Today is my birthday. I thought of “48 is Great” when I was driving home from Florida last night. This picture is from yesterday, at Troy Springs, where I was doing a bunch of skills to wrap up the extended process of becoming certified, which we had dragged out over many weekends and over several months, as time became available for it. I ended up having done more than the required hours before really talking about becoming certified. Sometimes there was a lot of time between opportunities to dive the rebreather, which meant I had to get comfortable all over again several times. Doing it like that made it harder, but what ended up happening is that real progress, progress that sticks, was the result. I still have a lot to learn, but I am really liking the XCCR Rebreather a lot, and I’m finally enjoying diving it.
The past month, really the past year, was a whirlwind. I was tested repeatedly, physically, and emotionally. The past month I spent a lot of time working on myself, something I hadn’t bothered with in a long time. It’s a good skill to have in your back pocket because when you need to be able to call upon it, you need it ready to stand at attention and pull you through the muck. I’m not done working on myself, one never is, or one never should be at least. I got real with my emotions, started (and finished) a bunch of self-help books, some of them twice, and read over some old notes I had made when I was in previous dark territory. I went to Mass many times, I focused on my nutrition and on maintaining my workout schedule when I didn’t feel like it. I spent a lot of sleepless nights and suffered a lot, but it got better, and now I feel ok. Really, I feel great. I know I’m not done working on myself, but I see the progress and I’m thankful for it.
I’m so grateful today.
I made a wish when James and I went to have dinner for my birthday last night and I plan to make it come true.
I really like the XCCR Rebreather and I’ve decided to start training on it.
I did like the Fathom as well (when I recently did a Fathom CCR demo dive), but after thinking about things, I decided I wanted to go with an ECCR (electronic closed circuit rebreather) instead of a MCCR (manual closed circuit rebreather).
I like the XCCR for several reasons.
I like that you can see the pressure for the O2 and the diluent hard wired into the handset.
I like that it comes standard with a BOV and an ADV.
I like that it also comes with a built in place to hookup a NERD if desired.
I like that the connectors seem simpler (I’m not sure I fully grasped that weed eater cord thing, but that is possibly my fault for not understanding it.)
I like that it has a little removable tray to pull out the O2 sensors (no need to pull off the whole head, leaving the canister exposed.)
The XCCR also has a solenoid and works like a parachute to maintain po2 if / when you become taskloaded or distracted or get busy with a reel or spool or scooter or whatever. The needle valve on the Fathom was also a cool feature but I was possibly a little concerned about the potential fragility.
I already know and like Subgravity from the Bonex scooters that they also market and service
Additionally, the XCCR is CE approved, which doesn’t matter much in the USA but it would matter in some locations and I may wish to travel.
It’s also similar to the Fathom in many ways, all of which I view as positives. They both have:
Check out his website for more information. You can buy your XCCR Rebreather from him and get all of your training from him.
You will be glad you did. He’s an amazing instructor and a really cool person as well, which is an important consideration. You will need (and want) more training and mentoring as you progress and gain experience with your rebreather to be able to extend your dives. You should really like your instructor because it doesn’t end at the first certification if you want to get the most out of rebreather diving. I’m sure you will like him a lot and he is very knowledgeable.
On day 1 of training we kept the ADV on and went to Ginnie Springs Ballroom, where I mostly just hovered and swam around a little and tried to keep the PPO2 at 1.0. A few times James had me change the setpoint to 0.5 and I misunderstood why, so I at those times changed to maintaining a 0.5 PPO2, which was a fine exercise anyway so I’m glad I did that.
The second day we were at Royal Springs, which has some depth changes. He had me turn the ADV off. Breathing was more similar to the Fathom that day. I understand why you might want the ADV off now and why it is really important to learn it that way. He had me do some skills on day 2 and it was definitely more difficult as a result, but still manageable. He also had the DSV on instead of the BOV (again), so when I bailed out I went to the second stage around my neck.
I worked on:
dealing with depth changes and maintaining desired depth
closing the loop and removing it from my mouth and then exhaling the water out while I opened it back up
bailing out (I struggled a little with this because I forgot to purge the regulator and choked on water – duh, did I suddenly forget how to dive open circuit? I guess I had a lot on my mind.)
locating the valves and shutting them off and back on – I was a bit confused with the turning off the tanks and which direction to go and had to think about that for too long. I forgot that in order to see the pressure change on the computer I would have to purge (to activate) the MAVs.
locating the counterlung dump
locating the ADV and turning it off and back on (I struggled with getting it back on – it seems like I lack the finger strength on my left hand. I will have to exercise my grip with my index finger and thumb on that hand I guess.)
changing the setpoint to 0.5 when shallow and 1.0 at depth
maintaining PPO2
maintaining trim (this was not too difficult for me, surprisingly)
changing the computer from CCR to BO mode and back
ascending slowly, exhaling through my nose to control ascent
It’s a lot. It was challenging. I enjoyed it.
