Number Ten!

Number Ten!    

Wow…. Just looked at last year’s report and realized that this is the TENTH John Weaver Memor….Errr….I mean INVITATIONAL dive at Dutch Springs!  (Let the pigeons loose!)  Hard to believe this has been going on for that long!   When I mentioned that fact to my wife, she said “you’re diving ten years?!?!”    Well heck, I’ve been diving TWELVE years but who’s counting! (thank you Aeris dive log for that fact)  Now that I’m working, I have to check to see if I have days off for certain events, and I was SO glad that I was off today since Columbus Day isn’t a “close everything” holiday!  So when I got my work schedule and saw it, I knew I was in! (although I was skeptical last week when I got my first nasty head cold in who knows how long)

The day was started at the Holiday Inn in Grantville.  Todd and Rob were apparently very anxious to get out, because they were there when I pulled in about 8:10-ish (meeting time was 8:15)  Brian showed up shortly thereafter, and John was close behind.  We consolidated into two vehicles and made the drive to Bethlehem.  Rob was held at gunpoint last week and had his wallet stolen (or something like that…he might have lost it…or one of his grandchildren hid it…we have to see)  so his Dutch Springs card was missing.  He decided that getting his 2017 membership was a better idea, rather than pay the “nominal fee” to replace his current card... ($215.00 Until the end of January!)  So once he got that taken care of, we went back to find more tables than we needed (I think I used three)  After setting up, we talked about a dive plan which pretty much had us going to the Trolley, down into the hole, then back around towards the Island, then depending upon what gas Brian had left (he was diving a single 100) we’d go from there…no biggie!

We got ready and went to the water.  Once everyone was set up, we dropped to 20 feet and did a bubble check ( although Todd had no bubbles, he was diving his Megalodon  Rebreather)  Everyone was good so we kept going.  I REALLY kept going because I think I’m now over weighted (lost some weight, didn’t adjust my lead)  and since the viz wasn’t  “pristine”  I hit the bottom before I knew it.  OK…add some air to the wing and the suit, and try to not mess up the viz anymore than it was already.  We made it past the boat, then over to the Trolley. A few went through, I decided to try to get my buoyancy back to something respectable, so I did just that.  At the back of the Trolley, John gave the  thumbs down to head down the hill, and we went.  We made it to the car, and everyone checked in. John pointed off into the distance and we followed.  The next five or six minutes reminded me of the dives over the “hole” at Bainbridge… very wispy, and very surreal… wish I had some Pink Floyd playing! (The middle part of Echoes would have worked) After not really seeing anything, John started up one of the slopes until we were back into decent-ish viz.  After we all checked in, we headed over to the Deuce and a Half (or the Deusenberg if you’re a certain person we won’t mention)  and then continued on over towards the island. We saw the Crane, but continued past and headed towards the boat and the Silver Comet.   John pointed to the line, and we all agreed.  Todd is still getting used to his rebreather, so we did our safety stop on the platforms. After five minutes, we pointed to the line that leads to the exit, and  we ended the dive.

Duration: 52 minutes

Deepest Depth: 90 feet

Coldest Temp: 45º

Good dive, other than my weighting issues.  I decided that I wouldn’t remove any weight, and just see if the next one would be any better…It wasn’t a bad dive for me, just awkward. (and low)  We put our gear down, and had our wonderful Wegman’s lunch!  We realized that since Brian hasn’t been in the water for about two years, that it was time for him to see the new Jet that replaced the helicopter…so that was on the list for the next dive.  60-odd minutes later and we were getting our gear back together.

We waddled down to the water, and did the 20 ft. check once we were all ready.  John was leading again, so we just followed.  Over and down to the Comet, (a few went through it) and from there we headed to the Jet.  When we got to the Jet, it looked like Todd was having some issue, but as we found out later, he was just testing things with his new “toy”.  We all ascended to the Jet, and a few went through.  I thought John was having a cramp issue, but he was just trying to sit on the wing to greet everyone when they exited the Jet.  Fun stuff!   Next stop was the Bus.  So we started over to that, and hit it like we knew what we were doing (well John did, we were just following)  After the bus, we started over to the Helldiver. The visibility was really crappy, when we got near the plane, I was having a hard time figuring out what we were looking at until I was right on top of it (the back end)  We swam around that for a minute or two, then John headed back to the wall.  We followed that until we were close to the exit point.  We did our safety stop in space, and after everyone was ready, we ascended.

