20 replies to this topic

[BradfordNC]

ok, we got ambushed by the weather.

it was raining lightly Thursday night, but had stopped by midnight when Vanessa pulled in. the sky was even clearing up, and Dale and I were sure that at least fridays dives would go.

the 5am knock on the door was Bobby telling Kamala to stay in bed to await "the word"

looking outside, rain pouring down, lighting hitting around us, tornado warnings for our area. Vanessa's car about got washed away. lol


the weather cleared by 8

if it had just been Bonnie, we might have been able to dive that afternoon, and the rest of the weekend would be alright, but Chuckie was following, so the weekend was scrubbed.

not to be outdone by the weather, a small band of us did some diving anyway.

Kamala, Walter, Vanessa, Dale and I headed inland to Fantasy Lake in Rolesville NC so that at least we could all get a dive in together.

do here is the dive report. lol

location: Fantasy Lake (Quarry), Rolesville NC
Viz: hmmmm about 10 feet, unless you went under the thermocline, in which case the vis improved, but i don't know how much, cause i didn't stay long.
water temp: 74, unless you went below the thermocline, which i did only to confirm that, "yup, its cold"
Depth: mostly around 35 feet, the brave ones did excursions to 50 feet.
Dive Time: 61 minutes. it was the long tour of the quarry, saw pretty much everything there was to see.

oh yeah, and Walter and Kamala experiment with their new DPVs.

which brings up another thing. i've heard a lot of trash talking about Mares Volo fins, and how they are so weak, they won't work in a rescue situation, because you would never be able to tow anyone. well, not only CAN you tow someone, you can tow them with so little effort, you won't even realize your towing them. lol

Kamala, Walter and Vanessa attempted to continue the dive tour to Lake Rawlings VA, but the weather is just hitting too hard, and looks like the diving is over for the weekend. but the SD group did get at least one dive in amongst friends.

Kamala, Walter and Vanessa are still traveling at the moment, so they need to stay safe while on the road, and hopefully Walter can head home soon (for those who don't know, his area of Florida was evacuated due to the storm)

Note: Merged from the NC or Bust thread in the Where are those dang admins! -ww

[canuckdiver]

Glad to hear you guys are ok.

Stay safe and keep us posted!

(BTW, Walter, you lucky dog )

[Bubble2Bubble]

I dont worry to much about WW as I write this I can see her on a surfboard wearing double's yelling

You call this a Storm ? here I am come and get meeee Ah Ha Ha you cant sink this surfboard !!!!

But the others has anybody heard anything ?

Wish we could have a roll call from members on the east coast.


B2B

[DandyDon]

Got a short note from her this afternoon, and saw this from
Walter on the trip thread - which could be a more logical place for your question, perhaps?

[WreckWench]

Yes he is a lucky dawg! But like all dawgs he is lying like a rug. He t’weren’t no good in the middle so we kicked him to the side! Now he done good on the side so we let him stay there! Course my little sistuh aka Wreck Goddess is laughing and stuff… but don’t have nothing to do with Walter…at least I don’t think it does??? She will post here soon after me so I’ll let her tell ya! Now I found out that Walter don’t share real well…but there is two of us and only one of him…I bet he’ll look like Ft. Myers when he gets home…in fact, Ft Myers will probably look better!

As for surviving the storm…we done good! After finishing our dives at Fantasy Lake yesterday we put Brad aka BradfordNC and Dale aka Wreck Maniac on the road and Walter, Vanessa aka WreckGoddess and I decided to hole up in a hotel and weather the storm. We got some grub and watched the storm track all night…calling friends and returning calls to friends and family up and down the coast!

So 18 of us started this adventure coming from all over the map but unfortunately two ‘extras’ showed up…Bonnie and Charlie…changing the plans for a great weekend! We all arrived on Thursday…well most of us! We had a private group coming in from GA on a luxury motorbus but it broke down in the wee hours of Friday the 13th…so by the time they called they found out the dives had been scrubbed…I guess in this case two ‘wrongs’ do in fact make a ‘right’! I arrived to find Jerry from Winston Salem area already at the hotel and dive shop waiting for me to arrive! He is a retired law enforcement officer and he is a hoot! Shortly thereafter Dale aka Wreck Maniac arrived from Raleigh, Amy and Wade got in from VA as did Bobby from Richmond. Soon Craig aka TexasDiverDude drove in from Charlotte after flying in from Houston to visit some family first and after searching high and low for Sushi (prepared and not like we usually do on the dock fresh…) we got back to the hotel to find our surprise visitor the birthday boy aka BradfordNC had arrived! About that time Walter made it in from his LONG drive from Florida and Vanessa aka WreckGoddess arrived from her long drive from SC. (She had just returned from a trip to Cancun and wasn’t ready to end her diving!)

