Congratulations to Deb and Dan Jacobs who finished their Open Water certification with John Katerenchuk this past week.

Also, Jim Brown hosted one of his annual Oyster Dives this past weekend in the bay.  I'm still waiting to hear how things went with the cold weather that blew in over the weekend.

From Tom Pritchard...

How ya doin' with them frogs Vern?

With GMan chasing the almighty dollar, T-Bone Jr. and I decided to take advantage of the improving viz and not rearrange the lawn furniture. The plan to hit the road and then nav to the Mystery Boat lasted until we found near zero viz along the West wall.  It could have been rain, but my money is on a platoon of hard hat divers. We swam out the East side of the mess, promptly finding the near the torpedo, and swam to Bubba. Heading South we hit the boat in the middle of the bowl and from there swam to the south wall, the VWs, and the diagonal boat before hitting the fire truck. Then we were on the line to the caboose where the viz was at least 10 ft. I decided against moving the microwave and went back to the dock along the ropes.  A lot of fish  were out last night, including a cute pickerel in the weeds near the exit.  The bottom temp is now 55 degrees and heading down.

And Tom's Version of "Roger's Quarry"

Roger's Quarry.
            On Sunday six of us dove a dive a quarry not named Willow, Bainbridge, or Dutch.  This abandoned quarry in Lehigh County is owned by the township and has no ropes, artificial debris, or facilities. So few divers have been in this quarry that only several things are known about it. The words I kept hearing were "dark, deep, and cold." A couple of pipes running down the far wall marked the location of the underwater catwalk and several submerged buildings. Gerhard, JameZ, Kulpie, John Katerenchuk, and I joined Roger Heins at the quarry – and proceeded to wait for Vern, the Jager MeisterBomb. We gave up on Vern when one of Roger's colleagues arrived to ferry us across the quarry in the township's Zodiak. (Who said no facilities?!) JZ and John Kat dove their rebreathers. With depths believed to be in the 130-150 ffw range, GM and I decided to dispose of some trimix (17/36); the other OC divers used air. We climbed over the bow of the Zodiak , sat on the gunwales, and tried no to fall overboard as we putt putted to the far side. We did our backrolls and descended at the pipes into crystal clear water – at least initially. At 60 ffw, the water became milky and at 70 ffw, darkness descended. GM, Kulpie, Roger, and I wandered through the wreckage of the collapsed building and then spilled over the edge to the bottom – at 80 ffw. The hole, which was supposed to be nearby, evaded us. The black water was reasonably clear below 70 ft, but it was so black that the Light of God only penetrated about 3 ft. We tired of the moonscape and naved toward home, without ever finding the deep water or the catwalk. The 41 deg water took its toll on GM and me because we were wearing wet gloves and we were filling our suits with trimix, a poor thermal insulator. At 30 ft we warmed up in the 48 degrees water and marveled at the herds of large bass and small fry hanging out among the algae covered boulders and fallen trees. The viz here was 40-50 ft. When Roger called the township to tell them we were out, they asked if we took any photos of the divers splashing from the Zodiak.  Oops!  We'll just have to go back.

From Don Bradley...

Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!