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[ Up ] [ Noon Hour Diving ] [ Freedive Day! ] [ Mooring Chains ] [ Frenzel! ]
My parents were here all the last week of August and in fact although my Dad
and two brothers left Wednesday, my Mom stayed another week longer (since she
doesn't have an out-of-house job that requires her to return the same time)
So yesterday the 28th we went down to the Yacht Club so I could dive a bit.
Mom used to be a synchronized swimmer so although she remained on shore, she
said she was prepared to jump in & rescue me should anything happen.
(so not quite a solo dive, although I treated it as such and stayed shallow with
no really long breath-holds). I was in the water for about 90 minutes,
less the time it took me to get into my wetsuit. Did a few useful things,
such as diving to look for a lost multi-tool (didn't find it; must've gone down
into the silt), practiced Giant Stride entries (jumping off stuff is not one of
my strong points) and got the buoyancy/weighting question answered through
experimentation.
As I was leaving to drive Mom and Dylan home for supper, the Acting Commodore of
the Yacht Club came up to the truck and asked if I might happen to be around in
the evening. The Officer of the Day wasn't there yet (as he was supposed
to be) and apparently divers were coming in to change out some of the more iffy
mooring chains. The A/Cmdre had to go pick up his wife (he was already late) so
I said sure, I'll come back. So I dropped off my Mom and Dylan, grabbed a
few extra pieces of gear (which turned out to be wise) and headed back.
The divers were just arriving when I got there. So I went over to Rusty
(who of course knew me from before) and asked if he'd mind a non-diving
tag-along. He said Sure, and that I could be 'surface support' and drive
the boat unless I had brought my gear and wanted to get wet. I said yes I
had my gear, and that I wasn't terribly familiar with the club boat's engine
anyhow.
So there were two divers diving doubles, and two who had brought single tanks.
The guys on doubles were going to be in the water the whole time and the ones on
single tanks would take turns driving the boat - one would dive till his tank
was empty, then shift off with the boat guy. I would follow them around
and do whatever.
Getting into the water, I decided to wear my 5mil "core warmer"
overtop of my 2mil shorty. Oh yeah, I have my new Cressi-sub Frog fins
(they don't make open heel FreeFrog fins anymore, so Diver's Paradise gave me a
really good deal on the Frogs) and new 6.5mil Mares booties I had picked up for
$39 (seems not too many people are looking to buy size XXS boots....)
Turns out my decision to wear the additional 5mil core warmer was a Very Good
Idea. And 5.1 lbs of lead to offset the buoyancy. I think I need another
pound or two when I wear that many layers, since just the 2mil takes 3lbs to
offset.
Rusty and the other doubles diver had brought brand-new scooters to try out. Vis
was great, had to be 20' +, so I could watch everything they were doing, as well
as fetch tools from the support boat, etc.
I hung around watching the divers swapping out the chains, and practiced
various things, such as frog kicks and backwards swimming, as well as
maintaining a position in the water. Didn't actually dive sub-surface so I
wasn't going to mess with buoyancy or trim skills - save that for another day.
At one point someone surfaced directly onto me - I just felt something
underneath me so I made myself rise and corrected my trim to horizontal (since I
was already on the surface) without kicking - then as soon as I
realized it was another diver I rolled off him and we both had a good laugh! I
hadn't seen him rising directly beneath me and he hadn't seen me right above
him! No harm, no foul.
We were in the water a total of another 90 minutes I do believe, the end of
which it was getting dark and I was getting chilly. But then so was one of
the single-tank divers who was wearing a 7mil shorty. (Water temp was 73°F.)
By the end of the dive vis had fallen to around 10'. They were all heading
back but being underwater as they were, they ended up heading too far out
towards the bay. Naturally since our breakwater is a floating one, if
you're more than 10' under it, you wouldn't even see it. I indicated the
right direction to head in and they altered course. I lost sight of them
(they were all using the scooters, with the one-tank diver hooking a ride on one
of the two-tank divers) but when they didn't pass below me, I pivoted around to
find them. In a minute I saw a few heads pop out of the water way over by
the breakwater (fortunately still on the inside of it). I couldn't resist
saying, "I TOLD you guys it's over this way!" They eventually
found their way back to the launch ramp (where the trucks were parked) and we
all
climbed ashore.
It was fun. Rusty says that the next time I'm there when they're diving,
if it wasn't getting dark yet and they had more time afterwards, he'd take me
down and let me breathe off a reg for a while. (Two things: since I did
the Scuba Experience in March, he's allowed to take me out under "direct
supervision of a NAUI Leader" and since he's the Chief Instructor, I guess
he qualifies)
They don't know when they're next planning to go out to swap out the next
mooring chains - this particular dive was sort of a "what are you doing
tomorrow?" arrangement.
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