June sometime Nathan's Hotdogs

After leaving the lounge at lga with 10 minutes to boarding i decided to enjoy a lovely nathans hotdog. I grabbed it, mustard and ketchup and headed to the gate where to my surprise we were already boarding. I resisted the urge to skip to the front and take advantage of my first class priority and waited my turn, only to find myself at the wrong gate.

May 31, 2006 San Diego fishing

Well no diving in San Diego but did go fishing in the ocean. Apparently the best day of the year for the boat we were on, caught something like 250 fish over 20 people. I caught 1, after about 2 hours, ej got 2. Others had extra so we got lots of sandbass.

May 15, 2006 Slaw Dog to go

Dive 1 67 feet, 34 minutes 200 feet penetration. Today followed the class (Jim & Bob). They practiced Lost diver in the pothole tunnel. Jim clouded things up nicely, i just practiced bouyancy and watched.

Dive 2 40 feet, 42 minutes 500 feet penetration. 12 minute surface interval. We went up the peanut tunnel to the breakdown room. At that point i turned while jim and bob did light failure and air share exit. It is always a bit nerve wracking being solo while cave diving but i quickly returned to the cavern zone. Enroute i found my 1st backup light was very weak, either low batteries or it's pencil beam. I hung out at the edge of the cavern zone covering my light while i watched their lights bouncing on their return.

There next dive was the "final" test at Cow spring after lunch. I chose to pass on tailing that dive and instead got a 6 pack of heineken, a slaw dog and a bacon egg cheese roll. Jim was disgusted as usual. Their dives went fine. We hit ruby tuesdays again, where i wanted a french dip which they did not have. At night we got the movie Munich, which i slept through, AND the tv would not go above 15 so you couldnt here s**t anyway. And it was too small to read the subtitles. The next day we drove back to the airport, stopped at st augustine for a minute. Jim complained about my driving the whole way.

May 14, 2006 First Solo Cave Dive!

Well first dive without an instructor would be more truthful. Bob had a friend who was down to dive and take Apprentice Cave diver class, lucky for me he was a day early and wanted to dive. While i had a more advance certification, Jason was much more experienced so it was great for me. His Certification level allows no jumps, gaps or circuits, which was fine with me. Basic Cave divers ( i think thats the new title) also must turn on 1/6ths, instead of my 1/3s which was a bit of a bummer but really no problem. I didnt want to reel, Jason wanted to practice, it really was perfect. The topper was he had a camera and filmed video of me, which eventually will make its way into stills. The image below is a great shot of my rear since he was behind the whole time most of the video is similar.

Dive 1 EAN 32. 56 feet for 50 minutes, 900 feet penetration. We went down the peanut tunnel. This dive i was fairly uncomfortable, mask kept fogging and i felt extremely awkard, usually the way it is on the first cave dive in a while.

Dive 2 EAN 32. 59 minute surface interval. 40 feet 34 minutes, 500 feet penetration. With 1/6ths (and thirds for that matter) we can dive again without refills, just a simple calculation to establish our limits and the requisite surface interval. For me it was a much smoother dive, i felt like i had dove before in my life. Jason showed me some cool effects with shining our powerful lights into the air bubbles that accumulate on roof cavities. They actually resemble the surface from below. The reflections light up the cave and provide a bit of a disco ball feel. We ran into a couple other teams.

Dive 3 EAN 32. 2:37 Surface Interval. 69 feet for 45 minutes 700 feet penetration. We went to Kathys for air http://www.diveoutpost.com/ and the store for lunch. The third dive was great, it was the pothole tunnel which i am a big fan of, maybe just that i have dove it more. I enjoy the drop down the chimney: about 50 feet down maybe 2 feet at its widest point and 10-15 feet long. You have to drop down sort of head first while trying not to lose bouyance or bang the sides. Its great. The actualy cave is large, sandy bottomed and the oval shape i always imagined a cave to look like. On the entrance we saw another team exiting with primary light failure, they signalled ok when Jason checked. ( i only noticed the OK) Also went by the entrance to the Nichols tunnel which i have dove several times.

Think pizza hut was dinner this night. Dont remember when i ate the Sausuge pancake wrapped corndogs that i got at walmart that disgusted jim so much.

