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From Tom Pritchard . . .
Drive Responsibly. We were diving hither and yon at Willow last Thursday. GMan, JameZ, and I, with the able assistance of Chris Gable, assembled at the concrete dock with plans to work on our DM mapping project. Jay Bell, with fresh resolve not to crash into any cars this week, decided to park a safe distance from the other cars - so he parked and dove with George Heck from the lobster shack. I didn't hear anything on Traffax the next morning so I assume that the carnage was kept to a minimum. Greg Kulp kept his truck away from Jay by diving at the dock with Wild Bill. Our DM map will include the area from the dock out to and including the five training platforms, and the area west of the platforms as far as the corrugated pipe and over to the outhouse. We're including the infamous "stairway to nowhere" and the railroad tracks near the concrete dock that few divers are even aware of. We used our 300 ft, $7.95 Ollie tape to get the critical measurements and I, as the official Willow dive scribe, took the notes; some were legible after the dive. One thing is clear: there's too much crap in this part of the quarry. This week James and I will be mapping again from the cement dock. Everyone else will be at the lobster shack trying to stay warm by the world's largest wood burning stove - and trying to park away from Jay.
From Mark Myers . . .
In an effort to make sure that Vernon “Darth” Heagy got to the Surface Interval on time for our ocean dive this past Sunday, we actually rented as house in Rehoboth Beach. 11 of us crammed into number 17 Rodney St - but only one had to sleep on the couch. I headed to bed around 10:30, wanting to get a good long night’s sleep, but I understand the festivities went much longer.
Strangely enough, for some reason, everyone seemed to think I was going to be the human alarm clock on Sunday morning, except for Chris Mayo, and Nate Brommer who managed to get themselves out of bed and to the boat on time. Even sleeping just 4 miles from the dock didn’t help Vernon, who came tearing in about ten minutes before 7am. The destination for the day was the “Moonstone”. The Moonstone was a luxury yacht before being purchased by the Navy in World War II, and converted for duty as a sub chaser. It went down in 1942 after a collision.
Reported max depth is 140, although most of us spent our dives between 125 and 135. The wreck is relatively intact - relative that is for east coast wrecks. It’s most popular spot is the easy to find 3” deck gun just aft of the bow. Also easy to find is the large cargo hatch near mid ships. At the stern are the two depth charge wracks with the charges still in place. The metal has rotted away, leaving the white explosive exposed to the ocean. The “spero’s” had a good day with Jim Zimmerman taking home dinner for several nights, and “Mate” Martin from the boat coming up with several keeper lobsters.
Visibility was a dark 40ish feet. On the second dive, the visibility opened up somewhat, but the overcast skys made for a somewhat gloomy dive. While we were down, the seas kicked up, and the ride back in was pretty bumpy.
From Bob Hanna . . .
Well Come dive with us" is the message. On Friday night I recieved a call, "you are bringing your grill aren't you!" Of course, along with Burgers and Dogs. Vince Mitchell, Kreider, Ellie Hanna and SCUBABOB went to Dutch Springs.
Ellie Hanna is very comfortable in the water but has a long history of sinus and ear problems. So, it is a treat for both of us when we get to dive together. On Saturday she made diving the helicopter look easy, including a swim through the interior. Ellie now has her own , "I flew [the helicopter] underwater at Dutch Springs" shirt. The diving was especially nice because the thermocline was down to 47'. I dove with a 3mil. No problem. It was 59 at the Trolley on the second dive. Quite manageable with the usual very good Dutch Springs VIZ.
On a very serious note we were eating burgers between dives when a diver surfaced near the crane, called for help and said someone was on the bottom and not breathing. Very quickly the Dutch springs Staff sprang into action sending out their boat plus readying support personell at the nearest shore access point, and calling EMS. Meanwhile a second diver surfaced with the distressed diver. Later I learned the second diver was a Dr., and the individual in distress was his girlfriend. She was quickly loaded into the rubber boat, and taken to the dock where rescue breathing was commenced. EMS arrived. She was breathing and conscious. She and the Dr. who was understandable very upset by this experience went to a nearby hospital.
Details are sketchey. We heard she was a diver with about 100 dives. She gave an indication she had a malfunction or air out problem. He gave her his octopus. She reportedly rejected it. He got rid of his weight belt and some how got her to the surface.
Diving has been very inportant to me for years. We must never forget that while we are having a lot of fun that we are in a hostile environment. This emergency ended well. We can be thankful for that. We can thank the staff at Dutch Springs for responding quickly, decisively and effectively. Come Dive With Us next Saturday, destination to be determined. AND I will bring the grill and food.
From Kelly Groff . . .
