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We have added a few new articles and an item in the Depth Gauge.
From Tom Pritchard . . .
10/28 - Our bumper crop of divers at Willow last night included Wild Bill, The Terry Twins (Martzall and Parsons), GMan, Roger, and Dave "Third Stage" Hoshauer. Kind of a routine dive, which means that things went wrong, at least for me. You know, the normal stuff, like a free flowing reg and a dropped dive knife. The reg bled air and choked me for an hour, which might have put a small dent in my SAC rate. GMan scooped up the dive knife almost before it had hit bottom; no harm, no foul. The dive plan was to check on the rumors that Dave Balley's truck (or maybe the fire truck, or maybe the tanker, or maybe Dave Balley himself; the rumor was a bit vague) has zebra mussels. Bill, GMan, Perry Tarsons, and I did the lobster shack to Minnow run before dipping below the ridge in order to avoid the damn weeds. When we hit the ridge near the fire truck, we headed toward the caboose and, right on cue, hit the truck. No zebras there; none on the fire truck; not sure about Dave Balley. With "The Wild One" leading by compass, we headed back across the bowl toward the Minnow and then home. The water is still a balmy 54 degrees at depth and with 20 ft viz we were able to see the waning full moon during our safety stop. Perry is still diving wet. After the water temp drops below 50, we'll start a pool to pick the date of his last wet dive. Fall Diving Rocks!
11/4 - There have been signs for months that the viz would be fabulous last night. The August algal, pollen, fungal, bacterial, viral bloom that reduces the viz to 3 ft. didn't happen. Except for the week or two following the Elephant Fertility Festival, viz has been close to 10 ft. most Thursdays. I'm proud to say that I, singlehandedly, pushed the viz past the 25 ft. mark last night. My HID (Hell, It's Defective) light missed the dive last night. The last time my HID missed a dive was the night Dan, Gerhard and I found (and lost) the Mystery Building in the cul de sac - and that night the viz was 30+ ft. Actually, it wasn't the Light of God that went bad; the bracket that secures the light cannister to my tank broke. Perry To The Rescue! Terry Parsons, new diver excellence, had a new LED backup light. (OF COURSE, it was new light. New divers don't own anything old). Gerhard, Terry, and I headed off the platform at the lobster shack and used dead reckoning to find the truck in the cul de sac. We hopped the road, and to our chagrin, the viz went kerplooey to 5 ft., but we found the fork lift where we tried in vain to stuff the mannequin back into the driver's seat. We swam back past the pumps into the great viz and headed along the south side of the road. The bomb is missing; in its stead is the blue tank that Kulp discarded a few weeks ago. After wandering along the road a bit further, we turned the dive and found the Mystery Boat, again by dead reckoning, and then navigated back to the ropes and headed home via the school bus. Speaking of Kulp, he hung a ceiling fan/light in the Lobster Shack and replaced the 15 watt bulb in the ceiling fixture with a 300 (that's three hundred) watt bulb. Some places (like some people) look better in dim light; the Lobster Shack is one of those places. James, still getting over a head cold, was forced to do a ZellersDive (15 ft max) with his new scooter. When James wasn't ramming fish with his new toy, he was poking a muskrat that was free diving along the northwest wall of the cul de sac. Tons of fish in the shallows. A light rain, 54 degree water, 61 minutes, and 25+ ft viz, clam chowder, steamed oysters. And a Good Time Was Had By All!