I am so excited about this new and wonderful journey.
I want to eventually be diving the XCCR in caves and on wrecks so I’m looking forward to learning to be safe, methodical, precise, efficient, quick and responsive, and highly aware. I want all the skills to become second nature. I want to become really good at this. It’s gonna take a while I’m sure, but I will love the process, even when it is very difficult.
Nothing awesome is ever very easy and it is always worth it.
I found a baseball in Royal Springs. It’s hard to throw a baseball underwater. It doesn’t go very far. I tried.
At Royal Springs on 2022-11-13 was my first completely successful She-P experience.
I’m so happy about it that I have to share. I had previously had some partial success and way too many complete failures, some of which involved a lot of leakage and others which had prevented me from peeing at all. The latter was extremely miserable.
Here is what I did that worked that day. This will be my new process. Hopefully it continues to be successful.
1.) This part I had already done before: apply a thin coat of adhesive a good while before and let it set. Stick it on as far back as possible without covering the wrong opening. Make sure nothing is stuck together in the back when it is halfway applied.
2.) I think this is the key part.
After I put it on, before I hooked it up, I peed like a boy and held the opening upward afterwards to keep the rest inside the tube. Then I hooked it up and made a big upside down U with the hose, making sure there were no sharp turns, and routing out of the top of the backup “adult undergarment” instead of through the side, not worrying about whether or not it went under my waist strap or not. I peed successfully again on land through it before I got in the water.
In the past I had tried to pee immediately when I got in the water and couldn’t. I think it helped to get some in the tube first. I had also probably had some sharper turns in the hose somewhere.
3.) When I got in the water, I tried to pee again, this time blowing up my drysuit and lying back first. Success again, although not a whole lot came out because not much was left.
At the end of the dive I had zero leakage and had been able to pee multiple times. I had to be pretty still to do it, but I was able to.
Yesterday was a huge win in my She-P experience. This is what I had been hoping for. Theoretically, I could have used the backup adult undergarment again as it was completely dry and I was able to go as needed during the dive. This becomes increasingly more important with longer dives, which is my hope for rebreather diving. I had maxed out around 4 hours previously, both on dive time and on peeing capacity. Maybe it is weird to talk about that so freely, but whatever. It’s important.
Take away: pee like a boy before the hook up and then also pressurize it again by peeing through it again on land once hooked up (and also try to go right when you get in the water.)
I’ve done a little sidemount diving, not much, but last weekend I did my first sidemount stage cave dives. I’ve got to build up some muscle memory because I felt like a clutz trying to reach the clips. I’m sure it will come in time. The sidemount bottle gets clipped on the back square thing instead of the D-ring. Bottom clip first, and you get to it by reaching between the regular sidemount bottle and your body and trying to find the clip. Then you clip the top clip. Sounds easy enough to explain, but it was a challenge. On one of the dives I was literally right on the clip but couldn’t get the boltsnap open over it. The O2 goes on the right side, which is also different from anything I’ve ever done. Gotta train my hands to find the stuff.
It’s a lot of carrying bottles to sidemount stage dive. Just sayin’. This isn’t even all of them. There were 3 of us, with 4 bottles each including O2.
In any case, I survived. The first day we dove at Cow. I enjoyed the dive, even though I had some difficulty getting the stage clipped back on when we got to it. I also couldn’t figure out how to stow the stage reg until a long time after we got to the O2. I had to unclip the top boltsnap to do it. I never ended up getting on the O2 because I wasted so much time doing that.
The second day was at Ginnie, a night dive. That one just wore me out. I felt like I couldn’t reach anything at all. It was exhausting and frustrating. The cave was kinda cool though. It was an area I hadn’t seen before through the lips bypass. He got a couple cool photos that thankfully do not capture the level of stress that I had at various points during the dive.
In through the eye. I ran a reel. At the lips we dropped the stages and James tied in to the gold line with a REEL and we went through the lips bypass instead of through the lips. It was a long way and we had to tilt slanted to get through and then he tied into a white line. The was a lot of flow through there. After about 100 or 150 feet and curved a little to right and then there was a T (which I didn’t see but we were going out a different way anyhow). We went left there (the key hole bypass). And after some slanted restrictions got to the end of that white line and could see the gold line and the arrow and we made the visual jump back onto the gold line which we followed back to before the keyhole and then we went to the left and bypassed the keyhole (very trust me) and we crossed over to the right and went through a bedding plane where he told me to hold while he retrieved the reel and then we exited normally.
