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From Tom Pritchard . . .
Thursday's night dive started out with news of a possible drowning at a nearby quarry. George Heck and Jay Bell headed over to assist with the recovery of a 13 yo swimmer, but by the time they arrived North Bay Salvage had the situation in hand. Gerhard Maree, Bill Siwiec, Tom Stucky, Paul Bernhardt, Jess Zellers, yours truly, and some random diver who did a great Paul Bernhardt imitation stayed to do the Lord's Work: dive at Willow on Thursday night. Terry Martzell and Linda Sacrison had finished their dives when we arrived and Terry was carrying on about what a gorgeous engagement ring he had given Linda 3 months ago so I figure he screwed something up last night and this was his attempt to dig out. Good luck Terry - and yes it is still a very nice ring. While Bill, Paul and new Tom kicked up the silt for 38 minutes, Gerhard and I did a very routine run to the mixer after finishing the Quest, fire truck, and school bus circuit. On the way back we decided to navigate home by compass from the Quest, which went pretty well for a couple of bozos who didn't know the compass heading. We missed by a tad, but cruised in with a sparkling 66 minute dive in 54 degree water. With grilled burgers and dogs, meatballs, and deli stuff we ate like kings while it rained cats and dogs outside. And a good time was had by all.
From Kent Hirsch . . .
Wednesday night found the intrepid cave divers doing the local dive scene at Wabank Quarry. I was still on Devil gas (heliair) and Mike was diving nitrox 28. We just did a quick dive after work getting in the water at 7:20 after arriving at 7:00PM. Amazing how the mudpit/parking lot from Sunday became the dust bowl by Wednesday.
Anyway, we dropped down to the Miss Peaches, took a right turn and proceeded along the ridge at 100 ffw. About 200 ft there is a glob of something on the dirt bottom. I'm guessing its a goose carcass, well decomposed, Any other guesses from those who have been there? Further along we passed the duel depressions and turned the dive a short time later. Has anyone continued to the end of the ridge? Where does it lead? Maybe someday I'll dive it on a full tank and get to the end. 45 minutes, 98 ft. pretty good viz, but daylight was fading. Surface temps in the upper 50's, bottom a refreshing 42.
On another note, I was on Block Island last Saturday. Not diving, just at a family outing. Took the ferry over flat seas 1-3. Wished I had my dive gear. BTW, the Newport Dive Center STILL doesn't have their boat in the water. We are planning another dive to the U853 later in the season. We'll keep you posted.
From John Gross . . .
On Saturday we did three dives for an AOW class with Chris Thompson and James Zimmerman. Scott McLeod was along as a divemaster in training. We arrived at Bainbridge around 1:30 PM and found at least two other groups also doing an AOW class. All three class were doing Nav and Search & Recovery in the bowl area at Bainbridge. This amount of diver traffic and the warming trend adding algae made for Very poor visibility. The Nav class wasn't to bad. I ran my wreck reel out for the 100 foot swim. James did the first run to count kick cycles and measure time with no problems. Then it was Chris's turn. He counted his kick cycles out and then notices the wreck reel had moved and the line was a little loose. So he picked up the wreck reel to stretch the line tight and laid the reel back down. In doing this he they kicked up so much silt that they couldn't find the line. They finally had to surface and return to the platform to find the line. Then they did the their two squares and only lost their buddy once. It seems Chris made a right turn that James missed. Even with the poor viz both managed to finish the Nav dive.
Now the funny part. Around 4 PM they started to do their Search & Recovery dive. I told Scott to place the small object, a bolt, on the boat in the bowl. It took him a long time to find the boat due to all the silt. But that was nothing to how long it to Chris and James to find the float to the platform. The water level is even higher. It is a few feet from the picnic tables at "A" in the bowl. The float is about 6 feet under the water level. I told them to go to the platform and head south and the bolt is near the boat. It actually took them longer to find the float on the platform then it did to find the bolt. Then it was off to find the large object a cement bucket. In a short time the marking float came to the surface and then the lift bag. They then placed it back down and untied it for the other diver to rig and bring to the surface. Which they did with no problems. Then it was time to return to shore. Their recently learned Nav skills helped them find their way back to shore without getting lost in the poor viz conditions. When they exited the water Chris gave me the marker float and I asked who has the lift bag and James said he has it but he could find it. Apparently he had dropped it on the return to shore. Time to do another search & recovery. Within a a minute James found it near the exit point. Lucky for them. Not good idea to loose the instructor’s personal lift bag!
