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From Tom Pritchard . . .
Go West Young Man!
After 1 full day and 2 nights working on the tanks, valves, and manifolds, I was ready to see if any of the equipment still worked. It turns out the o-rings we didn't have in stock for the Genesis valves were really important, at least if you wanted to put more than 1000 psi in the tanks - so I decided to dive my OMS doubles. I had enough confidence in those valves and manifolds to take along a stage bottle (just in case). While Kulp and I checked each other's gear for leaks, Colin wandered around and tried to get lost. I had a small trickle from the "mani;" Kulp was OK, so we went to the school bus and hooked up with Colin. Kulp's turned the dive with bad ears, so Colin and I headed for the fire truck and turned the dive at Dave Bally's truck when his ears wouldn't clear. Colin, a bit overdressed for the occasion, popped off the deck of the Quest while I was otherwise occupied. These "always on" computer display make it tough to douse the lights and look for your partner, so after a respectable period, I headed home alone. Colin followed at a safe distance. Meanwhile, back at the Shack, Rick Rupp was pacing along the shore looking for his dive buddies, Dave Gellert and Big Bill Jeter, who were long overdue. After a few tense moments we spotted Dave and Bill walking along the road near the swimming area. I've done my share of lost, but Dave and Bill raised "getting lost" to a fine art. They swam - with a compass no less - to the East end of the quarry, where they had to get out because, believe it or not, they were low on air. Doh!! Finally inside, the brave souls ate Colin's curry while the less adventurous ones (and those with delicate heinies) stayed with the soup and beef BBQ. GMan, who came to Bask in the Glow of the TNIs, ate the curry, part of the gastrointestinal conditioning he'll need next week in the Dominican Republic where you can dive in the water but you can't drink it. Dave Gellert is bringing meatballs this week - if he doesn't get lost on the way over. Dave, please bring the meatballs into Lobster Shack before you dive so we can start eating while you and Bill walk back from - wherever.
From Rick Huck
Chris Mayo and I
decided to get in a pre-snow dive. So, this meant
Saturday morning at Bainbridge. We got to the shop and
we were the only divers to be seen. We didn't have a
problem with that. There's nothing like having the place
to yourself. Actually, we were sort of hoping that we
would have a repeat from last year when Frank Herring and
Darth Vern joined Chris and I in a snow storm for a good dive.
As it turned out the sun actually poked it's shiny
little face through the clouds. What snow? Chris
and I planned a dive to the hole just for a look see, then
stay at the 90' level. I navigated us right to the deep
zone with vis only being fair. Once we got down into the
hole the vis turned sour. We had our look see and we
were outta there! We came up the wall and onto the line
out to the stepvan. I saw some silt coming out from
under it. On closer inspection I saw a blue gill hiding
there. Our dive lights illuminated it enough to watch it
wedge itself further underneath. After here we headed
past the water tower and out to the barn, where we turned our
dive north toward the rim of the hole. We found a
few trees coming up from the depths here. Chris spotted
a catfish hanging around them. I missed it, although I
did spot a good sized bass a little later. We racked up
some deco time so we hung around the rock pile (you might as
well call it what it is). It was in need of some
renovating. With time to kill, I started building up the
pile with a stronger base. The little fishies and snails
living in there weren't too happy with me but "Fear No
Art" little guys! It still needs some work but that
will be some other dive. Our initial 45 minute planned
run time turned out to be 80 minutes! You gotta love
winter diving! Builds character an old buddy used to
say.
From Mark Myers ...
Well, you can't say divers aren't adventurous. Sunday morning John Gross, John Katerenchuck, Joe, Sharon Slenker-Jones, Jeff and Kristi Raykos and myself headed to Philadelphia for a PADI update. The update was very interesting - dealing mostly with encouraging new divers, and promoting PADI's excellent (no propaganda there!) continuing education program. What was more interesting was GETTING to Philadelphia. Of course the snow was 4 - 6 inches here in Lancaster when we left. By the time we got to Philadelphia, it was running 8-10 inches. The Schuylkill Expressway is interesting enough when it's dry - but with several inches of snow cover, it's REALLY interesting. John Gross and I both failed the navigational part of the update - he made a wrong turn on the way in - and I made one on the way out. The wusses from New Jersey who didn't show had no excuse, as Jeff and Kristi made it easily the entire way from Dillsburg.
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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