I had my first ever CCR experience today. I did a demo dive on a Fathom CCR. I had made the decision several months ago that I was maybe interested, finally, in pursuing CCR training. Right around the same time my mind opened itself to the idea, this demo showed up as an option, so I signed up for it.
I’ve been diving since 1999 and pretty much always felt like I had no interest in diving a rebreather. One of the greatest influences I’ve known in my life had discouraged me from them during the time we were together from 1999-2004, but rebreathers have come a long way since then. There are many really great options units on the market now, with lots of safety features and options available. Rebreathers have become fairly prevalent in the modern world of diving, whereas in the late 90s and early 2000s they were not so. Simultaneously, the price and availability of helium for trimix fills has made any deeper dives on open circuit both unaffordable and also logistically impossible in many locations. These considerations brought me out of heavily indoctrinated opinions from the past and into the many reasons why, although a rebreather may not have been a good idea for me then, it is a good idea now. It is, at the very least, something I should know how to do. There are places where it just makes more sense.
I’m really just recording this journal entry as a date placeholder. I don’t have much to say about it except that I liked it way more than I expected to. Everyone warned me that it was going to be weird compared to open circut and that it definitely is. I was told that I might be all over the place, rising and falling with completely uncontrolled buoyancy. I fully expected to be pretty miserable today. I wasn’t miserable and buoyancy wasn’t really a problem in the controlled environment of the testing location where I just stayed at 20 feet the whole time. Once I realized I was able to breathe (yes, I did have to remind myself a couple times in the first minutes as I added diluent) then I enjoyed the experience quite a bit.
I spent 21 minutes on it and, although I will try something else before committing, I’m certain now that I want to have my own rebreather and get CCR certified.
I know that it is going to be very involved and in 20 minutes on a trial dive I was laser focused on only the most basic things: breathing and buoyancy, so it might seem like a quick determination, but I’m sure. I’ve been tossing the idea around in my head for a while and I just needed to not hate it to decide to move forward.
I’m excited about the whole new world of learning and exploration that is opening up before me with this decision I have made. There is so much to learn and it will be really difficult and take a lot of time to get good at it but then it will lead to so many more fun opportunities! I can’t wait to continue on my journey into the world with no bubbles, where gas supply isn’t as much a limiting factor, and dives can go on and on and on for a long time. There are so many fun things I can’t wait to see and do!
Last weekend I started sidemount training. I was highly resistant to the idea of sidemount for a long time, but have decided that it is at least a skill I want to learn. The first day was classroom stuff and gear configuration, then we did 2 days of diving in open water at Troy Springs. Due to scheduling issues, I have to do this training in spread out intervals, but it is off to a good start.
The first day of diving sidemount was 2022-07-02. I did not like it, even though apparently I was in trim.
The second day, James made a couple equipment adjustments and added 4 lbs. more weight and I felt better. He loosened the tank bungees slightly, lengthened the crotch strap a little and lengthened the wing bungee around the waist a little. The tank bungees made a huge difference and it was much easier to read my pressure gauges this way. I was significantly more comfortable. Trying to kick with a modified frog kick instead of a traditional frog kick felt weird and made it apparent how the injury I sustained from breaking my left ankle skydiving affects my kick. I’m not sure if this is fixable but I will have to be more aware of it and try. I went through a hole in the rocks a few times over and over until it felt better to me to do so. The first time I went through a duck under I had to remind myself that I was gonna fit. It was very odd. The weight was good this time but at the end of the dive, with about 1600 psi, I was slightly head down. Next time we will do 6-4-4-2 instead of 4-4-4-4 (16 lbs. total) for aluminum 80s with C4 insulation.
I guess I could say that I enjoyed it a little on the second day of diving.
This is a long post. There is just so much I want to remember.
What was an amazing weekend could have ended very differently, but it didn’t, and being alive never felt so good.
I had planned to go down to cave dive with a new buddy on Saturday and a different new buddy on Sunday and also to spend some time with a good friend for his (slightly belated) birthday.
I woke up at 5 am on Friday and drove down to High Springs, so I could pick up my dive gear from Extreme Exposure and have it in time to be at Peacock Springs when they open on Saturday, instead of having to go get it in the morning first. I worked in the library all day on my laptop and was quite productive there, so have learned that this is a perfectly reasonable option for me in the future. The internet is fast enough and it is quiet and very easy to concentrate. I will be doing this again when I need to be there for a Saturday morning. Of course, during marathon training that isn’t really an option, but right now I’m in the in between marathon and next training cycle time.
