Bogrady and Son do New York - The COLD Version

[bogrady]

I’ve had this trip report laying around on my hard drive for a few weeks now – I guess it’s time to post it - so settle back and get ready for ….

Swamper bogrady (and son) do New York (again)!

Part 1 – Getting there and getting geared -

Last time it was about the cool calm waters of Lake George. This time – it was all about the COLD!!! Did I say COLD!!! – how about 39 freaking degrees water temp and 34 freaking degrees air temp - Bring it on!

The New Year’s holiday at Mom and Dad’s Long Island Sound beach condo was the perfect opportunity for Stephen and I to put our dry suits and toasty unders to the test, so we stuffed it all into 6 bags each weighing just a hair under 50 lbs (note: Southwest Airlines is alone in the industry now with a 3 bag allowance) and headed for the airport.

I’ve already had the opportunity to practice my “discussion” with the Southwest ticket agent several times, so I’m already an expert at it …

Me: “I’d like to insure the bags for excess value …”

Southwest: “Hmmm … I don’t think we do that …”

Me: “Yes you do … check your website …”

This goes on for several iterations until I finally convince them that they do in fact insure bags for excess value. That argument and a 3 (make that 4 with the delay) hour layover in Baltimore later and we’re soon touching down at the historic Long Island Islip General Douglas MacArthur Airport, Tire, and Hair Care Center – a bit bigger than Beaumont with a lot less airplane traffic. In case you’re wondering – it’s historic because the 1970 epic Jack Lemmon movie “The Out of Towners” was filmed there. Then 30years later, Southwest started flying there. Nothing happened in between.

It’s a 1 ½ hour drive from the airport, tire and hair care center out to the condo on the east end, and since we had gorged ourselves on Arby’s in Baltimore we decided to delay dinner until we got out to the East End.

Things you forget when you move to Texas: The East End of Long Island closes at 6pm … on October 15 … and opens at 8 am … on Memorial Day.

Things that almost cause disruptions in the space time continuum: Finding a place open on the East End named … and I’m not making this up… Hunan Palace Chinese Takeout and Tacqueria. Yep – right there on the main highway on Greenport NY, you can get not only an egg roll and general tsao chicken, but an enchilada special. It really had to be seen to be believed. One think I’ve learned is to never order pizza in Texas or Mexican in New York and expect to be happy, so we stuck with the general tsao. It was amusing to see the Chinese guys in the back shredding a huge hunk of cheese for the enchiladas.

A few minutes later we we’re pulling into the condo and reuniting with a whole swarm of nieces, nephews, my sister … you know the drill. Stephen and I new what was important though … family could wait … we needed to do a dive site survey!

Problem: It was dark, it was cold – we figured the Long Island Sound hadn’t changed much since we last saw it – so we cancelled the survey until the morning and headed back in for some fine Long Island wines and single malt (ok – Stephen had chocolate milk …). We killed some time opening Christmas presents.

The next morning, the conditions were exactly as we had hoped – 34 degrees air temp, 39 degrees water temp, sunny, brisk wind, 2-3 foot swells – PERFECT!

We headed off to the local dive shop. This is sweet – the East End is pretty sparse on a good day – in the winter it’s even worse – but there’s a dive shop, Soundview Scuba only 2 miles up the road from the condo. Ted, the owner, knew we were coming and was nice enough to open the shop for a few hours each day so we could get tanks, fills, and anything else we needed. We loaded up the car with tanks and lead and headed back to the condo for our first dive.

Coming soon: Part 2 – Why you should never be ashamed to crawl like a baby to escape the surf …

 

[ZzzKing]

 

[deeper thoughts]

will be waiting

 

[Martha]

Brrrrr, I'm cold just thinking about those temperatures. I'm looking forward to Part 2.

 

[bogrady]

Part 2 – Why you should never be ashamed to crawl like a baby to escape the surf …

So – on a calm day, the condo beach looks like this –

For those familiar with East End shore diving – its in Greenport NY, just west of the Soundview Inn and about ½ mile east of Clark’s Beach (also known as Secret Beach).

As I mentioned in the previous post – this was a “perfect” day, not a “calm” day – which means Mother Nature had provided us with just the challenge we were looking for – about 30 degrees colder and 2 foot swells.

As we started to gear up, we of course attracted the attention of the curious onlookers – in this case, my nephew Andrew – who volunteered to be my diver tender. A tender is not as good as a sherpa in that he didn’t offer to carry anything, but he was willing to help me gear up.

