Observations on Quarry Diving

Dive 5 and 6.

The main purpose for this dive was to check out new equipment, and gain dive time for safety. Plus I had to see what fresh water diving was like.

It is not the Caribbean Sea but it is better than not diving. The visibility is 6 to 10 feet tops. But that is the way fresh water diving is I am told.

Suiting up for this dive is a chore. This is the first time I have worn a heavy wet suit, gloves, boots and hood. It took me 5 minutes to get suited out and I was soaking in sweat. Then I put on the tank and BCD. We waded in the water and put on our fins and masks.

The water felt good as we inflated our bouncy vests and moved to deeper water.

After our final checkout we deflated the BCD to dive.
I had 14 pounds of weight in my vest to compensate for all the air trapped in my wet suit. It was barely enough to get me down. Eventually at 10 feet the effort was over and I began to sink and equalize my ears.

In this murky water the best way to see and navigate is by staying close to a rope that marks a trail. The trail consists of sunken objects to observe.

At 20 feet it gets cold. At 35 feet it gets colder. At 56 feet it is in the 40’s and damn cold. My feet and lower back was cold. My face that was exposed between my hood and mask was very cold but the suit kept me from dangerous cold.

I enjoyed two dives with my dive buddy Bruce. The dives were not very long as we are both beginners on out first “grown up” dive on our own and rookies tend to gulp air in cold conditions. This shortens the dive time for obvious reasons.

Bruce saved me once when I took out my air regulator to smile for a picture. Then I couldn’t locate my air and he saw my need, grabbed my air and I was okay. Lesson learned was not to toss away the air regulator so casually,

Overall mission accomplished and the trip was worth it and I hope to dive there again.

1 comments:

Ken said...

Imagine what you would have attempted for your first grown up dive with a buddy if you were in your 20's.