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2008 Cat Ppalu “Cat Girls” Trip

Fri. June 6,2008- I met up at the airport with 6 other ladies going on the trip (there where 5 others who we met up with in Nassau)- Rena Schleter (trip organizer), Karen Stenstrom, Barb Brown, Beth Taylor, Terri Cheviar & Trena Fichter. We caught our flight & after a bit of a layover in Chicago, we landed in Nassau about 6pm EST. We met up with the others- Vicki White & her 2 daughters Maria & .There was also Lisa Stephens & Debra Burke. By the time we got to the resort we were staying at it was suppertime. We went to a nearby bar & grill & had a good meal. Afterward ½ went on to the Atlantis Resort & the rest (including myself) went back to our rooms & to bed, worn out.

Sat. June7, 2008- Woke up early, got dressed & went to breakfast served at the resort. Met up with Trena & we decided to go on to Atlantis & play at the water park & aquarium. Did a couple slides (no, I didn’t do the big one seen on TV, I’m afraid of heights) & Periodically ran into others in the group & everyone met at 11:00 to catch a taxi & go on to the boat. Once on the boat, we unpacked & the crew took our unused luggage & stored it. The crew Consisted of Des Greyling (captain), Ronnie Wakefield (Engineer/ Captain- in- training)- I had Ronnie as a captain a couple of years ago on a diving sailboat, good to see him again, Stephanie Tester (Dive Master) & Kelsey Grant (cook). We also set up out gear in our assigned spots on the dive deck. Once settled, we ate lunch & the boat launched. In a couple of hours & a couple of safety briefings, we arrived at our first dive site Called Captain Jack’s Reef. It was a shallow, tune- up dive with a maximum depth of 15ft. & bottom time of 50 min. I dove with Vicki & her two daughters on that dive. It was a good dive, but nothing special. After the dive we relaxed for the rest of the day.

Sun. June 8, 2008- We got up at 7:00am & ate a good breakfast. Our first dive was Closemon Reef. Another shallow dive with a maximum of 21ft & a bottom time of 71 min. I was with Vicki & her daughters again. Not too bad a dive. Was getting my buoyancy down pat. Got caught in a current after missing the marker to find the boat, low on air & wound up running out trying to get back (I was just below the surface). Wound up having to get a ride back in the dinghy (how embarrassing). The second dive was on Flatrock Reef. The maximum depth was 21ft with a bottom time of 39 min. Trena flooded her camera on this dive, so I let her use mine for the rest of the week (same camera, different strobe) to learn how it works. Also a nice reef. We ate lunch & most everyone went ashore to feed the lizards of Allen’s Caye. I wasn’t feeling very good (headache) & so took a nap instead. Our third dive was Pillar Wall. I went with Rena & Karen because I wanted to do some deep diving. I had a maximum depth of 98ft with a bottom time of 37 min. After that dive we ate supper & motored back to Flatrock Reef for a dusk/ night dive. Very cool to see the day critters go to bed & the night critters to come out. I used my 10 watt HID canister light for the first time & was it bright!!! That dive was a maximum depth of 21 ft for 51 min.

Mon. June 9, 2008- Arose again at 7:00 & ate breakfast. The first dive was Blacktip Wall. I dove with Rena & Karen again because I wanted to go deep again. I decided to take my canister light with me & a good thing I did. I was able to peer up under ledges & crevices & see some really cool things. I did a maximum depth of 92ft & a bottom time of 29 minutes. Saw lots of lionfishes. They seem to be everywhere now & are not native to the Caribbean. The second morning dive was the Washing Machine. It’s a little hard to explain. It’s a trench in a narrow channel between 2 islands. When the tides are right, it sets up a strong spiraling current that’s a blast to ride. We went through the current & followed the continuing current as it slowly lessened in intensity. You just drift along with the current, no effort at all. The dive was a maximum depth of 55ft for 45min. That afternoon we stopped at a station in the Exuma Water Reserve Park & I got a t-shirt & hand fed wild finches some sugar from my hand & we reserved the beach & fire pit for a bonfire the next evening. After lunch, we made our third dive of the day on Cracked Head Reef. I had a maximum depth of 71ft for 30 min. Nice dive again. After supper, we made another night dive on ParrotFish Reef. Very cool dive with lots of critters around to see. Did see a HUGE sea turtle swim by. Maximum depth of 21ft for 75 min. ( a record time).

