Whitestar Quarry: Friday 4/30 - Sunday 5/2

[diverbrian]

Just got back and settled in from the weekend.

I left Saturday morning and arrived at the little town of Gibsonburg just past noon. Ray showed up and after lunch, we immediately remembered the Wrecking Crews model and bought some Bass Ale and Beck's.

We picked out our camping spot and went over to dive:

Dive 1: Water temp, 48 degrees. We surface swam to the potato chip truck in the middle of the quarry and submerged. The nearby cabin cruiser on a straight compass heading provided up with far more interest. After a half-hour we surfaced and did the looong swim back in. The air temp was cold and it was sprinkling pretty well by this time. About two hours later (I haven't downloaded the VyTec yet), we packed our gear and jumped in at the blockhouse and crusher holes. for...

Dive 2: Again 50 ft. + vis..... We checked out the blockhouse and swam through the crusher holes to the spiral ladders. We went back and surfaced along the buoy at the block house into a light rain that turned into a downpour! Air temp was probably a little over fifty degrees. We waited for the rain to lighten up and went to dinner.

We had dinner at a nearby bar and grill and settled into our "block of camping sites", we settled in with our large version of the "Indian fire", (veteran wreckers know about this.) It drizzled all night and turned into a downpour while we were sleeping. My poor dive buddy got the worst of this as he came prepared with a tent that finally could take no more water and got REALLY wet with COLD water.

I slept in my car after putting out one tote of dive gear and my doubles so that I could fold the seat back. I slept like a baby. After breakfast, both of were still cold, wet and didn't want to add miserable to the list, so we packed up our gear and left town.

All in all, despite the uncooperative weather, it was a fun trip. This would be a great place with decent weather.

Oh, and don't count on the guy with the compressor showing up on a Sunday in the off-season. We still have two tanks between us that could have been filled there and weren't (the third would be my O2 clean steel 120 that I wasn't about to have filled with unsure air)!

 

[gtxl1200]

ahhhhhhhhh nothing like a wet meserible day of diving but hey it was still diving. I had the same type weather doing my advanced check out dives this weekend I think the cold and to many dives contributed to my completly blowing the navigation dive. I hope next visit you guy make down there I can make it.

 

[Tiny Bubbles]

Well, Brian beat me there by 5 minutes, around 11:30am Saturday. We ate lunch at this little restaurant on the main drag and then stopped at the super market to get some Ohio no-bottle-deposit-required provisions. Then I set up camp. Brian didn't set up camp. He said he didn't need no stinkin' tent, and was just going to sleep in his mustang. Then we went diving.

First dive, we did a long surface swim all the way out to the middle of the quarry, and dropped down on the potato chip truck. Visibility was outstanding -- I'd estimate around 60 feet. We got bored with the truck pretty quick, and made our way over to the giant cabin cruiser (also in out in the middle), which I thought was one of the more interesting things there. The truck may not be worth the long swim, but that big cabin cruiser sure was.

When we made it back to shore, the air fill man had already left, and did not return. I had to borrow one of Brian's famous short-filled aluminum 80's that he always carries around with him to do a 2nd dive. Second dive, we found the 73' mark at the bottom of the crusher pit. The spiral staircase was kind of cool. I wish I took a camera for that one.

I called the air fill number & told her we needed air the next day. She said he would be out there. Then we went to Jeff's II bar for dinner. That is one happening place for such a small town. Then we went back to camp and made a BIG fire with the wood I brought plus there was a ton of wood just laying around there. We also drank our provisions until 1 in the morning.

Sunday morning it was cold and it was sprinkling a little. It had rained hard that night and my tent was soaking wet inside and out. We had a good breakfast at Harvey's Apple Dumpling Restaurant (just past the entrances to the quarry and campground). We went back to the quarry a few times, but the air fill man didn't come. We waited for him until the early afternoon, and then left without diving that day. But I had such a rough night what with the rain & cold & provisions and all that I didn't care if we dove that day or not.

Lessons learned:
* Bring enough air to do all planned dives. Don't depend on the air man. Especially this early in the season.
* Don't bring firewood. There is plenty of wood laying around the campground.
* Don't sleep in a tent if it's going to rain. sleeping in a vehicle is better.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

WOW! you guys are tough! You're not the only ones this weekend with a rough trip! Glad to hear both survived ok, good luck next time!
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=54598&page=7&pp=10

 

[The Fresh Prince]

Well, Brian beat me there by 5 minutes, around 11:30am Saturday. We ate lunch at this little restaurant on the main drag and then stopped at the super market to get some Ohio no-bottle-deposit-required provisions. Then I set up camp. Brian didn't set up camp. He said he didn't need no stinkin' tent, and was just going to sleep in his mustang. Then we went diving.

