Back in...Finally!!

Last week I finally went diving. It was a long winter, and I couldn't wait to get back in the water. I met by "regular" dive buddy at Dutch Springs on Saturday, April 8th. The weather was crap...in the low 40's, with a constant rain and wind. That didn't hold us back, as we entered into a balmy 45 degrees almost empty quarry. Since it was the first dive of the season, and I hadn't had my gear serviced yet, Murphy's Law took effect. I was all geared up and ready to go, but when I turned on my air, I found that my primary first stage, had a "first stage creep", so I swapped all my gear onto my backup first stage. What do you know....same thing. Luckily my buddy had his daughters Sherwood regulator set, which I borrowed and swapped my second stage reg. onto the first stage. Off we went. Down to the platform at 25', and all was well. We began the descent to the Silver Comet, at 55', and a nice 41 degrees. A quick penetration from bow to stern, and we were off to the "un-named" cruiser. After coasting over this boat, we went to "the island" and over to the crane, which sits at about 55'. Still, 41 degrees on the bottom. Scott really messed up the viz. when he tried to go underneath the frame of the crane, and made us look bad when our other buddies saw how we left it. Around the island to the plane, back over the top to the Silver Comet to shoot bags. I love shooting bags for my hang, and its great practice for that open ocean ascent that none of us ever expect to have to do. Anyway, with the 40 minute dive in low 40's temp, and no warm or dry place to hang out, we nixed our second dive. Even with my Oceanic Biodry drysuit and my drygloves, it was just too damn cold to go back in for dive #2. I took my gear right in for its yearly service after this day.