We started the trip as we do every NC trip with tired goodnights and the promise of exceptional diving in the morning…the REALLY early morning! We’d had dinner with some great guys and gals that were here filming the U-352 for a movie they were making. Yep these were the same guys who found us at SeaSpace and wanted to use our boat in their movie…it was finally happening! They were ending up 3 days of over 100ft of vis except for the sub…she only had about 50ft of vis on her which was exactly what the film makers needed to create the eerie and mysterious effects they needed for their film…www.WolfPackTheMovie.com to be released in a year or so! And YES SD is working on early film viewing rights when its done…and they may even finish some shots up in October with us!

The night had barely ended when the morning dawned! Only this morning was different…it was not bright nor was it what expected for this time of year…Bonnie and Charlie had arrived not only uninvited but also early…like 2-3 weeks early! Had we only had Bonnie to deal with…we’d been ok…but this time the bad guy was Charlie and we decided to end the trip early. A few of our folks that actually made it to NC headed out early but the rest of us headed out for breakfast at the local diner. We celebrated the birthday boy’s special day early…candle and all in his pancakes and then after breakfast, Walter made his favorite ‘wreck gals’ his world famous prehistoric (and soon to be debuted on SD) shark tooth necklaces. After fixing us beautiful fossilized Sand Tiger Shark teeth necklaces, we packed up and headed out to do some NC DIVING OR ELSE!!! We’d come to NC to dive and DIVE WE WOULD!

Brad, Dale, Vanessa, Walter and I headed to Raleigh to dive Fantasy Lake Scuba Park in Rolesville…just outside of Raleigh. Now this wasn’t Walter’s first NC dive…nor his first fantasy! Brad and Dale have dove NC many times and had many fantasies…. Vanessa is no newbie to NC diving but this was her first ‘Fantasy’! And me…well I’ve done lots of NC diving but I was certified in this fantasy! However this dive was more fun then most I’d had at this particular ‘fantasy’ as the company was wonderful and the dive was almost as much fun! (Yep we definitely needed to get wet…so we planned to dive another quarry in the area…Lake Rawlings but the storm once again cheated us out of diving!)

Saturday has been spent so far watching tv, trying to stay dry and typing out trip reports…although…rumor has it we might get a day of diving in Morehead tomorrow if we can find another spot….Vanessa and I could drive BACK to Morehead and get 2 dives in….hmmm…..what an enticement!

I guess this trip report is not complete yet….we’ll keep you posted! –Wreck Wench

[WreckGoddess]

Since Kamala and Brad did such a great job giving the trip report, I will keep it short..

To all the really cool people I met and dove with this weekend... I had a blast and I am really happy we still managed to get a dive in!

I also hope to see you all again in October!! (without any more unwanted guests coming to town)


p.s. Trigger, I thought I had dibs on those red-headed fins!

[BradfordNC]

Hey B2B...you are such a sweetie...and yes you called me RIGHT!!! I may even head back to Morehead to sneak a dive in afterall!!!

Thank you bubs for caring....we are ALL ok!! -ww

Here you can read for yourself!

we managed to get some NC wreck diving in after all.

I found a dive operator running a charter Sunday afternoon and called Kamala and Walter to see if they wanted to get a few dives in.

Walter had to head back to Florida but since Kamala didn't fly out until Monday, she signed up for the trip.

left out of Beaufort, NC (just next to Morehead) and did dives on the Papoose and the Spar.

Papoose - 40 to 50 feet of viz, very light current, tons of small fish.
Spar - 15 to 20 feet of viz, again a light current, tons of small fish, amberjack, atlantic spadefish, and barracuda.

great dives considering it was the day after a hurricane.

:-)

gotta love NC diving.

[WreckWench]

Hey gang...well the trip continued despite all kinds of weather issues and obstacles!

