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From Frank McSorely . . .
Thank you everyone for an extremely successful 2003. We are all excited to see what 2004 has in store.
During the month of December we will be going through some changes at the quarry. Typically this time of year we would be open and ready to dive every weekend. However, this year we are going through a few changes to the surrounding landscape. Excavators are currently on site to move the piles of dirt around and change the current entrance path.
We believe that this is the best time of year to have the ground spread around. There will be weekends where it will be necessary to be closed for the safety and well being of our diving friends and excavators. This should allow the earth movers to work with out interruption safely.
It is advisable to please call first at the following numbers (717) 615 – 2898 or (717) 979 - 8521 and check for availability prior to arrival. We will accommodate the best we can, but as always your safety is our most concern.
After this brief, but inconvenient endeavor we expect to be 100% operational and will post updates as the progress expands. Thank you again for all the friends we have met this year – may we meet 100’s more next year…. May your Christmas stockings be filled with regulators, BC’s, and the newest-coolest fins…….
From Dan [Explorers Leader] . . .
For the people who did not come out, we don't smell. At least not until we get wet. The diving was excellent! When we arrived, the "dry" guys were heading into the water. Cody and I were prepared to get cold in our wet suits. We were heading in at 10:00 when the "dry" guys were comin' out and they said the water was 59 degrees. And it was awesome! Here we are diving after Thanksgiving and the water was warm. Vis 30 feet in front of Cody, less than 5 behind. I was trying out a Mares abyss for the first time and the breathing was less strenuous. I'll see you at the Christmas tree decorating dive.
From Bryan Palmer . . .
Ok as some of you know Ralph Spade, Pete Bohling and my self traveled to warm water(Bahamas) November 14-18 for some shark diving and other adventures. look for some pictures to make there way to the photo albums in the near future.
As with saying that I reintroduced my body to the BALMY CHILLS of quarry diving on this past Sunday. I traveled up to BSC where I met conversed with Greg Kulp and his dive buddy "goody" for a few minutes then I meet up with James Zimmerman to do a nice dive around 50+ minutes with a depth of 70 feet. we exited to find NO other then Cindy lu standing at our exit point saying "how was your dive BOYS?" we then teamed up with Cindy , and new divers Vivian and Diane for our second dive where we hit up the boat at 50' then the bulldozer and then the cement truck and back along the road to our exit at the peninsula. shot dive of 20 minutes with 63 foot depth but a great dive for to women in wetsuits!!!!
TO sum it all up there is some REALLY GREAT viability at bsc right now we had near 30 feet in the bowl with 100's of fish in areas and close to 25 feet in the Lagoon, so there is no reason not to be out diving, pretty much it was like having BSC RENTED OUT TO US FOR THE DAY.
From Holly Sanders . . .
The wonders of night diving
I have recently returned from a wonderful trip to Grand Turk with Jim & Kathy Jackson and their group of “Goin Down Diving” divers. As a newbie to the group they were all very welcoming and supportive. Jim took me under his wing or “fin’s” for my first night dive also my first shore dive. I had a rough start but with a little encourgement from Jim I returned from this encounter with a thirst for more.
The plan: Meet at 5:30 gear up, swim out to the marker buoy then submerge and head out to the wall. Earlier Jim, Kathy & I went over the basic dive plan. Length of dive, direction, & depth, proper method for giving hand signs at night and night dive ettique. “Don’t shine your dive light in anyones face, don’t totally blind the sea creatures with your light and let parrot fish in their bubble nests alone”
The problems: 5:30 being feasting time for the mosquitoes made gearing up something you didn’t want to linger over. The first 2 tanks I grabbed had bad O-rings. By the time I finaly hooked up for the 3rd time and got all my gear in place everyone was on their way to the bouy. Except for Jim who was patiently waiting by the shoreline. Feeling slightly stressed I headed out into the growing darkness. I seemed to be exerting myself more than I expected and taking in water through my snorkel. It took me a minute to realize that I had a leak in my snorkel and if you want to swim on top of the water it helps if you remember to put some air in your BC. With some calm encourgement from Jim I finaly got my act together and made it out to the Bouy. The other divers were grouping up and catching their breath after the swim out.
The dive: I have been planning to try night diving for a while but wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I’m use to diving in the Bahamas with good visability and wasn’t sure if I’d like not being able to see very far in the dark. All doubts were gone the instant we submerged. As our lights spread out across the sandy ocean floor I got a look at a new version of a familiar landscape. A sense of peace decended over me and I was ready for a new adventure. First we had to pass the guardians of the deep. Standing like a one-armed sentinel and turning to face us wih his one good arm raised was a large crab. Then just as we hit the cleft in the wall where we would drop over the edge. A slowly & silenty moving shark glided in from out of the deep. Paying us no attention at all he went about his nightly business. Getting my first look at the wall I realizied that night diving isn’t really about the dark it’s about the colors. The orange, yellows, reds & pruple of the coral wall and the fish tucked into the crevices just stunned me. There were lots of parrot fish tucked into their nest for the night, a very large hog fish, an ocean triggerfish, a couple of spotted moray eels & some spotted drum. We found 3 octopuses that evening and even thought I know they change colors to camofloge themselves actually seeing them go from a beautiful pearly blue to a multi hued brown in seconds was a surprise. We happened upon a napping turtle that moved on to quieter quarters. There was so much to see that I can hardly remember everything. It was certainly not a dark and empty place. As we headed back into shallower waters we started turning off our dive lights. The moon light shining down reflected through the water and I was surprised at much you could see without light. Little sparks of Bio-Luminescence trailed from the fins of my dive partner. I turned over on my back looking up as my bubbles rose sparkling in the reflections from the moon. As we all came out of the water and on to the beach I asked, ”Can we do that again tomorrow”?
From Darth Vern . . .
We [Mayo, James Z, Mild Bill and myself] were out last Friday celebrating Black Friday with a dive of course. Nice rainy day, but who cares when you are under H2O. We are planning to be out at BSC this Sunday morning.
Don;t forget about the Xmas Tree Decorating. Next Saturday Dec 13th at 9:30am at BSC Access A. Bring an ornament of any kind, there was some real weird stuff on there last year and hang it on our tree!!!! We will once again be challenging York Divers and all proceeds go to Ovarian Cancer Research in Lorraines name.
Get Out And Dive - LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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