The weather has been a mess lately, and a proposed trip to
Dutch Springs LAST Saturday, turned into a “never mind” with the screwed up
weather patterns these days, so I got to go hang with my wife and her family up
in North East PA, and hope that the weather THIS weekend was better! As the temperatures resolved into “Sixty
something on Saturday and Seventy something on Sunday” we decided that Sunday would
be the day! (Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think John was also originally
unavailable on Saturday, so his preference was also Sunday, but then with the
nice weather, something work-related came calling, so he had to bail)
ANYway…Rob picked me up around seven-ish, and we made the
long-ish drive to Dutch, both of us hoping that the set up space wasn’t a tough
thing to come by, and thankfully my thoughts that “Sunday would be a lighter
crowd” were correct! Once set up we
decided that a trip to the Trolley, then out towards the crane and see how we’re
feeling from there. (On this first really serious-ish dive of the season) I thought it was good to take it easy at
first since we’re usually doing something like this at Bainbridge once the ice
melted (and that probably would have been mid last month)(-ish)(and we would
have had 2-3 dives in already)
Once we set up, we waddled down to the water and after
finishing our set up, gave the thumbs down, and met at 20 ft. Everything seemed to be working right, so Rob
took a heading, and we continued; out past the old boat, and remembering how to
do all of this. We were a bit to the right of the boat, and started seeing
something in the distance further to our right.
There was an old platform and its floatation pieces sitting sort of on its
side, and I could tell by how he slowed down that Rob was as inquisitive about
it as I was. We shrugged it off, and
then kept going. When we ended up at the
ridge to the “hole” area, we adjusted ourselves, and saw that we were just a
little bit off from our targeted spot.
When we arrived at the Trolley, we went in and swam through it (Bigger
hole, easy entry and exit). Outside Rob
gave me an OK, and I returned it. He
pointed towards the hill where the Crane is located, and I agreed. As we got closer to the Crane, I could see he
was messing with his computer, he turned to me and showed me his wrist, I
looked and it seemed to be on, so I shrugged, and he gave me a “something’s
weird” kind of look, and then kept going.
We went past the Crane, and to the bottom of the hill where the Cessna
is located. We slowly went up the hill
and over the plane. Rob checked in, and I returned an OK, then he pointed off
in the distance and made a “plane” gesture, and I agreed. As usual, we started to descend a little, but
it seems that they put this plane a little shallower than the old
Helicopter. As we were approaching (in
nasty kicked up visibility…that I had nothing to do with) We both noticed
something that looked like one of the “prize tubes” from the dive shop party
(two years ago, that were never recovered)
Rob went down, and checked it out, and realized that it was too big to
be one. While we were down there, we did notice that some of the junk that fell
off of the old copter was still sitting there.
We then ascended to the new plane. It’s not quite as big as it looked
when they were preparing it (cold water shrinkage maybe?) but it was definitely
cool from an “it’s new” standpoint! (it looked
a little like how the Vandenberg looked several years back when I was able to
dive on it the first season that they sank it, a little bit of “stuff” on it,
but not cruddy) We went in the one door
(next to a sign that had an overhead environment warning on it…ok…it’s NOT a
cave…anyway) and went to the right. I
followed Rob, and we exited a few kicks later at the other door. I DID notice
that there was an overhead exit, and a floor exit, so maybe next time in we’ll
give that a shot. Outside, Rob checked
in and I returned the OK, and we headed back towards the Silver Comet. As we
got closer, Rob gave me the cold hands and cold signal, and I gave him an OK,
so I knew this was going to be a 45 minute dive, which was great. (Ready for a
break) we followed up past the platform, and did a safety stop, once that was
over, we exited and dive one was in the books!
Deepest Depth: 65ft.
Duration: 46 minutes
Coldest Temp: 40º
Not a bad “get the cobwebs out” kind of dive. I felt OK, but had a few issues here and there,
not to mention some nasty allergy kind of stuff in my head. Rob said that his
ears were “singing”...mine were about the same.