Duration: 56 Minutes

Deepest Depth: 62 Feet

Coldest Temp: 53º

Second dive felt a LOT better than the first.  Thankfully, my buoyancy issues were (kinda) resolved, and I actually felt like I knew what I was doing.  So two good dives in the books for everyone! Brian didn’t look like he was off for two years, so his retention rate was pretty gosh darned good!  Todd got more time on his “Meg” so it was a good day for everyone!

After we packed our gear we headed back to Wegman’s for the post dive “snack” (and I had to pick up a fruit tray for my wife)  Traffic back to the Holiday Inn was crazy…tough to realize that so many people are working on such a wonderful holiday!  Shame on those employers!   (Christopher Columbus discovered America ferrkrissake!!!)

We parted ways only to encounter cruddy traffic on the way home. 

Tough to figure when the next outing will be, but you can bet you’ll hear about it!   So until next time!

Who Stole the Viz?

Or did the new owners of Bainbridge, sell their visibility to Dutch Springs?   But (as usual) I’m getting ahead of myself)  I was supposed to go to the Pitt-Penn State football game out in Pittsburgh yesterday, but with the crazy heat (and the chance to sell the tickets at no loss) we decided to bag it, so my wife could go hang out in a pool all weekend, and I could go diving!  So I texted Rob, and he was game to go, I just needed a fill.  Since someone that isn’t overly the best person for a Nitrox fill was (purportedly according to the website) working the dive shop,  (at least according to the schedule) Rob said he’d meet me there Saturday morning and do my fill.  When we got there, someone we didn’t expect was working, and it would have been ok to have him do it… no biggie, and thanks for running down to Hershey, Rob!

The plan (since it was Dutch on a Sunday) was to leave from here at 7:00am and try to get tables, then go to Wegmans, for lunch. (hey, it worked last time) Rob was having happy sleep, so he was running a little late, but not a big deal, we got a few good tables.  Once we got the canopy set up, we ran to Wegman’s for our "Danny’s Favorite" subs, and went back over and started getting everything set up.  There as a nice breeze blowing, and it was pleasant putting on the stuff.  The plan was run out towards the Trolley, then over the hill to the hole,  go to the crane, and figure it out from there.  Easy enough plan.

We dropped to 20 ft. and since everything was coming from the right places, we kept going.  Visibility heading over towards the platforms was pretty bad, and by the time we saw them, we were right on top of them, so this was going to be fun!  Rob took his compass heading, and we started swimming along the bottom, we passed by some of the anchors for the water park part of the lake, so Rob figured find the ridge, and just work our way back.  We were soon at the Trolley (which was really tough to see) and Rob gave the down the hill sign, so I agreed.  At about 65-70 feet, Rob had that ‘we aren’t seeing anything so why keep going’ look, so he started back up, and I followed.  We were swimming along the bottom, and over things we hadn’t seen before.  We were soon passing a telephone pole I don’t remember seeing very often,  (Rob said we passed the blast shack, I totally missed that)(Heck I think Rob almost missed the Trolley, originally,  the viz was so cruddy)  So we kept swimming.  The next thing I saw just blew me away. We were at the Tanker truck!  I’m sure Rob heard my surprised sound, and when he turned towards me, I just shrugged, and laughed.  He shrugged, then pointed back in…so I agreed, and followed. We were soon back at the island, but nothing was looking overly familiar as far as the Cessna, so since we were that close, we just surfaced.  Rob found the buoy for it, took a heading, and we started back down. From there we found the line that leads up to it so he started following that.  As we swam , it was starting to get into warmer water, so we just dropped a little to stay cool, and got lost again.  Once we found the wall, we looked for a platform, and bagged the safety stop (since we had a few already) and finished.

Duration:  46 minutes

Deepest Depth:  77 feet

Coldest Temp: 47º

Ok, so we were wet, and not sitting home staring at a TV with a remote trying to find something worthwhile on TV! (Like a Stripes re-run or something)  A lady at the set of tables next to us asked where we went, I responded “I really don’t know, we couldn’t see anything”! (she laughed)

Rob was having a problem with his computer (changing his gas mix to 50% during the dive) so he sent an email to Oceanic while I started my lunch.  While we sat there some friends wandered over and chatted with us for a while, until we had a nice two hour surface interval in the books.  This next dive was going to be all rope led, Rob said he might take a sledge hammer to his compass!

