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From Jim Brown . . .
Thursday, June 26, 2003
Had a blast Thursday night at Wabank. The crowd gets bigger and better every week. The hot, humid surface weather made for anxious dry suit donning but we got geared up and got in. There was an early gang in the water when I arrived but my bestest dive buddy Darth Bean was waiting patiently (he was tardy too). Let's see, Cindy, Rock, Nate, Palm, John Gross, Tom Pritchard, Bill, Kenny, Susan, Frank (hot dog) McSorely (Wabank), Jim (Wabank), James Zimmerman and Christopher Thompson come to mind.
Vern and I dropped over the sub to the tube, our normal route, with cameras in tow. We hit 100' and headed due south to the ridge. Peaches would have to wait until next time. We headed due south past the vortex depressions (is vorti plural for multiple vortex?) and out into open water. It was a marathon swim to the far side of the hole and we bumped our heads into the wall for effect. Up from 120' to the 100' level for a quick sweep, then up to 70' in search of the new boat. We missed her a bit to the east but learned a new nav point. A few kicks back to the boat and we attempted to capture the snapper on digital media. If you haven't seen this deteriorating turtle, get a peek before he is nothing but shell. Its a cool site. He sits right on the windshield of the new boat at 70', south end of the pool, east of the Spur, west of the big swim tube, almost directly below the second telephone pole.
Well, remember the warm, humid surface weather? My camera and Ikelite housing was no longer happy in the 42F bottom water. Yep, condensation wreaked havoc inside the housing. A few dribbles inside the housing confirmed the lens was clouded over but when tipping the camera to a corner, no pooling could be seen. Whew! Safe for now at 70'. Vern gave me the ascent sign (the first time ever I think!) but I declined. Without pooling in the housing, the camera was still safe. We ascended to the big swim tube to peek around then headed around the pond toward the exit. We played around the habitat still at 20' awaiting delivery to higher pressures and colder temps. See the pics - the finz play was fun! Vern amused himself with a brief video moment at the platform and we headed for the exit. The rarely-seen, highly-feared Wabank snakes impeded our immediate access to the dock and we held at 15' until safe passage was afforded. A near miss for sure....
As we dropped gear at the table, a rare opportunity presented itself just off the entry platform. Yes, aqua girl Cindy was practicing in one of Kenny's kayaks and presented herself just so at the end of the dock, just so for a perfect cannonball attack! Cannonballs in dry suits are fun, well for the one in the dry suit that is. She got soaked. Vern followed shortly behind me to finish the soaking. After Cindy perfected the kayak exit onto the dock, we had to be sure she was thoroughly soaked so a manual dip was required. I couldn't resist the urge to purge my dry suit with just one more Cindy toss off the dock. I think Vern captured the eloquence and significance of the moments in digital perfection! We'll see. Thanks for being a great sport aqua girl! We enjoyed it very much!
A good time was had by all. 60 minutes run time to 117'. Après dive gathering at Carlos & Charlie's (John, Tom, Jim, Vern, Cindy, Franny).
Sunday, June 29, 2003
A return visit to this fresh-water fishing/dive destination: Keuka Lake in New York State, the Finger Lakes region between Syracuse to the east and Rochester to the west. I did my first solo dive here (wet) in July 2001, along the east shore (550 block), south of the Bluff. The site was an old wooden barge from 25'-65'. Vis was 10-15' at 77' and 30'+ above 40'. Water temp was 44F at 77'.
This dive was dry and took place at the Bluff, the base of the fork in the 'Y' shape of the lake (see pic). This is a popular fishing location due to the confluence of the two branches of the 'Y' and a warm-water discharge to the east. I dropped down the line to the bottom at 63' and reset the hook under a big rock. I was off. Nav was easy with 20'+ vis and a nice ridge to follow where the base of the rock slope met the soft bottom. The first and most remarkable observation was the absolute multitude of zebra mussels everywhere. I though Dutch Springs was overwhelmed! Check out the pics.