Then it was time for the night dive. We were the last group into the water and viz proved even worse. I had to use my compass to navigate. We went to the platform and sat their, with lights out, waiting for our eyes to adjust to the dark. But with the poor viz we couldn't see much. Then it was time to navigate and out and back pattern with the compass. Both James and Chris accomplished this without any problems. Then it was time for our tour. Here is some silt. Here is some more silt to the right. Here is more silt to the left. I seemed to being going so slowly through the water like I was dragging something. Then I realized Chris was holding onto my left fin and James my right fin. I guess they didn't want to get lost! Even with all this silt I did manage, to everyones amazement, to find the little fish that allows me to pick him up in my hands and remains in the palm of my hands while I move them up, down, left and right. If you never seen this you need to do a night dive with me sometime. I think the guys were impressed that I found the fish in all the silt. Someone even accused me of bring the fish with me in a plastic bag. But I deny that!
Then Sunday I was off to the Ephrata Rec for the last classroom and pool sessions for three new divers, MaryBeth Castelli, Mark E Oles and Scott Stephans. MaryBeth is getting married to Mark Oles on this coming Sat and then honeymooning to St Lucia and they are doing their training dives in St Lucia. On Sat while MaryBeth and Mark are getting married Scott and I will be doing his training dives at Bainbridge. Everyone had a great time and did a great job in the pool. Way to go with your buoyancy. They all had so much fun that all three signed up to do an AOW class in September. After the class everyone went to Pierro's for dinner and more fun and stories. Congratulations to MaryBeth and Mark on your wedding! When you return we wanted to hear all about the --- diving. What did you think I was going to ask about?
From Mark & Cindy . . .
Cindy and I were out with a small group at Wabank on Friday morning - Chris Thompson, Ray Guntle, Chris Lupold, and Sue Harris along with Liz Zyla. We did about a 40 minute bottom time – good endurance for the wetsuiters since the water is still in the 40’s. As usual for Wabank, visibility was pretty good. Short dive, then back to the shop in time to open up on Friday.
Saturday found us along with “Darth” Vern and Jess Zellers at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg assisting with the premier of “Coral Reel Adventures.” The huge screen of the Imax Theater is almost as good as actually being there yourself. The move was mostly shot in Fiji, and the reefs around Tahiti. While it is sad to see the destructive effects of development on the reefs, the footage of the healthy reefs is spectacular. You can find out more about the movie on our site here - http://www.smokeysdiversden.com/ads/whitaker/whitaker.html
Sunday I blew off diving - yes, I know, a cardinal sin – to catch up on yard work, but we spent the evening at the theater with the kids seeing “Finding Nemo”. This movie starring a clown fish is just great. Take the kids, or just go yourself. It’s a great time. More on the Disney web site here!
From Ralph Spayd . . .
It's not the "Dutch" report but here is this weeks report from Sunday 6/15 - On Sunday morning, Bill "Cruise Ship" Hockley, Chris Rosier (sp??) and myself met at Wabank to do some local diving. This was the 2nd in an undetermined series of dives that we're planning. Last week was Dutch and who knows what's up for next week. We're a VERY flexible planning group!! Bill wanted to tune up for an upcoming dive off the Surface Interval and was fully appointed with all his equipment. Chris is getting back into diving after a hiatus of several years and was glad to get back into the water with his semidry suit (Very impressive).
Bill led the 1st dive to Miss Peaches while Chris and I observed Bill's use of his wreck reel. Really what else can you do down there, neither of us had a deck of cards!!!!! We dropped down to about 120' and a balmy 39deg. The vis was good, but not spectacular. We then toured the Hound Dog and headed for home. Very nice 1st dive. Chris learned a very important lesson that you always bring that 2nd tank, just in case you want to do a second dive!!!!! We bid a fond farewell to Chris and Bill and I did our 2nd dive with my lead. We shot a heading across the quarry toward the fish pens (I was able to find the wall on the 1st try). We then took a right turn, picked up the lead lines and visited the Tug, Porta Potty, the "other" boat, and other miscellaneous quarry reefs! We had time and air to spare so we continued past the dock and did some wall diving admiring the eclectic collection of "stuff" at 25' and the edge of the thermocline.
It was a real treat to have a rain free Sunday and we enjoyed the SI between dives. As always a good time was had by all and we're always looking for additional dive buddies, so keep us in mind.
From Darth Vern . . .
Thursday morning I was out at Wabank with Chris Mayo, Cindy and the Buckwalters. I am pleased to announce that with their new Henderson Core Warmers the Buckwalters did a brisk 50 minutes in their wetsuits. NBow that is impressive - IMHO! Anyway I was out honing my deep diving skills and I will be out this Thursday Night with the Master of Ceremonies Jim Brown. All are welcome!!! Chris Mayo and his family are in Turks and Caicos this week, I can't wait to read his dive report this week.
Get Out And Dive - LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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