May 13, 2006 Orange Grove Sink

We hit the instructor’s house, Mike O’Leary www.cavediving.org and went to the shop to start classes. Review for me was good, jim lucked out in that mike has arranged another student to take class at same time. The guy, Bob, was from NC www.ncdivers.com and told us some great stories about wrecks off the coast. The actual dives were a tease for all involved.

Dive 1 80 feet for 31 minutes. We went in one cavern zone, exited and entered another – the peanut cave and pothole. Being 4th in the team and this dive being introductory I barely even got my fins wet.

Dive 2 after 11 minutes Surface Interval, 37 feet for 31 minutes. It was an open water dive for the students to practice. No mask follow line while sharing air, then with mask. Actually quite entertaining to watch.

After the dive me and jim went to eat, hit the Texas Roadhouse for some ribs. I couldn’t eat them all so took them back to the hotel fridge which to my knowledge they are still there. Then crashed, pretty tired

May 12, 2006 Don't forget the pamparin next time

Travel Day. Redeye Seattle to mpls 4 hours then Detroit then 2 hours then jax, than 100 miles to Hampton inn Lake City. Somebody would not shut up about the itinerary despite being upgraded to first class and paying only 220 or so. Nor would he shut up about my fine driving skills. Dinner at Ruby Tuesdays nothing exciting. All the Nascar Beers and Killians the only non-pee-resembling flavor on tap.

Sunday April 16, 2006 Easter

Dive 92 feet for 50 minutes. Sunday greeted us with the rare pacific northwest treat of sunshine. It was still windy, and when we checked with the weather it looked like the straits of Georgia were not going to be navigable in our small boat, specially not with over 100 lbs of gear. Possible we could have made it later that afternoon but 2.5 days in canadia is my limit. Plus jimmy had to work in the am. We elected to hit the Rivtow Lion again, it’s a nice wreck, if not as exciting or ‘cool’ as the giant cape bretton or the sleek destroyer the Saskatchewan http://www.oceanexplorersdiving.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=50 We dropped down the stern line – that’s the front, I am learning some boat words. And examined the bumpers at the front which were giant tires. Allegedly there is an octo in there somewhere. We continued to drop down to the port side and cruised along the ocean floor looking up at the tug, which is tilted slightly to port. It had an interesting ominous feeling looming over us, like it was about to roll over and squash us. It Didn’t. We went up to the deck around the wheelhouse and cruised to the back of the boat and studied the $30,000 prop. Its 10 feet and solid bronze. The Rivtow was sunk about a year ago and the prop looks pretty cool, completely covered with life. I guess they are going to salvage it and use the proceeds to pay off debt on the other two wrecks that the NDA still owes. Interesting enough, the diving community wants to keep the prop on there, but is not willing to contribute the money to support the divers that footed the bill to sink the other wrecks. Being an outsider and not aware of all the details it is probably not appropriate for me to expound upon this subject – but we did receive some information. I guess the positive thing is that Ian Hall has done a great deal for divers in general, and particularily the community around Nanaimo. Back on task here, after studying the prop for a few minutes we went up and swam in and around the wheel house. We dropped down the chimney and into the engine room, a simple enough feat, but both of us make pretty wide loads with the heavy twins and the o2 on the side. I dropped into an open hold, which possibly from earlier divers, or just the viz in general, was a eerie blackness. Not the blackness of pure darkness, but particulate matter in the water in a contained area that look like it might swallow an intrepid diver right up. I swallowed and dropped down. To my relief the bottom materialized in about 2 seconds and I instantly felt like a coward. Looked like bunks along the side, it is possible that when prepping the boat for sinking they pulled stuff out of there and it was just a hold. We may have wandered around a bit more, eventually we got bored and even though we had plenty of air and bottom time we decided to ascend. To practice we both wanted to drop (send up?) our lift bags. Jim seemed to have no problem, but as soon as I pulled my reel out I tangled it. I then proceed to untangle it, which in fact ended up tangling it worse. I gave up and pulled out my thumb reel or whatever its called. I sent my bag up and swam back to the stern line to ascend next to it, mostly to avoid drifting away, but partly to have the security of a line to the bottom in case I became overly buoyant. You’d think with 200+ dives I would be able to get neutrally buoyant through the whole dive but that never seems to be the case. This particular dive I was trying a new weight assortment, sandwiched between my backplate and harness, so I did not want to risk anything. The thumb reel was a huge pain to unreel, another one of those things in scuba that is (oops just checked it is called a spool reel http://www.techdivinglimited.com/ ) sobering in that it is so difficult to pull off in controlled situations that you only imagine how difficult it would be in an emergency. When I got to about 20 feet a deployed my o2 and did my 3 minute safety spot at around 17 feet. After that I ascened to the boat and boarded after Jim, nice to get that junk off me. It was a struggle undoing the reel but I was able to get it. Overall a nice weekend of diving, a bit disappointing in that we did not get to do the boats we wanted to, but great that they sunk the rivtow and Ocean Explorers were great as always to work with.
The Rivtow link: http://www.oceanexplorersdiving.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=52

