Back to Bethlehem!

After getting my fills Monday night, Rob asked if I was going to be around Friday to run back up. I said I wasn’t sure if I was going out of town that day, but would check. When I got home, I asked the Mrs. and she said we’d be home, so go diving, why not!     It was a crazy week, but thankfully this day got here and I was able to go get wet! (and hopefully stay dry)

Rob picked me up and we made the nice long drive to Wegman’s for our lunch.  After that we timed it right and drove right in. This week the weather was nice, so it was a little more packed, but still not horrible.  We got our gear together, and started talking dive plan.  We’ve been talking about the car that’s just below where the Trolley is located, recently.  I (for some reason…and I don’t know diddly squat about cars) thought it was a Monza.  Rob said that it’s a Barracuda, and that it was listed as a Barracuda on one of the maps we downloaded years back.  This week while tooling about Facebook, and seeing some pictures a friend posted of a bunch of different cars that are scattered around the quarry, he listed it as a Chevelle?!?!  OK, look at some pictures of the cars, definitely not a Monza…but certain views, had it looking like a Chevelle, and certain views had it looking like a ‘Cuda…so the first plan was to run down there and take a look.  Then hit a few of the other sites, and just make sure we have enough gas for a second dive.

We suited up and went into the water, decided to go to 20 feet to check for bubbles, and kept going.  We followed the bottom, and got a little closer to where the Aqua Park is located since we saw one of the old platforms on the ground, so a quick course adjustment and we were back at the Trolley.  Rob looked at me and pointed down, so I agreed.  Down the hill, and over to the car we went.  We looked in every spot that was still there, on the outside, and inside, but couldn’t determine the exact type of car, I noticed on last week’s dive that it was looking pretty beaten up, so it wasn’t a huge surprise that we couldn’t figure it out, so we shrugged, and headed over to the Deuce and a Half. AS we got closer we noticed that someone kicked it up like crazy, there was a serious cloud of crud all around it. Up the slope, and over towards the back of the island, it was still pretty bad, so Rob changed direction, and we went back around front to the crane.  A little trip through that, and over to some of the boats out to the  Silver Comet; Rob looked at me and gave me the “up” signal, and I agreed, so up towards the platform, and into a safety stop.  After a few minutes, we were done!

Deepest Depth: 90 feet

Duration: 35 minutes

Coldest Temp: 44º

Not a bad first dive, a little short, but we stayed conservative to have a decent amount of gas for dive two, not a big problem.  We were taking off our gear and started talking to a gentleman from Buffalo who was with the shop teaching a sidemount class. He was curious about the temp of the water, and was telling us about some of the diving he does.  (But 5 hours to come to Dutch?  Hmmm…) We had our lunch and then started talking about the second dive. Rob wanted to see if he could figure out the “brand” and date of origin that the firetruck had.  So we had a plan to get there and wander about that area on this dive.

Suit back up, and hit 20 feet for any weird bubbles. All systems go, so we headed off towards the direction of the Silver Comet.  We saw the sidemount class as we passed the platforms, and continued on down the rope.  At the Comet, we continued, and found the rope heading up the slope on the island to the Cessna.  Up the hill, and under the wing, and we checked in.  Next we found the rope for the bus.  Out to the bus, and pick up the rope to the firetruck.  The visibility wasn’t quite as good as last week, so it was an odd kind of journey.  At the firetruck, Rob looked in a few places he knew to look for any information, but couldn’t seem to find anything that gave him any indication so he shrugged his shoulders and pointed back towards the bus.  After the bus, he took a heading, and we headed back to the Silver Comet, we swam through the middle of it, and he pointed towards the back of the quarry, so I figured; ‘crane’?  I was right, back over to the crane. After swimming around the crane, he pointed towards the platforms, and we were soon swimming up on to them.  I got a little too close, and tried to make a course correction with my left fin, and got a calf cramp, when I twisted to clear it, I flipped a little, and felt myself rising. I got to about 8 feet and stopped, then tried to make sure had no air in my wing or suit to drop back down, and it wasn’t happening.  With the psi left in my cylinders, I was a little too light to drop back down so my dive was over. Rob was looking up and checking on me, so I gave him an OK, but shook my head no since I couldn’t drop back down, so he finished his safety stop (another minute or two) and joined me at the surface. I wasn’t overly worried since two or three times I glanced at my computer during the dive, we were at safety stop depth) But yeah, I guess when I have that little bit of gas in my cylinders, I should put maybe another two pounds on my belt, I was feeling a little “floaty” towards the end of the dive.  So…note to self;  stick 2 lbs in a pocket when you know you’re sucking the tanks lower than 1000!

Deepest Depth: 60 feet

Duration: 50 minutes

Coldest Temp: 46º

Other than the mishap at the end, not a bad second dive for the most part. After we went up the slope to the Cessna, I wasn’t as comfortable as I was earlier in the dive, and it took a little while to get back into the swing of things and where I wanted to be.  But other than that,  not a bad dive again! Rob put a little hole in his dry glove trying to move zebra mussels from the firetruck to see if he could see anything, he didn’t think those little buggers would bite!

After we packed we hit Wegman’s for a quick snack, and made the long trip home.  Not sure what’s in store for the weeks to come, but since this is pretty much the only game at the moment, we’ll probably be back!   We’ll keep you posted!!