LOST….The Sequel!

After a very long weekend of being out and about, traipsing about in different states, I’m home, and got my fills in time for a Wednesday night.  I was able to get out of Hershey at a decent hour and actually beat Rob to the quarry for once (not by much, but I was there first) It’s always nice to have my usual table, and beat the rush, but it was a little bit of a quieter Wednesday. (Maybe people heard that Annette was coming out, and weren’t sure if John brought the tarp or not...you remember what happened that LAST time that scenario played out!)  Well we knew that John was going to be there, and that Jane (the tarp) would be in tow!  So thankfully the weather held of rather nicely!

Last week my computer started giving me some trouble because the battery was dying, so I made sure that I put in new ones, and (as usual) was skeptical about my seal job on the battery compartments, so I grabbed my back up and had that activated just in case. (However this week it was only six feet deeper than my primary!)

Once we knew what we were up against, Rob and I started getting ready, and were soon wandering down the steep path to the water.  Everything looked good, so we dropped to the tree for a bubble check. Nothing to report at the tree, all of the bubbles were coming from the right places, so we kept going past the boats and towards the pipe.  The visibility was getting a little foggier as we went, but we were still seeing the shadows where we expected them to be.  Pretty soon we ran into the pipe. Rob took the high road; I took the low road and went under it.  We slowly followed it down, and were soon looking at the CAT.  Rob looked at me and gave me an OK sign, I returned it, and he pointed to the left of the CAT, and down the deeper path. I agreed, and we continued following the pipe.  At the Pump House, we continued down, and Rob pointed at the steps, so we followed those down to the Deep Deep Boat.  At the boat, Rob gave me the back up the steps signal, and I agreed, and followed.  At the top of the hill we checked in and continued until we saw the Deep Boat.  We kept on, and headed to the bottom of the hill. We turned left and followed the bottom over the 110ft. Trench, and out over the boulders.  When Rob saw the Tripod Tree, we checked in, and continued until we hit the Outhouse.  Passing the Outhouse, we looked for the Big Boulder in the fog, and met behind it. It was good to see it this time, the last time I was having mask issues. Rob checked with me, and I was still ok, so we continued around the Boulder, out towards the left, and headed out to what I thought was the other side of the Trench, and towards the Steam Shovel Bucket.  After swimming over nothing for a little while, I noticed that Rob seemed to be moving a little fast, I just thought I was narced, and admiring the foggy-ness over the Trench.  Soon we saw one of the lines that run through the muck, and were at the pipes not far from the Deep Boat.  At the Deep Boat, Rob continued, and started up towards the CAT.  At the CAT, he turned to me and pointed to his wrist slate which still had “LOST” written on it!  I had a SLIGHT feeling, but wasn’t thinking that we were THAT out of it, and felt like my brain was probably a little wonky from the time at depth.  We followed past the CAT, then wandered around the Bowl and through trees for a bit, and ended up by the Pennsy. After a trip around that we hit some of the large beams, and steam shovel arms, and headed over to our safety stop point.  At 20 ft. we took a break, and I got a kick out of watching the fish swarm Rob…I was wondering if he had a tuna sandwich for lunch or something.  Five minutes up, and we started over to the exit point, and we were done!

Duration: 47 minutes

Deepest Depth: 117ft.

Coldest Temp:  37º

If he didn’t tell me we were lost, I never would have thought it, and still would swear that I was narced, and lagging behind over the barren wasteland. (which I MIGH T add was pretty cool, I was trying to determine that if what I was seeing was fog, or the bottom…or just my imagination…but it was neat!)   I’m still diving in the 119’s, and not really loving them in comparison to the 130’s. I feel better trim-wise in the 130’s. I just need to get them inspected and back on my back! I might also need to see if it’s possible where they are oriented on my back is causing a little bottom heaviness.  I also need to get my Dive Rite regulators serviced; I really miss them at the deeper depths. Not to detract from the Zeagles, but the Hurricanes just breathe so smoothly!

After John and Annette surfaced, we packed our gear and met a strange man over at PizzAtown for dinner.  We’re still holding out that he’ll join us at the quarry one of these nights…but as good divers, we aren’t holding our breath!

I’m hoping to get out this weekend, so stay tuned for that...but, I am out of here for now!