When I was done with work I met James and we had dinner at a Mexican place. Peppers Mexican Grill in Gainesville. We got the Fajitas Carnitas. They were so delicious. I could eat that all the time. As it turned out, James had a cancellation this weekend so would be available to dive with me on Saturday and Sunday. I was so excited about this! My weekend just got so much more fun!!! It’s always awesome diving with him. I cancelled my plans with my Sunday dive buddy (who I still hope to dive with someday) and would dive with James on Saturday afternoon, after my dive with my other buddy Mike on Saturday morning, and then I’d dive together again with James on Sunday morning before I headed back to Atlanta.
I met my new dive buddy Mike at Peacock Springs first thing in the morning on Saturday. It looked so peaceful with nobody there. I was looking forward to being the first ones in the cave today.
We were going to do a single stage dive, to Challenge Sink and back, via the peanut line. We spent a few minutes hanging out on a slippery rock at the surface doing some pre-dive checks and then headed off. He ran a primary reel to the peanut line, which is just under the stairs and to the left when facing the stairs. The dive went very smoothly and was super relaxing and enjoyable. We dropped the stages at 32 minutes in. When we got to Challenge, we surfaced to chat for about 10 minutes and then headed back. The way back was just as pleasant as the way in had been, even slightly moreso because the flow was assisting. It took an hour to get to Challenge but only 54 minutes to get back to Peacock. It was a lovely dive. I really enjoyed it.
After the dive I headed over to Dive Outpost to get fills and then met James at Cow. We were gonna do a longer dive than I had done in there before. I was bringing a stage and he was gonna bring another stage for me.
I got my stuff ready, carried the gear down to the water, put my doubles on and descended the steps.
Although I was holding on to the handrail, it wasn’t enough to keep me upright when I slipped on the bottom step. My light cord might have snagged one of the stage bottles that was sitting on the edge there; it wasn’t tucked in properly. I didn’t notice if it had, all that I noticed was my foot slipping beneath me, but I know that it wasn’t tucked in. I won’t do that again, I will tuck the light cord securely into my waist strap always, and I will also hold on more tightly to the handrail in the future. My feet came out from under me and I ended up on my back. I hurt my toe a little bit, but it turned out that it was not actually injured and quickly felt fine. But, now I was in a stuck position. I had managed to hold on to my fins in my left hand. My mask was still on my head, backwards, but I was hanging on to the steps and half my body was hanging off of the platform. I couldn’t move and was afraid to try. Once he realized I was not really in pain, James captured this moment, which at that point was still a bit amusing.
I was like, well, what do I do now? I am afraid to move. James came down to help me. I said wait, let me inflate my wing, so I did (a little, but not enough). I wasn’t ready for what happened next.
He slid me into the water, but I quickly sunk. I had my fins in my left hand still. Without fins, in scuba gear and especially in double 104s, it is near impossible to move around with any control, much less to flip over from your back. I was as stuck as a tortoise on land that had been flipped. I was struggling and breathing in water through my mouth and my nose. I was choking and immediately thought I need to get my backup regulator into my mouth. I found it with my right hand and put it in my mouth. I managed to get a breath, but I had already inhaled so much water and was still struggling to flip over and in the struggle attempting to breathe without a mask on. I took a bunch of water in through my nose and lost my backup regulator from my mouth. I went to locate it again, still choking. I remember so vividly wondering if I was going to drown in that moment, even though I wasn’t more than a foot or so beneath the surface. My dive computer never kicked on from it. If I hadn’t had my fins in my left hand it might have occurred to me to find my wing inflator with that hand, maybe. Who knows though, because my mind was not on my side in that moment. Reality closed in around me; time lost all meaning. I couldn’t believe what was happening as I continued to choke and tried to keep my backup regulator in my mouth as I flailed about. Then I heard James jump in and he pulled me to the deck and inflated my wing the rest of the way. As I breached the surface I began to cough and cough. He got me around to the side where there was a rock to support me. It was over. I was ok. That was the closest to drowning that I ever want to get. Thank God that he was there. I can think of many occasions when I have gone down the steps by myself, way before my buddy was ready. This whole thing could have ended very badly. The trees never looked so green as I sat there on the edge of the dock and coughed until I felt ok. I feel like I know what it would feel like to drown, to in that last moment have to give up, and that is a very scary thing to know. I see things slightly differently as a result of this experience. I will probably never go down the stairs without my mask in place again. Having it on when I entered the water unexpectedly without fins on would have made the whole situation less dire, because when I was struggling, after I found my backup regulator, I would have breathed just fine with my mask on. The first thing I said when he pulled me out of the water was that I had dropped one of my fins. Clearly my focus was on the wrong thing. That hand should have been on my inflator. Hindsight is 20/20. It’s good to be alive.