Stephen – not looking near as helpless as me – had to gear up on his own.

A short walk to the water and in we went – remember I mentioned a “perfect” day rather than a “calm” day –

I believe they’re wondering if we had lost our minds …

Never having actually done a surf entry in cold water gear, Stephen and I naturally learned things as we went along. Here’s the point at which Stephen learned he was too light on weight, and I learned something entirely new –

In physics, the speed of light is represented by the constant “c”, and Einstein pretty much concluded that nothing travels faster than light. Einstein was obviously not a diver, because in this picture, I’m in the process of proving that water, entering through a small fold in a dry glove at the ring seal, travels through the pressure equalization tube, past the wrist seal and up to your elbow at a speed of approximately 1.8 times the speed of light.

So now we need to exit the water to fix the dry glove and weight problems, at which point Stephen remembers the key point of this post – you’re never too old to crawl …

A few minutes later, with a new dry glove and some added weight we’re back in the water, where I got lesson number two … always have your regulator in your mouth in the surf … I of course learned this after a swell took my legs out from under me and I found myself on my back, under 4 feet of water, wondering just where the heck my regulator was. Luckily it was in my right hand and I survived the lesson.

Finally – we were diving. The Long Island Sound at this point is basically a gentle slope out for about a mile. Max depth we could get was only 20 feet and the bottom is mostly sand. Close to shore though there are some really thick rock beds. With the water being this cold - I mentioned it was cold? - 39 degrees water temp – the marine life had all but headed for the Bahamas for the winter, but the rock was pretty well covered in various forms of plant life, and there were hundreds of starfish, urchins and hermit crabs to be found

You basically dive until your fingers hurt. Stephen was wearing a Bare XCD2 which is a 2mm compressed neo with a polartec union suit, and a poly prop layer under a Bare T100. I was wearing a Bare HD Trilam with a polartec union suit and the T100. We were cold the whole time, but it really was our fingers that limited the dive – Stephen had a thinsulate glove liner and I was wearing a double cotton liner under the dry gloves. We made it about 38 minutes before we called it done.

This is the point where dry suit diving really shines – you can come out of the freezing water, into the freezing air and be comfortable. Just hit the inflator and fill your suit with warm toasty air – quite nice.

An hour later we were on the deck toasting the last sunset of 2007.

Coming soon: Part 3 – The night dive, and a really sappy story about my parent’s 50th Christmas together …

 

[scubashawn123]

Coming soon: Part 3 – The night dive, and a really sappy story about my parent’s 50th Christmas together …[/QUOTE]

 

[deeper thoughts]

Believe it or not one of the best sunsets I ever saw and that includes the keys and the carib was in Greenport. I think it was called the sunset hotel or something like that

 

[bogrady]

Believe it or not one of the best sunsets I ever saw and that includes the keys and the carib was in Greenport. I think it was called the sunset hotel or something like that

From Greenport the sun sets over Horton's Point. There is a small motel just up the road from us called the Sunset - that was probably it. A little bit of Austin Texas has been transported to Greenport. When my folks first came to visit us in Austin, we took them to the Oasis for the sunset toast and bell ringing. The next time we were up North, we noticed that they had hung a bell on the deck, and each night they toasted and rang out the sunset over Horton's Point.

Over the next few years it became a family tradition, with all of the grandchildren taking turns ringing "Nona's Bell" any time they were out there. Eventually, the entire condo association got into the act, and on any given night, there's 5 or 6 families, out on their decks, ringing a bell at sunset. Its actually quite nice.

I agree - some of the best sunsets I've ever seen happen over Horton's Point.

 

[texdiveguy]

Your parent 50th. Christmas's together--WOW that is so great......my wife and I just today are celb. our 31st. year married and 35th. year as a 'couple'!

 

[ZzzKing]

As we started to gear up, we of course attracted the attention of the curious onlookers – in this case, my nephew Andrew – who volunteered to be my diver tender. A tender is not as good as a sherpa in that he didn’t offer to carry anything, but he was willing to help me gear up.

Now what you shoulda done was head over to Pennsylvania and pick yourselves up a couple of Amish Dive Valets. They schlep the gear, help you don it and meet you post dive with hot towels and warm cognac. VERY genteel. All those wealthy divers in Paris swear by 'em.