11/6 - When the viz at Willows opens up, you have to heed the call. Gerhard Maree, James Zimmerman, Greg Kulp, and I heard the call on Thursday - and went back on Saturday for another kick ass dive. James, still struggling with clogged ears, splashed around with his scooter and then gave up. GMan, Kulp, and I took off with a vague plan to meander to the caboose on the way to the dock at the far end of the quarry. Once past the Minnow, I led the crew into the bowl past the mastodon tusk and diagonal boat to the springs - when I discovered I was alone. Too much viz always messes us up. I paced around for a few minutes and then headed to the caboose, where the viz was 5 ft - until I scribbled my "dive handle" on the north side of the caboose - and then it was zero. Still alone, I circled the caboose and found another silt cloud -- hmmm. GMan and Kulp made their own mess; I followed their trail. We headed out of the lagoon into the featureless plain near the swimming area where we found several craters that looked like fish nests. These fish nests, if that's what they were, measured 4 ft across and 3 ft deep; we decided to leave before the owners returned and put a serious whuppin on us. Moments later, we were separated again. Actually, I was hanging with a 2 ft pickerel; GMan and Kulp were alone. After I navigated to the railroad tracks and headed east, GMan swam past me upside down. Some days everyone's a clown! We ditched the railroad tracks for the gully along its northern flank. With such great viz, at times we had a panoramic view of the ridge to the south - and on the way back, the ridge to the north. We turned the dive before we reached the far dock and puttered our way back via the cement mixer and van. We know Willow pretty well, but when the viz opens up like this, it's a whole new quarry for us. 52 degrees, 109 minutes, 51 ft max, viz 25+ ft for most of the dive. Awesome! I wonder what awaits us this Thursday.
From Darth Vern . . .
The Bush Victory Dive - Wed Nov. 3rd
It has been many moons since my last night dive, and I mean many! I stopped into the shop on Wed to drop off my tanks and to my surprise, all the new Sea-Doo scooters were there, as well as Nick Caloyianis. I then invited myself [as I always do] on their dive at Wabank to test some new equipment. Well till we got there it was after 4:30 and Mark forgot his shell so Cindy was nice enuff to run it out. Till we got in the water it was 5ish and it was dusk.
The first thing we did was try out the scooters. Not bad at all. At $600 they are a 1/3 of the price of the popular Apollo scooters and about 2/3rds of the power. They pulled me, my doubles a sling bottle and my camera about as fast as I could have swam. They pulled Nick and his single tank pretty fast. Later Mark had the shops rental scooter and it pulled him and his doubles well [since he is smaller than me, I suppose]
Well we had a rough plan for the rest of the dive, but of course we all got "lost." I ventured to the left of the dock and down the line to Ms. Peaches. Mark and Nick headed the other way I guess. Viz was pretty good, esp deep. I turned at the rope to descend to Peaches and they were gone. I kept on "my" plan and proceeded to Peaches into the pitch black. After a little venturing at 100' and over into the hole a ways in about 40 degrees of water, I decided to head up the line to the Loafer. Since my compass was on my right arm and my HID light was on my right hand [hard to see] I decided to tug on the line up to Peaches to make sure it was still attached or it was a compass swim to the Loafer. Well after 2 good tugs I waited to make sure the line did not fall and all of a sudden I got 2 hard tugs BACK!! SCARED THE SH*T out of me! So I tugged again and I got tugs back. Freakin horror movie scenes kept running thru my mind. Freaked me out. The funny part was no one dove Wabank for awhile so there was thick sediment on the lines and after the tugs, it was clouds around the line. I turned off my light and proceeded thru these and got to the Loafer. I could hear the scooters so I figured they were close and were gonna try to pop out and scare me! Well we must have missed each other. I headed around to the tug and platform and thru the tube. I ended at the sub and caught up to Nick and Mark testing the new scooters digging potential AND they work well for that - clouds everywhere!!!
We goofed around at 20 feet for about 10 mins and got ready to exit. We ascended to find Smokey on the dock playing with his little LED light and waiting to say hi. A great night of diving. Good to see and joke with Nick again and also to dive with Mark. The scooters are great and at $600 they are a real steal!!!! The shop has 1 for rental and 2 more to sell! You will see me on one every now and then since Jim Brown was nice enuff to buy 2, also James Zimmerman and Kent Hirsch have all bought them. I am Darth Vern and I have finally endorsed a dive report!!!!.
Keep On Diving and Live The Adventure!!!
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