I had the Ikelite housing armed with my Sony digital DSC-S85, set to auto mode. After last week's experience with condensation at Wabank, I stored the housing and camera in our beer cooler until I was ready to dive. Then I assembled the works and dropped in. It worked, no condensation at all, with 78F surface temps. Check out the macro photos too: beer can, Marlboro pak, dorsal fin spikes. I found a small boat anchor and brought that up as the lone booty. I have a short video of a white sucker and stills of another sucker (not me). The second still shows a huge gouge out of this character's side. He was almost dinner for someone or something. There are a number of surface pics too.
This is one beautiful, spring-fed lake. My family vacationed here for about 30 years and this is the second time I've been under with scuba. There's more to explore here, as well as 14 miles across the hill at Seneca Lake.
From Jess Zellers . . .
Thursday - The Donner party set out to dive Myerstown, as mandated by tradition, but only five arrived. The story we're sticking to is we don't know what happened to everybody else! Terry 'Mr. Doria' Martzall departed for his own adventures farther out to sea. And Tom Pritchard got the email a week late and is reported to have been at Wabank. Tom, our inspection visit was last week!! Gerhert, Paul and me headed for the Quest. Beautiful yellow-green tinge to the water. The Quest is still there and like everything else in the quarries right now is covered in green fluff and alge. And the dock is covered in water. Don't go down there with street shoes on!! We're enjoying this beautiful water every week, come join us!!! Its the warmest water around! And we have flushies.
Sunday - For anyone who thought the Diving In the Rain stuff was all crap... This sunday not only were Greg Kulp and I not diving together, we weren't even in the same country!! And the weather was amazing- sunny, blue skies, and toasty warm. Sunday John Rubble and Paul Berhert were planning to be diving at Bainbridge, and ahh ahhh I basicly invited myself along for their dive..... well no one else was suppose to be diving. So getting to A and seeing John Gross by the Smokey's truck was a pleasant surprise. People I know I can harass that won't run away, YES!! We started our first dive in the pond, which unbelievably has a thremocline!!! Ran out the road a good bit. On the way back found and woke up a catfish napping on the bottom. 'hey don't you know it's nearly 10, there's divers here wake up!'. Paul and I did a second dive that was a challenge of memory. It's been last fall since I was in the bowl, ah but just like an old glove.... an old glove with ten extra feet of water! The mixer is NOT suppose to be at 50ft. Did pretty good remembering where everything is, and put us on the back wall for a mid-water return. Gave Paul a heading and the lead. He put us right at the exit, all while being a shining example of maintaining depth.
Ok, who wants to dive next weekend!!?
From Tom Pritchard . ..
Great Viz, A Rack of Doubles and Two Kayaks
Joining the Regular Wabankers last Thursday was Willow Irregular Tom Pritchard and Instructor John Gross, who claims that he had never set fin in the quarry. After donning our duds in 91 deg heat, John, Cindy Willman-Kinsey, and I made the plunge to Miss Peaches at 104 ft where the water was 50 degrees colder. With Cindy in the lead we worked our way along the basin to another boat whose name I would share with you if I knew what it was. With 35+ ft viz, the moonscape at the bottom of the quarry could be seen in all of its glory. We found a huuuuge egg laying on the bottom at 60 ft which Cindy scooped up. Given Cindy's rep for being a mother hen, I was waiting for her to sit on the egg, but instead she carted it along for a while and then laid it gently on the sub. As we neared the end of the dive, John, who had been quietly following up to this point, decided that I needed a test to prepare for my dive this coming weekend on the Algol. I was lugging my wreck reel on this dive but hadn't planned to use it - so John Gross decided to change my plan. While we circled the Pop Pop at a depth of about 15 ft, John slithered underneath me (note the reference to a snake), loosened the fastener on the reel, and began to pull the line out. He had planned to tie the
line off, but a wave of compassion swept over him at the last minute. Still, he made quite a mess. John later explained that he wanted to see how I would handle an emergency. Someone said that that long string following in my wake resembled a trail of toilet paper stuck to your foot on the way out of the John (note the reference to the dive instructor). Anyway, I gathered my line and passed the test. I've learned over the last two weeks that you shouldn't bring a wreck reel on a quarry dive unless you plan to use it.