We dropped in at the same spot, and as we were descending, I saw Rob take his computer off, and put it back on, I hate when I put mine on backwards, as well, although the time it DID happen to me, I left it because if I dropped it in Bainbridge, I would have never found it in that bottom muck!  (I learned to read upside down at an old job I worked at....like 25-30 years ago) We checked in at 20-ish, and started out towards the platforms.  At the platforms, we took a left, and headed to the first rope.  We followed the rope down to the Silver Comet (which was pretty much nonexistent in the cruddy viz) and looked for the next rope.  Rob pointed, and I started following.  This was out to one of the mystery boats, which also hooked up with the rope to the Cessna, so we followed that. Up the slope, and we were soon passing over the Cessna. After we got past the plane, Rob pointed to two different ropes, and gave me the choice, so I chose the one to my right.  We followed that into more mucky viz, and were soon back at the Tanker.  This time we weren’t as surprised, and took a lap around it.   After our lap, Rob pointed to the rope we just followed, and we started back.  Soon we were coming up the hill to the Cessna (I was shining my light into a hole that housed a crayfish) and over the Cessna we swam. As we descended back down the hill, Rob pointed out towards the Crane, so I agreed, and we swam along the bottom of the island.  As we got close to the Crane, I saw a large white fish that looked pregnant! Maybe more of those big white fish!  Rob was intrigued by a frog statue on the Crane?  Weird, but OK! Rob pointed back, and we followed back out towards where the Comet is, swam back over that then up the ropes to the platforms.  We took a few laps around those just to practice a little buoyancy and breathing control, then at about 50 minutes, Rob pointed towards the exit, and I agreed, so up to our safety stop.  Five minutes later we just ascended, and ended our dive on the platforms.

Duration: 58 minutes

Deepest Depth:  63 feet

Coldest Temp:  53º

Ok, not a bad end to the day! We saw more, (well sort of) on that dive, and were able to get back in a better disposition.  Rob said he can remember some dives there that were as bad visibility-wise, but I have to admit that I think this was the worst I’ve experienced out here.  After we finished, I wandered over to see my friend Donna who was testing out a rebreather. Her instructor let me try it on (I never tried one before) and I swear that it was lighter than an aluminum 80!   (Lisa would KILL me if I even suggested buying something that expensive!)

After we packed, we wandered over to Wegman’s in search of snacks, beers, and olive bread (the kind with little olives in it, not just an olive oil rub)  But we only found the snacks and beers.  (Sorry MaryJean, we tried!)

Well…hoping to get out again soon, but really can’t promise anything. Penn State Football season is in full swing, and other things on weekends are preventing me from committing, so I’ll be in touch when I can!  I did check, and I am off on Columbus day!  So that tradition will be able to be upheld! (well unless my wife screws that up….)   Thanks to Rob for being available to dive! (and drive!) Stay safe out there!

Well… I couldn’t have done any better…

…so no use complaining about it. <insert shrugging emoticon>

But I’m getting ahead of myself… A beautiful (early) day, we met at Sheetz around 7:00-ish and packed up Rob’s truck for the long trip to Dutch Springs. John was joining us for the dive today, not just the post dive snack time. Since we’ve found the weekends to be fairly packed up there, we decided to go early in order to find a table, however, when you DO go early, you have to take what you can get at Wegman’s since the made to order sub shop doesn’t open until 9:00am…(although last week we DID find some pretty good  “stock” ham and Swiss subs)  A thought last weekend was “Hmmm, maybe if we got in to Dutch, found our tables, THEN wandered over to Wegman’s at 9:00 we’d be good!”  So we tried it.  Got to Dutch about 8:30-ish. As we drove in, the “attendant” asked if we were with a dive shop, so we said no (we weren’t)  so he said “go set up at the tables by that big white canopy, no one has it rented this weekend”  SCORE!  Not a bad place to set up.  So we got our gear unloaded, and decided to take the run to Wegman’s.  At the gate on the way out, we were given a card to hang in our car with the number of people in it in order to return, and we ran and got our subs. 

Once we were back, we set up and decided that we were going to try to hit the deep hole out past the Trolley, then come back and decide when we got to the Island, which way to go depending upon psi remaining. Easy enough plan!  We DID hear from Jim that the visibility was pretty crappy, he was there putting the markers for the prizes out for Lancaster Scuba’s picnic.  But we figured that it wouldn’t be THAT bad. 

We dropped in and did a quick bubble check at 20, everything seemed fine, so John took his heading and we started out.  We passed the platforms, and the boat, and were soon at the Trolley.  Jim was right, the viz WAS pretty crappy.  So we went through the Trolley, and reconvened at the back. John gave the thumbs down, and down the hill we went, past the car, and then out towards the 100’ hole.  So we swam, and swam, and swam…Nada… No landmarks, nothing.  John checked his compass, Rob consulted, and we kept going. Nothing. Well, we were getting close to DECO, I actually got within about 12 minutes of needing DECO (Rob said he was about 10) and we started up a slope.  We ended up back at the Blast Shack that we found when we missed the Deuce and a Half last week, and started out to find the Island. So we kept swimming, and still saw nothing that was familiar. At about 36 minutes, I got the up signal, and thought “hmmm, that doesn’t look like a platform above us”  John gave the safety stop sign, and we took our safety stop.  After five minutes, we surfaced, and found that we were ON the island, staring at the ball for the boat, probably.  So we thought “Ok, surface swim”… so back in, and we were done!

