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From Tom Pritchard . . .
The TNIs officially switched sides last night so look for us at the cement dock for the next few months. Pope T-Bone, Dave Ho, George Heck, and Jay Bell were heading into the water as I joined Greg Kulp and James Zimmerman to wait for Cindy-Pie to arrive. By my count, it had been about 3 years since Cindy came to a random Thursday night dive - so we had been waiting for a while - but the wait was worth it. As we admired Cindy's doubles (actually they were JZ's tanks, but I get a thrill when I say "Cindy's doubles"), Cindy mentioned that she went both ways. Before she could clarify what she meant, there was enough wood to build a 4 bedroom ranch - with a deck!! We cooled our libidos in the water on the way to the steam shovel with JZ in the lead. After an elaborate pantomime about bad viz or something, JZ handed the lead off to me. We did the habitat, tanker swim thru, east end platform, snowmobile, missed the cave, and finally climbed out after a relaxing hour in some pretty mucky stuff. Back on the surface Terry, Dave, Jay, and George were trading dive war stories. T-Bone just dove the Resor and was recounting his haul of 85 scallops, 5 lobsters, a couple of speared fish - and get this - a goodie bag filled with a few more scallops and a wreck reel. The bottom line: If you plan to dive the Resor anytime soon, you'll leave hungry - there's nothing left. Dave Ho was passing out tips on flounder poaching. He found a flounder last week that had decided that the sometimes successful camouflage method could be updated and improved by wearing a sign that read, "Out of Season." Makes sense to me, but Dave Ho is a skeptical type who doesn't believe everything he reads - or doesn't read - stabbed the flounder with his knife and threw him in his goodie bag. Oh well! Remember: Evolution doesn't follow a straight line - and who wants smart fish anyway. We want them for their bodies, not their minds! No word on the status of the sign.
No TNI dive report next week because Gerhard and I will be on the John Jack in Hatteras, NC with Captain Zero and crew T-Bone and Roger Heins. Kulp will be diving the St. Lawrence next week - so there will be lotsa tall tales two weeks from now!
Check your mailboxes because within the next few weeks the TNIs will be mailing out invitations to the annual "TNI Induction Ceremony" where we'll take the wraps off (or blow the dust off) our newly minted members wearing the highly coveted TNI pins.
From Bob Hanna . . .
6-23-05
For the past 4 years Smokey's has done a discover scuba program for the kids and some of their staff who are attending a camp for burn victims. This was my first experience with the program. Finding the Millersville University fascility was an adventure, but I did. Getting to the Gym was for Mark and the legendary shop dive truck was furthur proof that miracles do happen.
While we were unloading Cindy appeared! She was very helpful with setting up while Mark and I dealt with the arrival of about 60 kids, and their supervisors. What did not arrive were the completed medical forms. Someone had to go get them. Quite a few forms had "yes" answers but most of those did not have medical signoffs. Those that did not have properly completed forms did not dive. I did the briefing, and between Mark and I we got everyone into properly sized gear. From that point forward it seemed like everything smoothed out , and every one had a good time. I brought my scooter. Just about everybody used it.
I must give a special mention to Ben Kaufman, a certified diver, who came and helped any way he was permitted to. At the end he helped carry and load the gear back into the truck.
Whether the truck made it back to the shop is at this point a question with an unknown answer. Whether it did or not, I leave all comments to Mark.
6-26-05
It was a hot summer day. The thermometer in my Truck ranged from 92 to 101. Most of the time it was around 95. But the place was packed. Yet Natasha and I had a table to ourselves on the penninsula about 6 feet from the western entrance ramp located near the swim park. We bagged our dry suits and dove with 3 mil wet suits. It was very comfortable to 25' and ok to about 30'.
I recieved a message Friday evening. "Q's got a scooter!" So we deferred the idea of practicing diving with pony bottles, and went scootering. The first dive was West along the N wall to the West end of the quarry. The second dive was intended to be a trip to the Island by compass. My compass reacted to the scooter, and we went all over the place but not to the Island. Good to get some of the kinks out before N Car.
From Trish of the Surface Interval . . .
Greetings bubble blowers,
What an awesome weekend! Things could not have been any more idyllic. Sunny skies, calm seas getting even flatter by the minute, great visibility, neat artifacts, a monster lobster, fish galore and dolphins leaping on the surface. What's not to love? The last few weekends have certainly let us know why we became divers in the first place and why we continue love it.
The absolute highlight of the weekend was the personal best lobster catch of "Bug King" Richie Burr on Sunday's dive to "Secret Wooden Wreck #1". The boat scale measured the bug at 12.5 pounds and at Jimmy Lynn's Seafood in Rehoboth Beach, the bug tipped the scales at 13 lbs. even. We know which figure Richie's going to use! Mate Martin was practically side by side with Richie on the dive, but is really bumming that HE didn't see the bug. Martin still retains his boat record at 14 lbs. though from couple of years ago, but this was really too close for comfort. Richie has set this year's bar really high. Time to knock the king off his throne! Who can best him? "Secret Wooden Wreck #2" was our second dive of the day and between the two, the boat limited out on lobster, as well as producing a lot of pretty stringers of fish and wonderful memories of any idyllic day on and in the water. A couple of divers almost shot an "enormous flounder", but both fortunately realized it it was really a big monkfish and left it alone. There have also been a number of skates on most dives lately.
Saturday, we entertained the Ocean Wreck Divers club from New Jersey plus a couple of walk-ons. Patty's Pitcher wreck was our first dive of the day at 105 fsw. Capt. Darryl was at the helm, so Capt. Clay tied in. We hooked into the stern section, so the entire wreck was laid out in one direction. With the full moon, the current was running pretty good. I had some slow descenders in front of me, so dropped off the line at 60 ft. to a rib. You could easily see a 3 to 4 rib span at that level - an awesome sight. It is a very easy wreck to navigate. I dove in the middle of the pack and had been warned by the first set of divers that the current was ripping pretty good on the bottom. It was like a Cozumel drift dive on the way to the bow section, but the current knocked out all "fuzzies" so we easily had 40 ft. of visibility on the bottom. I was wondering whether the guys would entertain the notion of picking me up, but knew that was a pipe dream. I made a lap around the pony boiler and bow anchor and pulled my way back another rib hand over hand to the large flat rudder defining the stern section. A large selection of seafood came up from lobsters to flounder (they're in, guys!), tautog and seabass. Both Jim Flanagan's (there are two in the OWD club) came up with nice catches. David Quigley was tickled when he found his first artifact - a valve of some sort. There is a patent number on it and possibly some other lettering. Exactly what it is remains to be seen when it is cleaned up. It would be nice to put a name to the wreck. It has been "Patty's Pitcher" ever since Patty Gannon found a pitcher "back when" when it was first discovered. Our second Saturday dive was the Elizabeth Palmer at 80 fsw. The viz deteriorated to a still respectable 20 ft. there,and we had another nice dive with a nice selection of seafood.
Last week I ran off to Spain with Darryl's sister for 10 days, so missed a wonderful weekend of dives that were every bit as wonderful as this weekend's. It was "artifact weekend" with cases of leather boots and china cups and plates on the menu last week. I was really sorry to miss it! I took my digital camera to Spain, so Darryl had no way to record the goodies. Bummer! It was "junker heaven" both days and the spearos and bug hunters did well too. Hope to "sea" you underwater soon!
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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