Saturday April 15, 2006 Tax day

Dive 85 feet, 37 minutes. When gearing up in the pouring rain, I noticed Jim not putting on his fleece, I assumed it was because he had replaced it with some other stuff, which will come up later. Original plan was to head out to the Cape bretton and do a long exploratory dive, then the 2nd dive we would focus on an area which was interesting. Once we passed the corner of the protective island the seas became pretty rough – predicted 30 mph(Ks?) this afternoon, which are gale force I guess. The captain of our little, maybe 18 foot, boat turned around and we ended up diving the Rivtow lion. The rivtow lion was sunk about a year ago and the last time we were in Nanamio they had it moored nearby and we were able to look at it before they sunk it. Captain briefed us and jim & I geared up first and hopped in. Dropped down the anchor line which was tied to one of those thingies on the back of the boat. We dropped to the ground and checked out the rudder and propeller. The propeller is about 10 feet and pretty cool looking, it is covered with life. We swam along the port side about half way to the wheel house then ascended up to a cutout to the engine room. Swam through the engine room and continued towards the front of the boat (or is it a ship?) along what used to be the edge on the starboard side. We got to the front end end I took a long look at it, I love the look of being below the pointy end of the boat surrounded by nothingness. Enjoying the sensation of floating in front of something that normally a view one can see in the dry world. We cruised around again towards the wheelhouse and swam into the engine room again, this time dropping down into it. Not much depth to it but it is a bit imposing because of the steps, the bars and other items that could catch on gear. Went out on the starboard side, my inflator hose had popped off and I could not reattach it. Annoying, but not really a problem. Might have something to do with the new hose hat I have. Also I was using new 5 mm gloves. We circled the wheel house back to the port side at which point jim wrote something on his slate. It said “ I forgot to put my fleece on”. If possible I would be laughing hysterically. So we went to the anchor line and ascended. Did the safety stop on o2, which always seems cold to me. This was also my first dive on argon, which i didn’t notice much effect. It seems like nothing happens when I inflate my dry suit, I guess from the tiny CF tank of argon it doesn’t have the pressure. Overall an enjoyable dive. I had an extra 10 lbs or so as testing a new weight spot on my back plate, but it makes the whole kit very heavy. Weather was crappy still when we all were back on the boat. Our options for the 2nd dive were nature dive or same wreck again – the seas out in the penniusla (is that what it is?) where getting worse. We bagged it, one of the other guys, there were 3 from Spokane, also bagged but 2 of them did. Went back to the hotel and ate.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Dive was 93 ft for 44 minutes. Met Jim over at Cove 2, where we ran into one of his ex coworkers. They were taking a similar class to ours but through Naui. We planned the dive to hit the I beams and then work our way up. I misdirected us quite nicely and we ended up wandering around cove 2. Eventually I got so cold that I called the dive, but not before struggling to reattach my stupid inflator hose. Thin gloves have probably had their last winter dive, maybe in the summer. They don’t seem to provide any extra dexterity especially after about 10 minutes when they become numb and incapable of doing anything at all. We went up to NWSD http://www.nwsportsdivers.com to get everything filled which took for F’ing ever. Hit kidd valley next for post dive meal. http://www.kiddvalley.net/

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