Visibility: 1 Divers: 0

 As the Wednesday night diving season grinds to a close, you know from experience that this time of year brings the visibility issues, as well as the lack of sunlight during the dive. Putting both of these together makes you glad you spent those extra bucks and purchased your canister light. (or in Todd’s case, your stadium lights) (still haven’t seen them in live action yet, but the reviews are pretty explicit)  Last night was the “beginning of the end” to any light or visibility.  It may sound like I’m complaining, but I’m not. This just adds to the challenge of the dive, and makes finding things a little more interesting. (and gives you good practice for night dives!)

My usual arrival time was skewed a little since my wife was a little late getting out of work, but I texted Rob, and told him I was still coming, no problem from him. We were supposed to be diving with a friend of his, but he never showed, and never called.  So my later arrival wasn’t a big issue. (I hate making people wait for me)(just one of those personal pet peeves)(blame my mom)  Todd and John were also there tonight with their special guest Annette! (I was worried about the weather, but John assured us that “Jane” was packed and ready! Although the clouds I saw on my way to the quarry made me skeptical)   Rob kindly put his tool box on my usual table in order to save it for me, but some people apparently don’t understand the “if there’s stuff on the table, it’s reserved” unwritten rule…seeing who’s friend it was, the oblivious nature of the person was understood. No problem, the table I ended up with was fine…thanks anyway Rob!   I finished setting up and we were waiting for our third. Annette showed up in the interim, and the clouds parted and the sun came out, so I think her weather “curse” has been lifted by the gods!  At 6:00pm, we decided that our third was out of luck, so Rob and I started getting ready.  We were soon traipsing down the hill, well I was, I think Rob forgot to close his dry suit zipper after strapping on his cylinders, and John and Todd were assisting.  I didn’t ask. 

Rob soon joined me at the bottom of the steep access, and we were all tucked in and ready to roll, the “20 feet” command was made.  As I made my way down, and the pressure started affecting my mask, I felt that maybe I had it on my face slightly askew, so I took a little longer getting to the tree. At the tree I felt it was better, so we checked each other out, and we seemed fine, no odd bubbles coming from odd places, so we continued. It took maybe about 10-15 fin kicks for me to getting the mask entirely comfortable on my face (a larger nose isn’t fun, damn Italian ancestry) But soon things felt fine, no little leaks, and I was a happy camper, I mean diver!   As we made our way through the bad visibility, we passed things that didn’t look like they normally did (shadows as opposed to actual items) and were soon passing through the trees, and over more rocks.  Rob looked at me and gave me the “circle back” sign, and I agreed.  Back through, and he soon spotted something familiar, so we changed direction, only to see some lights coming from where we wanted to go, so he went a little further and down, and soon we were at the Pump House.  We continued down, and along the bottom of the wall, and over the big boulders.  The visibility was so bad that I couldn’t see the 110ft. Trench to see if the haze was over that (the bad haze covered the good haze) so we kept on.  We passed one of the familiar trees, now to find the Tripod Tree.  I happened to spy it out of the corner of my eye, Rob was a little further to the right, so I got his attention and pointed to it and he changed his course.  We were soon at the Outhouse and since there was nothing to see, we turned, and followed back along the bottom of the wall.  Back to the Pump House and we checked on the Little Lobster who was still happily sitting on his perch.  Rob looked at me and pointed back towards the Deep Boat (since we missed it on the way down) and I agreed.  We swam along until the Deep Boat was in view, and then passed along the front of it towards the ledge. At the ledge, Rob saw the pipe that goes down deeper, so we followed that. Once we hit about 90 feet Rob reversed course, and we headed back up the slope towards the CAT. At the CAT we checked in, and started back towards the Bowl.  We swam past the Pennsy, the Dolphin Tower and the crane arm, then through some trees and went to find our spot to do our safety stop.  Before we got into the water, John asked if we’ve been doing any valve drills, and while we both have been checking to see if we could reach our valves, we haven’t really done one. John chastised us, so we felt guilty and had to do them. So Rob made the sign that he was going to attempt one.  He did some of his, but started having a glove inflation issue, so since he couldn’t actually grab his valve, he decided to stop, but he did reach, and turn his valves to make sure he could work them. I attempted one, and was able to turn off my right post, and breathe my regulator down, change to my back up, turn the valve back on, and purge the regulator to make sure it worked. Then I put it back in my mouth and started turning my left valve. About halfway through I thought “dummy, you’re supposed to leave the secondary in your mouth and breathe it down before changing…”  Ok, I tried!  I turned the valve back on, and turned my center post off and on just to make sure I could do it.  I’ll attempt it again next time. After another minute, our safety stop was done, and we were ready to finish our dive.

Duration: 44 minutes

Deepest Depth: 94 feet

Coldest Temp: 37º

Despite the visibility, and the pathetic attempt at our valve drills, I think it was a pretty decent dive!   I got my 130’s back from their annual, and felt a lot better in the water!   (I like those!)  The visibility makes it a little bit of a challenge, but with Rob’s expert navigation skills, we got to do a little sightseeing! Everyone else came back from their dives safely and happily! (and with a tan from Todd’s light) 

We packed, then went to PizzAtown where we had a distinguished guest again, holding tables (and avoiding children) for us!  

Rob and I are considering diving on Sunday, Rob is working the local dive shop on Saturday so go buy something from him (so he has to count the register drawer before he goes) Keep an eye on the Scared Turtle page for any details!  If we make it, hope to see you!   Other than that, I am OUT of here!  Two whole Wednesday nights left, so get them while you can!!!

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!