Bermuda - I just got back from a 7 day cruise to Bermuda. I am not a big fan of cruises, but the benefit of this one is that we stayed in one place for the entire trip. Bermuda is absolutely beautiful. The terrain reminds me a lot of Hawaii, jagged cliffs, green luscious trees, and colorful flowers. The even grow plumeria on the island! While we were there we did a total of 4 dives, although I now wish it was more. Bermuda is known as the wreck diving capitol of the world, and it has often gotten a bad reputation for subpar diving. I am here to tell you differently. Visibility ranged from 30 ¡V 75 feet and the water temps were perfect!
Our first day with the boat, we did a reef dive followed by a wreck dive. All dives were shallow 65 feet or less, meaning we had lots of bottom time! The first reef was Blue Hole. It is a favorite among divers, and I don’t blame them. Unlike the Caymans, all the reefs and aquatic life in Bermuda are in pristine condition. You won’t see as any or the variety of fish you would down in the Caribbean, but I have come to the conclusion that this is actually a good thing. You learn to pay attention to the smaller things that are in the water which turns out to be very exciting. Our guided tour took us through a swim through that was occupied by 5 huge lobsters and one distressed grouper with a spear through its gills. Our Captain immediately phoned the Bermuda aquarium in hopes that the could save him. Our second diver was the famous Constellation/Nola Wreck. This was featured in Peter Benchley’s book and movie, The Deep. This site includes two shipwrecks teeming with marine life and antique bottles. (All wrecks in Bermuda are protected) There was a huge pile of cement that became a breeding ground for thousands of fish. I could have spent all day down there, and I almost did with the long bottom times allowed in 35ft of water! Marine life of interest on this first day included the blue angelfish, arrow crab, jellyfish which I actually touched, barracuda, and hundreds of other fish!
Our second day was fairly similar to our first day. We did our first dive at a reef that only our dive operator visits. We opted for the guided tour from Heidi, who is from Pittsburgh and used to dive with Splash. Small world, isn’t it? She took us through swim throughs and all around the reef. She pointed out many interesting things, including a brittle starfish and a flamingo tongue! We also played around in the sand for awhile trying to catch razorfish. I was unsuccessful! The second dive was another wreck called the Lartington. I asked to Captain to find me a Lionfish, and he did just that. This wreck is still relatively in tact, making it easy to identify key parts of the boat. In the bow of the boat lives a lone lionfish. It was absolutely amazing to see one of these fish in the wild, and a little unnerving as well.
Overall, this was an amazing trip! I will definitely be making another trip to Bermuda to dive more of its incredible wrecks/reefs. While here, we dove with Blue Water Divers. They were great. Terry, our captain and a PADI instructor, had a great attitude. He told me that as far as he was concerned, I sucked as a diver until I proved him otherwise. Apparently, all divers must do a guided tour with him just to make sure you can handle yourself in the water. I definitely appreciated their concern for our safety. Not too long after we returned, I watched Deep Sea Detectives. Turned out that it was based around another famous wreck in Bermuda and Blue Water Divers were the ones crewing the boat! Goes to tell you how reputable they are!
From Trish of the Surface Interval . . .
Another glorious fall weekend! Saturday was a Divers' Choice day with all walk-ons. The weekend was sunny and in the 70's topside. Saturday produced delightfully flat seas. The group chose H Buoy Wreck (85 ft.) as the first dive. This huge wooden wreck of mostly all ribs sported 25 -30 ft. visibility, 68 degree water and flounder galore. Some of the "doormats" found their way to the surface. We didn't weigh it on the boat, but I'd guess David Quigley's biggest was in the 8 to 9 lb. range. Mike Atkin and Kirk Jones brought up some nice ones as well. It was so tantalizing that Howard Waltermeyer, who was 2 to 3 decades of diving under his weight belt, decided that he's going to start spear fishing. In spite of the good conditions, the group decided to move to the Manhattan for the second dive, which proved to be a mistake. While it wasn't awful, at 10 to 15 ft. viz, it was about half the vis of the first wreck. Still, it was a decent dive.
Sunday, the core group was from Smokey's Divers Den in Lancaster, PA with a charter to the WWII patrol vessel "Moonstone", formerly the luxury yacht "Lonestar". The neat thing is that the wreck has now changed again. A few years ago we were disappointed when the starboard side collapsed, which left the signature deck gun pointing off at an odd angle. Now the other side has collapsed, which righted the gun to an upright position again. Cool! There were numerous cameras aboard, both video and still, to record that as well as other things. The white explosive depth charge material is still visible in the stern with the metal canisters pretty much completely eaten away. The water at 130+ fsw was still a nice 66 degrees with 30 ft. of vis. The sea in the morning was nothing but a swell, but had built to 4 ft. by afternoon. Nevertheless, virtually everyone did two dives comfortably. The day was productive with a half dozen decent lobsters coming up and numerous artifacts from various sections of the wrecks fore and aft. While no one spotted any sand tigers, they were seen on other wrecks in the area and they are possible anywhere the water is above 60 degrees.
Keep On Diving and Live The Adventure!!!
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