RAD Diver
Contributor
Well I was set to go to Lake Rawlings on Saturday when I got a call from some friends who were trying to fill a private charter 6-pack. I really need some weight work on my alum. 100 doubles & new drysuit, but I guess I could do that off shore. So I jumped on the charter.
We were greeted to light winds although chilly conditions at the 7am departure time. Most of the divers were spearfishing so we picked the Trepca which was fine with me Ive been there before & it is a decent dive with normally large Tautog to be had. With small 2ft swells at long intervals it was a beautiful day on the water. Unfortunatly when we hit the bottom this was not the wreck I remember & all that was down there was a 40ft siderail of a boat with about 4ft of relief in the middle with what appeared to be a mast lying on its side. With very little life except for some small Seabass & a few Conger Eels. I forgot my reel on board & since my buddy noticed I wasnt wearing 1 so he didnt bring his. So with vis about 10-15ft I was only comfortable swinging an arc around this wreck about 30ft looking for something/anything of interest. I had run these tanks down to 2000psi on the beach dive last weekend & when they hit 1000psi they made the swing bouyant & I was too light, I dumped what little air I had in my wing & all the warmth giving air out of my drysuit, but it wasnt enough & after fighting with it & the dive was a bust I called the dive. Water temp 46% max depth 100 fsw & 33min total run time.
We were all very disappointed with this dive & decided to hit something different & decided on the Cuyahoga, a Coast Guard tug. Very intact & clean it has several swim thrus & easy penetration. I needed to change my wing out & add a STA to use my LP121 for the 2nd dive & decided to go with my weighting I had used for my old Whites bi-lam drysuit, which turned out to be a mistake as my new CF-200 is a different animal. So of course I was too light again & had to keep no warmth giving air in my suit. It was still a fight & the swim thrus were giving me fits so I didnt do any penetration. Vis was about 10ft so we made several passes around the wreck to make sure we covered it. I saw a few decent Tautogs. We called the dive. Max depth 111fsw, total run time 32min & water temp 46%. 1 of the spearfishers did come up with a 17lb Tautog. Very nice.
Sunday was a trip with the local tech club VBtech divers. The weather was suppose to be off & on showers with scattered thunderstorms with NE winds 10-15 knts. The kiss of death for diving here. I woke to cloudy skies, but dry & as I was heading out the flag in the front of our neighborhood was laying flat down. The weatherman got it wrong imagine that.LOL.
The boat was packed with more sets of doubles than anything & Pete N. from Dive Rite had his Rebreather. I got there 45min. early & was the last diver to board. I had no dive partner & of course there was 1 other diver free & he wasnt a part of our group. Diving air with an alum 80 & a very worn, very old rental wetsuit. The trip was set to go to the Morgan 1 of the favorite sites we have. At 100 fsw my buddy with no computer diving tables was up for about 20 mins on his 1st dive. He had no problem ascending alone so it wouldnt be so bad.
We waited to be 1 of the last to jump so maybe when he was coming back to the boat he would have company up the line.
When we got to the bottom it looked like a spiders web there were so many reels run. So I wrapped mine on an empty part of the wreck & we went off in the opposite direction. We had decent vis of 25ft & as soon as we came around the edge we I spotted the tanks ,WW2 vintage,1 right side up & 1 upside down. I signaled my buddy & lit them up so he could tell what they were before we got too close to them. When we left he helped another diver who got caught in my line & then got himself wrapped in someone elses line. I watched & he started to spin & I was ready to drop my reel & get him out, but he stopped, thought & acted correctly & got himself out. Not bad for a OW diver with very limited diving experience. He was cold & called the dive so I brought him back to the line. I unhooked my line & decided to follow some of the other lines. Everyone was heading back so I just hung out & enjoyed being there for a few minutes. Water temp 46% ,total time 30min, max depth 99ft.
As soon as I got on board & got out of my harness I found my buddy to make sure everything was OK. He was shivering pretty bad & regretting making the dive. I suggested he get some of the fresh of the grill hotdogs & get up on the sundeck & out of the shade. He inquired weather I was making a 2nd dive & I definatly was, but not to put too much on him, I said I would hook up with another group to go with.
It was another great day with almost flat seas & mostly sunny so up on the sun deck it was very warm.
Then as we were thinking about the 2nd dive, 1 of the crew asked who needed an air fill/top off. I was shocked that my buddy spoke up & wanted his tank filled.
He was only allowed 14 min BT according to the tables so he thought he could put up with it & Im always game.
I wanted to find the piles of artillery shells that are on this wreck to show him, but couldnt find them. We were exploring a different section with me running my reel when I noticed we had been down 11 min. I got his attention pointed at my computer then pointed him back to the anchor line. He looked at his watch & figured out what I meant & was off like a shot. I couldnt keep up with him trying to reel my line in. Then 2 divers dropped in front of me hijacking my line back. No problem except I lost sight of my buddy. When I got to the anchor I could see him on the line heading up & I lit him up with my light & he flashed an OK sign so I headed off to continue my dive. After 10 min. I noticed I was the only 1 left on the wreck so I called the dive. I added some weight to my belt & it did the trick as I was able to keep air in my DS to stay warm. I was also down to 800psi on my hang at 20ft & had no problems maintaining depth with no air adjustments to my wing or DS. Water temp was up to 47%, almost balmy,LOL max depth 98ft, total time 25min.
I need to get a P-weight to get some weight off my belt to continue to use these alum 100 doubles, but they werent that bad. I just doubled a set of steel 98s yesterday & will be at Rawlings this Saturday (April 07) to try them out.
