From Jess Zellers

Florida Sun Times - Special Pennsylvania Edition

Over the past few weeks cave country has seemed more like Amish country. There's way too many Dutchmen running around here, which is definitely newsworthy. So let's start at the beginning.

A couple of weeks ago I was diving at Peacock and stopped by Dive Outpost for some liquid refreshments. I get out of my car and see a guy on the front porch who looks remarkably like Bryan Palmer... and who knows my name. Palmer came up from down south to do some real diving with a couple of his friends. He also tipped me off that we had tied the world record for the most Smokey's divers in Florida at one time... three. Vern was down doing his trimix class.

Which makes PA sighting #2. The next day at Ginnie I run into Vern at the shop. Vern was around for little bit.  Then I had family come to visit, not divers. But I do have Lebanon bologna, Shady Maple pie and TastyCakes at my place now. All things I can not find around here.

PA sightings #3,4 &5 was well planned out in advance. Denny Willis recently closed his shop in eastern PA and was a long standing training chairman for the Cave Diving Section of the NSS. Now he's keeping himself busy with a dive travel TV show him, his wife and a friend put together. For an upcoming episode of the show they will be featuring Ginnie Springs. They were down last week shooting the episode. Since Denny was who I was going to do my cave classes with the first time around when I was still living in PA, I really enjoyed shooting with video at Devils and Ginnie with him and Bud Hogan. I don't know air dates yet, but will let ya'll know.

Sighting #6 was Steve Russell. Down doing some caving. #7 Evie was down a couple of weeks ago. #8 is a stretch for a PA edition, he lives in Cape May, NJ, but he knows just about everybody I know up north. He was down for a quick trip, and what a great dive we had!!

The point -- there are PA divers in cave country, why aren't you one of them? Gin clear water, 72F water temps and the weather's a pleasant low 80's right now. Plenty of open water stuff to dive or if you're interested a cavern and/or intro class they will only improve other areas of your diving. If there's any interest Mark knows how to get a hold of me, we can get you hooked up with good instructors and keep you away from the bad restaurants.

-Jess, the DivingPsychopath

From Tom Pritchard

3/22 - A light rain fell as the seven of us splashed and headed our separate ways.  I swam to Bubba where T-Bone and Kulpie had been propping up the boat with rocks.  I found the mess they left at Bubba and on a hunch, found them in the vicinity of the Mystery Boat.  I tried to hitch a ride on Kulpie, but he wasn't going anywhere so, instead, I returned a favor I owed T-Bone: I quietly moved his wreck reel from his right hip to his left. I remember my befuddlement a few months ago when he did it to me. Off to T-Bone's swim thru.  As I entered the pipe behind T-Bone, I felt a tug on my right fin. I thought Kulpie, who was behind me, had a problem. When I stopped, Kulpie removed my fin. It wasn't Kulpie who had the problem, after all.  The old “lost fin in a cave” drill. OK, I can deal with it. I swam thru the pipe with one fin, but I might have damaged the viz just a little bit. Kulpie was waiting at the far end, fin in hand, grinning thru his full face mask. As T-Bone and Kulpie darted home, I decided to check my hunch that a 210 heading from the swim thru would take me to the bow of the Quest - and it does.  I'll recheck the heading; I suspect it's closer to 200 degrees. Once we get the heading, the "Quest-to-Terry's-pipe" by compass will be the gold standard for navigational excellence.  Who thinks they can hit a 10 foot wide target from a distance of roughly 300 ft - by compass?!  Back at the Shack, we dined on franks, beans, and sauerkraut, compliments of the semi-regular TNI babe, T-Boneless Terry. 46 degrees and wet.

4/5 - With some divers making an early migration to the cement dock, it was a small and cozy group at the Lobster Shack last night.  T-Bone and Dave Ho took their 1000lb lift bag (yes folks, that’s “thousand”) to Bubba in their continuing quest to raise the bow and support it with rocks.  They raised more silt than GM and I did last week running an air dredge next to the school bus. GM and I not only jettisoned silt, we also launched golf ball sized stones that rained down on us.  After the dive, there were sizeable rocks lodged between my tanks and between my tanks and bladder.  Last night, the plan was for GM, T-Bone Jr, and me to swim to the new pipe and then confirm the compass heading to the Quest. T-Bone Jr. couldn’t clear his ears, so GM and I left for the pipe – unfortunately, we went different ways.  I headed for Bubba, but got that “alone” feeling at the first boat and returned to the platform.  GM did the same thing at the step van.  With only 2000 psi in my double 45s when I left the platform again, the pipe seemed pretty far away. I fumbled my way thru the zero viz at Bubba and then compassed to the Mystery Boat and then to the pipe – and found GM waiting.  Then my compass skills failed me, and we ended up in the bowl.  After making a  U-turn, we finally made it to the Quest.  With 1000 psi left, we headed back, but took a detour past the school bus where there was scant evidence of last week’s dig. This being the first Thursday of the month, we, along with Kulpie who came to drop off wood and bask in the glow, ate at the Ice House, which is open for the season.  The water temp hit 50 last night. Spring is here!

Live the Adventure!!!