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From Bryan Palmer . . .
Mayo we love you but you know this had to be done!!!!
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Open water Certification at Smokey’s $300
Yearly pass to Bainbridge $200
Airfill for your tanks to go diving $20
Realizing you left a plug out of your pony bottle 1st stage because
you are a temperarily an knucklehead PRICELESS
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Tuesday Night
I worked with Cathy Jackson, Huckster, and DIT Mark Muenzon up at Elizabethtown with the college students. They are really starting to grasp the idea that diving is fun!!! Several have let there nerves settle and are really relaxed in the water, it is so great to see them having a good time. I took my camera and took a few pictures, so take a look. Next week they have off for something called fall break, I really wish that the real world would grasp that idea and give everyone else a "fall break".
Saturday
My good old buddy Steve Mooney and I met up at Bainbridge for 2 dives, We were both running a little late and the sky was getting uglier by the minute. I was able to get the all my gear over to the tables and all assembled before it started raining. However I was not able to get in my Drysuit before the sky let loose. Therefore I was diving in a damp suit, hmmm, oh well. we had a nice dive down to the deep boat and out to the tanker, we retrieved a line on the top of the tank with USE to act as a marker till the water decided to go crazy high this last year. From there we took a quick dip over the edge and in to the foggy hole 113' with about 0-13" of viz so we headed up and back to the deep boat. From there we headed along the wall below the road until coming up and making out way along the edge of Splash's rope course for the haunted quarry. Trying to be polite, I stayed on the outside of there line, as I try to make it over to the weeds to see the fish as often as I can. All and all we had a 66 minute run time with a max of 113'. Our second dive was short lived as we entered rather late. Around 7 we entered the water and headed in, it was darker, a BIT COLDER and a little wetter. How is this possible, water can’t get “wetter” or can it? To my dismay I had warn a bracelet and didn’t check my wrist seal on my Drysuit, IE my Drysuit went from dry to wet in about 6.8 seconds, slowly sloshing around throughout the inside more and more during the dive. Luckily we only went to 40ft and our dive was only 15 minutes.
From Kent "Dr Deco" Hirsch . . .
After checking the NOAA website, where seas were predicted to be 2-3 ft on Saturday, I signed on with Trish and Darrel to dive the Surface Interval on Saturday. A quick 2 and a half hours after leaving Lancaster, I boarded the boat located at Indian River Inlet in Delaware. It was a diver's choice destination, which translated to a trip to the SI's favorite wreck, the Washingtonian.
This is a steel ship, sunk in 1915 after colliding with the Elizabeth Palmer. She rests at 90 feet, making it a destination for both beginning and experienced divers. There were plenty of aluminum 80's on board, as well as several sets of doubles. Although a fishing boat was already moored on site, Darrel quickly hooked the wreck and the pool was open by 8:30 AM. Viz was only 10 ft, but the water was an incredible 68 degrees all the way to the bottom! Have fun on the Moonstone next Sunday, divers! I did a leisurely 45 minutes on the bottom, taking in the sights from the tie-in to the bow.
After a short motor a half mile away, we were ready to dive the Elizabeth Palmer. She was a 5 masted wooden schooner. All that remains are massive coral encrusted ribs lying at 80 ft. Although the bottom temp was warm enough to dive wet without gloves, the viz dropped to a miserable 5 ft. Braille diving at its best. Felt like a salt water quarry dive. We were back at the dock by 1:00 and I was home by 4:30.
The Surface Interval has openings every weekend through the end of October. Bottom temps will remain warm enough for wetsuits for the remainder of the season. Get out and dive.
From Bob Hanna . . .
love fall diving. While the air temperature drops for a while the water stays warm. Yesterday was a good example. There was a cold front moving through. There was almost no rain, and we left a little after 2PM before the predicted storms arrived. The surface temperature of the water was 69-70 degrees which was warmer than the air temperature.
Natasha Harmuth dove using her 3 mil wet suit. She was able to comfortably dive the helicopter. Our first dive was 50 minutes but she stayed cold between dives. Our second dive along the North side of the Quarry going west was consequently limited to 30 minutes. More inportantly she now has actually used all of her new SCUBA PRO GEAR and has decided that a Dry Suit will be purchased in 05.
Joining Natasha and Dive Master/AI Bob Hanna was Lisa Corsetti and Dive Master/AI Ralph Spaydjr. There was a typically large crowd at Dutch Springs. AND there was no lack of water. The Quarry had overflowed its banks in the lowlying areas. Nevertheless VIZ under the circumstance was pretty good. I am guessing somewhere in the 40-50 feet on average. We could see the entire helicopter as an example.
From Darth Vern . . .
Since our Dive report is a little thin this week, I have decided to add some interesting stories from a few of the diving BLOGS and newsgroups I subscribe too:
From Trish Boyer of the Surface Interval . . .
October 2 - The water yesterday, was 68 degrees top to bottom on the Washingtonian and there were flounder everywhere. I actually counted 9 - yes, nine - in one pile on top of each other in the stern and others encountered similar piles on the bow. The water is the warmest this time of year and sitings around the area even on the deeper wrecks have been of typical warm water creatures such as ocean sunfish, stingrays, schools of blue fish and baitfish. The lobsters also seemed to have moved in for some reason and are thick on many of the wrecks. The absolute spectacular treat of the day, however, was in late afternoon watching a humpback whale breech 4 times - almost "tail walking" with his body 3/4 the way out of the water in seeming tribute to the late Bob Landers of the Atlantis Rangers.
From John Irza . . .
Freak Waves - Over the last two decades more than 200 large carriers, cargo ships over 200m long, have been lost at sea. Eyewitness reports suggest many were sunk by high and violent walls of water that rose up out of calm seas. But for years these tales of towering beasts were written off as fantasy; and many marine scientists clung to statistical models stating monstrous deviations from the normal sea state occur once every 1,000 years. As part of a project called MaxWave, the European Space Agency (ESA) arranged for two of its Earth-scanning satellites to monitor the oceans with their radars. The shady phenomenon of freak waves as tall as 10 storey buildings had finally been proven, according to ESA. During a three week period they detected 10 giant waves, all of which were over 25m (81ft) high.
To prove the phenomenon or lay the rumours to rest, a consortium of 11 organisations from six EU countries founded MaxWave in December 2000. As part of the project, two Earth-scanning satellites, ERS-1 and ERS-2, monitored the oceans with their radars. The radars sent back pictures of the sea surface in a rectangle measuring 10 by 5km (6 by 2.5 miles), which were taken every 200km (120 miles). Around 30,000 separate pictures were produced by the two satellites during a three-week period in 2001 - and the data was mathematically analysed. According to ESA the survey revealed 10 massive waves - some nearly 30m (100 ft) high. Ironically, while the MaxWave research was going on, two passenger liners endured terrifying ordeals. The Breman and the Caledonian Star cruise vessels had their bridge windows smashed by 30m waves in the South Atlantic. The Bremen was left drifting for two hours after the encounter, with no navigation or propulsion.
In the next phase of the research, a project called WaveAtlas will use pictures taken during two years to create a worldwide atlas of freak wave events. The goal is to find out how these strange cataclysmic phenomena may be generated, and which regions of the seas are most at risk.
For more information visit: Marine Talk or BBC News
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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