Sorry about the downer all, but I just need to talk about this. Just got some very bad news yesterday. My canine companion, Raven, of 4yrs has terminal Lymphoma (cancer of the lymph nodes). It has advanced enough that the vet sees no reason to do chemo (plus the nearest place to do it is 3-4 hrs away). To be honest,... I've already broken down a few times since getting the news. It all started about 5 weeks ago when she just wasn't acting right. I checked her over (I'm a former Vet Tech) & found her lymph nodes under her jaws to be very swollen. I took her to the vet & he decided to treat it as an infection to start. She was on antibiotics for about 3 weeks. The glands seemed to be responding some, but not fully. As soon as the antibiotics were finished, the glands started growing again. The vet told me to give it a week & see what happened,.... nothing but more growth. He took a biopsy of one of the lymph nodes late last week & set it to the Veterinary lab & got the results back yesterday. He said the lymphoma was in very advanced stages & that the end will not be very far off. Right now, we are just managing the pain to keep her as comfortable as we can.

I've had Raven since she was a 4 week old puppy. She's had a long history of medical problems from severe separation anxiety that caused her to eat rocks foreign objects periodically (2 of which needed to be removed from her gut surgically)- I had to put her on a version of "Puppy Prozac" for the separation anxiety , to a heart worm infection (I gave her preventative religiously- it was found out I had gotten a bad lot of preventative), to now this. She's always been a very "clingy" dog that would stay glued to me 27/7 if she could. She has the sweetest temperament, but can be a pain at times with her constant need of attention. Shes also super smart (as most Labs are) & her antics could be very amusing & entertaining. Being single & living alone, she's been a great companion to come home to. I was great to be the ultimate hero in her world, when I walked through the door after a long day at work. Right now I just can't imagine the household with out her. I also have a cat & bird, so I won't be totally alone, but it just won't be the same. I look at her right now, & except for the swellings around her body, there are no real signs of her condition. Her body is failing, but she still has so much puppy (life) in her. You pick up a ball, and she's ready to play fetch in a heartbeat, she still chases birds out of her back yard. Being one of my "babies" she is spoiled rotten, of course.

4 yrs. just doesn't seem long enough to have a companion. But then, we are only lent these pets for a short time. I believe they are sent to us to be example of how to love others unconditionally.

A great day of diving, to say the least. I can not believe how high the water has risen at the quarry , since I was last there. The highest water temp I saw was 55 degrees, so, it's still quite chilly. When I arrived at Pennyroyal & checked in, I had no diving buddy so waited to see if any prospects showed up. After a few minutes I ran into Stan & Marvin from my LDS. I asked if I could tag along with them. At first Stan was a little reluctant to agree because it was to be Marvin's first time in doubles & that they would probably stay shallow, depending on how Marvin did. I told them I would stay out of the way & just wanted to get in a dive or 2. After a minute Stan thought about it & decided in might be good to have another pair of eyes to keep an eye on Marvin in case he got distracted.

Dive 1.- Max depth: 28ft , Dive time 42 min., Avg. Water temp.51 degrees, Vis about 2- 30ft. We dropped down onto the suspended platform & hung out there for about 15 min to allow Marvin time to adjust to his doubles. As he did that I just hovered right off the platform & worked on my buoyancy control in my doubles. I was able to keep myself between 23 & 25 ft the entire time (I was quite proud of myself on that one). Once Marvin got his bearings & started to feel a little comfortable we took off at about 25ft along the wall towards the shallow end. I was in the lead then, Marvin & then Stan. We made our way to the shallow platform just off the old parking lot ledge to give Marvin a bit of a break. We then toured around going to the helicopter, bus & such, then back to the shallow platform. Marvin started having some issues with his wing ( he had actually rolled his left post valve off when messing around & rolled over on his back, thus cutting off his BC inflater hose). He actually did quite well as he had a secondary bladder & inflater hooked to his primary regulator. At that point we decided to end the dive & we headed back to shore.

Dive 2.- Max. depth 84ft, dive time 28 min., Avg. water temp. 45 degrees, vis about 30ft (a couple of places on the road from the deep had 0 vis where someone had stirred the bottom up). On this dive we once again, we went down to the suspended platform again to give Marvin a little more time to adjust. He seemed quite comfortable, so we descended down the deco ladder to the Blue Dolphin. We then proceeded with going up the road. Marvin was in the lead, then Stan, then myself, bringing up the rear. We made our way to the fire truck & then up over the ledge. As I came over the ledge, I suddenly became very buoyant. I dumped the air in my wing, to no avail. At that point I figured out it was my drysuit, but I didn't know why. I was trying to dump the air but it seemed I couldn't. I had to flair out to slow my ascent. At least it was only from 25ft at that point. When I reached the surface, my suit was like the "Stay Puff Marshmallow Man". My inflater had not stuck, but I had found my exhaust valve had some how gotten shut off. I usually leave it in automatic dump mode (least resistance). So I opened it back up, dumped the air & went back down. About that time, Stan realized I was missing & started to look for me. I dropped down behind him & it took me a couple of minutes to get his attention that I was back. We decided we'd had enough & made our way back along the wall towards the tables. As we got to the end, I got light again (this time due to my tanks being at 1200lbs. (I just needed about 2 more lbs to be perfectly weighted).