First dive, we did a long surface swim all the way out to the middle of the quarry, and dropped down on the potato chip truck. Visibility was outstanding -- I'd estimate around 60 feet. We got bored with the truck pretty quick, and made our way over to the giant cabin cruiser (also in out in the middle), which I thought was one of the more interesting things there. The truck may not be worth the long swim, but that big cabin cruiser sure was.

When we made it back to shore, the air fill man had already left, and did not return. I had to borrow one of Brian's famous short-filled aluminum 80's that he always carries around with him to do a 2nd dive. Second dive, we found the 73' mark at the bottom of the crusher pit. The spiral staircase was kind of cool. I wish I took a camera for that one.

I called the air fill number & told her we needed air the next day. She said he would be out there. Then we went to Jeff's II bar for dinner. That is one happening place for such a small town. Then we went back to camp and made a BIG fire with the wood I brought plus there was a ton of wood just laying around there. We also drank our provisions until 1 in the morning.

Sunday morning it was cold and it was sprinkling a little. It had rained hard that night and my tent was soaking wet inside and out. We had a good breakfast at Harvey's Apple Dumpling Restaurant (just past the entrances to the quarry and campground). We went back to the quarry a few times, but the air fill man didn't come. We waited for him until the early afternoon, and then left without diving that day. But I had such a rough night what with the rain & cold & provisions and all that I didn't care if we dove that day or not.

Lessons learned:
* Bring enough air to do all planned dives. Don't depend on the air man. Especially this early in the season.
* Don't bring firewood. There is plenty of wood laying around the campground.
* Don't sleep in a tent if it's going to rain. sleeping in a vehicle is better.

middle of the quarry??? The Frito Lay truck is an easy 1000 ft. swim from the beach entry, 900 from the deep entry. This is almost 4/5's of the way across the quarry. Lots easier to swim underwater from either location(provided you can follow a compass heading). Next time call Jeff when you need the air. He lives five minutes away. He probably showed up when you were under water or downtown. You could have left the tanks next to the fill station(with money or fill ticket) and he would have filled them while you were diving.

 

[wrecNcaver]

Sunday morning it was cold and it was sprinkling a little. It had rained hard that night and my tent was soaking wet inside and out. We had a good breakfast at Harvey's Apple Dumpling Restaurant (just past the entrances to the quarry and campground). We went back to the quarry a few times, but the air fill man didn't come. We waited for him until the early afternoon, and then left without diving that day. But I had such a rough night what with the rain & cold & provisions and all that I didn't care if we dove that day or not.


Sorry I missed you, I think I saw you drive by the changing rooms when I was getting out of my dry suit. It was raining the whole time we were at Whitestar, but cleared up shortly after we left. Vis was great and we had the quarry pretty much to ourselves, (was diving with two buddy's). The people who pump air showed up for about an hour while we were there, but we did not dive a second dive due to the rain and cold so when we told them we did not need air, they took off. (Why did the good weather have to be wasted on a Wednesday and Thursday?) Even though it was cold, raining and miserable day, we had a great dive. Hopefully we will meet up some other time.

 

[diverbrian]

This is the kind of day that we had. Heck, we hunted for the hat that my dive buddy was wearing on the surface. But the water WAS crystal clear.

 

[diverbrian]

Ray looked pretty good underwater. Here were some of the "sights": (the batteries in my camera were running low, so I didn't get as good of pictures as I would have liked).

 

[diverbrian]

...of a willing model.

 

[Big-t-2538]

Sunday morning it was cold and it was sprinkling a little. It had rained hard that night and my tent was soaking wet inside and out. We had a good breakfast at Harvey's Apple Dumpling Restaurant (just past the entrances to the quarry and campground). We went back to the quarry a few times, but the air fill man didn't come. We waited for him until the early afternoon, and then left without diving that day. But I had such a rough night what with the rain & cold & provisions and all that I didn't care if we dove that day or not.

Gilboa was a little different Sunday morning. It was cold, nasty, and we even had a few light flurries or freezing rain with some nice chilling wind as we were gearing up to hit the water...which means we took our sweet old time.

But once we were in, the viz was pretty good (we beat most of the classes) and the water was warmer than the air (50 degrees at 20'....the thermometer at the tubes read 39, but I don;t believe that thing is accurate...it's probably more like 45. Good dive, I love my new BP/W even though it still needs some adjustment.