m guessing that they were doing it on purpose, because people with rebreathers SHOULD know how to not mess up the viz…or maybe they were lottery winners, and just bought one because they could.  (not often I can complain about someone else tearing up the visibility)  So off to the platform, for a safety stop since the exit point seemed a bit congested.  Five minutes later we all agreed to finish, and headed to the exit, and we were done!

Duration: 42 minutes

Deepest Depth: 63 feet

Coldest Temp: 47º

Not bad to finish out the year,  nice to get to Dutch Springs in the winter, since it’s not often that we do it, and the fact that it’s on a holiday (eve) is even more special! (and it’s good to be with great friends)  I didn’t use as much air as I expected, and will just suck it up and drain those cylinders since they are past their time for inspection (and I think one need’s a hydro)  We’re already planning on a trip to York for fills since our local shop is dragging its heels getting their compressor serviced, and thinking that if we head back to Fuller Lake, we’ll just dive our singles.  I experimented a little today with using my wing for buoyancy rather than just my suit (since I’ve been having some problems), and I think I did ok for the most part, just had to remember that I had TWO options to dump air when we were ascending. I dipped a little before the Trolley, and you could tell after we exited it… I chalk it up to penetration anxiety…. On our way out of the water Jim Brown who we used to see at BSC was entering the water, so more of those guys are coming up to Dutch.

After packing we stopped at Wegmans for a quick cold one and some munchies. (in a sea of last minute shoppers) 

Ok that’s it for 2015, let’s hope that 2016 is a MUCH better year, and we get better news about diving, and places to get our equipment wet!  Good luck to you all!