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!
