The Diving Life

Another great night was put together by Dennis Bosse last night, as he and a group of nine other divers headed out for a great night of diving, stuffing their faces and laughs. Dennis, Sheri, Tim, Sandy, Mark, Bill, Guy, Tom, Chris, and Randy met in Stonington for a pot luck dinner that couldn’t of been beat. Dennis brought the grill, and everybody else brought the goodies. Yes, desert was eaten before dinner! After the sun set everybody jumped into the water, for a great dive, with sightings of Lobsters (although all catch bags were empty upon return) crabs, eels, and other usual North Eastern underwater life. Everybody’s dives totaled around about an hour. There was more fun after the dive while everybody put gear away, and then a departure around 11:00 pm.

Dennis is doing an awesome job this year getting divers out diving, and they are having an excellent time enjoying everybody’s company. As the group continues to grow each week, so does the fun, and of course the menu!! Look for Dennis and his group each week at a location somewhere in the area, from the Portland Quarry to Stonington Point.

Bill, Tim, and Randy

Sandy

Chef Dennis, and he didn’t catch the grill on fire this time.

Guy prepares his salad

Mark and Chris

Tom, Bill, mark, Tim, and Dennis

WOW!

As the title suggests, there was a lot happening down at Dutch Springs in Bethlehem, PA this past weekend.

This was the scheduled weekend for the Halcyon / GUE demo days, with special guest speaker Jarrod Jablonski. Halcyon had all the “goodies” on display, ready for a test dive. (I had the pleasure of taking out the new 21 watt HID light.. I can sum it up in one word - AWESOME!)

Many people tried the lights, BP/W’s, Surface markers, etc. You name it, it was there ready to be used.

At 7:30 we had the privilege of hearing Jarrod speak about the recent events with the WKPP and GUE. They are accomplishing many great goals toward conservation and exploration. He also showed a video of the traverse performed by Casey McKinley and himself from Turner Sink to Wakulla Springs. An awesome dive and flawless execution of a record breaking event performed by the GUE team. The dive spanned a total of nearly 7 miles (36,000 feet) of cave at a depth of ~300′.

Since there was a REALLY good reason to go, Scuba Shack decided to include a “Drive & Dive” trip and a PADI Advanced weekend!

We had many divers representing our shop in fine fashion!

We also had three divers working towards their advanced certification as well. Bill, Sandy and Tim worked very eagerly to learn: Buoyancy, Navigation, Search & Recovery, Wreck, and Deep diving. Support was provided by Mark, Dave and Carol.

There was much to learn, and we packed a ton of information in the 2 days. Congratulations to all 3 as they passed their advanced class, and are now ready to explore new environments in the open water.

Here are a few pictures of the weekend..

Getting the gear ready

Ready to descend on the Helicopter

Dave helping Sandy into the water

Group photo op before the S&R dive

The girls having fun

uh, ??? Stretching?

The “NE-UE” Gang

Jarrod at the Halcyon Tent

Mark & Tim after the deep dive

Carol & Sandy getting out of the water

…more can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Dennis.R.Bosse/DutchSpringsJuly2008

After many hours both in and out of the water, Mark Fearon has completed the Dive Master internship with Scuba Shack.

You may have seen him helping out with the buoyancy classes, down at the quarry, or around the store, as he has spent a considerable amount of time helping out the shop and the instruction staff throughout the past several months. Thank-you for all the help. We appreciate it.

With the internship and all required skills complete, now he can get to work!!

Mark will be a valued assest and we welcome him to the PADI professional ranks!

CONGRATULATIONS Mark!

Leave the boys at home and come out for day of diving with the ladies!

What could be a better, than a picnic and an afternoon of diving with your girlfriends? Join us for a fun and exciting day diving at the 1st Annual NE-UE Diva Dive Day

When: 
August 2, 2008
11:00am picnic (BYO)
12:00pm at the dive shop. 
1:00pm boat departs

Where: 
Cape Ann Divers
127 Eastern Ave., Gloucester, MA 01930
978-281-8082

Dive #1:
Wreck of the Charles Haight
Liberty ship sunk 1946, depth about 45′. Great dive, lots of sea life on it. Bow portion intact laying on side. Very pretty dive. Off Rockport.

Dive #2
Salt Island Ledge
Salt Island Ledge is about 1/4 mile east of Salt Island . A sometimes exposed rock, Salt Island Ledge rises from the ocean floor (30-plus feet deep) as a granite mound 250 yards in diameter.

Cost:
$75pp - non refundable
Please contact Cape Ann Divers directly to book your spot. 
978-281-8082
(Please mention you are with Sheri’s trip.)

Dive Teams: 
Our plan will be to dive in teams of 2-3 diving divas. 
If you are signing up solo, please contact Sheri or I beforehand.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s dive!

