Posted by MHK on August 10, 2001 at 12:51:47:
I juts received a copy of this trip report that was posted to another list and it srtuck a cord with me so I wanted to share it with you.. It's written by a guy named Clifford Beshers, who is from NY, but dove with Terry and I a few months back.. Anyone who is on rec.scuba will recognize his name.. And FTR, Ken Kurtis is diving with these guys tomorrow...
>Reply-To: DIRNE@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [DIRNE] Trip report -- MHK, Jeanne-II, Arundo
>
>MHK was in town for the last weekend in July. He had e-mailed me and George
>Horn to see if we wanted to dive. So we booked some spots on the Jeanne-II
>on Saturday. Udo and Nelson Baumer (nbdylan) joined us, with Udo's wife
>Ligeia and Mike brother Rob along as bubble watchers.
>
>The wreck of the day was the Arundo. Udo and I buddied on the first and
>had a nice time. Viz was about 30', no current. We saw a stonefish or
>toadfish or something that's in that family of fish that are all head and
>hide in the sand. Lots of ling. We also saw an eel, easily four feet long,
>wriggling in a hole trying to get something. The Arundo is a nice wreck,
>broken down so there are a lot of holes to look in, but with enough
>structure to enjoy as a ship as well. The big tractor tires are fun to see
>lying everywhere.
>
>I had misplaced my contact lenses so everything was a bit fuzzy visually.
>Cognitively, I wasn't much better, given the EAN29 at 115fsw we were
>breathing. I knew what to expect this time from the narcosis so I was able
>to cope with it better, but I certainly look forward to doing those dives
>on mix.
>
>During the surface interval, I heard about the other dive with Mike, George
>and Nelson. George was in the lead, dropped over a ledge and disappeared.
>Mike and Nelson looked for him without success. George said he looked for
>them as well, but he's just not used to diving with people. Mike and the
>rest of us, on the other hand, are big on the team concept. I had warned
>Mike, but too subtly as it turned out. Though I have been diving with
>George a bunch of times, by which I mean we've all gone someplace and
>gotten in the water at the same time, I've rarely actually seen him
>underwater.
>
>After some discussion about opinions on dive practices with George, Mike
>laughed and said, ``Damn. I shouldn't even be diving with you.'' After
>which we all promptly dove together again, except for Udo, who was tired
>and got a bit queasy so he backed off the second dive. The rest of us went
>down as a foursome. Our dive plan was essentially that the three guys with
>HID lights would follow George closely and make sure that he didn't get away.
>
>We had a very relaxed dive, once we discovered that George wasn't going to
>vanish. I spent a bunch of time watching some anemones blowing in the
>current. The tendrils had a lovely purple tinge. There were some huge
>mussels around. And we saw a four foot ling cod lurking in one hold.
>
>By the time we turned the dive, a current had picked up. George tried to
>lead us back to the anchor line but had trouble making progress. I suppose
>it's possible that his Zeagle BC and split fins had something to do with
>that, since I wasn't having that much trouble, hanging off his left
>shoulder, frog kicking every once in a while. Not really a controlled
>comparison of the streamlining of the different setups, but good enough for
>me. Anyway, he had the smallest tank and wanted a good reserve for the
>ascent, so we did our ascent off the line with a drifting deco, during
>which George drifted away.
>
>George wandered off during the ascent which was frustrating for me. The
>three DIR divers stuck together
>like glue. We surfaced some ways from the boat and spotted George at the
>surface also. I had a compass, so I took a bearing on the boat, we
>descended and swam back with me in the lead. On about the fifth look back,
>MHK was no longer behind me, so I ascended and found them at the surface a
>few yards away. I had missed the boat a bit to the right but had gone the
>right distance, so we had a short surface
>swim back.
>
>Once again, it was really a pleasure to dive with DIR folks (Nelson took
>Tech 1 in June.). I always knew where MHK and Nelson would be. Decisions
>were easy. Watching George drift away into the gloom was frustrating. He could
>easily have stayed with us, I think, he just chose not to. I know perfectly
>well that George dives solo all the time, but it's just so much more
>relaxing for me diving with folks who follow the same set of rules.
>
>The boat was full of people wearing all kinds of gear. The crew member who
>set the hook was wearing a weight harness that looked like regular Russian
>army issue of some years ago: Leather, with three blocks of lead on
>each side. He had a dry suit where the zipper started at the appendix, went
>up over the shoulder, around the back of the neck, then down the left side
>of the chest. Interesting design, which again I had never seen before.
>
>One guy had double tanks, complete with slobwinder (that's the only name I
>know for those things, I have no idea what the manufacturer calls them), on
>a ScubaPro Classic BC. Several back-mounted pony's with hoses routed every
>which way. The usual assortment of people covered in who knows what. And
>some divers in standard BCs that were trim and organized.
>
>One bright spot was a guy from Vancouver who was here visiting his father.
>He had asked to join us, but changed his mind and hooked up with another
>group. I got him to take a group picture with his digital camera. He asked if
>we were all from the same club, and I said sort of and explained about DIR.
>We exchanged cards, he promised to send the photos and I promised to send
>him info on how to find Miranda Alldritt, FifthD and the like.
>
>On the way back, people started telling jokes. I was tired, so my usual
>repertoire was not surfacing, but I had a good time listening to George and
>Nelson swap tales. Both of them do accents very well.
>
>The Captain stopped by at one point to tell us about the next days dive on
>the USN WY 127, a newly sunk floating motel. He said another boat had just
>finished the first dives on the wreck and they had taken ten portholes off
>of her. If we came along tomorrow, he said, and brought an 11/16" wrench,
>we might get one of our own. Nelson and I had to laugh. Since we are
>basically bird watchers of the deep, the idea of sinking portholes just so
>that people can bring them up again doesn't make much sense to us.
>
>We talked about diving again the next day, but George had a friend coming
>into town and couldn't commit, Nelson couldn't make it, but we agreed to
>talk later and see. I went home and took a little nap that lasted about
>twelve hours. If anyone dove again, they did it without me.
>
>
>Clifford Beshers