After getting hit by tons of rain in Raleigh and holding tight until the storm passed safely through...we decided grub was in order and hit the road to find some. Actually we planned to meet one of our new Raleigh members MarlinSpike at a local Indian venue! The food was good the company excellent! Rich aka MarlinSpike drove out to meet us and stayed awhile with us to visit and get to know each other. He was diving a tech dive the next day so could not join us on our re-venture back to Morehead city for another attempt at getting out. I heard back from his this morning.....they got stormed out inland while we made it! On the bright side...he is DEFINITELY interested in joining us for October and I'm thrilled we added him to the gang....he was very nice and fun to hang with! And now for the rest of the story....

So to add to Brad's recap...we hooked up with several of Brad's friends...both of whom were VERY interested in SingleDivers.com...in fact one of them has a sister going to college in Iowa and is an avid diver....look out Midwest...SD will never be the same!

The other one..a real cutie...was doing his first NC dives and did them like a pro....so I'm pretty positive he'll be on the Oct trip as well! Brad's hoping to make it if he is in town and he has full permission to recruit anymore of his buddies that he wants...they are not only awesome divers like Brad...but hunks as well! Yea!!! Go Brad!!!

So I fought a head cold the entire day of diving that made for interesting sensations...one of which being the feeling that I might not EVER clear my head and equalize...I found even asending as little at 5-10ft at depth required equalizing again. Darn congestion. But thanks to some diligent effort the dives went smoothly and were fun! I only wish we could have dove on the Schurz...who knows what we might have found!

However a bad day of diving STILL beats a good day of work ANYTIME!!!

I learned a very valuable lesson...I learned that fun dive trips are not necessarily where you dive nor what the conditions were. I learned that the people you are with and your attitude towards those people are far better indicators to having a great trip then being in the best diving venue with the best conditions. Here's why...I had more fun diving a fresh water quarry with Walter, Vanessa, Brad, and Dale then I could ever have imagined...I dove with Brad and several great guys who become adopted SD members and we had a ball. I spent the day in a hotel room weathering out a storm with Walter and Vanessa...and I had fun...no correction....I had LOTS OF FUN!!!

I finally get it...its about the people....the experience is not what happens and when..the experience is about HOW you accept what happens and with WHOM!!! Surround yourself with great people and no matter what happens...you'll have a good experience!

Thank you Walter, Vanessa, Brad, Dale, Bob, and Keith for helping me to learn that this weekend! -ww

Edited by WreckWench, 17 August 2004 - 08:01 AM.

[WreckGoddess]

ditto!

Glad to see you back safe and sound!

Now, with the way you talked about that Monday dive.. I am a bit bummed I missed it!!

[triggerfish]

it's ok sweetie...there's always another dive.

like in october with a boatload of wackos.

[RichardB]

Kamala, your post made me think of The Station, by Robert Hastings. Here's a copy if anyone is interested in reading.

The Station
by Robert J. Hastings
Tucked away in our subconscious minds is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long, long trip that almost spans the continent. We're traveling by passenger train, and out the windows we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hills, of biting winter and blazing summer and cavorting spring and docile fall.

But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour we will pull into the station. There sill be bands playing, and flags waving. And once we get there so many wonderful dreams will come true. So many wishes will be fulfilled and so many pieces of our lives finally will be neatly fitted together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering ... waiting, waiting, waiting, for the station.

However, sooner or later we must realize there is no one station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us.

"When we reach the station, that will be it !" we cry. Translated it means, "When I'm 18, that will be it ! When I buy a new 450 SL Mercedes Benz, that will be it ! When I put the last kid through college, that will be it ! When I have paid off the mortgage, that will be it ! When I win a promotion, that will be it ! When I reach the age of retirement, that will be it ! I shall live happily ever after !"

Unfortunately, once we get it, then it disappears. The station somehow hides itself at the end of an endless track.

"Relish the moment" is a good motto, especially when coupled with Psalm 118:24: "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." It isn't the burdens of today that drive men mad. Rather, it is regret over yesterday or fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who would rob us of today.

So, stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot oftener, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more and cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough.

[canuckdiver]

Excellent quote Richard!

[Sophia]

Hey WreckGoddess,
I love your name. It is very appropriate.

[triggerfish]

heavy stuff, man.

heavy but true (especially the ice cream part!)

[Walter]

Kamala,

That's always what it's about - people. I love to dive, and while I look for great diving, the people are always much more important. I also think that as long as you can pull it off safely, any dive is worth making.