I was going to write this one up from the "Scuba Tour" mass Discover Scuba event this weekend in Reading, then Jeff Raykos sent in a nice e-mail this morning so I figured rather than reading my blather, you could read a nice report from him instead. -- Mark

Just a little report from yesterday's event. Mark M, Mark S. Kristi and myself represented Smokey's. All went well but there were not too many people at the show. It was mostly retired folks walking around during the day. About 5pm things picked up a bit. We probably got about 2 dozen people in the pool all day. Things should pickup this weekend with Ted Nuggent being there. Yes...this is the same rocker Ted Nuggent who is also into hunting as well. I thought it was just a guy with the same name.

There is a good size animal exhibit adjacent to the pool with lemurs, black panthers, alligator and even kangaroos. The show is similar to the Harrisburg show but a fraction of the size. There are hunting and fishing trip vendors, trucks, campers and a little bit of everything you can do outdoors. Yesterday the local TV station did an underwater newscast.

Here is the link.

http://wfmz.com/view/?id=50582

You can even ride a mechanical bull. You may have to ask Kristi about this one. We all had a good time and the camaraderie between all three dive shops was very good. It was nice to work in conjunction with all the shops to help promote the sport. Pool temp yesterday was 77 and increasing. Big Wave Dave hopes the water would be in the upper 80's by tomorrow. I took some pictures but since we didn't go home till 10pm I didn't have time to download them this morning.

The site for the Scuba Tour is www.scubatour.com

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

Jeff

From Tom Pritchard...

Thomas C. Pritchard, Ph.D.

From Jan Taminini...

From Rick Huck ...

Diving Antigua 

My wife, Susan, and I decided that the Christmas holidays were a time to get away from all of the typical trappings that that season usually brings and go check out how they are handled by other cultures.  So, we chose some warmer climates for the entire Christmas break.  We selected Antigua, W. I. and embraced the celebration island style.  We stayed at the southern-most end of the island at a place called English Harbour.  Our hotel was originally built back in the very early 60s with all of the island charm that you would expect.  This does not mean that we had air-conditioning, which we really could have used or that there were any pieces of art on the walls, which made the place look a bit more like an army barracks!  It was still nice although the breezes weren’t enough to cool us down after being in the sun for most of the day.  But, there’s nothing like spending Christmas someplace warm with gentle breezes and daily showers.  The harbor was used by Admiral Nelson back in the day when tall ships roamed the seas and pirates were lurking.  Much remains from those days.  The dockyard had many buildings that have been restored and are occupied by restaurants and shops.  It was quite the experience.  There were forts along much of the harbor area that were still visible.  We spent Christmas Eve on a mountain top fort close to where the naval families lived.  Every Sunday night there was a jamming sunset party that everyone attended.  There was the traditional steel band ‘orchestra’ along with superb barbeque chicken and ribs and the island beer, Wadadli.  All of this was followed by a rocking reggae band, that had everyone jumping.  Oh, and the sunset…..yes, there was that.  It was glorious.  We had views of Monserrat and its smoking volcano as well as all of English Harbor.  What a place to party.  Now that’s the way to bring in Christmas.  Christmas day brought a champagne party at the dockyard.  There were sailboats and motor yachts of various sizes all dressed up for the holidays.  We walked around sipping our bubbly and enjoying the various characters that were in attendance.  It was a most cool experience. 