Christine chrisnycdive@yahoo.com

Sheri   ssawallich@comcast.net

Memorial Day weekend, May 21-26, 2008 found 24 adventurous divers on New Providence Island in the Bahamas. Led by instructor Peter Katz, the annual Scuba Shack event was a rousing success. On Wednesday, the group descended upon the Orange Hill Inn on the western end of Cable Beach, Nassau for a relaxing afternoon of Kaliks and comfort, before embarking on four fun filled days of diving. Not everyone was in for total relaxation; Lorraine Muir, John Rosenlieb, Paul Pflugfelder, and Kevin Krebsbach were all enrolled in the Advanced Open Water course. Their first day and the next two dive days were involved with knowledge reviews, lectures, and dive skills. After completing all requirements, which included a night dive, a deep dive (writing your name backwards at 100 feet is not as easy as it seems), navigation dives (which way is North?), a wreck dive (Lorraine don’t forget about the lionfish!), and a boat dive (back rolling into the water can be fun and entertaining!) all four dives should be congratulated on their success in obtaining their advanced certification. Bravo, well done!

With the closing of Johnny Canoe’s, our favorite local hot spot, we had an extra night open so most of the group took advantage of doing a night dive on the Willaurie Wreck. It was, perhaps one of the best night dives I have done in the Bahamas. Stuart Cove’s staff provided the group with a delicious buffet, complete with linen table cloths prior to the night dive and a wonderful chocolate mousse for desert. The dive was on the Willaurie, a freighter that has been down for over 20 years. We saw incredible coral polyps, huge basket stars, and hundreds of trumpet fish covering the wreck.

Topside, the group enjoyed such popular eateries as Capriccio’s, Café Matisse, and Luciano’s.

But perhaps the highlight of the trip was the off-island excursion to Exuma. This year, the weather Gods were with us. We left Stuart Cove’s at the un-godly hour of 7:30 am for a two hour boat ride to Exuma. But everyone will agree the ride was well worth it! The walls are very Caymanesque, with swim throughs and sheer drops, unlike the walls we were used to on New Providence Island. Our first dive produced a number of spotted eagle rays to the delight of most of the divers (I had to wait until I saw the pictures).

A trip to Exuma without a stop at Allan Cay to interact with the local iguana population would almost be criminal. Needless to say, everyone found them to be quite entertaining.

Our stop at Saddleback Cay for lunch almost provoked a mutiny when most of the group did not want to leave. However, we did manage to convince them to do a terrific drift dive as our last dive of the day before our two hour ride back to Nassau.

The ride back was not disappointing, what with the advance planning of Don Drew and his cohorts, iced Kaliks were available for those thirsty for a cold adult beverage. As an additional treat, fresh conch salad made from conch caught by Thomas and prepared by Janine (our photographer), was beautifully served by Vivian (our divemaster).

Needless to say, it was a long day with three dives, long boat trips and fun in the sun! However, the three other days of diving with sharks, walls, wrecks, and Hollywood movie sets were nothing short of sensational.

Our last night in Nassau was the traditional barbecue at Orange Hill followed by a get- together in the bar with the Stuart Cove dive staff for a final goodbye.

Jeff and Donna

Bob

Bobby G

Kalik Time

Chow Time

J-1 and J-2

Jess and Deb

Lion Fish with Spotted Eel

Paul and Kevin

Bobby and His Babes

Allan Cay

Vivian and Peter

The Sea Viking

Lorraine with Fin

We are OK!

Katie and Maureen

Jessica Katz

This weekend was the finalization of the Scuba Kids Camp performed by Gary Woods and Ed Hayes.  There were 7 kids total for the week long camp.  The kids stayed busy performing confined water skills, listening to lecture, and completing the PADI Open Water Scuba Diver Course.

The week was long, exciting, tiring & rewarding!  Everyone persevered and kept their spirits high.  In the end all received certifications for Jr. Scuba Diver, Jr. Open water Diver, Scuba Diver and Open water Diver.

Ed and Gary could not make it for the checkout weekend, but the kids wanted to make sure and tell them a big “Thank You” for all the hard work and time They spent together.  They  truly enjoyed the “Scuba Camp”!

Kayla & Kyla

Carter & Trevor

Gearing Up

Jacob doing a “giant stride”

Kyla doing a “figure 4″

Report by Sheri Sawallich:

Led by Dennis Bosse, a bunch of us got together and headed to Stonington for a night dive. We had a nice cookout while we watched the beautiful sunset that was accompanied by a rainbow. We dipped in around 8:45pm. The first thing I noticed was all the new life that has grown. It was a beautiful dive. We met many new friends, families of lobsters, a sleeping striped bass, eels and many other types of fish.

Thanks to everyone who brought all the great food and fun. A special shout out to Dennis Bosse who did a great job putting it together for everyone!

If you have a chance I recommend you checking this site out.

Sunset

Our Leader, Instructor Dennis

Cookout Scene

Bill and Dave

This past weekend a bunch of us set out to dive off of the Gauntlet, with North Atlantic Dive Expeditions. For the morning dive George, Meredith and I dove the wreck of the Baleen in 170′ of water.