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

The GMP Factor…

Don’t ask me what GMP means…it was the result of a conversation with Ron that took a HORRIBLE turn!   (it takes a lot for me to have nothing to say!)  It also was the beginning of a few things that almost kept me from wanting to dive tonight.  Ever have one of those evenings when a few things just DON’T go in the right direction, and you think “Hmmm…maybe not”!  Well I was ALMOST at that point.  It was a “three strikes, you’re out” kind of thing, but I had a full count and the basses were loaded, and I ended up walking, and left it for someone else to hit us in.  I’m NOT going to count that my wife wasn’t exactly on time when I went to pick her up from work… so that’s out, but when I first put my regulators on my 119’s, the Dive Rite reg started to leak a little and I couldn’t get it to stop… Ok, time to get them in for service.  So I quickly converted my computer transmitter to my trusty Zeagles, and they worked straight away!  After I analyzed my gas, and turned on my computer in order to get THAT set up, I got a “battery fault” and thought “crap, I need to change the battery right now”  But I was sort of fooled, and when I turned it back on, it seemed to be fine.  So as a backup, I grabbed my old computer, and set THAT up just in case (even though it’s a few feet different…ok SEVEN feet deeper…but we’ll talk about THAT later)  As I was finishing my set up, I noticed that Rob was anxious to get into the water, and about five minutes ahead of me setting up…no problem, I just kept at my pace, and still made sure that everything I needed was working and in the place I wanted it to be. (and I ended up only a minute slower in walking down the steep path)  (and lived to tell about it!)

Again, we BOTH were experiencing allergy issues, and kept our dive plan at a “we’ll see where we end up” sort of thing.  Once we gave each other a cursory glance and told each other that he looked good, we put our regulators in our mouths and agreed to meet at our favorite tree at 20 ft.  It took a few seconds longer to get down there, but I was able to clear. I didn’t get any problem signals from Rob, so when we looked at each other at 20ft. we were ready to roll.  This time we were able to go through our usual path, and found the correct boats, and correct trees until we hit the correct pipe.  We checked in, and still no major sinus issues. My ears were “singing” each time I cleared, but nothing felt worse than any other time.  Everything felt good, so I kept going. Rob kept giving me “OK” signals, so it was working for him as well.  Following the pipe, we made it to the CAT in the sketchy visibility.  We checked in again, and still were ready to keep moving.  We were going a little slower than usual, but soon enough we were at the Deep Boat.  We kept going at the Deep Boat, and for a minute I thought Rob was going to take a trip down the hill to either the old Pump Building, or even the Deep Deep Boat, but I guess he thought “let’s not push our luck” and we followed back around and headed over towards the wall.  At the wall we kept moving out over the Deep Trench and over the boulders to the Tripod Tree.  A few second later we were at the Outhouse (and saw who we think was the “rebreather guy” on a solo dive)  We turned and started back over the hole and ended up at the bottom of the wall.  We started up and went past the Pump House, and checked on the Lobster who is still surviving “Mini Lobster Season” (although we aren’t in the Florida Keys, so he has a chance)  Up the slope at a little bit of an angle and we surfaced at the top of the wall a bit further to the right of the Aqua Adventures truck. Rob corrected course, and we were at the back of it in no time flat. And swimming along the line at 60 feet as a “deep stop”.  Arriving at the CAT, we turned and followed the line in through the trees, and into the bowl.  We passed a few trees, and some cable, and were soon back around by the Steam Shovel Arm, and headed to the twin boats.  Rob cleaned off the Fuzzy Caterpillar and we were soon at our safety stop. I looked for crawfish, and tried to keep my foot from cramping, and Rob turned over a few rocks.  After five minutes we were ready to roll and headed to the exit point, and we were done! (lots of little fishies in the underbrush)

Duration: 44 minutes

Deepest Depth:   T3- 95ft.  (Atmos 2- 102 ft.)

Coldest Temp: 36º

Despite all of the funky issues prior to the dive, it turned out to be a pretty good one.  I focused on keeping my trim better with the 119’s and felt a lot better than I had in the past.  Except for the foot cramp, I felt good the whole dive.  My allergies were decent for the most part.  Rob said that this was the best he felt in recent dives. So it was all good!

We packed and helped Ron decide on a new dive light (neither one of us knew the model of ours so we weren’t a lot of help)   But pretty much told him that what WE have is already obsolete, and unless he buys used, he’s stuck!  (mine was a close out special so…) 

We headed to PizzAtown for the usual post dive festivities!   I’ll be out of town this weekend, but expect to be back in action again next Wednesday!   We hope to see you soon, August is here already, and we only have so many Wednesday Night dives to go!

Have fun!

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

Bass Ackwards!?!?

