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Our Wild Tip to Guppy Gulch by Darth Vern
Did you ever take part in something that was just to dam funny to describe to someone else? I just posted the dive report for this week and I found myself laughing at Tom Pritchard's story of trying to explain diving to his wife. Well on Saturday afternoon when I got home I went through the same thing as many other divers did on Saturday evening , I bet. So the following is my attempt to explain the day to someone who wasn't there.
The Departure
Our gang left Smokeys parking lot around 7:30am. We waited for late-comers [Cindy] till around 7:30. We reached Guppy Gulch in about an hour [we didn't get lost]. There we met the rest of "the gang" for the day. Our total was approx. 20 divers, pretty dam good for a road trip. This also included divers from York Divers who decided to join us. The people in attendance for this historic day were: Fran Rebert, Scott "the rock" Steinbaecher, Rick Huck, Matt Simon, Mark [M&M] Muenzen, Chris Mayo, Gerhart Maree, Dr Tom Pritchard, Chris and Norma Pressler, Don Bradly, Cindy and yours truly. The York contingent included Uptown Jim Brown & his better half Donna, Ron "Skipper" Kraut, Mike "Gilligan" Hostettler and Doug, Seldon and Phil [divers who's last names I forgot, sorry]
The Ordeal
We decided to go down to the docks with the map and check out where the "dive spots" were. We all headed down and out to the farthest dock. We were all spread out comparing bouy's to the map's we had and I decided "hop off" the farthest dock onto the main dock. Well when I did this the rope holding that dock to the main dock broke [sorry guys]. Now the funny part is, it starts floating away and no one notices. All of a sudden Cindy kinda yelps and grabs for Chris Pressler who was still on the main dock standing beside me. She starts to pull on him and it doesn't stop the dock and he jumps on it to avoid being pulled in the water. So now I am standing there [laughing] with Jim Brown and Huck and there is nothing we can do, so I started taking pictures. There was a small current and it carried them out toward the quarry from the inlet where the docks were. Luckily as the current went out it also carried them to the west. They were able to get to the wall and kinda push themselves back in the inlet toward us. Doug ran up to his truck and brought a rope back to throw to them. and he reeled them in. The funny part was the owner of the quarry comes down during this ordeal and Jim whispers to me [oh &%#! we are in trouble now] and I was still laughing. He yells out to the floating dock "Hey I didn't know Guppy Gulch had a Live Aboard" and everyone just cracked up. It could not have been a better beginning to a great day!!!!!!
The 1st Dive
After we all finished laughing , we headed back up and everyone geared up. We split-up into 2 huge groups and headed out. Well Guppy Gulch I heard the viz was bad and it was. I was a real wide range of viz from 3 feet to about 15 feet, depending on depth and location. This dive was about a wash. The group was to big. Everyone was on top of each other in our group. We saw very little. We did an hour dive just cruising around looking for things. I was anxious to get back and EAT!!!
The Surface Interval
Diver Dan missed a great one. Well I brought some killer chili, not too spicy, just dam good. Cindy and Fran made mussels with wine. Ron Kraut brought a huge pot of hot dogs, sausage and Sour"Krout" [get it?] We had a great time eating and conversing. It was nice to have York Divers and Smokeys divers together exchanging stories and mostly BS!!!
The 2nd Dive
We decided to break into smaller groups to explore the Gulch for the 2nd time. Me, Cindy, The Rock, and Mayo headed out and saw most of the boats and motorcycles. It actually ended up being mostly a wall dive of sorts. It was a decent dive but viz was a whopping 3 to 5 feet.
The Conclusion
A great day of diving with many friends [see the photos] the diving isn't really that good, but it is a good change of pace and a great reason for everyone to get together.
My next trip is Dutch Springs in the spring. I am hoping to get at least 30 divers together for that trip AND ALOT OF FOOD!!!!! Thanks to Fran and Norma for the additional pics!
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
I was surprised that Vern's dive report didn't include a description of the wildlife we encountered at Guppy Gulch. If you add the three fish that Gerhard and I saw to the five fish that Cindy and her group saw, you have the total population of fish in the quarry, which coincidentally matches the population of Delta, Pennsylvania.
Aside from the fish, Vern had the assembled crew spellbound as he described some turtle he saw. From Vern's description, I was able to figure out that this turtle was a shy creature found only in cold water. According to Vern, the turtle could be coaxed from the brush with a piece of lettuce; fortunately, nobody had any lettuce. As a wetsuit diver I can honestly say that I didn't see a turtle until I had been out of the water for several hours.
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