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Click To Enlarge
From Cindy Lu Who . . .
Sunday 1/16 - Once again, the women ruled the dive site... (along with a few brave males). It was a brisk morning and we started the day having the entire quarry to ourselves. The primary objective was to take down or should I say "bring up" the Christmas tree. Bill Siwiec and Susie Freidman were kind enough to remove all the tacky and cheezy ornaments from the tree on Saturday. With Susie headed to Antartica this coming Friday, she decided to tough out another cold day at BSC. We had the honor of having Greg Kulp and Ike Dotson join us for the undoing. However, Ike decided he would play it smart and try again after some additional training in his new dry suit. We look forward to diving with him in the near future!
After a slow start and some question as to where the tree was under water, (NO, I was not the one lost for a change!) I met Sharon Sleiker-Jones and Susie at the platform where our tree stood proudly waiting to surface. Susie, clearly the best knot remover I have ever met underwater (she has had a great deal of practice with me every year with the tree garland), successfully removed the jon line from the rope that was attached to the block. Sharon, reciting her bowline knot adage "the rabbit comes out of the hole around the tree..." successfully prepared the cement block and the lift bag for the surface. I then cleared all innocent victums above and below us before attempting to inflate the lift bag. SUCCESS! Once we were at the exit point, Greg kindly hauled the tree up the hill. Good teamwork! Thanks to all of you that helped out in trimming and untrimming the tree this year.
From ?????? . . .
A Winter Dive Story
This dive report….errr story is based on true events, only the names have been changed to protect the ‘characters’. It all started like your average Saturday morning dive run to Bainbridge with the minor exception of an impending winter storm. It wouldn’t be much of a story if that kept our divers away. Now, enter the ‘characters’: Derf, SeaMo, Frank N. Pickle and Hocker (remember, their names have been changed!). Fearing ripped or torn seals they donned their drysuits in the shop at the entrance way. Why fight the sub-freezing temperatures with wind chills in the single digits if they didn’t have to?
Always looking for new experiences, they drove to ‘access A’ in their exposure suits. By this time the winter storm was in high gear with the snow finding its way into and on anything accessible. They couldn’t get into the warm water fast enough. Well, it was warmer than the air at least. There was a foggy mist hanging over the water surface. This added to the overall atmosphere of the morning; cold, wind, snow and mist. What else do you need to make this dive unique, maybe the fact that they were the only divers at the quarry?
Pickle and SeaMo buddied up as did Derf and Hocker. Derf and his buddy planned about a 35 minute dive to the stepvan and to the South West wall. Although there were some equalization, communication and gear issues they made it safely to the bottom. There wasn’t much in the way of ambient light, making this almost a night dive. Vis was good on the way down but deteriorated the deeper they went. Heading to the stepvan, the divers were diverted to the ‘hole’ just for a look-see. The cloudy layer that hung at 90’ a few weeks ago has found its way to the 115’ level. Diving through this layer was like a descending airliner. The vis opened up nicely but only for the distance of their light beams. Derf and Hocker ascended to the van and finally over to the wall. There were not many fish in attendance this day with only an occasional bass and then there was the case of the catfish in the tree! Derf signaled that it was dead but Hocker believed that it was only resting.
Derf and Hocker surfaced within their dive plan followed closely behind by Pickle and SeaMo. As they exited everything on them froze instantly. Their suits were as stiff as a board, ice falling from them as they climbed the hill. Stowing their gear quickly, they covered their truck seats with a tarp and drove to the warm air of the bath house without taking off their drysuits. They could now add this to the unique experience of the day.
You can not do this kind of diving in the Caribbean! Derf, Pickle, SeaMo and Hocker parted ways and headed to the safety of their homes reflecting on the joy of winter diving……until their next winter dive adventure!
From Darth Vern . . .
Well I have tons [as always] to add since we missed a report last week!
[1]
Many of the images to the right have been attributed to the Tsunami, but in fact are inccorect: "It seems like any unusual or remarkable photographs connected with oceanic phenomena are being attributed to the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, and this collection of pictures is more of the same.
Although they are genuine images of some rather strange deep-sea creatures, these photographs have nothing to do with the Indian Ocean tsunami. They date from mid-2003 and were taken as part of the NORFANZ voyage, a joint Australian-New Zealand research expedition conducted in May-June 2003 to explore deep sea habitats and biodiversity in the Tasman Sea. These photographs can be viewed on Australia's National Oceans Office web site."
[2]
Beneath The Sea is coming along soon: March 18-20, 2005!!! LINK There are many GREAT seminars and wrokshops to attend and they are very cheap. Jim Brown and I are going to catch Kathy Churchs U/W Lighting workshop and I am hoping to catch a few Tech Seminars.
[3]
Speaking of Tech, Smokeys is again offering TDI tech diving courses. We had several divers go thru Advanced Nitrox [allowing deco gas to 100% o2] and now moving onto Decompression Procedures. After that it should be Heliox or Tri-Mix. We have 8 [yes thats right 8 a full class] students for the next Adv Nitrox course in early March. We will schedule more class as interest mounts. Email me for more information.
[4]
I was out Saturday morning with a few brave divers [see pics] and it was DAM COLD. The water was a welcome warmth for once. Viz was not great until deep, then it was very dark, kind of a lose/lose situation. But "a bad day diving is still better than good day working anytime!!!"
[5]
I am going to try and sneak in another dive this Saturday morning if anyone is interested. I got skills to work on before my Deco Proc class next week, I could use someone to watch me and tell me how bad I butcher the new set of skills we must perform. BUT please remember it will be DAM COLD!!!!!
[6]
Last one I promise - This Sunday I am taking the in-water and interview portions of the tests to be a volunteer diver at the Baltimore Aquarium, wish me luck. Are any other Smokey's divers taking these tests? I was not sure, I did not hear back from everyone I saw at the written test.
Keep On Diving and Live The Adventure!!!
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