Duration: 47 minutes

Deepest Depth: 91 feet

Coldest Temp: 44º

Not what we planned, but not a horrible dive….we surfaced, we weren’t stuck home watching old movies, and lounging, so it was good!   After looking at a few maps and trying to decide where we were, we gave up, and just figured it was one of those dives that people don’t normally do (and heck we DID find the 55 gallon drum with the Mateus bottle on it!)(it’s not every day you see that attraction, since it’s not listed on many of the maps affiliated with Dutch Springs!)(and we’re not telling you where it is, so there!)

We ate our lunch, and tried to decide what to do next. The general consensus was to just follow ropes, and try to get back without running out of air. (although a trip to the new plane wasn’t out of the question.)  We did what we had to do, then suited back up.  We dropped in from the entry on the other side of our parking lot (so we had a straight shot to the bus).  We hit 20 feet, and saw no bad bubbles, so we continued.  At the Bus, no one wanted to go through, so the heading was taken, and we started out to the plane.  When we got there, we saw the tie downs, and slowly ascended up to it. (I almost ran into a wing, but that’s not uncommon)  We took a quick trip through it, then decided to follow back towards the island.  At the island we went along, and were soon swimming over by the crane, I saw what looked like one of the prize markers for Lancaster Scuba, but decided to leave it.  John went under the crane, and Rob and I went over.  We soon decided that seeing anything was out of the question, so the “up” sign was given, and we were at our safety stop.  Five minutes later we were surfacing, and noticed that there wasn’t a platform, so we moved a little to our right (I was thinking; NO NOT ANOTHER SURFACE SWIM!)  But we were just around the bend from it and we were done!

Duration:  44 minutes

Deepest Depth: 63 feet

Coldest Temp: 51º

Well…it wasn’t one of those wonderful dives that you could see everything that you’ve grown accustomed to at Dutch Springs, but it was better than standing in a store holding her purse while she tried things on.  John apologized for getting us lost, but as I said at the beginning, no biggie I could NOT have done any better, I am not the navigator that he is. Even on a good day, he’d be a lot better than me! We got in, we made it out, and lived to tell about it! (and even had about 1000psi or more left in the cylinders!)

Afterwards, we wandered back to Wegman’s for a quick snack and something frothy. (I think John needs getting carded to help him continue to feel young)  Not sure when the next outing will be, but I’m sure you’ll hear about it!   Enjoy! Be safe if you go!

Guinea Pigs…

Since 100% Oxygen is a tough commodity to come by in beautiful Hershey Pennsylvania, it trickles down into Nitrox production at local dive shops, so if you want the “Voo Doo Gas” you have to make other arrangements.  (and my wife won’t let me buy the full Nitrox/Trimix system that’s up for sale within five miles of my house, so you need to do the next best thing, just find who has the gas)  Rob heard that West Shore Scuba was starting to pump Nitrox, so we were making plans to run over on the day that they were opening early. Ever the cautious one,  I shot a note to Ron to see if he was ready to go, and thankfully I did, because he wasn’t.  But possibly that night, so I said I’ll get back in touch.  Well things took a little longer than expected, and we weren’t able to go over until Saturday morning.  I think once he gets a little time in with it, he’ll be better, but it seems like a good system, and he just has a few growing pains to work out, so be patient with him! My name is the first in his Nitrox log book, Rob’s is second, so we were the first ones!  (that’s kind of cool!) We got our fills, but they weren’t the cave fills we’re used to, so we had to do some things a little differently, and pay a little more attention to how much gas we were breathing…. We’re old pros, so I’m sure we’d be able to get at least something in.

Since when we got there last week it was a little packed, we decided to attempt leaving earlier (which meant getting up earlier) but it paid off! Although Wegman’s didn’t have their made to order sub shop open quite yet (9:00am) we were able to get some nice premade ham and cheese sandwiches that were actually pretty darn good!  When we got to the quarry, we were able to find two tables that were free, so we quickly scarfed them up!  And since the aforementioned local shop was having an Advanced Open Water class, (thankfully it wasn’t a Nitrox class) we decided to go over and talk to John (and give Ron a hassle) We also saw a few familiar faces from the old Bainbridge Days wandering about, so there were friendly people all over.

