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From Darth Vern . .
Well it has been a quick week!!! No one reporting except old faithful Tom pritchard. I slept the night Saturday sleeping in my truck [after making it to Indian River from the shop in 2 hours] in hopes of the Porthole Wreck on Sunday on the Surface Interval with the Wonder Twins [Tom and Gerhard]. But no go - too damn windy.
From Tom Pritchard . . .
Thur June 17
Diving Vows. Greg Kulp, Paul "Speedy" Burnhard, and I splashed into Willow as the "storm de jour" was fast approaching. Viz was great at the surface, but only 10 ft at the bottom - and dark. With Kulp's and my "Lights of God" we led Paul who was carrying a candle, from what I could tell, to the caboose. We expected poor viz at the caboose - and were not disappointed. While in caboose lagoon flashes of lightning penetrated the 35 ft murk - really cool!! Returned via the fire truck and Quest. 57 minutes. At the exit we were greeted by pouring rain, dazzling sun, and a striking double rainbow. Life is good! Note to Wild Bill: Arrive before the gates close at 6PM. Or, like Gerhard did last night, come late just to break bread and bask in the glow of the TNI scintillating personalities! We dive every Thursday, rain or shine, just like it says in our diving vows: in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, till death do us part.
Sun Jun 20
The most difficult aspect of wreck diving seems to be getting the dive boat to leave the dock. Gerhard Maree and I may have set a record for being blown out twice in the same day. The Gypsy Blood canceled its Sunday trip to the Varanger for lack of diver interest and the fact that they didn't have a crew. GMan, Vern Heagy, and I hustled our way onto the Surface Interval for a dive on the Porthole Wreck (100 fsw). In order to maximize our misery, we camped out at the marina Saturday night. GMan and I shared a flimsy tent that the wind tore at all night while Vern slept in his truck. We showed up at the dock at 6AM all fresh and rested just in time for Daryl and Trish to blow out the dive because of wind-driven surf. Off to Bainbridge where we found the usual suspects: Wild Bill, Cindy Pie, Dr. Deco, and Scott the Rock. Before GMan and I started our dive, we volunteered to be dumb OW divers for John's AI class with Bob Hanna and Ralph Spayd. Bob and Ralph were on top of their game so neither GMan nor I were able to get away with our planned screw-ups. Ralph earned extra points for catching Gerhard as he threw himself off the platform in a mock calamity. Once done with their class, we headed past the mixer and down pipe to the stairs and into the hole. Sad to say, the great viz in the hole is gone and in its wake 2-3 ft of milky murkiness. We abandoned the hole and swam along the rim, where the viz was about 30 ft, but still a little murky. Past the step van, tanker and a swim through the barn on the way to the east wall, where we did our deco as we climbed the wall. We finally tumbled across the road into the bowl and completed our 83 minute dive annoying the fish. 41 degrees at the bottom. The clearest part of BSC seems to be between 70 and 90 feet. Join us next week when we're planning to get blown off the Gypsy Blood trip to the wreck Gulftrade. Or join us the following week on the Blood as we celebrate the 4th.
ALSO
For anyone looking for a novel way to celebrate July 4th, join Gerhard Maree and Tom Pritchard for wreck diving off the Gypsy Blood. We'll probably do an in-shore wreck, definitely in the 80-100 fsw. Two tank dives, lunch. and drinks provided, $80. If we can't sleep on the boat the night before, we'll camp in a local state park in our spacious two-room tent. Last year we lounged on the deck of the Seeker and watched the local fireworks reflect off the water.
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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