The Dutch Springs trip we had planned for Friday didn’t go off.  Rob and I were still suffering with the allergy issues, and decided that we should probably hold off, but we kept the option for the weekend open for Bainbridge.  Rob decided to try some Allegra, and that seems to help him out.  I’ve been on that stuff for years, and I think it works.   (just not the generic)(it helps to be married to a Pharmacist, to know this sort of thing!)

The weather looked a little questionable, so I texted him and said I was going to leave shortly and go see if I could get us tables in one of the pavilions.  As I hit send, my phone rang and it was Rob checking in to see if I was still up for a dive.  We also agreed that it would probably be empty today looking at the weather, and the fact that most of the local dive operations had classes the past few weeks.  So I wasn’t in QUITE as much of a hurry as I was two minutes earlier.  When I got there, I saw that there were a lot of people signed in, and several instructors…I first thought that maybe they just used the sign in sheet from the day before, until I got to the pavilion area and saw that it was full.  There were several tables at Upper A taken, so no one is afraid to get wet! I texted Rob and said “nothing in the pavilion” He got back and was there in a few.

After Wednesday, we were hoping to get a little more out of it today, but we were still being careful. As we got to the bottom of the steep access, there were a few people standing there, (strange that a class was entering there) so we had to swim around them to descend.  Rob went first, and I followed.  As I passed the people, I started a little over towards the left, thinking we were headed to our usual tree…but I didn’t see Rob’s light…so I did a few 360’s and then I saw his shine….I went over to him, and we did our quick check.  All systems go and we were off.  Since we weren’t at our usual tree, and the visibility was pretty cruddy, we had a tough time finding the pipe.  We swam through trees, around things, under things, and over things and didn’t see anything I recognized. Rob looked at me at one point and pointed to his ear, so I thought maybe he was just taking a long circuitous way to get to our probable destination, and hoped that his ears would settle, until he turned to me, and wrote on his slate “lost”… Ok, we WERE lost….so he sort of re-grouped it, and we started back, and soon we saw a boat, and one of the big steam shovel arms, then the Pennsy magically appeared!  (I also found a rather expensive looking snorkel, and wondered if it was the one Susie told us to keep an eye out for a few weeks back) After passing the Pennsy, Rob had the line of where we were going, and we were soon following the pipe down towards the CAT.  At the CAT, he looked at me and was making some hand signals, I didn’t understand, so he just grabbed the snorkel and stuck it in one of his pockets… I wasn’t thinking there was a “stick that snorkel in your pocket” signal in the PADI manual, so I didn’t get it right off the bat (there might be one in the IANTD manual, but I haven’t really learned those yet)  So we started down the slope to the Deep Boat.  We had it a little better today, and approached from our usual angle.  At the Deep Boat, Rob pointed out to the wall, so I agreed, and we followed over the void until we were at the wall.  We followed along over the 110ft. Trench (which looked pretty eerie) and along the bottom of the hill out towards the Outhouse. We were soon passing the tripod tree, and there was the Outhouse.  Rob pointed back in, and I agreed once again.  As we followed, I saw what looked like a rather large dead fish…maybe the aforementioned “Bass”, but he was big!  As we went back over the trench, I HAD to slide into it a little, so I did...and it WAS eerie!  At the bottom of the wall, we started our ascent, and checked on the little Lobster on top of the Pump House.  He was good, just a little dusty.  Up the hill, and we were soon at the Aqua Adventures truck. I pointed my light at the line, and Rob agreed, so we followed that back over to the CAT, at the CAT, Rob turned along the other line, and we headed to our safety stop.  I seem to do ok the first few minutes, but the last minute or two I always tend to get a little bouncy, I need to work on that.  (well, I can use the excuse today that my 119’s were getting a little light, since I didn’t get a fill, but, I usually bounce a little) After our five minutes were up, we went back through the brush, feeling the nice warm thermocline as we did, and we were done!

Duration: 50 Minutes

Deepest Depth: 97ft.

Coldest Temp:  37º

Except for being the opposite of our usual path, it was a pretty good dive!   I still seem to feel a little awkward in the 119’s, and have to use the 130’s up, so I can get them in for their annual.  I was considering hanging on to them a little longer, to see if I could stretch them into September, but I really like how they feel.  But all in all it was a good dive!

When we got back up, there was no rain, so we didn’t get wetter!   On my way out after packing, I stopped and gave Susie the snorkel; she does think that it’s the one someone was missing, so hopefully it gets to its rightful owner!   As I said it looks like an expensive one, but…it’s a snorkel!  Rob said he didn’t like those anyway.

Ok, looks like we’ll be back again Wednesday…not sure who’s going to be back in town, but I’ll keep you posted on things. 