I had already been a little nervous about the dive because I had only been to Cow one time before and it has 2 tight restrictions at the entrance and then another place (called “not my fault”) where you have to go head down and then round a corner to get through. Both of those places made me very uncomfortable when I dove it before. But, I guess I got the high stress event out of the way first. It really shouldn’t be as bad as that was. I made sure to fully recover emotionally from the experience before we got in the water. Surprisingly, I felt ok after a few minutes sitting there, staring at the trees above, just being thankful to be breathing, celebrating life and friendship, glad to have not been alone for that.
I pushed my stage in front of me going in. It wasn’t easy, and I didn’t like going through the restrictions much, but I made it. The dive went well from then until I got to “not my fault”, where I got a horrible charlie horse in my left calf as I went head down. Life was not going easy on me. I stayed still while it went through the peak pain and tried to indicate to him what had happened, so he would understand why I wasn’t moving. It eventually lessened in severity and he helped me through after I stretched it for a couple minutes there in the middle of trying to get through “not my fault”. It continued to hurt for the remainder of the dive, and the next day, and a little bit the day after, but I’m ok now (almost 48 hours later). The dive was really cool otherwise. The cave is beautiful. I switched to the other stage that he was carrying for me at about 17 minutes and then switched to backgas at I think around 32 minutes or so. He took some photos, which are pretty cool. Here is my favorite one.
We turned the dive at 65 minutes. He helped me with the stage on the way back out through the restrictions, which was greatly appreciated. This dive would be much better in sidemount, and better still, I imagine, in a sidemount rebreather. But, I’m not ready yet. Sometime.
We had dinner that beautiful evening on a patio at The 406 on Duval in Live Oak, sitting on a couch and staring up at the trees and the sky. Dinner was delicious.
I’ve been friends with James, albeit somewhat distantly, for 23 years, but this year we’ve had the opportunity to get to know each other a bit better recently, mostly over text but it still counts, and it has been really awesome. I don’t have a lot of people I can really talk to about stuff and I feel really comfortable around him and I’m enjoying letting someone into my world. I had a rough time last year, losing my cat and my father, and still have the ongoing situation with my Mom and some health issues I’ve been going through, and it has been so nice to not feel completely alone through it. I know he has gone through some heartbreak recently and I hope that I can also be there for him, to let him know he isn’t alone either and that somebody cares, and to hopefully make his life a little better. We’re pretty different but we get along well. Not to mention, fun dives and stuff. Something about knowing him from so long ago makes it all so familiar and comfortable.
*****
The next day we did a single stage scooter dive at Little River.
He took this cool photo in the clear water on the way to the entrance
I was super careful walking down the steps before the dive and wore my mask walking down them, even though it really wasn’t necessary there. The steps are slippery though and I did feel my foot slide some towards the bottom step. I will always be so careful now. The water was very shallow at the bottom of the steps and a repeat of yesterday’s stuck tortoise fiasco was impossible, but falling was definitely still a risk. Regardless, I’m not taking any chances from now on with the no-mask thing. I will make it a habit to wear it down the steps, just like on a dive boat. Once I’m safely in the water if I want to take it off to chat, then fine, but let’s not forget when it fell off my head in one of the cenotes in Mexico where we popped up in the middle of the dive and Nikola had to find it for me so we could continue on. Even backwards on the head is kinda risky on the surface if there is nobody to get it for you. Once you learn something the hard way, you should apply your lesson to future experiences. I intend to. Better safe than sorry.
I had a very enjoyable dive. I love Little River. I love the twisty, turny, coppery snake like nature of it. I just think it is so cool looking. Today we went back farther than I had been before. I hadn’t been beyond the well casing before today.
We rode the scooters out to the well casing and then swam another 300 or so feet to the water source.
At about 46 minutes we turned. The flow was up. I had to click the trigger into full speed a few times, especially at the entrance to the cave. That is a really cool feature of the Bonex Subgravity Discovery RS scooter that I was riding. I love that thing; it’s quick and light, the battery lasts forever, it’s easy to adjust and maneuver and it’s so much fun! We got back out so quickly, even with the scooters dialed way back. Getting out I was very tenuous; it felt like it was just going to shoot me straight up so I went really slowly in the 40 and 30 foot range. I braced myself between two things as I relaxed for the 10 or so minutes of deco I had. The O2 felt good.
