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From Tom Pritchard . . .
Thursday Was Another Crummy Dive.
Thursday night started out bad and got worse. With only scraps of air in my tank assortment at home, I chose the double 100s that had a grand total of 80 cf of air. That's a lot of crap to drag around for such a smidgeon of air, but that's diving. I closed one of my dry suit gloves after completing my giant stride (not recommended), and then discovered that my HID light wasn't working. Had I known that my HID light was broken, I could have left it home saved a pound or so. I used my backup light and then after Gerhard gave me his backup light, I used them both. Two mediocre dive lights don't give you better light; they simply provide more mediocrity. My backup light, whose batteries were checked recently, but not recently enough, lasted about 30 minutes - so I was now relying on dive light number three. Meanwhile, Gerhard was trying his new Home Depot, $5 el cheapo, dry gloves. GMan discovered that using ToolDip to coat the fingers makes them pretty to look at, but pretty worthless under water. Terry Parson, who has only been diving for 5 months, didn't mess anything up so I can't write about him. After 64 minutes in 48 degree water, we got out and dined on sausage sandwiches, courtesy of our expert on olfaction, Third Stage Dave Hoshauer. The troops were almost in our cars when James Zimmerman showed up, too late to dive, too late to eat, and too late to bask in the glow of our dazzling personalities. Unfortunately, James wasn't there to dive, eat, or bask; he came to tell us that Kent Hirsch and Mike Nast had died a few hours earlier after getting lost in a cave system in Mexico. Even though I knew Kent and Mike only in passing, it wouldn't be right to submit a dive report today and not mention their passing. I think it still comes as a shock to divers when we are reminded that diving is an extreme sport. When we dive, we gamble. The wager is simple: we offer our mortality in the hope that the experience will enrich our lives. Every diver reading this has won the wager every time out. The winning margin is wider on some dives than others. Webster's defines "wager" as "something risked on an uncertain event." It's a definition worth keeping in mind while gearing up next time, and the time after that, and the time after that, . . . . Get Out and Dive - Safely!
The Christmas Tree Dive
The Christmas Tree Dive last Sunday at BSC was a smashing success! Vern didn't break the tree this year, which pleased everyone. The ornaments ranged from the bizarre to tacky - and back to bizarre. Jess Zellers' special "diver garland," which had the names of all Smokey's DMs and Instructors, really classed up the tree and partially offset my tasty but tasteless "Moan For the Bone" ornament. Special plaudits to all of the wet divers who helped make the day a success: The Killer Bees (Vivian and Diana), Janine High, George Hunter, Chris Sanders, Dave Barnhart, Kristi and Jeff Raykos, and Beth Hess. When Cindy wasn't helping with the garland, she was playing with some waterproof, battery-powered cylinder she called Orca. James "FAO" Zimmerman, Mark Meunzen, and The Always Effervescent Christmas Huck scootered around the quarry. Mayo-naise, Speedy, Kulpy, Pete Bohling, John Gross, Jim Brown, and the boss man, Mark Myers, were also there. Wild Bill was a double bonus; he brought food and didn't bring his damn air horn. Beautiful Bud Fletcher, the Lovely Colleen and Pulchritudinous Donna Mitschele graced us with their presence, but didn't dive. It was a great day to dive and hang out with the famous, infamous, and the notorious. After two hours of having people yank on my balls (Vern better post a picture to explain that line), I splashed in with Gerhard. We hung our stuff on the tree and used a vague compass heading to find the slope down to the deep boat. Viz was decent at the platform, but the daphnia made the viz crummy down to about 60 feet. The viz opened to 10 feet and might have touched 20 feet at times, but it was dark! down there - made even darker by my HID light which never came on. We slid into the The Hole north of the deep boat, guessed a right turn, and worked our way up and out of the zero viz to the rim - and presto! found the deep boat. After turning the dive at the barn, we headed back and ascended from the deep boat with 40+ minutes of deco to keep us busy while we froze our ornaments off. As everyone knows, deco has two purposes: 1) to vent nitrogen bubbles from the blood; and 2) to give the diver time to make up excuses for all of the dumb things he did during the dive. When GMan and I hit 20 feet, we turned left and ambled along the wall with a gaggle of bigass brown trout. Bad move. Nothing looked familiar, but we know BSC so poorly, there are few things that ever look familiar. The barn is about the only thing we can find, which makes absolutely no sense. When the compass finally provided a useful heading, we were no longer lost; we were on our way to Access B. That's the great thing about deco; it's time we would have spent finding our way back to the exit anyway. We turned the dive (again) and completed our deco at the exit. 99 ft max; 38 minutes at the rim (136 minutes bottom time); 41 degrees. It was a loooong, coooold, bladder-buuusting dive - but a good dive nonetheless.
Mike Bullard [Lewes Delaware] . . .
I seen your report on the Delaware artifacts. Living on the Lewes beach has been great. It really starts a few years ago back in 1999. As I was ebjoying a day on the beach, looking out across the Bay thinking of the China Wreck. : ) I found a piece of gray pottery in the surf. The china appeared to be new because it was so clean and shiney along with bright blue streaks of blue. I showed it to a friend who passed it off as garbage. I disagreed so I kept it. Now in 2004, the dredger hits a wreck and now several years later I am finding the same type of clay chinaware that the found a few years back. I have recovered about one thousand artifacts so far. Clay china dating from the 1600's, 1700's along with white bone china from the 1800's. A clay smoking pipe, green bottles and so much more.
The beach has been shut down until the state knows what to do next. I offered my services to the state to dive and video tape the wresk site, but as we know, state officials dont like wreck divers...I guess we are reepers of the deep, but as you and I both know, whenever you go into local museums, Lewes, Indian River and the O.C. Life Saving Station, you see hundreds of artifacts recovered by local divers who spent there own money and time to recover and preserve these artifacts.
I hope to dive the site soon, but if it doesnt happen, I'll be for sure diving it this spring when the touriest hit the beach. Here is a picture of just one day of walking in my back yard along the Lewes beach. Enjoy. Happy Holidays, Stay Safe and I'LL see ya on the anchor Line Soon. : )
From Darth Vern . . .
Well I had the priviledge last Sunday of helping out with a Discover Scuba with Shawn Canady, Mark Myers and Jim Brown. The class was for students from an Oceanography class at Penn Manor High School. We had 12 students and a great time. I had the 3 enterprising young lads who actually laminated a deck of cards so we could play underwater. I think I would have lost, but it was so easy to cheat, since I had better bouyancy than them. We spent a few hours in the pool with the kids and they thoroughly enjoyed as did we.
The Xmas Tree decorating went fabulous. After a team meeting on how to sink our donated tree [a special thank you to Matesevec Tree Farm in Etown] we facilitated the plan flawlessly and the tree is actually floating with a lit-up star [thanks to Culpy] AND I did not break it this year, so no duct tape or zip ties!!!!
The turnout was great and the food was VERY GOOD and the chili HAD MEAT IN IT!!!! Many people pitched in and a few people showed up we have not seen in awhile! Great to see Wild Bill and Beautiful Bud at a dive site again.
You can vote for any tree - Smokeys, Deeep Club from HArrisburg, and York Divers. $1 a vote and all proceeds go to Ovarian Cancer Research.
I am including a link here to see the pics from the latest tanker to crash:
The Anchorage Daily News website has a great photo gallery on the new Selendang Auy wreck. Here's the link
DON'T FORGET
CHILI DAY DIVE
New Years Day - Willow Springs!
"The Polar Bears enter the water at Noon"
we dive around 10ish - THEN EAT!!
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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