Yes, I know I've talked about this dive before, but I went up Tuesday and had two nice dives and got some interesting shots.

It started last week when an old friend called, he is also an out of work engineer and as it turns out a diver. I already have way to much in common with him, he is also an ex-submariner and a Georgia Tech graduate. He's pretty much following in my footsteps about 10 years back (poor kid).

The ocean is pretty much still trashed from the last hurricane so we went up to Lake Winni and my friend's house in Wolfboro. We did two dives, 1 hour, 30' max, 65 deg and 50 minutes, 35' max 65 degrees. Here's the pictures.

The overlook on the way.


Our assigned bass for the trip showed up quickly to escort us through the dive.


This is Jeff.


The two together.


Jeff watch for an attack.


One of the smaller bass.

Cecil, great pic's (as usual!!!)

The prefunctary Sunfish.


This is the strange sighting for the trip. This big Small Mouth has a lure stuck in his mouth. We can hope it rusts out before he starves.


As we were swimming back home, I looked back and took this shot.

The bass was like a puppy dog.

This is where we dived and the boat of the owner, it's a 1948 flat head 6 cylinder, Chris Craft. A real beauty.

LOL. Martin what do you do sit around waiting for me to post a report to get into the middle? Do you have an e-mail alert to let you know when to post?

Cecil..maybe he's the black helicopter....

Cecil Great pics -as always.

Meryl - I think you may be right about the helicopter!!!

LOL Cecil and Meryl! Cecil, great report and pics I love the shot of Jeff and the bass. In the last one of him, is he holding a reel line? OH, and they let you take dive gear on that boat? No way if it were mine! LOL! Beautiful area though. How far of a drive is it from your house?

Jack did offer to take us diving. Getting off the boat would be easy getting back on may be tough. What Jeff is holding is the line to the dive flag, an absolute requirement at this spot. Given the local Nazi Fish and Game Officer (refer to the outlaw scuba diver story). It's a one hour drive, like all the dive spots, every one is an hour away (+/- 10 minutes).

That black helicopter should have been notice enough to the Nazi F&G that you were submerged!

So do you carry the line with you so the flag is pretty much right over where you are? Is there a lot of boat activity on this lake? I know, questions questions...

Cecil great pictures as always!!

Yes a lot of boats and a lot of stupid boaters. Fresh water sailors are the worse, totally clueless. Still waiting for one of them to use the dive flag as a mooring.

Cecil, fresh water and salt water sailors fall in the same category as far as I'm concerned. All you need is the money to buy the boat and register it...that's it. When Kelly, Michael and I were diving our last dive, we kept hearing motors going by...very disturbing. When we got back on the boat I was talking to Cap Greg about it and he said that a bunch of stupid idiots kept trying to cut between the boat AND the cliff! DUH! He was blasting his horn, yelling, waving, etc. He finally got in the chase boat and stayed on the edge of the area and just kept anyone from going buy. He had a few bad stories, one where a boater ran over a couple of divers, luckily the guy pushed his wife down and the propeller hit her tank...like i said, all it takes is money...they have NO CLUE!

Looks like you guys had fun with Mr. Bass! LOL. Nice shots, again, Cecil. It looks so beautiful where you are.....a far cry from the metro NY/NJ area we are in...as I listen to the big rigs roll down the freeway as I type this.....you are a lucky fella! Carole

Great pictures Cecil. Looks like you had a great time, and thanks to you and Cynde I have also learned something new too. I didn't know about the dive flag. That's got to be a little worrying if you got wild boats roaring about up top. Annie B.

Annie, divers use them here as well, usually when you are shore diving in an area with a lot of boat traffic, and instructors use them all the time. Here are just a few...




This one is used most often here with instructors. If you take the yellow cover off it is covered with a red and white dive flag.

Diversdiscount.com

Cynde. Thanks. You must have anticipated my next question. So I guess that all dive flags are red and white like those ones, so you don't get mixed up with any other flag or marker buoy. Annie B.

Annie, you are correct! However, MOST boaters don't know what the heck the flag stands for so you still have to be very careful!

In Europe we use another flag. I'll look for a picture of it on internet and post it later this weekend!

Really Martin, is it the same colors?

Yeagh Cynde, That's what I can't understand. If you buy a boat surely you gotta learn how to drive the thing, and therefore surely you would be told of safety rules etc. i.e. hazzards. I mean when you learn to drive a car, your are told not to hit the pedestrians, for want of a better example. Annie B.

Martin. Thanks. I think I'll go search the web to see if I can find anything.

Annie, it is truely amazing...like I said, all it takes is the money to buy the boat and money to register it. They give you a book to *read* but by what I see, most don't bother!

That is scarey stuff. Good job you got Cap'n Greg to watch out for you.