Back on the surface, Ken "Kayak" Wong, Susan, and our very own Cindy went for a spin in Ken's kayaks. Ken later demonstrated twice that he can right a flipped kayak, but after Darth Vern's videocam arrived, he only managed to do a couple of 180s, which just doesn't cut it. Cindy had managed to stay reasonably dry on her kayak ride, until she got near the dock and came face to face with the splash from Jim "Uptown" Brown's cannonball dive. Darth's tsunami cannonball a few minutes later got Cindy even wetter, but the coup de grace was the "hug" that Jim gave Cindy. This hug started on the dock and lasted until the two of them were in the soup. The only injuries were to a couple of guys who stepped on their lizards during Cindy's impromptu wet T-shirt display. Talk about great viz!! And the best part, Vern got it all on tape - except the T-shirt stuff. Vern, you're fired!
Nate brought brownies to pay off Frank McSorley, but there wasn't much else to eat at Wabank. It is worth mentioning, however, that the quality of the knaked people at Wabank is much higher than the usual fare at Willow. So that's the local Thursday diving menu: beautiful knaked people at the 'Bank or great food at Willow. I'm diving the 'Bank again this Thursday to see who else gets knaked. Jess, save some food for me; I'll be back at Willow the following week. Ken, the guys with the sore lizards all asked that you bring the kayaks again.
From Rick Huck . . .
Sue and I recently spent 11 days relaxing and enjoying the beautiful islands of Bermuda. Sue, if you don't know, is my wife of almost 31 years!! Seems like only yesterday..... If you have never considered Bermuda as a vacation getaway, you just might might want to. Only a 2 hour flight from Philadelphia puts you on a tropical gem that has friendly people, beautiful waters, great snorkelling and outstanding WRECK DIVING. There are a few drawbacks though, like cruise ships, driving on the left and the fact that you are still out there in the Atlantic Ocean.
Several years ago we spent some time on the south shore but this time around we stayed on the eastern side at a resort called Grotto Bay Beach Resort. It is only minutes away from the airport situated on a hillside above a small bay where both sailboats and motorboats are moored and has great views of the open ocean. On site are several walk-in caves with cool crystal waters. Although you can swim and snorkel here there is no diving. Also on site is the dive shop "Scuba Look". This brings me to the point of this report.....DIVING!
After spending our first day relaxing around the pool and exploring the grounds I checked into the dive shop to confirm the dives that I had set up. To my surprise they didn't have me scheduled! They explained that the person that I was in contact with worked in the office and left a month earlier. He had never notified the shop of my plans! Not to be deterred, we worked out an acceptable dive plan. Although, I couldn't be scheduled to dive for the next 3 days!!! EEEECCCKK..... "I can do this", I thought. As it worked out, the sea gods were angry the first 2 1/2 days with strong winds and heavy downpours. The seas were quite "chunky". They were blown out! Sound familiar? Finally, my dive day came and everything was looking good. I went out on their big "cattle" boat that holds 24 divers but we only had 8! It was like this for the next day as well. Infact, for everyday that I planned on diving there were only small groups. I loved it. Scuba Look is a small outfit but with a very cohesive group of instructors and divemasters that are very professional and friendly.
My first day out I struck up a quick friendship with a divemaster from Munich, Bernd, who would be my dive buddy for the next few days. We had a blast together both on the surface as well as below. He is the type of person that would easily fit right in with the Smokey's crowd. Bud, you would love this guy! He enlightened me on some German techniques of diving, some that were beyond the PADI standards!
The diving itself was great, but keep in mind that this is not the Caribbean. You are still dealing with the unexpected weather and sea conditions that surround this historic island. There was surge and vis that wasn't as clear as I would have liked, but it still beat the coast of Jersey and Delaware. Water temps ranged from 73 to 79 degrees. So, I was glad to have a polartec hood with my 3mm. The typical dives for a day would be a wreck first then a short SI then a reef dive. Bermuda has over 400 wrecks with about 200 that are diveable. You can even get a suitable-for-framing certificate for certain wrecks. Just what I need....another piece of paper to hang on the wall! But I still took one anyway. Momento! Bermuda also has the northern-most coral reef in the world.