The boat sinking (or not,... in this case). About 3pm there were about 7 of us going to do the sinking. (Stan, Marvin, me & a few guys from the quarry). We spent the next 3 hrs filling lift drums & trying to get the boat off the old parking lot ledge. After getting it off, we freed it from the barrels & it sank up to the roof, but no further. We were all too tired to to do any more (I was beginning to get cramps in my legs). So, we tied the boat up where it was & they will eventually put some rocks in it to sink it.

While at work on & on my late, 4 am coffee break, there was 2 sudden jolts & then shaking for about 30 sec. We were really "shaking" this morning. By initial reports it was centered about 60 mi. N.E. of my hometown of Owensboro, KY & measured about 5.4 on the Richter scale. What a way to start (or in my case, end) a day. All is OK here, no real damage reported.

Well I got signed up to take an Open Water Scuba Instructor course today.  Normally the head instructor will make a Dive Con wait a year before movoing on (I've been a Dive Con for 6 mos, but have been very active with classes), but because of having rouble with getting insructors to take smaller classes, he said he would make an exception for me to go ahead. Right now I'm feeling a whole gambit of emotions form excitement, anticipation, jitters, even some trepidation. Wish me luck, here I go,....

Next week I'll be going with my LDS to Vortex Springs, FL to assist some instructors with some OW students with their OW check out dives. I haven't done much in the way of assisting with the checkout dives (did my internship at the very end of the season at home), so I'm excited. Plus it'll be a change form the murky old quarries I typically dive. The day after the OW checkout dives, most of us are going to do some Gulf diving, then back home).

I can't believe it, this last weekend we had almost 10" of snow on the ground, now it's 67 degrees. How odd, when you think about it, but then the saying around here is "if you don't like the weather, hang around for a bit, it will change". Hopefully spring is here & here to stay.

Went to the local quarry for a day of cold water diving....And it was cold! The air temperature was 30 degrees F (-1.1 degrees C), the water was 43 degrees F (6.1degrees C). During the winter time the quarry mandates that there must be a minimum of 4 divers to open the quarry. Well I got together 2 other divers form a local club & was contacted on another diver's forum by a lady diver who wanted to join us...... OK, no problem with that, that will give us our 4 divers. We all arrive at the quarry & after chatting for a while, we finally got our gear together & prepared to dive. The three of us form the local club were drysuit diving & the lady who joined us was wetsuit diving. We all got into the water & the plan was to swim along a wall over a deep portion & join up at the shallow end on a training platform. Well, vis was horrible in the shallows (less than 10ft (3.1m)),  I dropped down about 15 ft (4.6m) & swam towards the platform,  I lost the wall & being much more dominant on one leg & with no compass, strayed off a bit. After a couple minutes I surfaced & corrected course, but saw bubbles away from where the meeting place was agreed to. Thinking everyone else had gotten tire of waiting on me (I was diving doubles &  not moving real fast), I went to the bubbles & found our lady diver by herself. The others saw our bubbles & joined us & we surfaced to decide the actual dive. Well,.. one of the guys had to head back to shore with multiple equipment issues & didn't feel comfortable with the dive & decided to call it for himself. Well, also at that time the lady decided to say that she was going to solo dive. The quarry has a  policy about solo diving that you must have solo diving certification & a dive plan submitted. The lady had said she planned on doing this when she first contacted me, but I told her of the policy & she then changed her tune that she would hang with us..... that's cool. She then proceeds to submerge & do her dive,..... OKAAAAY. So.... now it is just the other diver & myself. We decided to go along the deep all on the bottom. We toured all the attractions & messed around a bit with a max depth of 98ft (29.9m) & a bottom time of 51 minutes. All in all a great dive. When we returned we explained to the lady, we didn't appreciate the change in her plans after telling me she was going to hang out with us on the board. Well the quarry owner saw what happened & questioned us & we told them what went down. Looks like this diver will now be on a watch list. With the exception of our wayward diver, it was a fantastic dive & I got to practice some basic skills in my doubles & did OK with it.

Well,... my instructor talked me into signing up for a cavern course, saying that, although tough, it will improve my overall skills as a diver. I'm not sure when the class will take place just yet. It all depends on where it takes place. If it happens locally at the quarry, it will be June or July (gets warm). If it happens in FL, it'll be the next time the instructor goes down to teach cavern/ cave courses. Well,.... here goes, for turning to the dark side!

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