Our dive flag looks totally different from the flag used in the states. It's the A-flag and looks like this:

That is different Martin. I'm going to have to look at my marine flag books, because that looks familiar...wonder how Kelly and I would have painted that one on our toes...maybe next time and it will really set the gals off in the nail shop! LOL!

Cynde, Like I said, it's the flag that stands for the letter A.

Thanks Martin. I searched the web, and everything I found is red and white. Annie B.

Martin, I didn't get the "A-Flag" the first time. Duh on me! I was just showing Michael and why is the "A" Flag the dive flag. What is the word for diver in Dutch?

Like Martin says, we use the blue & white A-Flag on this side of the pond. But it makes no difference whether it's red & white or blue & white. For all the good it's likely to do us we may as well have an inflateable stick of celery up there, because as you've already suggested, very few non-diving boat owners have a clue what either flag means.
I'm not too sure about the "you are told not to hit the pedestrians" example, Annette. I mean... plenty of 'em still get knocked over don't they? . Actually I'm not sure if the clipart wink was appropriate there, eh?

Here's an amusing &, related (well ok, slightly related) tale.....

I'd gone on a weekend dive trip off the Dorset (southern England) coast. The charter boat took us about 6 miles out to a wreck that I hadn't dived before, which was lying in about 30 metres (100ft). The skipper chucked the shot in (a familiar term I hope?) & we later found that it had landed on it's target, amidships. Whilst I knew my buddy, we had never dived together before. We did our checks together & rolled in. It was instantly apparent that the vis was virtually non-existent, 2ft max. We worked our way down the shotline into the gloom. At 20 meters it was pitch dark. We both had good torches but the beams reflected back off the particles in the water rendering them virtually useless. I signalled to Cyan, (yep, that really was his name) querying whether he wanted to abort the dive or carry on. He stuck his hand a few inches from my mask & pointed his thumb downwards. So, down we went. On reaching the wreck, which resembled a vast heap of rusting steel plates, rather than a ship, we tied a line to the shot & reeled out line as we groped our way about the metal maze. Within 5 minutes of our arrival, the current began to pick up & it was necessary to hold onto the wreck rather than swim above it. I tried to convince myself that I was having fun, but to be honest, it was a great relief when Cyan thrust his computer towards me showing that he was only 3 minutes from going into deco. We began to retrace our line. For a couple of minutes all went well but then came a dreadful moment .... our line came to an abrupt end! It was tied to a piece of metal, but the shot & it's welcoming line heading upwards was nowhere to be seen. Clinging to the wreck in the ever increasing current, I fumbled in the darkness to get a little air into my delayed smb. All went well, & the "sausage" rocketed to the surface. By now we had crept into deco & the normally "advisory" 3 minute stop had become compulsory. With no other choice, we made a free ascent. Like I said earlier, I hadn't dived with Cyan before, & I'm sure that his thoughts were similar to mine, which were ... "Is he going to shoot for the surface?" But no,the fears were unfounded. The stop went well & we surfaced to find not one, but two boats waiting for us. On the boat we didn't recognise was an extremely embarrassed instructor. He explained that he hadn't known the area so had followed our boat out to the wreck & used its shotline to take his student on a deep dive for his "Advanced" qualification. The student had become entangled in our line & the instructor had been forced to cut our line to free him. Unable to find the piece he'd cut which ran back to the shot, he decided that tying it onto a piece the wreck was the best he could do.
Needless to say, it cost him a few beers. Maybe you share my thoughts? Why couldn't he have tied his own line to ours & left us to bring his reel up with us when we came across it?
Ah well, I guess it was a good dive because we all made it home again, but I have to admit that I've worried myself a little since then, by finding that I can't stop myself taking two reels with me when I dive in "home" waters.

Andy, what a story...and you do tell them very well. I assume since the vis was so low, that the instructor decided to have his student do the drills at the shot line...and thus become entangled in your line? I have to say that is a very unnerving story to say the least...but hey, thanks for sharing

I get the shutters just reading that story. Now I know why I generally avoid open water wreck dives. Yes, the instructor should have thought of you guys. In his defense he was probably already stessed by the tangeled diver.

We're going to do a deep dive tomorrow. The wall at a local lake, it's said to be 85' to the bottom. We've never made it to the bottom, two reasons, one the best stuff (fish) is at 20'-30' and two the thermoclines are unbelievable. We're going tomorrow in the full 7mm suits and hopefully can ignore the thermoclines. We'll probably spike down take a look around and come back up shallow to see the good stuff.

Andy. Thanks for sharing your story with us, and thank goodness that you did make it home safely. Scarey stuff. Annie B.

Cecil. Here I go again. I looked up thermocline on the web. I expect this means that when you hit the cold water it will be very cold?? It also talks about the movement of the water, but I didn't understand that bit. Annie B.

Diver in Dutch is Duiker, so not 1 A in the word, dunno why it's the A-flag.

