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Click To Enlarge
From Tom Pritchard . . .
Last night the TNI's were joined by "bachelor-for-a-week" Vern Heagy, of all people. True to form, Vern was asking for an official TNI pin before he even hit the water. The motion to admit Vern was tabled until we can do a background check to make sure that he isn't some run of the mill dirt bag; the TNIs only accept high quality dirt bags into the family. Kulp gave Vern the fancy tour of the quarry, all of the way from the Mystery Boat to the caboose. Vern impressed everyone by diving with a dead flashlight and no compass. Meanwhile, JameZ and Will Bill did the Quest, fire and orange truck truck loop in preparation for Bill's wreck class next month. GMan, Perry Tarsons, and I were off on our own trying to recreate and improve last week's dive, but we failed miserably. As I led the first leg along the NW wall, we passed thru a 30 ft washout with 1 ft viz. GMan and Perry assumed that I was just kicking the crap out the bottom (an honest mistake), but we finally emerged from the washout into 20 ft viz near the road. We checked out the pumps and headed to the bomb, where GMan took over. We missed the Mystery Boat, but hit one of the Christmas trees that run on an east-west line past it. After a few lefts and rights, we gave up and headed back but not before checking out some suspicious mussels in the van. Just as we arrived at the platform to shoot lift bags, Vern, Kulp, JameZ, and the Wild One showed up, and knowing this would be sure-fire entertainment, decided to stay. As the peanut gallery watched, I sent my bag up with surprisingly little sturm and drang. GMan snarled his line in the reel and decided to send the whole mess to the surface unescorted. Perry, with a little help from GMan, did very well with the reel/lift bag operation. Back in the shack we dined like kings and talked about two things we know little about: sex and zebra mussels - specifically, whether zebra mussels lay eggs in nests or do it on the couch like the TNIs (Thursday Night Invertebrates). We gabbed until the fire went out and made plans to discuss the couch/nest theory after Vern brings photos of zebra mussels doing the horizontal mambo. Water temp was 46 degrees, the viz was mostly 10-15 ft, and the bull was more than 6 feet deep. If you join us next week, bring your dive gear and a shovel.
From Bryan Palmer . . .
It’s been a little while since I wrote but things are starting to settle down. With not having off almost 3 weeks Today was a nice break. Last weekend was spent at the West Palm Beach boat show at our booth. This week was a nice relief my manager Dean and his lovely wife went diving almost every morning before work at a local dive site under a Blue Heron Bridge.This is a small bridge that you can do as a shore dive from. During our morning Dives we ran across all sorts of wild life ranging from a southern ray, a green moray eel, nurse shark, schools of snook & angelfish and a sea turtle. There are also 7 wrecks to be seen and the best part is it has a maximum depth of 20 ft.
Sunday was Easter and I spent the day diving off of Abernathy’s local dive boat with Dean and a friend of his. We also had Digital camera guru Eric Cheng and James Wiseman of www.wetpixel.com on board with us. I had a chance to talk with Eric for a few minutes but seeing so many cameras on board I was just a bit envious of all the toys. We had 2 nice dives and saw about a dozen sea turtles and a gray reef shark about 8-10 ft in length and a nurse shark measuring in at around 6-7 feet it was a great day and ended it with lunch at the local Tiki bar with drinks!! That’s all from South Florida talk to you soon.
From Darth Vern . . .
[1]
I was out diving Saturday afternoon with new East Coast Wreck Diver Chip Goodhart. Chip is gearing up for his first EC dive on May 7th on the Surface Interval. Well we headed out from the newly manicured upper A [you will see when you get there] and headed North for a short tour before practicing some skills. After our tour Chip decided to "shoot a bag" for the first time. Well needless to say the first time is always the hardest. But Chip stayed with it and finished his simulated hang from his own upline. Kudos to Chip for getting out and practicing, especailly gearing up for his first EC Wreck Dive.
[2]
DON'T FORGET - Dutch Springs opens this weekend. Our TDI Deco Procedures class will be doing check-out dives, so we will be representing!!!!
Keep On Diving and Live The Adventure!!!
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