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From Tom Pritchard . . .
Rick Huck, Scott the Rock, Gerhard Maree, and I spent a fabulous day on the Ol Salty II, a 62 ft boat that is set up for both party boat fishing and diving. Alex Meller, who was crewing, was a whirling dervish. After setting the hook, Alex cooked breakfast (cheese omlets and sausage), did his 2nd dive, then cooked lunch (kielbasa and krout) - and helped the customers get their gear on and off. The crew even lugged our gear off the boat at the end of the day - a nice touch since it was low tide (and high dock). Between the fork food, the snack food, the donuts, the fruit, and the juice, most of us gained weight yesterday. The seas were flat, but every once in a while somebody would claim they saw a swell - then we just laughed. We dove the Arundo, a freighter sunk by a U-boat in 1942 on its way to resupply the troops in North Africa. The Arundo lies in the Mudhole at 130 fsw. The Mudhole is the trench cut into the continental shelf millions of years ago by the Hudson Rivers. Today it is a conduit for silt and sediment flowing down the river toward the Hudson Canyon and the deep ocean - so I was expecting low viz. In fact, the viz was close to 20 ft, if you didn't kick things up. The entire wreck is covered with a fine silt which blooms whenever you get too close to the bottom. The Arundo was carrying two steam locomotives, light trucks and truck parts - and 5000 cases of beer. When the Arundo was torpedoed, one locomotive fell overboard and lies 150-200 ft away from wreck. The other locomotive was about 30 ft from the tie in. Even though the locomotive was huge, it was so encrusted a few divers weren't sure they saw it. The locomotive looked ready to roll, but frozen in time - truly surreal. The Arundo is supposed to be a great fish wreck, but most of the divers reported few fish worth spearing. The Rock speared one fish and few lobsters came aboard, but there really wasn't much there for the hunters. The catch of day was made by Huck who recovered a beer bottle. This one quart wonder was hard to spot and harder to extract from the wreck. I was really happy for Huck, but sorry for Rock. Can you imagine riding all the way back to Lancaster with Huck singing, "5000 bottles of beer on the wall?"
From Wild Bill . . .
Please meet my Open Water Class Of July 2005 [see images above] Congratulations to: Amanda Reddy, Holly Nardahl, Marta Koock, Stacy Spahr, Brian Cinkutis
A special thank you to my newest DiveMaster Diana Sholl, She made it all worth while,
and a good cook to boot. I hope to see everyone at the advanced class this Month. You can do it the waters not toooo cold!
From Jess Zellers . . .
I sit here drafting a dive report, the various tissue groups in my body are completely saturated and my computer will not even let me go snorkeling!! AhHhhh!! Life is good!!!
Saturday -- Dutch
It was a 'nice' day by northern standards... It was 86F (air), and you people call this a 'heat wave'? I was in a long sleeve shirt and it was cool. Kulp managed to find an entire picnic table....at Dutch.... in the shade. This was our first amazing feat of navigation. We both had tons of gas and opted for one long dive. I've found one shop in Florida that I REALLY like and one of the prime reasons is this.... the gas I used at Dutch, starting with 3000psi, was what I had left AFTER a dive in Florida... and we did almost two hours at Dutch. That is a sweet fill!!
The planned dive was cutting across the middle of the quarry and pick up the road to the pump house back in the corner. Our second amazing feat of navigation is that that is exactly what we did! It did take me a little while to get use to gloves again. The bottom temp is 50F and despite predictions, if you put a Florida diver in freezing water they won't die. Messed around back by the pump house for a while. We came back along the wall and spotted the familiar silt cloud of a class and ran deep to avoid contact with the enemy.
Sunday -- Bainbridge
First, let me say that I am shocked, disappointed and saddened. I show up, at Bainbridge, on a sunday, during the summer, check the sign in sheet at the office..... and the ONLY two Smokey's divers I see is Kulp and Joe. Ok, at this point, I am just shocked. I know that not everyone has season passes, so not everyone who's there can sign in. So I go back to A, and the only Smokey's divers there are Kulp, Joe and Speedy. There's no excuse for this! It's a summer weekend. What's going on? You people all need some therapy!! Get out and dive... great therapy.
I was expecting to see Kulp, we had arrangements. I was pleased to see Speedy. Which left Joe.... who I haven't heard much about, until last week's dive report I didn't even know if he could dive! Kulp pointed him out, so I decided to introduce myself. Now, to address what rumor will have to say about this.... I swear I didn't know he was married!! And from the surprise and confusion on his face I don't think anyone had given him any kind of warning about me. Cindy, you know the kind of love I have for you, and yet the New Cindy is alright too.
I've only been to Dutch twice counting this Saturday, so Bainbridge was more of a coming home dive. Doubles, are good. The amount of gas you can get in doubles, is great. The bottom time and nitrogen..... ya'll seen the commercial, you know the value of the last item. Reports of viz in the hole vary greatly depending on who you ask. So we headed down to the hole to get first hand conformation. AHhhh. There have been so many changes up here since I moved. It was very relaxing going down into the hole where everything is exactly how I remember it. We nutzed around in the hole for a good long while, pissing off my computer. Did our deco in warmer waters. Then went caving!! The tunnel ain't a very long penetration, but I'll take what I can get. I was going to take off my reel and use it, but didn't find a tie off I liked fast enought to get the joke off.
Coming Soon to quarry near you!
I'm thinking I can swing Wednesday night. I shouldn't need to say where I'll be thrusday night. Ladies day dive next sunday. Maybe Saturday.... I do need to spend *some* time with the family that I'm biologically related to. I'm checking the quarries this week!! Cause if the attendance at Bainbridge today is typical of what is going one since I left.... I have a lot of work to do this week to correct this injustice.
From Darth Vern . . .
OK there is still some people who should be writing who are not. This is a forum for EVERYONE. Please do not think it is for a select few [they just happen to be the only divers writing] Drop me an email [link] and tell me how your dive went. What did you see? Who did you see? Even if you don't know their names, describe them [be nice] and I bet we can all figure out who they are. The important thing is this is to get the word out - WE ARE ALL DIVING - ALL YEAR LONG. We continue to welcome new divers with open arms and an offer to help with anything they need, and as you can read sometimes more!!!!!
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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