Andy, great story, I'm glad you came out OK...

Annie, Termocline is a layer between the warmer water at the surface and the colder water below. You actualy can see it sometimes.

Andy! I can hear the music in the background.....so many stories...so little time....
Upsetting indeed! This is why I dive in the Caribbean...I have tried diving off the coast of New Jersey...the claustraphobia is too much..I need much more than 3 feet in front of me to feel comfortable....
Cecil...have to give ya the high five on your dives...just not my kind of diving....(I fall within the sissy pants divers group..but on occasion...can surprise even myself.)
Andy...can ya replay the "sausage rocketing to the surface" part again...I haven't fallen asleep yet....

Martin...Duiker...ok, that theory doesn't hold! LOL! Annie, yes, thermoclines can be many too. The last couple of weekends diving there have been thermoclines from 54F all the way up to 68F...and yes, we could see these the temperature change was so drastic! Odd thing was that it was 60F at 30 feet in some spots, and 64F at 40 feet...it was certainly interesting...when it is cold you "search" for warmer water! LOL!

Martin and Cynde. Thanks. That explains the experiment they describe on the net. I may do that tomorrow just to observe what happens to the water. Don'tcha just love having a non diver amongst you who aks nothing but questions. LOL. Annie B.

we love you Annie! You keep us on our toes

Thanks Cynde. I do like to understand what you guys go through under the water, and this helps a lot. I find it very interesting.

I read Andy's profile and saw this:-

Here I go again.

Level of Dive Certifications: IANTD Advanced Nitrox

I thought that Nitrox was what my nephews put in their cars to make 'em go super duper faster. Maybe the fellas know what I am talking about here. Gonna search the web agin. Annie B.

Blimey. All I can find is this. LOL.

Nitrox Virility Formula

http://marigarden.com/

Guess I better go to bed, and try again tomorrow.

Annie, when divers talk about nitrox they mean compressed air with more oxygen, thats why they call it nitrox. It helps with reducing the problems with decompression sickness and allow for longer bottom times. It's also called geezer gas as it also helps reduce fatigue after diving. When auto people talk about nitrox they mean nitrous oxide which is used to boost horsepower in an engine when injected.

Thanks Cecil for both explanations. I knew one of you guys out there would help me out with that. I get a bit mixed up sometimes. Maybe it's a blonde thing. LOL. Annie B.

Annie, Nitrox is also known as "enriched air". It has a number of benefits, as Cecil mentions -- but it also has negatives. Oxygen itself, in the right circumstances, is actually toxic to the human body. Normal room air is 21% oxygen, and becomes toxic at the pressures found down around (I think) 200 feet deep or more. That's why deep-deep divers need special air mixes, and can't do it on straight air. 31-32% oxygen (normal air with extra oxygen mixed in to bring it up to 31-32%) gives you a max depth of about 100-110 feet before you have to start worrying about oxygen toxicity, and if I remember my nitrox training correctly, 36% lets you go down to about 90 feet safely. There are a lot of other factors that also figure in, including whether or not you've done multiple dives that day (the effect is cumulative). This is why nitrox training is vital before diving with anything other than plain old air!

But the fact that, with 32% nitrox, I can do a boat dive to 90 feet and stay there for more than a minute or two, makes it well worth the extra training! Nitrox's best feature (IMHO), and the only one the Nitrox training says really exists, is the extended bottom time. There are several boat dives up here in New England that I'd never done until we got nitrox certified, just because it wasn't worth going down the line, spending 2 or 3 minutes there and then making my way back up to the surface. Shore diving to 90 feet isn't that big a deal -- pop down, look around for a minute or two, then start coming back up the reef, with lots to look at. But there's precious little to look at when the only things to be found between the surface and 80 feet are you and your boat's anchor line -- makes for very short dives!

Faith

Annie, Faith eludes to it in her post, but in order to get a nitrox fill on your tank (which is clearly marked Nitrox) you have to get a Nitrox certification

Thank you Faith. That helps me understand a little more about it now. If it hadn't been for my nephews putting the nitrous oxide in their cars, (which they also have to have a certificate for}, I would never have thought to ask about the nitrox in the air tanks.

Thank you too Cynde. Annie B.

Sadly Annie, everything that the few helpful souls above have told you is true.

Like you, when I first saw the course advertised I didn't know what it meant & my search turned up exactly the same result as yours .... "Verility Formula".
Of course, I signed up instantly & figured that I might as well go for the "Advanced" version, which I reckoned had to be worth the extra few bucks, as things hadn't been so good in that department lately.
Now, some five years after completing the course, Marcia (her indoors) reports no noticeable improvements, but says that she is grateful that at least I can now spend longer underwater.

Ooops, I meant "Virility".
Thank goodness that Darryl isn't looking in!

LOL Andy.