     And now we come to the diving part.  I almost forgot about that.  This was not a dive vacation although I did get a chance to do a couple of days of diving.  I had scheduled a couple of dives with Dockyard Divers since they were located at the…..yes, you guessed it….the dockyard!  I was informed that they only took out 2-4 divers.  I thought that sounded great since I usually have to go out on a cattle boat when I’m in the islands.  It definitely was not that!  The boat picked me up right at our hotel dock in a small 15’ open boat.  There were two other divers along with the guide/instructor.  They were all very friendly, a young lady whose parents were sailing around the world with the holiday stop over in Antigua and a young Frenchman living in Canada.  He was newly certified and doing his first dive in the Caribbean.  Both of them were excellent divers.  I had my trusty MX-10 with me that good ol’ Mark replaced for me since mine flooded last summer doing the Algol (see a previous dive report from last July).  Bryan, our instructor, had some 300 certs of varying degrees to his name according to the Dockyard Divers website.    He was a very knowledgeable and likable fellow.  It was also nice to dive with such a small group.  Since the winds had picked up that day and the seas were a little snotty for such a small boat we couldn’t make it to our planned dive site on the south side.  The site that he chose was a good one.  Lots of large boulders made up the bottom terrain each nicely covered with coral.  Although there were no swim-throughs there were plenty of crevices to check out.  As I looked up at one boulder a Hawksbill turtle appeared and swam down right towards me.  I clicked away.  It ended up swimming along side of me at arms length.  I don’t get to see many of those in the quarry!  Water temps were in the low 80s with vis being about 50’ with surge and depth to about 75’.  After this dive we sat around for our SI getting to know one another.  It was most enjoyable.  We then headed to a site at the mouth of the harbor called the Pillars of Hercules, so named for the rock formations on the surface in front of the site.  Here we had more boulders, better vis and less surge.  It was nice because it was only minutes from my hotel.  We came across an 18^th century anchor on this dive.  I enjoyed both dives spending a total of close to 2 hours underwater.

     The next few days Susan and I spent enjoying the island, renting a car, catching some rays and shooting pictures.  Then on my birthday (50 something or other) I planned a second day of diving.  I was greeted by Bryan, once again, at the dock but this time he was alone.  It was just the two of us, so we headed to our original site even if the seas were a bit rough.  They were that and too much for the boat to stay moored at the site.  He had an alternate site in mind that was more protected.  It was a large horseshoe shaped reef with a depth of about 75’.  Vis was only ok here.  After an interval of conversation, talking about diving and life in general.  We headed back to the Pillars for my last dive of this trip.  He took me to a part that we didn’t hit the first time.  We ventured out into the current a bit more.  Vis was much nicer here as it was closer to 100’.  I even discovered a nurse shark (about 4’) in a little alcove, of course I was out of film at the time.  Oh, that Murphy!  Antigua is not known for it’s diving, but I found it most enjoyable.  New Year’s Eve proved to be another rockin’ time at the dockyard with the addition of fireworks, but that’s another story for another time!  

January 7, 2007 

     Now that I was back from warm, clear waters it was time to get my real gear on and plunge into 41degree waters.  Ahhhhh, there’s nothing like home!  Greg Kulp and I met up at Bainbridge for my first dip of the new year.  Actually, we were the only divers there, for a time anyway.  We didn’t have much of a plan except to head out toward the barn until Greg brought up the idea of finding the shack at 80’ beyond the barn.  Oh, the feeling of cold water against my skin….errr my lips, since that is all that is really exposed.  We made our way out past the dozer, the deep boat and the step van, you know….the usual route.  Vis was not as good as in the past as there was a layer of cloud at about 90’, but I didn’t care, I was at home!  We passed through the barn and kept on going until we hit the wall.  We then veered left.  I haven’t been out there at that depth before so it was most interesting.  Greg was in the lead at this point and as we wound around the wall we found the shack.  It has three walls with the back side to the rocks wide open.  We both made our way through the window although I took part of it with me.  I didn’t realize this until I got back to the picnic tables and took off my gear.  There was a nice piece of rust stuck between my doubles.  After the shack we miscued on the signal and got split up.  I headed across the hole to the north wall.  As I looked at my computer I had amassed 30 minutes of deco, so I slowly ascended doing stops at 50’, 40’ and so on.  After getting back to the rock pile I kept on going since I still had a good 20 minutes left.  I got to the turbines and turned around.  The only fish that I spotted were several bass, one with a good bend in the middle.  Greg and I hooked up when I got back to the rock pile.  Since we both had deco obligations left we hung out there before surfacing.  We racked up over 90 minutes of bottom time.  It felt soooo good.  Who needs warm waters?!!

Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!