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From Gerhard Maree . . .
On Saturday 4/12 I met up with Dave Baily and Andy Price at Willow for a daylight dive. we all knew that good viz was short lived thus a whopping 10 ft was the conclusion. It was my turn to lead and decided not to follow the lines but just swim IGD (in general direction of). From the tormedo next to the dock we headed towards the quest over the desert of odd plants and bare silt. Some places you can see there havn't been any disturbance for a while, We ran into the Quest (well with the good viz almost realy ran into it) and headed over to the pipeline. With a big loop we headed to the unnamed boat and xmastree farm, back to the dock. Nice 60-70 min dive just exploring the bottom. There are thousands of little wormy like (goeters) all over the bottom, and lots of golf balls.
On thursday we will have the normal sports with the Irregulars. Never a dull moment
And Tom Pritchard’s Version . . .
Diving at Willow last Thursday was a truly special event. First, Terry Martzel popped the big question to Linda Sackrison on the Quest, big diamond ring and all. Few people get to see Terry's romantic side, so just to show us what a Romeo he is, Terry hung out with the guys for a couple of hours after Linda, daughter Abbey, and a boyfriend left. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. (Just to be clear, that was Abbey's boyfriend in attendance, not Linda's. I made that mistake last night). Viz was down from 40ish feet to about 15 feet, which was a real bummer because Dan Cecil B. DeMyers brought his videocam to shoot film of the Quest. It is unclear whether the low viz on the Quest was due to the algae bloom triggered by submersion of the videocam in the water or silt kicked up when Terry tried to use his p-valve as a docking station to consummate his engagement on the Quest. It also is not clear why Dan asked the blackout twins, Gerhard Maree and me, to provide lighting. I brought my UK POS HID light and we both brought our Sartek HID lights. The UK did not disappoint: it worked on the dock before AND after the dive - but not during the dive. A hydrophobic dive light; what will UK come up with next? The Sartek light was almost strong enough to compensate for all of the silt I kicked up while Dan filmed. Without a doubt, hovering in place for a few minutes while keeping your light trained on a target can be a truly humbling experience. Nate Brommer and Bill, my aching back, Siweic watched the ordeal and made cameo appearances in Dan's feature film. Too bad there isn't audio on the film of Dan yelling stage directions into his reg. As we dined on the Chicken Terryaki that Terry brought, I wondered if the dish was named for the pieces of Chicken or the pieces of Terry it contained - no matter, they all tasted good. And the champagne complemented the bubbles already in our systems. Dave Hoshauer, Jay Bell, and Roger Heims joined the cast of thousands that celebrated Terri's and Linda's blessed event. Next week, join us for low viz, hot pizza, and cold beer.
From Mark Myers . . .
I know there were people out on Saturday – but I haven’t heard from anyone – so I guess no one did anything embarrassing. Bill Rote was in for fills today and said he was at Wabank over the weekend. He reports that vis there is still fine.
Speaking of fine vis – I headed out to the BSC on Sunday. Cindy and I had plans to field test some new Aqualung regulators, and play some more with the digital camera. We were joined by Liz Zyla, and Baltimore based underwater photographer Nick Caloyianias. Nick was looking to test out a recently repaired drysuit, and his new Mares “they rock” Abyss regulator in preparation for a trips to Mane, Haiti and the Arctic this summer. He recently retired his ScubaPro G250 in favor of the Abyss and it’s new little brother, the Proton Ice. I was also trying out a new Proton Ice. More on Nick’s expedition here - www.icesharks.org.
Kent “Dr. Deco” Hirsch, and Rick “The Artist” Huck were already on site when we arrived, suiting up for their dive. After reading our reports of visibility from last week, they headed for the barn underwater. We decided to take the more conservative route topside. Liz and I soon realized that Cindy and Nick obviously exercise way more than we do as they made it to the barn without the EMT’s. We descended and swam around the barn posing for Nick and for me. It was a little like diving with Diver Dan and his new camera, except that Nick gestured really big instead of hollering into a rebreather hose. After thoroughly kicking up the bottom at the barn, we headed due east to the far wall of the quarry, then around the north side and back in the road. Yes – you can actually dive on the road again, the water has come up high enough. Along the way we ran into three very large bass – one of which stayed still enough for Cindy to get close enough to almost touch it. Nick should have one great shot – and mine of his taking his shot isn’t so bad either. After a 52 minute marathon run we exited the water on fumes and headed back up. Cindy and Liz headed out through mumbling something about tests and studying of some kind. Nick and I headed back into the water to try and find the bass again.
Sunday night found Dennie Leese and Vern “Darth” Heagy at Golden Meadows doing some refresher work with students taking their checkouts this spring, along with some already certified divers and new students. I ended up heading over with my kids with the goal of finally figuring out this digital camera under some controlled conditions. I should have realized that a 7 year old in snorkeling equipment isn’t exactly “controlled conditions” so we didn’t get much accomplished there.
We’ll be out and around this weekend – and some are planning to dive on Friday since many businesses are closed.
Also, check out John Gross’ report from his trip to the Caribbean, and maybe Vernon will finally get Tom Pritchard’s Australia pictures posted,
From Dan Myers . . .