Climate Change

The mild temperatures lately have been just heavenly!   Wonderful for sitting outside at night having dinner and a glass of wine, awesome for sleeping, heck even my cat has been in a pleasant mood!  But my allergies?  Wow, talk about horrible!  Monday I was thinking “crap, I’m getting a cold!”  But by the end of the day, I was breathing, and overnight, I felt fine. Tuesday, same deal!  When I woke up this morning, I felt great, but as the day wore on,  my breathing got weird again, but I thought it was passable to attempt a dive.  When Rob got to the quarry, he told me that he felt the same way, so it seemed like we’d be playing this one by ear!  (and ummm…maybe nose?)

Since everyone is out of town, it was only Rob and me from our crew, and some of the other usual Wednesday night groups.  Tables were everywhere!   So setting up wasn’t as bad as the last Sunday we were here!

We waddled to the water, and thought aloud “ok, so how far do we make it with these heads”  I thought, the first boat before turning it! (but after all of the prep, I hoped to at LEAST make it to the Pennsy and back before needing to call it)  So we “thumbs downed” it and went to the tree.  Only 20ft. and it took a few good blow’s to clear the ears so far. We kept on through the haze, looking for the pipe, alternating with clearing my ears, and clearing my mask since I let a little water in each time. We found one pipe, but that wasn’t it, so we pressed on. Finally there was the pipe we were looking for, pointing to the CAT. (visibility in that area was pretty bad)  We followed down and headed to the CAT. My ears stopped responding about this time, and I was ready to give Rob the “nope” signal when they miraculously just cleared.  As I did, he turned to me and gave me the “not so good sign” but pointed down…he was at least willing to see how far he could take it. So I returned with an “OK”.  It took us about four minutes to get to depth according to my computer profile, and another minute to find the Deep Boat, the visibility was that bad.  We approached it from below and the right side instead of the left as we usually do.  At the boat Rob turned to me and pointed up the hill after pointing to his ear.  I agreed, mine weren’t THAT bad, but I was into the rhythm of things now, and not feeling too bad. It took us another few minutes to get back to the CAT, I had a feeling it was going to be a slow go…well better stretch it out and at least try to make it to about 20 minutes. I figure if I can dive at least twice as long as it takes to get kitted up, it’s worth the effort!  At the CAT we kept going and I saw Rob point to the line that goes to the Aqua Adventures truck. We followed that and were soon looking into the back of the truck.  He then pointed back into the bowl, so I followed, figuring that we’d just tool around up here for a little bit.  I was diving my 119’s tonight thinking I’d save the 130’s for Dutch on Friday (well if we go, no use suffering again if the heads don’t cooperate…it’s a longer drive to Bethlehem than it is to Bainbridge!)  Anyway, with the 119’s I felt a little off kilter since they are situated a little differently than the 130’s, so I thought I’d try to work on my trim with those cylinders. I think I did ok, but I like how the 130’s feel. They don’t seem to require as much effort to get things right. We wove in and out of the trees, and around the bowl.  We passed by the Pennsy, and came back along the wall towards our exit point. Did our five minute safety stop, I played with a crayfish, and soon enough we were ready to get out. I tried to follow Rob to the exit, but lost him in the viz, and ended up a little bit over towards where Steve has the boat parked when I surfaced.  So I did a little surface swim to where Rob was standing, and was done!

Deepest Depth: 90ft.

Duration: 40 minutes

Coldest temp: 37º

Given the circumstances, not a BAD dive, but it wasn’t in the top 10 of all time!  Seeing that I’m still stuffy today (and that I just got a text from Rob as I was typing this that Dutch on Friday is up in the air)  I’m glad we made it back ok.  It was a little tough clearing here and there, but I don’t think it was a dangerous situation. But as I just texted back to him…no use schlepping all this gear out to Bethlehem to just bag it after one dive.  So we’ll keep you posted on that one kids!  (It’s Todd, jinxing us, I just know it!)

Anyway, afterwards, since there was only the two of us, we were out of there in record time and at PizzAtown for the post dive festivities!  Still hoping for a better turnout in the coming weeks, it’s August on Friday, we’re halfway through the Wednesday night season (and we’ve had two taken from us…maybe we can lobby with Steve to let us go two Wednesday’s into October…although if all goes as planned I won’t be here for those two weeks anyway…hmmm…I’ll have to get back to you on that one!

So I am OUT of here!   I’ll keep you posted on the Dutch trip Friday, if not you’ll be hearing from me!

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!  (safe diving!)