Salt water diving is harder on your equipment, make sure you rinse everything extremely well both inside and out or the salt will crystallize and start ruining stuff. Sometimes my computer starts acting funny (won't stop diving, won't let you scroll through functions on the surface) either between dives on the boat or after the dive day ends. It does this because of the electrical properties of salt. A good soak in fresh water to free it of salt makes it start behaving normally again. I always carry a container to soak my computer in just in case it does it when I'm on the boat.
Make sure you have sunscreen for your lips on the boat as well as some sort of moisturizing lotion back at the room because salt water and sun tend to dry your skin out. Don't neglect the bottoms of your feet when you put lotion on after the dive day, they have been soaking in your booties in salt water all day.
One thing I learned on my last salt water trip was that the salt only stings your eyes momentarily. I would remove my mask during my descent and open my eyes until the burning stopped then replace and clear the mask. I found that once my eyes had been exposed to the salt they did not burn if I got water in my mask later in the dive. Failing to do this meant my eyes burned any time a little water got in my mask.
Diving in a current is much more pleasant with a very simple low profile snorkel (most snorkels designed to keep water out are not low profile) or no snorkel at all. Stronger currents tend to make the snorkel jerk around and flood your mask. I prefer to always dive with a snorkel on my person even if it is not on my mask. You can get the ones that fold to fit in a pocket or strap a simple one to your leg or BC where it will be out of the way.
Make sure you have a good "Save-a-dive" kit with you. Take along an extra mask strap as well as 2 fin straps just in case. Double ended snap links in different sizes are nice for making sure gear is kept close to your body. Zip ties in different sizes are also extremely handy. A small retractor and an extra octopus holder as well as a snorkel holder (to attach snorkel to mask) can also come in handy when kept in your kit. It doesn't hurt to have a pair of the "SeaBands" seasick wrist bands in that kit either. Lock-n-Lock boxes sold at places like Meijer in the home/kitchen section are great for keeping your stuff dry and they come in lots of sizes. They even have a size that will accomodate 2 sleeves of Saltine crackers (a must for me when on a boat to prevent seasickness).
D.A.N. insurance or something similar is a good idea when travelling and make sure your insurance cards and I.D. are somewhere accessible (your buddy should know the location) in case something happens to you. A list of medicines you are currently taking as well as any allergies to medications and every contact number for anyone who would need to know you are injured should be kept with the insurance info just in case you have an accident and are unable to communicate this information to emergency personnel. Always better safe than sorry. Make sure you know this information about your buddy also.
Keep your regulator in your mouth and your mask on your face until you and your buddy are safely in the boat. Salt water is nasty to swallow as well as inhale and you may well do both if there is wave action and you are bobbing on the surface with your reg out and your mask around your neck. You wore your mask for the whole dive, a couple of minutes on the surface is not going to kill you.
That's everything I can think of at the moment from one quarry diver to another. Have a great trip!
Ber
