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From Don Bradley
Wednesday night at Wabank Quarry
Thursday night Willow Springs regular Terry Martzall and I (Don Bradley) were among the happy divers at Wabank on Wednesday evening too. Terry and I met up at 5:00PM, took our time gearing up and hit the water right before Brian, Vern, and Nate did. We headed off to the deep boat, a Trojan named Miss Peaches at 102 feet where it was 46 degrees. As usual Terry was diving dry and I was diving wet waiting for drysuit repairs. We goofed around there long enough to add a few comments to the window on the boat that was already marked "Huck Was Here". We then headed off to the sailboat at 65 feet and I felt some welcome relief as we came up through a thermocline. After some time exploring around the sailboat we continued on to the Wabank Tug and around the edge of the wall to the back of the U-69. We finished up our dive with a slow tour along the wall and through the buoyancy course. After the dive there was a lot of good food to be shared along with some real nice watermelon. There were 17 divers in the water and the vis was quite acceptable. Our total run time was one hour and very relaxing. Nice midweek dive.
From Diver Dan
(Note from Mark I actually contributed to the Surface Interval section!! I was really there!!))
Thursday Night at Willow Springs - a slim crowd. Me, Jess Zellers and a new guy who's name I can't remember did one early evening dive. Viz on the surface was low but opened up on the bottom. I have to take a break this Thurs. because of a stupid shift assigned by UGI (Under Ground Idiots). You are welcome to come out to Willow Springs anyway
Sat. on the Seeker - Capt. Dan Crowell and I put Drager oxygauge in my inhale bag on my rebreather. I tried it out on Sat on the Algol. Mixed results. Sometimes the gauge worked; sometimes it didn't. The Azimuth rebreather worked like a charm again. The electronic gauge did not. Viz was 30 ft. although dark. I was surprised to see Mike Burkholder on the boat. Mike is a former commercial diver and Smokey's Instructor. Also on board was Mark Luzader. Mark is an Inspiration rebreather diver with loads of experience. Mark has hooked on as crew. Its good to have him around. He's good with people and knows a ton about physics, physiology and diving in general. Mark was nice enough to go along with me on my 1st rebreather dive in the ocean last May.
Sat. afternoon I left Pt. Pleasant and headed down the NJ Parkway to the Cape May Ferry. The crossing was non eventful. I caught a much needed nap.
Sun on the Surface Interval. Again the Scuba Gods smiled with warm, but not hot weather, and flat seas. Cindy Willman- Kinsey, Mark Myers, Beautiful Bud Fletcher, Fran Rebert, Vern Heagy, Chris Mayo and very special guest star Dennie "the King of Deleware diving" Leese were on board. We had our usual amount of borderline gross and out of hand fun. Cindy used the Ikelite HID light that we are testing for Ike at Ikelite. They had tested it in Cozumel but wanted some cold water dives on it before it goes in to production.
Viz was 30 to 40 ft on the Independence Day wreck which lies in about 110 ft of water, not quite 20 miles off the coast. It is a wooden schooner that went down about 100 years ago, and is mostly machinery and ribs on the bottom. Ritchie Burr came up with a nice lobster, which Capt. Darryl promptly confiscated for his family reunion that night. We went to the Manhattan for the 2nd dive. The Manhattan came through as well with Viz at 20 to 30 ft. Bottom temps were mid to upper 50's, nice for the drysuit and wetsuit divers alike. The rebreather performed very well again. 1 dive of 45 minutes runtime at 105 ft and the 2nd dive of 55 minutes runtime at 85 ft and I used about 28cf feet of gas. This is like doing 2 long dives on a pony cyl. It was good to see Dennie Leese back on the Surface Interval where he will be challenging reigning Del. diving king Ritchie for his spot. Unfortunately mate Trish Boyer was unable to join the fun and Capt Darryl forgot to bring the "Boat Treats" almost resulting in a mutiny. A fun day with good people.
From Bill Siwiec
This weekend of head and humidity did not deter four new open water students from getting their open water certifications – congratulations to Robert Jackson of Terry Hill, Fay Olney, and Zach and Ian Minnick – sons of Greg Minnick.
The class was joined by “hang in there” divemaster Jan Miller who returned on Sunday even though his dinner from Saturday night was dis-agreeing with him. Parents Greg Minnick and Bruce Onley were there as well. Fay did very well – but we might have to revoke Bruce’s card if he doesn’t get out more often!!
The team all had a great time diving together, playing with the killer sun fish, feeling the cement mixer (with the water low, this is now an open water tour dive!) and catching a glimpse of the small boat. Surface temps were a warm 79 degrees and it only dropped to 72 degrees at the small boat. Greg took lots of pictures – some of which are posted here. A big thank you and happy birthday to John Gross who provided the food for his birthday party—if you missed it, it was your loss!!