We set up and decided that we wanted to be back in with 1500psi in our cylinders, so Rob made a quick and easy dive plan, with escape routes depending upon air consumption (Looking at my dive computer, my starting pressure was 2730psi) So that was an ambitious task to come back at 1500, but not impossible.  So we dropped to 20ft. and made sure everything looked good, and we were off. Rob took his heading, and soon we were passing the old boat on our way to the Trolley. I noticed that my left hand felt a little squishy, so I was playing with my glove a bit, with no luck, so I just sucked it up and had a cold-ish wet hand.  We got to the Trolley, and went through.  Rob pointed downhill, and I agreed, so down we went.  We were soon looking at the car, and heading towards the Deuce and a Half. We missed it and swam around at 85 feet for a few minutes, then found the hill and started up. We were soon staring at the blast shack, so we missed it by a little.  The visibility left a lot to be desired, so it’s highly possible we swam right by it and didn’t see it.  Rob took another heading and we were swimming across some open terrain until we found the hill, and started around it, and were soon swimming past what we thought was the crane (which was pretty much not visible, you could also tell there were people by it recently)  Rob asked me what my psi was, and I told him, so as we passed by the Comet, we just headed up to the platforms, and decided to head in to save some gas, a quick safety stop and we were done! 

Deepest Depth: 86 feet

Duration: 39 minutes

Coldest Temp: 47º

Not a horrible dive, almost 40 minutes, and only about 1000psi used.  When I pulled my dry suit off, my whole left arm up past my elbow was soaked, so I figured I’d just dive in my wet gloves the next dive, and hope that my under garments dried in the sun. (they did) 

We had our lunch, and went over to see the guys from the shop again, I ran into another friend that was there with her students from Liquid Therapy Diving, where she trains active military and veterans free of charge, on donations. If you can, check her out and give what you can, Donna’s doing a great thing!! 

http://www.liquidtherapydiving.org/

After we decided it was time to go back in, we decided to keep it simple and just follow the ropes out to the tanker and back in; easy enough. I decided to take along my pony bottle just in case.  So we went back in, set up and met at 20 feet.  Everything felt good (and it was weird getting used to the wet gloves) so we kept going.  As we descended, I was getting a little bit of a squeeze in my left leg, so I was trying to get some air into it.  I got a little, but when we got to the platform area, I just grabbed on and tilted, and the squeeze was gone!   I followed Rob off to the left, and we were soon passing the Comet, and found the first line.  Off to the boat, then to the next line up the hill to the Cessna. Over the Cessna, we checked in, and were still a go, so we kept going.  The visibility at the line left a lot to be desired, so Rob took another heading, and we dropped where the viz was better, and were soon at the tanker where the viz was actually decent! (not many students going out there)  We took a trip around it, and looked at some of the hardware on top of it, then followed the line back in towards the hill.  Around the hill, and we did a quick gas check, since we still had a decent amount, we just followed the bottom of the hill to the Crane (well we think it was the Crane)  Rob looked at me and gave me a choice, head back in or head back towards the Comet (at first I thought it was the direction…this way…then that way, but then made it look like one or the other)  So I said Comet.  We swam back out, and found the Comet again.  Rob went through, and as I turned to just go along side, I got nailed in the leg by someone swimming by.  I followed Rob’s bubbles, and he exited the boat then pointed up the rope, and I agreed. (as he got knocked by the people that just ran into me)  When we got to the platform, we just did a few trips around it to see if those guys would finish way before us.  I tried using my breath only to go under the boards, and got one to work.  After our second trip around, Rob pointed to the rope, and I said OK!  So we did a safety stop, and finished. (678psi, and I didn’t use the pony)(although I probably should have, it’s up for visual inspection…)

Deepest Depth: 64 feet

Duration: 49 minutes

Coldest Temp: 50º

Again, not a bad dive, very relaxing! Except for the leg squeeze at the beginning, I felt pretty good throughout. (although Rob lost me during the safety stop, I wasn’t far, though) 

After tearing everything down, we met John over at Wegman’s for some post-dive refreshments (lemonade and cookies!)(that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!)  And then we went our separate ways.  Well, we made it, the gas we were breathing worked, and we lived to tell about it!  

When I got home, I filled that dry glove with water (hey, it was already wet) and found that it’s not leaking, so I have a few other things to check out…if not dive two next time will be with wet gloves again!  SPEAKING of next time, there is talk for next weekend, so stay tuned!