Even with all the problems Saturday (some of which I knew would happen not having weighting right before jumping off a boat) it was a great weekend.
We were greeted to light winds although chilly conditions at the 7am departure time. Most of the divers were spearfishing so we picked the Trepca which was fine with me Ive been there before & it is a decent dive with normally large Tautog to be had. With small 2ft swells at long intervals it was a beautiful day on the water. Unfortunatly when we hit the bottom this was not the wreck I remember & all that was down there was a 40ft siderail of a boat with about 4ft of relief in the middle with what appeared to be a mast lying on its side. With very little life except for some small Seabass & a few Conger Eels. I forgot my reel on board & since my buddy noticed I wasnt wearing 1 so he didnt bring his. So with vis about 10-15ft I was only comfortable swinging an arc around this wreck about 30ft looking for something/anything of interest. I had run these tanks down to 2000psi on the beach dive last weekend & when they hit 1000psi they made the swing bouyant & I was too light, I dumped what little air I had in my wing & all the warmth giving air out of my drysuit, but it wasnt enough & after fighting with it & the dive was a bust I called the dive. Water temp 46% max depth 100 fsw & 33min total run time.
We were all very disappointed with this dive & decided to hit something different & decided on the Cuyahoga, a Coast Guard tug. Very intact & clean it has several swim thrus & easy penetration. I needed to change my wing out & add a STA to use my LP121 for the 2nd dive & decided to go with my weighting I had used for my old Whites bi-lam drysuit, which turned out to be a mistake as my new CF-200 is a different animal. So of course I was too light again & had to keep no warmth giving air in my suit. It was still a fight & the swim thrus were giving me fits so I didnt do any penetration. Vis was about 10ft so we made several passes around the wreck to make sure we covered it. I saw a few decent Tautogs. We called the dive. Max depth 111fsw, total run time 32min & water temp 46%. 1 of the spearfishers did come up with a 17lb Tautog. Very nice.
Sunday was a trip with the local tech club VBtech divers. The weather was suppose to be off & on showers with scattered thunderstorms with NE winds 10-15 knts. The kiss of death for diving here. I woke to cloudy skies, but dry & as I was heading out the flag in the front of our neighborhood was laying flat down. The weatherman got it wrong imagine that.LOL.
The boat was packed with more sets of doubles than anything & Pete N. from Dive Rite had his Rebreather. I got there 45min. early & was the last diver to board. I had no dive partner & of course there was 1 other diver free & he wasnt a part of our group. Diving air with an alum 80 & a very worn, very old rental wetsuit. The trip was set to go to the Morgan 1 of the favorite sites we have. At 100 fsw my buddy with no computer diving tables was up for about 20 mins on his 1st dive. He had no problem ascending alone so it wouldnt be so bad.
We waited to be 1 of the last to jump so maybe when he was coming back to the boat he would have company up the line.
When we got to the bottom it looked like a spiders web there were so many reels run. So I wrapped mine on an empty part of the wreck & we went off in the opposite direction. We had decent vis of 25ft & as soon as we came around the edge we I spotted the tanks ,WW2 vintage,1 right side up & 1 upside down. I signaled my buddy & lit them up so he could tell what they were before we got too close to them. When we left he helped another diver who got caught in my line & then got himself wrapped in someone elses line. I watched & he started to spin & I was ready to drop my reel & get him out, but he stopped, thought & acted correctly & got himself out. Not bad for a OW diver with very limited diving experience. He was cold & called the dive so I brought him back to the line. I unhooked my line & decided to follow some of the other lines. Everyone was heading back so I just hung out & enjoyed being there for a few minutes. Water temp 46% ,total time 30min, max depth 99ft.
As soon as I got on board & got out of my harness I found my buddy to make sure everything was OK. He was shivering pretty bad & regretting making the dive. I suggested he get some of the fresh of the grill hotdogs & get up on the sundeck & out of the shade. He inquired weather I was making a 2nd dive & I definatly was, but not to put too much on him, I said I would hook up with another group to go with.
It was another great day with almost flat seas & mostly sunny so up on the sun deck it was very warm.
Then as we were thinking about the 2nd dive, 1 of the crew asked who needed an air fill/top off. I was shocked that my buddy spoke up & wanted his tank filled.
He was only allowed 14 min BT according to the tables so he thought he could put up with it & Im always game.
I wanted to find the piles of artillery shells that are on this wreck to show him, but couldnt find them. We were exploring a different section with me running my reel when I noticed we had been down 11 min. I got his attention pointed at my computer then pointed him back to the anchor line. He looked at his watch & figured out what I meant & was off like a shot. I couldnt keep up with him trying to reel my line in. Then 2 divers dropped in front of me hijacking my line back. No problem except I lost sight of my buddy. When I got to the anchor I could see him on the line heading up & I lit him up with my light & he flashed an OK sign so I headed off to continue my dive. After 10 min. I noticed I was the only 1 left on the wreck so I called the dive. I added some weight to my belt & it did the trick as I was able to keep air in my DS to stay warm. I was also down to 800psi on my hang at 20ft & had no problems maintaining depth with no air adjustments to my wing or DS. Water temp was up to 47%, almost balmy,LOL max depth 98ft, total time 25min.
I need to get a P-weight to get some weight off my belt to continue to use these alum 100 doubles, but they werent that bad. I just doubled a set of steel 98s yesterday & will be at Rawlings this Saturday (April 07) to try them out.
Even with all the problems Saturday (some of which I knew would happen not having weighting right before jumping off a boat) it was a great weekend.