The Palinaion and the Rita Zovetto were 2 of the wrecks that I got to dive. Both are very similar and in close proximity to one another. Both are steam cargo vessels carrying ore, either iron ore or manganese ore and are broken up by the legendary reefs. It is such an awesome sight to come over a reef and begin to see broken pieces of metal from the ship. Then, come down another part of the reef and there before you lays the rest of the shattered remains that was once a ship. Max depth on most of the wrecks is 65'. When the sun shone down it would illuminate the wrecks in that wonderful azure blue color. Sections could be penetrated and even diving under the hull was possible on the Palinaion. She also had a spare prop still strapped to her deck. The Rita Zovetto was equally outstanding with a large section of the deck laying between 2 coral heads. This made for another swim-through that was like a cavern. The boilers were sitting upright next to one another like pillars from a movie set. With these shallow depths came nice long bottom times. Bernd and I got so into our photography (his digital and me with my trusty MX-10) that we found ourselves doing a bit of a long swim back to the boat. My safety sausage came into good use and was much appreciated by the crew on those occasions. Also, my Hammerhead signalling device worked extremely well to get my buddy's attention.
The reefs around the island are quite extraordinary as well. There are quite a few crevices, tunnels and caverns to explore. Some of these caverns had openings in the ceiling to allow light to filter down. It gave a very spiritual feeling to the dives. There is an abundance of brain coral and purple seafans on all the reefs. It is a quality that is unique compared to the Caribbean and adds a surrealistic touch to every dive. The fish life is equally abundant with lots of parrots, butterfly fish and snappers and grunts galore. Bermuda has its own queen anglefish that is endemic to these waters. But if you are looking for the big stuff you will have to wait until the winter when the waters are much cooler and they are known to come in.
If you haven't given this island much thought for a dive vacation you are missing out on some of the best wreck diving and some great reefs.
From Ralph Spayd . . .
Dive report for Saturday, June 28th from the "flexible" dive group. We had declines from the Chris's Rosing & Thompson and "Cruse Ship Bill" so Bob Hanna and I dove Willow Springs. Bob "the Willow Springs human map" led us on a delightful 60 minute hunt for the elusive eels. And as their name implies, they were elusive. Vis was typical at 5-10' but opened up at the bottom. The temp at 40' was 55deg. And we had an excellent dive with all the typical quarry views e.g cars, steam shovels, RR tracks, and the fish hatchery, which with limited visibility is fascinatingly eerie!!
On a more serious note, pre dive, we met 2 new divers from Berwick, who have been diving WS for several weeks. We chatted with them and checked them out during the conversation. We both did our dives independently and met back on land. Post dive, the one diver was in some discomfort and began shivering/shaking. We did assist him and stayed with them until he was OK.
The moral of the story is while we are diving, keep an eye out for your fellow divers. You never know when you can assist someone and help them to have a "good" day.
The flexible group is planning to dive Dutch Springs next week. As the name implies may be either Sat or Sunday. Keep in touch if you want to join the group.
From Darth Vern . . .
I have a ton to actually write about this week - but the what I want to write about most is our dive Sunday off the Surface Interval out to the San Gil. It was an exceptional day on the ocean. Still as a pond, about 85 degrees on the surface. We had our reservations about getting out, but Capt Darryl was full speed ahead! We reached the San Gil approx. 40 miles out in about 2 hours and the first divers were in the water. The water appeared clear from the surface, but I was really surprised how clear it actuall was. At 85 fsw I could see the wreck lying at 130fsw. The San Gil was laid out pretty much like a ship but very broken apart. Easy to navigate and not get lost. I did 30 minutes at 130fsw on 27% with minimal deco on 70% - great dive. When Mark and I surfaced we were treated to a site - a 12 1/2 lb lobster John Dibble caught - man this thing was like horror movie huge [see pic]
We did a 2 hour surface interval and we were headed back in. Upon hitting 120fsw at the bottom of the anchor line my buddy Mark Myers signals me something is wrong. He hits his LPI and bubbles go shooting out the top of his bladder, his LPI port came off the baldder, no way to fix. I pretty much gave him the universal sign for you're screwed and we was to ascend. Of course he decided to snap off a few pics before he left and I finned around between our other 2 buddy pairs for 35 minutes before ascending with everyone. Once back on the boat, we had the priviledge to see a Mola Mola [Ocean Sunfish] what a cool site [see pics]
Get Out and Dive and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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