Almost as tradition, I try to dive on December 31st at Dutch Springs, a quarry in Bethelham, PA. I remember diving there many years ago on December 31st, and having a dozen or so divers at "the lake" in freezing temperature's and sometimes blowing snow or freezing rain. As the years progressed, more and more divers were diving at Dutch Springs on December 31st. This year, the weather was beautiful, with clear sunny skies. It was in the mid-40's, and there was no ice on the lake. Not surprising...but there were well over one-hundred people at Dutch this time (probably more like 150).
I arranged to meet a group of friends up there, including Wendy, Frank, and Nick. We met on the student side and ended up with a group of ten of us, incuding a Dutch newbee and "Bob" the oldie-but-goodie. We decided to enter the cove and swim to the staircase and structures in the corner where the koi tend to hang out. From there we would follow the road, over the unmarked boat, and to the helicoptor. The plan worked out well for some of us, but as the div
e progressed, dive teams broke off from the main group and we ended up at the helicopter with only four divers. Since I was diving a single steel 98cf tank with only 2500psi, my dive had to end here, and Bob and I surfaced at the helicopter bouy, leaving one buddy team to continue on to the Helldiver plane. All througout the dive, my mask leaked from the right side, causing me to constantly clear my mask. To make matters worse, my drysuit was leaking at the exhaust valve, making for a cold left arm for the last half of the dive. I should not complain, since Wendy's new drysuit leaked like a siv due to her fleece vest collar reaching up into her neck seal, leaving a nice open route for cold water to flow into her suit. She must have dumped a gallon of water from her suit whens he was done. Kudos to her for being a trooper and even completing the dive with 45 degree water flowing into her drysuit.
It was a fun day on the lake, and a nice way to end the year. After I drove the hour home, I got ready for my New Years Eve party and tipped a few! Can't wait for diving in 2012!