We had a little lunch and then I was on my way back to Atlanta. This weekend was a win in so many ways. I learned a valuable lesson and emerged from it safely. I feel extremely grateful to be alive and to have such a wonderful friend in my life, with whom I hope to share many more good times.
If you want to reach James for dive training, or fun guided dives with cool photos you can look him up on Facebook. He stays really busy, so book ahead.
I had a wonderful weekend. I was able to complete my 20 mile training run in more temperate weather and then I got to spend some time with a long-time friend and also do a super fun scooter cave dive.
I ran on the Suwannee River Greenway. The weather was mid 50s, breezy, sunny, and beautiful. There were adequately spaced out gas stations for the temperature so that I was able to keep my hydration bottle refilled. Marathon training persists! I will teach pigs to fly.
Sunday was a bit chilly but the good thing about that is you’re not sweating in your drysuit before the dive.
We scootered. It was super fun and so much better than swimming, especially after having run 20 miles the day before. I liked this scooter. They’ve gotten lighter since back in the day when I started with them and it was very easy to ride and to handle. It is a Bonex Discovery RS, distributed in the U.S. by Subgravity.
James showed me around some cool places in Ginnie. The next words are taken from his social media post, verbatim. “Ultimately we found ourselves at 3000′, visiting the Bone Room, Big Room, Double Domes, Hiller Tunnel and Bats along the way. Water level is up a bit from all the rains last week, so flow is down and the crowds were sparse.”
Last weekend I went to North Florida on Saturday morning and came back home on Monday night. Monday was a holiday.
On Saturday I had a nice 16 mile run in beautiful North Florida weather instead of freezing and windy Atlanta weather.
Then I got to spend some time getting to know a very cool guy a little better. High Five! 😉
On Sunday I had an amazing cave dive at Little River. The water level was up to the third step and I didn’t think the flow was too bad. We took a left jump to the Mudtunnel and then another left jump to the Shortcut, then continued left and then right in to the Florida Room.
Little River – mudtunnel and shortcut
We turned just before 1400′, at 40 minutes. I got a cool photo of the dive as well, thanks to my guide.
On Monday I had a nice early morning run and then I got to cave dive at a new place, Hart Springs – from the Black Lagoon. There is a lot of flow there and it’s a little spooky getting in, due to not much viz in the basin and dropping down into a cold fissure. The cave is beautiful though, with white walls and goethite on the bottom. We turned at 42 minutes, I think he said just before 1200′. On the way back up I noticed the alien creature on the line. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it. It made me smile.
It was an amazing weekend and was just what I needed. I’m very thankful.
I’m dating this post back to the date of my return, because I want it to have a proper timeline placement but am finally getting around to writing it in the beginning of February. (This post is currently a W.I.P. and I will remove this parenthetic comment if/when I feel I’ve completed it.)
I had a flight credit from a cancelled trip in 2020 (for Boston Marathon, sadly). I had a friend down there cave diving who had an extra bed where I could stay with him and his wife and son. He had driven from Texas and had all his cave diving gear, including scooters. It was a last minute plan; I decided to go in December. Things had been really rough and this was exactly what I needed. Plus, as it turned out, it was going to be snowing in Atlanta while I was gone. Even though things were very much still a mess, I had to get away. I would have 3 full days of diving and I would only miss 1 day of work, due to the MLK holiday on Monday. It cost me very little to go, thanks the season being over and flights being cheap at this time plus having my flight credit and the hospitality of my friend. I’m so glad I went. It was amazing.
I flew down after my run with the Atlanta Track Club In-Training Group on Saturday, leaving ATL at 4:33 PM and arriving into Cancun at 7:10 PM. Nikola picked me up at the airport. We got stuck in traffic on the way back to Puerto Aventuras, so it took a bit over 2 hours to get there. There is only one road and it was blocked off due to a bad accident. So, we had a chance to talk about plans on the ride.
Dive Day 1: Nohoch
Dive Day 2: Dos Pisos
Dive Day 3: Taak Bi Ha
DCIM100GOPROGOPR0108.JPGDCIM100GOPROGOPR0122.JPG
I really enjoyed my time there and my hosts were most gracious. I’m looking forward to the next time!
My return flight left at 8:00 AM and arrived in ATL at 10:32 AM.