Wed. at Wabank - Scott Steinbacher, Bryan Palmer and I had a good happy hour dive at Wabank after work. Water temps were still 38 deg. Viz was about 20 to 25 ft.
Thurs. at Willow Springs - A sold out show for the engagement dive starring Terry Martzall and Linda Sackrison !!! Linda found a diamond ring on the bow of the Quest !!! We had all the regular knucklehead Thursday night divers and special guest star Nate Brommer. We also welcomed back Bill Siwiec who had taken a few Thurs. nights off due to back problems. I shot video on the Quest with the Sony DX 1000. The footage turned out ok; considering the silt stompers got to the Quest before I did.
With all the engangement excitement and the first digital images of the Quest documentry taking place the 49 deg. 20 to 25 ft viz. ( once we got away from the silt stompers on the Quest) was the favorite of everyone!! Join us this Thurs. for an early evening dive or night dive. www.willowspringspark.com Good people, good diving and good food make Willow Springs the place to be on Thursday nights !!!
Sat. Scott Steinbacher and I hit Wabank for a nice dip in the afternoon. Water temps are still cool and the viz was low after the rain all day friday. I shot more video of Scott. Both Scott and Nate Brommer need to learn how to love the camera. Very shy boys around the camera.
Sun. Work day on the Seeker. To see photo's of the Seeker in drydock go to www.deepexplorers.com Pulled out one of the two compressors on the boat. A beautiful day on the marina waterfront !!!
Join us this Wed. evening at Wabank, this Thurs. at Willow Springs Good Friday at Wabank.
From Brian Palmer . . .
Wed night - Had my pony rigged and the first stage wouldn't seal right. so diver dan gave me his to sling, so if you are counting that is two pony bottles. one usable one. Scott the ROCK was out with his NEW back plate also & his new Subaru this guy knows were to find the $$$. so we went in with a plan to go to the peaches and down to the "hole" it was a good dive I had about 6-7 minutes at 130ish and it was dark down there with the over cast day as well. did a few safety stops
Thursday morning - Vern, Chris Mayo and I dove Wabank it was a nice threesome to dive together (AKA 3 Stooges). We hopped in at the dock and had a predive plan of heading over to the sailboat under the fish pens strictly on navigation. And around the south end of the quarry. Well we dropped down to 100’ and headed over to the sailboat reached the wall in about 10-15 minutes after leaving the dock. Came up on the sailboat and did a once around. GREAT JOB CHRIS!!!! From there we headed over to the fast boat at the south end of the quarry which rest on it’s side, this was a first for me as I don’t usually dive that end. Pretty cool. Then headed off along the wall when Chris “decided to take a short cut” which ended up being a “few zig zags” and then with a shoulder shrug “I don’t know” only to be responded 2 shrugs from both Vern and I. This was at 60 feet and went on for about a good 8 minutes only to have been moved several feet in some horizontal direction. This was finally ended by myself which took a DUE EAST reading and ran into the wall at about 50 feet and then a wall swim at about 30 ft we ended our dive 46 minutes after we started. I am not going to mention how much air was in my tank nor was in Verns but I only had 100 #’s less when Vern started with approximately 700 # more then Chris and I.
Maybe next time Vern!!!
Saturday - Yes I was out again!! Vern was SUPPOSED to be out with his NEW doubles!!!! Vern where are you???? Get a call 15 minutes after we were supposed to meet at Bainbridge I just rolled out of bed!!! So I ended up talking to Ralph Spade, Bob Hanna, and Bill Hockley and diving with them thanks GUYS!!!!! First Ralph navigated us to the deep boat at a depth of 60 feet where we wound up passing and hitting the wall it was great viz we saw the van and the deep boat from a depth of 60 feet which meets that it was 30-35’ we did a little exploration of that and then that side of the cliff. We headed back till I ran in to the first platform of the many. I started to platform jump my way back. And ran into Bob Hanna who went around. My prize of the dive was weight out of a soft pouch.
Topside we ran in to the great duo of Mike Nast and Dr Deco. For the second dive I went in with Ralph and Bill and we headed to the tractor oops wrong keg we ended in the Hole with the boat. Wouldn’t you know it 115’ down I didn’t even need a light. Oh at this point I had found a knife WOW!!!! We headed due Left to the wall and started to traverse along it, oh wait what did I fine a weight pouch under all the silt. Who says diving the quarries is for the dogs? All in all it was a great dive with great viz.
Sunday - Sorry to all though’s that I said I would dive SPECIFICALLY CINDY!!! I came down with this spring illness/cold and thought it would be better to try not to be around anyone else so they didn’t get this nasty thing!!
From Darth Vern . . .
I would personally like to thank Mark for giving me a compliment last week on my air consumption. Now instead of being "dissed" for being an "air-hog" now it is a game to try and outlast my air supply. Divers are a funny group of people! As Mark mentioned I did a refresher on Sunday night with Bob and Chris. As much as I was dreading it, I had a good time with them. Exchanged stories and the usual BS [from me anyway] and it looks like Chris is going to become a regular with us!!! I then did a snorkeling lesson and also enjoyed that.
We are planning a dive this Friday afternoon at Wabank for all those interested!!!
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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