That’s All She Wrote…

That’s All She Wrote…

I knew this day was coming, and here it is; My last dive at Bainbridge….  But…I think we made the best of it!

On Wednesday night, John had an idea that this weekend might be a bit of a mess with dive classes, and people trying to get that last one in, so I got a text when I got home that meeting at 9:00am would probably be a good idea. I agreed!  I met Rob last night, and got my fills, then came home and packed the rest of my car.  6:00am came really early, but that coffee tasted SOOO good!   I decided that since I was pretty much ready to go, I would just leave… so at about 8:00 I jumped in the car, and started for that last ride down to Bainbridge.

When I arrived, I saw a few cars ahead of me and it was a little early, so I thought that I’d just run over to the rest room, then by that time they’d be opening up the door at 9:00, as I threw something into one of the trash cans, the door was opened, and Susie, yelled out “Good Morning!” to everyone, and Steve was out chatting with people, so I returned the greeting, and signed in.  Stopped at the gate as I drove by and wished Steve well, then made my way back to the tables.  I got a few for our crew, and unpacked the rest of my gear and started setting up.  I took a little walk around Upper A, and decided to take a few pictures of the water. With the sun hitting it, it really is a nice place to visit, just a shame that below the waves it’s a little murky!    Rob was the next to arrive, then John.  John was consulted for some coordinates for the Barn (out AND back) so he gave his opinion on their plan. When it was time to formulate our last plan, I think that must have stuck in his head, and some of what we were talking about ended up NEAR the Barn, so why not?!?!  One last Barn run for old time’s sake!

After we all geared up, we made our way down the steep access, put on the fins and masks, and hoped that we had no leaks today. Rob called for a 20 foot bubble check, so we all descended.  At the tree, we all seemed ready, so we started through the foggy viz.  A few minutes into it, I saw John heading towards the left, and Rob went right-ish around a tree, then I lost Rob.  I slowed a little, and tried waving my light to alert John, but he missed it.. I swam a little further, but still no Rob.  So I sat there for a few seconds, then started swimming forward, and spied one of the lines, and thought that I’d follow that, and see where it went, hoping that I’d find at least one of them there.  Good choice!   I saw one light, then a second light.  Apparently Rob won, and I came in last.  (not out of the ordinary)    Back in our formation, we were soon passing the Pennsy, and heading for the CAT.  At the CAT we continued down the slope past the Deep Boat, and over to the small pipes and the line. We followed the line out until we saw the collapsed building, and the Step Van, then passed the tanker and headed over some more collapsed building debris.  We were at the Barn a few minutes later, and John and I swam through it, Rob is still kind of cautious, and went along the side.  We all checked in outside, and John took his heading for the SOUTH wall (not the North wall) At the wall we just followed at about 85 feet, and took in the sights. I didn’t think we’d see it, but pretty soon, we were staring at the Outhouse…I immediately “snorted” and thought “This is sort of a long way to get to the Outhouse”. We assessed it in the daylight, then continued past the Tripod Tree and along the wall. I could see in the distance that the Pump House was close by, so I looked at my computer, and noticed that I had about seven minutes before I went into DECO, so we got that about right.  I gave the area around the Pump House a quick look just to see if that little Lobster was still around, and he’s gone!  So I started to ascend with John and Rob until we hit the line to the CAT.  Along the line we did a nice deep stop, then came back in towards the bowl, and headed towards the wall.  John started out along the wall, and turned when he noticed crud raining down from above, (Dive class?)  So he turned us (I got a nasty calf cramp in my right leg) and followed the wall in to where we would do our safety stop.  About four minutes into the safety stop, I felt like I was getting a little too close to Rob and John, so I attempted to back fin, only to get a nasty cramp in the upper part of my left leg (which caused me to need to kick forward, under John) When I couldn’t clear it, I ended up floating up to about two feet to finish my safety stop, then started back down. At eight feet, I noticed Rob looking for me, so I just blew out, and started dropping faster, and fell on his head (sorry!)  We swam to the usual spot, to finish!

Duration: 52 minutes

Deepest Depth: 93 feet

Coldest Temp: 36º

Not the worst dive in the world, but a decent dive to end our time at Bainbridge!   I felt pretty decent throughout, and except for those cramps at the end, thought that I had a decent dive.  When I exited the Barn, I felt a little floaty, but it’s easier to compensate at 90-ish feet than 20, so I was able to get back under control. Looking at my air consumption, I could have done a lot better, I know I was sucking air the last bit of that trip before we started ascending. (I looked, I haven’t had bad breathing like that since about 2013)

After we packed, I gave the place a quick last look, got in my car, and drove out of there.    Rob and John will be spending their Sunday at about 20 feet with an Open Water class. One of the last classes to get certified there, there was a certified father there with his two daughters getting them certified. They won’t have the time we had there, but I’m sure if they stick with it, they will probably remember the cold dark depths of where they learned.

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