My trip to San Diego and Encinitas was wonderful. It’s so beautiful out there.
on the way… Flying into SAN is such a great view coming into the airport (I was on the left side of the plane) Big ships off the coast; this is a military town. It really was a beautiful view as you go right between the buildings with the water in view at the same time. I was already in love with this place by the time II landed. My first meal there was a little taco shop across from my hotel. This whole plate of fish tacos cost me under $7, and that was including over a 25% tip I love it here — in Encinitas, California.
I brought my SCUBA gear with me so I could go diving on Sunday. I went with Marissa Charters. We were going to do 2 dives, the first on the HMCS Yukon wreck and the second on Puzzle Piece wall. Once I got to the boat and started assembling my gear I realized that my backplate, a SS Halcyon backplate that I have had for over 20 years, for some reason did not fit on the set of doubles I had rented. The holes didn’t line up. Chris, one of the crew on the boat adjusted the bands for me so that the holes would line up, but then we realized that the bolts were actually too big to fit in the holes. Actually, it was just the bottom hole that didn’t fit. Very strange, I had never had that happen before. Thankfully, there was a shop there and the crew went up to the shop and returned with a different band and bolt and they fixed the doubles for me so that my backplate would work with them.
The problems didn’t end there though. My weightbelt (not pictured) that I borrowed had 2 10lb. weights on it, since I had asked for 20 lbs because I wanted to be sure to have enough for my drysuit insulation. Anyway, those 2 10lb. weights were huge curved weights and they made my backplate stick out and I could barely tighten my harness. I need to restring it with more space. That is my O/W harness from South Florida, which was always wetsuit diving and I didn’t even need a weightbelt with the SS backplate and a primary light and a set of 80s, and I didn’t need one either for open water single tank diving, so the harness was strung to be snug for a wetsuit. I plan to restring it now so that it will accommodate both options. Fine, I did get it on but my trim was not as I prefer it to be. I can adapt to that though, so I proceeded.
When we got to the dive site of the HMCS Yukon wreck, I got fully suited but then we waited on the surface for maybe 15 minutes for the fog to clear. During this time, I started to get hot and I unzipped my drysuit and opened it at the front so I could cool off. But, apparently, when I zipped it back up I missed the last couple inches and didn’t realize. I jumped in, gave the ok and waited for my buddy to get in. Moments later I realized I was getting wet. I shrugged it off at first but it continued. I alerted the boat and they threw me out a rope and pulled me in. With all that gear on, hanging onto the boat, I wasn’t really able to deal with the zipper, but I climbed the ladder a couple steps and sat on the edge of the boat and Chris and Lora fixed it for me. Whew. That sucked. Finally though, I rolled forward into the water and the dive could begin. The water was 52 degrees, and I had gotten quite wet from the flooding, but C4 insulation really does such a good job and I didn’t get cold during the dive. Other than my trim not being optimal, I was just fine and so happy to finally be in the water doing what I love to do.
The top of the wreck sits at about 65 feet. There was very poor visibility going down the line until about 40 ft. but then it cleared up to about 25 ft. of viz. I had met a couple on the boat who had cameras and asked them if they would please take a couple photos of me on the dive. They agreed graciously and I am so thankful for that and glad that I asked. I have precious few photos of me underwater. I want more of them. Too bad I don’t have any photos of all the great stuff I got to do 20 years ago. Anyway, now I have a few photos, thanks to Martyn & Thamar. The photos they took are just from the first of the two dives. After they took the photos we went on to explore the ship and did a nice couple swim throughs.
Getting out of the water was made so much easier with the help of Chris, a very strong crew member, who assisted me up the ladder. Doubles coming back on the boat is never that much fun. Especially when they are still pretty full.
I had taken Dramamine the night before and also before the trip, but there was a little bit of a swell and during the surface interval I had to be very careful with myself, standing to the side in the breeze and keeping my eyes on the horizon. Towards the end of the surface interval I was back at the stern. I didn’t puke, but I did spit a couple times. All good. I was fine.
We switched my weight belt to one with 16 lbs. of lead instead, in the form of 4 x 4lb weights, more evenly spaced out instead of 2 big 10lbs. on my back. This was a much better distribution of weight and wasn’t bulky and seemed to be the perfect amount. So, now I know. Drysuit plus C4 and my custom hood and gloves, with my SS backplate and an 18W Explorer Halcyon light and 16 lbs. and I’m good to go in cold salt water.
