After my crappy 2017, and my almost equally crappy 2018, (I
at LEAST ended it with a dive) today was my first of 2019! (which I guess is
better since my first 2018 dive was June 13th) After rumblings online back and forth, and
the odd text or two, we were finally able to settle upon a date to go to Dutch
Springs. (technically, we firmed up our
plans Thursday night at almost 9:00pm)
Meet at Sheetz at 7:00am, and go from there.
I spent a few hours checking and packing my gear and getting
up to my garage. Considered changing my neck seal, but decided not to do it.
(it worked) Woke up around 6:00am, had
some coffee, puttered around the house for a while, and noticed it was about
ten-of-seven, so I went to Sheetz.
When I got there, no one was there (and I was like a minute
late) I thought for a second; “wait…
THIS Sheetz, or the new Sheetz out off of Rt. 22 and 743”? But then I saw Rob’s truck, and I breathed a
sigh of relief. John showed up about two
minutes later, so we packed the truck, and expressed our slight terror of actually
diving. Rob and I hadn’t been in for
almost six months, John almost SEVEN! (I
know I sound like a broken record, but we sure miss Bainbridge)
We got to Dutch, and found our table space and
unpacked. Then we ran over to Wegman’s
for our lunches, then came back to set up our gear. We all took our time, because, we had to
remember where everything went. I looked
at my cylinders set up, and made sure that it seemed like everything was where
it belonged. I tested my Nitrox, then I
started getting into my thermals and dry suit.
I put on my hood, and picked up my doubles. At THAT point, I proceeded to get tangled up
in all of my wires and hoses, and had to have John help me untangle. I hate feeling like I don’t have a clue, I was
almost considering staying out of the water.
But I went.
We waddled down to the entry, and finished setting things
up, I felt my left glove leaking, so I had to play with that a little bit, and
thought I had it fixed. I put my fins
on, then my mask. I put my head under
water and took a few breaths out of my regulators to make sure the mask wasn’t
leaking, and waited for John and Rob to give the down signal. We all looked at
each other and Rob said “ready? 20 feet!”
So down we went. As we were
descending, John noticed that I had a little trickle coming out of the low
pressure inflator that was attached to my wing, we messed with it a little, and
it seemed to stop, but I kept an eye on it.
We then headed over to the platforms, to make sure everything felt
ok. As we were swimming there, my mask
felt like it was leaking, so I fiddled with it and reseated it and it seemed to
work (for a little while) Probably about
five minutes into the dive, I felt semi comfortable (other than the mask) and
seemed to settle down, and get my breathing (and head clearing) in order. By
that time we were at the Trolley, so I swam through it. At the top of the hill, Rob gave the down
signal, and we followed down the wall to the Deuce-and-a-Half, then back up the
wall. We swam across the barren
wasteland, and headed towards the crane.
We all checked in at the crane, and kept going towards the Comet. John and Rob swam through the comet, and I
kept clearing my mask. From there we
headed up to the platforms for a safety stop.
After that we went back in and finished the dive.
Duration: 39 minutes
Deepest Depth: 81 ft.
Coldest Temp: 40º
Sloppy, and wet, but it was a dive. Got some bugs worked out, and did a little
fidgeting with my gear. I put the mask
on, and tried to see what the issue might have been, but it felt ok. I greased
the o-ring in my left glove, and hoped for the best. We had our subs, and talked about our next
dive.
After about an hour (and a half) we decided to gear up
again, and go for round two. THIS time
it seemed that suiting up went MUCH better than the last dive. (Not as much cursing, too) We waddled back
down to the water, and finished suiting up.
The glove didn’t seem like it was leaking, so I kept my fingers
crossed. I tested and re-tested my mask
seating, and it felt ok, so I was happy.
Everyone was set so down we went.
At 20 feet, everything seemed to be fine, so we kept going.
When we hit the platforms, I was thankful that the mask wasn’t leaking, but the
glove was, so I have to work on that for the next time. We took a left and went
past the Comet to head out towards the Bus.
John and Rob went through the Bus, but I stayed out to adjust myself a
little, we then headed over towards the Plane.
John spotted the Helicopter debris on the quarry floor, and quickly went
to grab Rob. We swam up to the Plane,
and gave it a good “once over” (it’s getting cruddy looking) While Rob and John
penetrated, I gave a wave to a free diver that just swam down and looked over
at me. After the plane, we stayed along the front of the island, and just swam
through the massive amounts of Zebra Mussels, until we got to the line that
goes up to the platforms. As I swam up
to the platform, my mask started leaking again, so I had to keep messing with
that throughout my safety stop. After we
were done, we gave the thumbs up, and headed back in to finish the dive.
Duration: 40 minutes
Deepest Depth: 65 ft.
Coldest Temp: 41º
Well… other than the mask leak on the safety stop, it was a
MUCH better dive (well for me) than the first one. I’m considering getting rid of the doubles,
the dry suit, and wearing a hood, and only doing warm water dives in my 3mm
wetsuit, down in the Florida Keys… I just need to talk my wife into moving
there!
So we packed our gear, ran back to Wegman’s for a little
post-dive libation, and came back home.
Thanks (as always) to Rob for driving! Until the next time, be careful
out there!