Here is Meredith’s report from the NE-UE Forum

“Chris S, George B and myself visited the wreck of the Baleen from Northern Atlantic Dive Expeditions “Gauntlet” on Saturday, June 21, 2008.

The Wreck
The Baleen is a tug boat that sank in 1975 when a fire broke out on board. It is located off of Hull, MA (near Boston). While on site, the skyline of Boston is visible on the horizon. The tug is about 110′ long and is rather intact, although many artifacts have been recovered from the wreck site. It is upright, with a ~30deg list to starboard with about 20′ depth difference between the starboard rail and the top of the wheelhouse/stacks. The wreck is beautifully decorated with blankets of frilled anemone, northern red anemone, flounder and other fish. The barge that was under tow at the time of the sinking was cut loose and did not sink. More information on the wreck can be found here.

The Day
We arrived at Gauntlet’s summer slip bright and early and were off into calm seas and bright sunshine.(yet again the absence of Chris Ware means we were blessed with a great day) The Gaunlet is well set up and had plenty of room for 6+ divers worth of technical gear. 45 minutes later we arrived on site and picked up the mooring. The boys harassed me about the She-P and Capt Heather splashed in and did a dive while we geared up.

The Dive
When we could see the strobe Heather had placed on the mooring line from 110′ we knew we were in for a good dive! Almost no current at depth, 20-30′ of visibility and just enough ambient light. We were diving right after low tide so the vis was amazing. Having only done a few tech dives off Boston, I’m amazed at the amount of life on the wreck. Beautiful blankets of frilled anemone, sculpin, massive flounders, a beautiful northern red anemone and tons of red fish I can’t identify. The color was amazing. The mooring was tied to the port stern, we swam around the port side to the bow, then down the starboard side, then back forward over the stacks while George got some video inside the wheelhouse area. There area are enough opennings in the wreck that you can get some great views with your teammates lights coming through the wreck from different angles. We checked out the tow winch on the stern and then boggied out. Max 157′, 23 mins bottom, average bottom depth 144′, 45deg on bottom.

The Deco
We had a blast on this deco. I think I actually saw George smile. We were buzzed by a dog fish at 60′ but George’s reaction had Chris and I thinking there was a great white behind us. This then degraded into a underwater conversation between the boys about whose was bigger. Quite humorous to watch and needless to say, deco flew by. I also now know why GUE-training has disallowed using the middle-finger to indicate some thing’s broken… cause otherwise we had a lot of “failures” on deco. Yes, you can communicate to your buddies that the stop is 3 minutes by flipping them off three times.
35 minutes of deco total. Water started warming into the low fifties around 60-70′ and into the low sixties around 20′. visibility got worse the warmer the water got. Only a slight current on ascent. At our 20′ stop, we were passed by Capt Dave and another diver heading down for their look. Calm seas means that we got to do some nice, relaxed surface deco, before climbing the BEST LADDER north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Beautiful day, thanks to Heather & Dave and Scott T for the assistance and tons of fun. Y’all need to come out and experience this!

Thanks to George for arranging this day of NEUE fun dives. There are still some spots on the Aug 9th NEUE tech dive from the Gauntlet.”

For the Afternoon trip, Meredith left us, and George and I were joined by Sheri, Christine, Mike and Lucille, for a recreation trip to the Chester Poling.

Here is a quote from Sheri’s report on the NE-UE Forum:

What an afternoon it was! We had the best weather conditions to go along with a great boat which included fun entertainment by Heather, Dave and Scott as well as a fun group of divers! The vis was awesome and virtually no current. First to jump in was Mike and Lucille, smiling as always! Christine and I went next followed by our hubbies, George and Chris who met us on the way down. We hit the deck and immediately went to search for the big bad wolf. He was found right under the break of the boat. He was huge. Had a head the size of mine! (I’m sure as this post continues he’ll be as big as a whale shark! Just wait for the video to judge for yourself as George had his video camera on hand for us all to be able to watch him again. ) Just amazing to look at that big blue monster with giant teeth. Next came a nice surprise for me, a dog fish shark, which I had been trying to see every time I dive the Poling as I heard they were around. He was found right in the break of the boat. It was a double blast of fun right off the bat. There were many, many Flounder. I think we actually found a whole family. Great dive, tons of life. Christine and I left the smelly boys to explore on our own where we found the mommy Flounder on the top deck! We had a nice casual ascent and met Mike and Lucille back on the boat smiling again! They were doing a surface interval so they could dip in again.

Great day, great people!!!!!!

Thanks George for coordinating our fun day!

July 6th we will be departing from Snug Harbor in RI aboard “Canned Air” with Captain Wayne Gordon.

Last year we visited the Neptune and the Teti and weather permitting we will do it again. There are 6 spots on the boat, call the shop or stop in to reserve your spot.