The second dive we were supposed to do Puzzle Piece wall but we ended up instead doing the HMCS Yukon wreck again, which was fine by me because it is such a big ship and there was a lot we didn’t get to see on the first dive. My buddy was on air on a single tank so, even though I had doubles and Nitrox, we could only stay down there for so long. I took my time on the ascent so I could enjoy it a bit longer. Anyway, the second dive was FANTASTIC. We spent the whole dive penetrating the inside of the wreck, with levels upon levels of swim throughs. It’s pretty wide open and easy to navigate, and a sea lion was so kind as to lead the way for us and he hung around for the entire dive. I forgot to mention, I was so lucky to have a buddy that was part of the crew and he knew this wreck inside and out extremely well and was a very skilled diver. I couldn’t have asked for a better buddy. Thanks, Rod!
The trip back to the dock was absolutely beautiful. The fog had lifted completely and I was elated from my wonderful dives. I was so completely happy and at peace. This turned out so wonderfully, even though it threatened not to at the start. It was a great dive trip. Marissa Dive Charters has a very helpful crew and it’s a comfortable boat and I was extremely well taken care of. I highly recommend them and this dive site and I will definitely be back for more adventures with them, whenever my next trip to the San Diego area may be.
After going back to the hotel to rinse off all my gear and take a shower, I took a walk on the 101 in Encinitas. I got some heart shaped sunglasses at a funky little retro shop and then went to have dinner at Everest Himalayan Cuisine, which I had been craving since I passed it. I ate on the patio and had Himalayan Vegetable Soup and Lukshya Ko Masu (lamb) and a Mango Lassi to drink. It was delicious.
Then I headed over to Leucadia beach to watch the sunset. I have a personal rule that any time I am on the West coast of anywhere and am able to see the sunset on the water, I must do so. Mission complete.
What a beautiful second day! Did I mention I love it here?
The third day I woke up and did my morning run along the beautiful 101 Hwy, in 64 degree temps with the ocean to my side. It was a great start to the day. I could really get used to that. I saw a monument that the locals had decorated to celebrate one of the TeamUSA Olympians.
The rest of the day was spent in the office for a meeting with the tech team. They had us choose lunch from somewhere and had it delivered and then we had a meeting for the Tech roadmap in a conference room for the whole day. Afterwards, we all walked to Valentina Restaurant for a group dinner. It was a great day. Somebody took a group photo at dinner but I don’t have it yet. I hope to get it and then be able to post it, so I can keep the memory alive. I enjoyed it and I like everyone on the team. This was the first time meeting most of them in person, since I work remotely.
The fourth day I again ran along the 101, but after a little while I decided to go down and run the rest of the way on the beach. It was so calming and wonderful and I really enjoyed seeing the surfers out there. I wish I knew how to surf. It looks so fun. I wonder if I’m too old to learn now? I’d probably want to try if I lived out here.
Then I went to the office to work in person with the person I normally work with virtually. We ordered takeout from Nectarine Grove and I had a Chimichurri bowl with Butternut noodles. I forgot to take a picture of it. It was yummy.
This place really is paradise. Running here is such a joy!
I ran along the beach again on my fifth and final day. It was a little foggy that morning, but it was still so lovely. I had to take a couple more pictures. After my run I ordered takeout breakfast from the 101 Diner. I kinda have a standing rule that if eggs benedict is on the menu I have to get it. They had about 12 different varieties on the menu there. I couldn’t decide between the crabcake benedict and the chorizo benedict, so I got one of each. They were both delicious, but the chorizo was, undoubtedly, the best eggs benedict I have ever had in my life. Chorizo Benedict with Avocado & Cilantro-Jalapeno Hollandaise, served with fresh fruit. OMG you really have to try this; it’s amazing.
Then I went back to the office for another day of in person work. TBH I really prefer working remotely. Something about being in an office makes me sleepy, which makes it harder to concentrate because I’m busy trying to keep awake. My bird at home keeps me awake while I work; maybe that is it. He’s good for something, after all.
For lunch, my work got us takeout and this time we had sushi which was again absolutely delicious. I got the X-Girlfriend protein roll (no rice, just fish) from Tomoyama Sushi with spicy tuna, spicy crabmeat, tuna, salmon, yellowtail, wrap with soy paper with soy mustard dressing. On the walk home from work I stopped at Cali Cream for a homemade ice cream. I sampled the Graham Central Station, which was delicious, but then got the Bourbon Pecan Praline. We were only allowed one sample. The Graham Central Station was way better, even though what I got was really good. Now I know for next time. When I get home I have to start eating right again, but I wanted to experience all the things while I was here.
That brings me to the end of my journey. I was sad to be leaving paradise and hopeful to sleep on the plane on my red-eye flight home. (I didn’t really, only for maybe one intermittent hour did I actually sleep.) Thank you, SoCal. It was lovely. Until we meet again…..
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