From Jim Deisley
Yes, can you believe it? Nate Brommer and I did two great dive at the little Lancaster gold Mine. First dive (#99) Nate Brommer and myself Visited the Walbank submarine for some great photo opportunities with the shops rental MX 10 and got some awesome pics, We moved on down the line for some picture of the 60' tug. After about 38 minutes we headed back up the line, Nate showing his skills of buoyancy along the way posing for numerous photos along the way. Dive #2 for us. (#100 for me) We went to the North west side to practice Nates Buoyancy, Water Temps were a bit chillier on that end adding to the increased air consumption. With our shortened surface interval the second dive was somewhat limited to less than 55' not more than 38 minutes. Nevertheless vis was still out to the 30+ stuff and it was a joy to just get in the water for a leisurely recreational dive. The quarry was busy a it should be but the bottom wasnt kicked up, vis was great, and I did number 100. What a way to end a long weekend.... #100 Thanks Nate.
From Mark
John Gross was also out on Saturday holding his "Birth Day Dive" at Bainbridge. Seems he's forgotten how Diver Dan can abuse you when you don't write a dive report, so I'm going to put down my observations here. I've never seen that many members of the "Gross" family at one time!! John had more food than we could ever eat, and even cake! I can't list all the people there, because I am sure I will miss some but they included Ralph and Sandy Spayd, Bernie and Sharon Smolick, Peter Bohling, Mary Nicholson, John's son, daughter-in-law and of course grandson Eric. Liz Zyla and Chris Cramer were there diving too. I showed up with daughter Savannah Jean, and son Jack who was making his very first appearance at the quarry for some snorkeling. As is common for this time of year, Viz is limited at depth, but above the first thermocline, is probably 20 ft plus. The surface water temp was in the upper 70's!
We don't have pictures yet, but I'm sure John took some!!
A reminder John is currently working on his Spring 2003 Cozumel Trip!! We're expecting only a slight increase over last year, with the trip coming in around $1300. Call the shop and get your deposit down now!
From Kent Hirsch and Mike Nast
Two of South Central PA's premier cave divers (self appointed), Mike Nast and yours truly, headed to Luraville Florida for another weekend of caving. Our friend and guide, Wayne Kinard, was MIA in Ohio on personal business, so we had to dive alone. We started out Saturday morning at Telford Springs, a local hangout. The natives camp and carry on here as the site is right on the Suwanee River. Nothing like a cold one first thing in the morning. The womenfolk and youngin's were swimming and bathing in the river while the menfolk were checking out our rental pickup to see if we were flying the stars and bars. We did a nice long dive and Mike pinned the mainline to mark our point of maximum penetration. Upon exiting, we were met by a bunch of kids who wanted to try our regulators. We are always happy to be PADI ambassadors generating enthusiasm for diving. Maybe their next tattoo will have a scuba theme.
After a quick lunch at the Luraville general store we gassed up and headed to Peacock Springs State Park. At the put in we spotted a 4 foot gator. He didn't move when I did a giant stride, but stayed about 10 feet away as we swam across the pond. I guess he didn't like the two against one odds. We did two dives in the park before heading into town for dinner. On the second dive a few bluegills followed us into the cave. They waited for the cave crayfish to drop off the ceiling as we passed, then quickly gobbled them up as the crayfish drifted towards the cave floor. Easy pickings.
We arrived at Cow Springs about 9 PM for the fourth dive of the day. Two fellow cavers entered just before us, which was helpful in showing us the way in. The cave entrance was discovered years ago by accident by two open water divers. It is a tight squeeze and not for the claustrophobic. You must exhale, then wriggle yourself through two small openings to gain access to Cow. On the surface, the peeper and bull frogs were calling out looking for love.
We did a nice long dive and as we returned to the exit point all I can see is a pair of blue fins and a set of doubles stuck in the first restriction, headed out. Not what you want to see when your gas is 2/3 gone. Mr. blue fins finally got past the restriction and I thought I could exit. Wrong! Now he was stuck in the other restriction. He finally cleared the exit and Mike and I did our 10 minutes of deco exploring a shallow side tunnel. We hit the hay by midnight.
Sunday we did a traverse- entering one sink hole and exiting downstream. Our morning dive took us from Orange Grove Sink, past Challenge, past Olsen, past Peacock I and 700 feet into the Peanut tunnel before we headed for daylight. 118 minutes and 5800 feet of linear travel, over one mile underground. What a way to end the trip.
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