|
Dutch Springs Ending It All 2008
Tony: "You’re Nuts if you are here on a day like this if you don’t have to be". Me: "I have to be here; diving is part of my essence." Tony: " ’Essence’? right ... You’re Still Nuts." Okay, a day like today proves that I really enjoy diving. Yeah, I got up at zero o’dark and drove close to 100 miles to be at the gates when they opened at 8 am. But it was cold, really cold. Water temp wasn’t bad; mid 50’s. Even the air temp wasn’t bad; high 40’s. But the wind chill. Yikes! I kept my hood on betwe...
|
|
|
Dutch Springs weekend of 4 & 5 October
The weather guess was for a nice clear autumn weekend. And by Sunday afternoon, when everyone was packing up to go home, that is what we got. Before then, we had a chilly Saturday morning, drizzly Saturday afternoon, rain showers Saturday night and overcast Sunday morning. But, the weather underwater was just great. I counted 7 DiveBuddy.com members myself, Greg from MD, Clay and Roxy, Gypsy, Mike from NJ, and Scout. I don’t think we were ever all in the same place, so no photographic record of ...
|
|
|
Crater Lake NJ
"Scout" and I decided to check out Crater Lake in western NJ today. Crater Lake is at about 1400 foot elevation in the Kittany range, outside of Millbrook Village. It’s part of the national park service. Beyond that, a mystery. This was to be a scouting expedition to see if this would be good site for a larger outing. We met at my office at 8 and loaded my stuff into Scout’s car. We got to Crater Lake at about 9 o’clock or so. It’s a nice place; a large lake, some picnic tables, bear-proof trash...
|
|
|
Gypsy Blood Stolt Dagli 21 Sept 08
After two years of diving, I finally made it to a NJ wreck dive. The Stolt Dagli was a Norwegian tanker that, in a dense fog, was hit by an Israeli cruise ship in the 60’s. The Stolt split in two; the stern section sank. The bow section remained afloat and was eventually attached to a new stern and lived to sail another day. For more information, see http://www.divebuddy.com/divesite.aspx?DiveSiteID=1576&From=Search I’m told that today was a magnificant day with visibility close to 60 feet and w...
|
|
|
Dutch Springs 14 Sept 08
I managed to get out of Dodge today ... met up with Larry and Bill from wreckvalley.com for some dives at Dutch Springs. Weather was great, connected with Larry as we were waiting for the gates to open; Bill joined us while we were gearing up. My neck seal had been replaced; so I was ready to dive dry. First dive was out to the hole (stopping at the 6x first). On the way back, we saw the dynamite shack and then to the crane and back to the platforms. Neither Larry nor Bill had been at that part ...
|
|
|
Dutch Springs 7 Sept 08
I celebrated my 2nd anniversary of OW certification by taking a trip out to Dutch Springs today. Jackie was there with two classes; ably assisted by Larry, Chris and Greg. Keith showed up for some CCR dives, too. Tim ("Scout") had camped out; not sure if he was able to finish his class today or not. And I was aiming to hook up with Frank ("Cynwydb") for some dives. I arrived at Dutch about 7:20. A gorgeous day, absolutely no traffic. I wasn’t sure what it would be like after Hanna came through y...
|
|
|
Dutch Springs Labor Day weekend
Saturday morning ... zero o’dark ... light rain falling ... I manage to fall out of bed and load up my caffeine delivery device before backing the car out of the garage and heading off to Dutch Springs. I arrived before 7:30, so was in line with the other season pass holders ready to head in as soon as the gates up. Once inside, headed straight over to the peninsula side and snagged a table in the grove. Got my self situated and waited for my buddies to show up. Andrew ("Nurek") arrived at 9. We...
|
|
|
Cayman Aggressor IV 14-21 June
u/w digital photography class ...over 500 pictures ...12 dive sites ...25 dives ...better than 22 hours underwater ...PRICELESS !!!With dives averaging close to 55 minutes each, this really was a "EAT SLEEP DIVE" experience. Okay, I didn’t see the hammerhead or any of the numerous eagle rays. I did see horse-eye jacks, turtles, spiny lobster, spanish lobster, crabs, moray eels, sea slugs, porcupine fish, cleaner fishies, parrot fish, angel fish, trigger fish, black durgin, southern stingrays, ba...
|
|
|
Dive Report Dutch Springs 1 June 2008
Darn alarm half past zero o’clock on a Sunday did I really agree to meet Fabio at 6 a-blooming-m !!! Yeppers. We met on schedule and hi-ho hi-ho, it’s off to Dutch we go great day for diving and made great time in the Dutch parking lot by 7:15. They opened the Season Pass gate about 7:45 and we were able to snag some tables in the shade on the peninsula side. At one time or another, myself, Fabio, Jackie, Tia, Jon, Mark, Greg, Christine, Tim, Dana and assorted other characters (Elwin?, Keith?, K...
|
|
|
|
|
100 Dutch Springs Dives
I reached my 100th Dutch Springs dive yesterday ! (it’s kinda sad in a way 125 dives on my BC, and 100 of them at Dutch I have to get out more) It was a nice drive From the student side entry on the peninsula, we (Brion from DiveBuddy.com and me) dropped down and navigated over to the Silver Comet then followed the ropes to the platform and the crane. From the crane, we navigated to the 6x although we started out a little to far to the west and cruised by the trolley (or so Brion says, I missed ...
|
|