You're Either On The Bus or Off The Bus

Well folks, what a fun week-end. As per previous entries I accompanied Dave to Dutch Springs for his check-out dives. Saturday was hot, humid and overcast, but the water was very nive. 80 degrees on the surface gave way to a chilly 47 degrees at 61feet. The visibility was pretty bad, attributable, I think, to the series of torrential downpours that came through the eastern Pennsylvania area last week. Present for the dives were myself, Ryan, Dave, Lauren (his classmate), John (Lauren’s boyfriend), Father Frank, Siobhan and Arthur. I had never met Arthur prior to Saturday but he proved to be a reliable and competent dive partner. I ended up doing most of my dives with Arthur since John wanted to tag along with Lauren. While Ryan took Dave, Lauren and John through the skills required for Open Water certification, the rest of us planned a couple of fun dives to see some of the vehicles that have been sunk throughout the quarry by the Dutch Springs owners. Our first excursion involved a lengthy surface swim to a white ball attached to a down-line leading to the fire truck at about the 18 foot mark. From there, we took the line running from the front of the truck, past a sunken 25 foot boat, past a platform to another line. Our intent was to get to the water tanker sitting at about 60 feet. We set the turn-around for 1200psi which Father Frank reached before we got to the tanker. It was very cold and very dark. What viz there was, was obscured by a lot of floating snot-like green things. We turned around and headed back to the fire truck. Once there, Siobhan had ear problems and she and Father Frank went up while Arthur and I navigated back along the wall since we didn’t want to have a long surface swim. Unknown to me Sioban took this as some kind of personal affront and expressed during the surface interval that we all should have gone up together. Ryan shot her down right away since I was buddied with Arthur and why should we have to cut our dive short because her and Frank can’t navigate and therefore use up all of their air too soon. Siobhan had also been out very late the night before which probably contributed to her ear problems. Screw it. If Arthur said go up I’d have been right there but when I drive 1.5 hours to dive in what is basically a big bathtub, I’m not going to terminate a dive because someone I’m not even paired up with has to ascend to the surface from 25 feet. Fr. Frank was right there with her; not my problem.
The second dive also ended with Fr. Franh and Siobahn, despite briefing the dive in detail before we went down, starting off on the wrong line. I pulled everyone back once it became clear that we were all headed the wrong way. This time our destination was a sunken schoolbus. While Frank and Siobhan had to turn back, again, for unknown reasons, Arthur and I made it to the bus, penetrated it through the back emergency exit door and came out through the roof. After playing around for a while we headed back. I didn’t have my gloves on and the water temp was in the 50’s. Brrr. We got some good bottom time.
Dave and Lauren had a good first days diving, although Dave's first act of the day was to yank the purge valve on his BC so hard that he pulled out the cord. Hehe. After packing up the cars, Powiee and I headed out to Kristin’s, got a steak at the brew pub and collapsed into bed around ten, primed for day two.