We removed our gear, and he told me that his glove leak was still
happening, so he did a little maintenance on it, and I let him use my other
inner gloves for the second dive.
Hopefully it worked. We also
checked his computer, and it seems that the battery died again. His T-3 also seemed to have an issue, and we
discovered a leak, so that puppy was put to bed for the trip.
We had our Wegman’s booty for lunch, and he went over and
visited with a few of his old firehouse co-workers that were on another
training mission. I just soaked up the
sun (and got too much according to my wife) When we had a good surface
interval, we decided upon our next trip.
This time, head straight out, and up over the hill, then go see the
tanker, come back and do another trip through the new plane, and decide what
was left. Ok, worked for me!
We suited back up, and I decided to try out my new OMS mask
(that I bought from Pete Nawrocky at Beneath the Sea) hoping that my cleaning
job worked enough that it didn’t fog!
Back at the platform, Rob gave the thumbs down, and I returned it and we
descended. We went past the platform and
along the bottom until we came to the hill.
Up the hill past the Cessna (Rob went under the right side, I went over
the left. We checked in, and Rob pointed
to the line leading out to the tanker. I
wasn’t sure if I was ever over there, and once we got there (in cruddy visibility)
I realized that I haven’t seen this, yet!
I swam slowly around it and tried to take in the sights. Rob found a spot and wrote his name on it in
the crud. We turned, and started back
in. We found the new plane again, and we
took a few looks at the underside, Rob decided that trying to enter from the
bottom with a set of doubles wasn’t a good thing… Seeing that I’m a little
larger than him, I didn’t even consider it.
We went in through the front side door, and this time I looked left to
see the cockpit. Not a bad view from
that perspective! Let’s just hope that
the people that feel the need to wreck stuff don’t mess with this and it stays
in decent shape so the Zebra Mussels can find their new home. We went back through the plane, and Rob
decided that exiting from the upper hole would be a better option. It was tight, but I made it, too. Rob pointed in the direction of the Silver Comet,
and I agreed. When we got there, he went
through, and I just took a trip around the side. Once he left the hold, he looked at me and
pointed towards the exit point, and I was ready! We swam up, did our safety stop, and were
done with dive two!
Deepest Depth: 68ft.
Duration: 46 minutes
Coldest Temp: 41º
Better, but still not great.
The new mask felt great, but the cleaning job I did on it wasn’t
adequate, and it started fogging late in the dive (a little on the edges at
first, but as the dive wore on, it got pretty bad. I let a little water in and cleaned it a bit,
but it was a chore!) I felt a little
better during this dive, but not where I wanted to be, so that was a little frustrating. My SAC rate was actually pretty good for
early in the season, and being frustrated, so I’m actually happy with that! Rob’s leak issue was still there so he has
something to work on to resolve, which just sucks! My gloves were fine, but my feet were a little
damp, so I’m wondering if the repair I did a few years back is starting to get
messed up. (My thoughts are to just get rid of the dry suit, move to Florida
and dive in a 3mm all year long…ok…now to convince my wife that that’s a good
idea!)(I think it is!)
We packed, and headed to Wegman’s (where I had a list texted
to me) (and Rob got a smaller list) and we had a snack and a beer. Traffic back
was a little tough as we got closer to Hershey, but not as horrible as a week
day work day at the same time!
Going to try to go get those cylinders filled at some point
this week (probably Lancaster, since the local shop is still being lax in the
repair of their compressor!) And attempt another trip next weekend (since I’m
headed to Philly for a concert on Friday night, I’m sort of pushing for another
Sunday adventure!) So I’ll keep you posted! Anyway, this season is just starting, here’s
hoping that something breaks with the old quarry, but that we can also figure
out some of the other stuff that’s within a reasonable diving distance! Have
fun! Diving 2016 is just beginning!
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