June 2009 Hooky Day

Hooky Day June 10, 2009

6:30AM - Checked out the weather – weather.com said 0% chance of rain till noon in the Gibsonburg area and only a 20% chance till 2PM then rain….Looks like we’ll pull this hooky day off grey skies notwithstanding.

9:50AM – Pulled in to Whitestar…drizzling…I guess the weather.com folks are about good as the local weather folks…. Skies are very overcast and the drizzle is pretty constant temperature is nice at 69ish. Getting ready in a dry suit in the rain doesn’t seem quite right – but oh-well we’re here – we’re diving. Only 7 brave souls showed up – most probably because of the weather – or it could be because folks heard I was cooking this year instead of Cassandra – man I miss her grilling skills! Prior to jumping in the water I have to get the grill ready – we’re using charcoal – something I haven’t done since the early Eighties. After consulting with Brian – a JAW’s divemaster we think we have enough charcoal in the grill to get us going – I have to say this self lighting stuff ROCKS!!! With the Charcoal going and some Aluminum foil on the grill to keep out the rain – we head to the water to find the newly laid out obstacle course our dive 1 objective.

Dive one was great, we eventually found the obstacle course that the Boy Scout’s (I’m told) put in – it was very nice and is just west of the old one along the eastern wall. We got a little off track at first & ended up near the middle of the quarry – I was told it was a out “beyond” the old course – but hey we found it, plus we had a whole tank of air to waste anyways. The thermocline was at about 25/26 ft where the water temp dropped from about 64 to about 54 at40 ft – with our objective accomplished and with time spent playing on the new course – my anxiety began to grow it was time to face my biggest fear – cooking lunch!!!!!

Lunch – we got out of our gear and checked the grill the charcoal certainly burnt well while we were in – so no problems with the rain, however my estimation of how much charcoal to start with was a wee bit off, maybe a lot since it was mostly grey powered – so we had to reset things a bit – more charcoal, a lot of lighter fluid and back on track… The dive Gods were smiling on us as the rain stopped for lunch – so we ate, switch tanks and decided on dive two’s objective – the diver memorial none of having never seen it before. Oh yeah – the burgers & dogs along with all the other goodies folks brought turned out great – Success is such a sweet thing!!

Dive two – Lead by Brian we headed out for to find the memorial. Brian did an awesome job navigating the group across the tombstones, to the small boat, the wood boat, the motorcycle, then the mounded toilet (yeah that’s what I meant), around the mound to see the wheel barrel, then to the cabin cruiser and finally the diver memorial. Just like I heard you can take your regulator and fill its tank and then watch the bubbles come out of his regulator – made entirely of PVC – it was really cool for a first timer! Having completed our objective Brian set a course back to the shallow end entrance – although I think getting out at the deep end would have been closer - to end dive 2 and to end the first hooky day of 2009.

But – the excitement was not over – one of the divers – no names to protect the innocent, see I told you I would mention your name Kathy, locked her keys in her car. After much searching for a coat hanger & then trying to fish them out – yours truly (me) came to the rescue & got the attention of the park ranger. After signing her life away the ranger using a long metal looking thingy (a technical term) opened her car door. If you’re lucky enough to have cell service there you can call the park ranger cell at 419.355.7046. If your cell service is like mine & you have none the park ranger is located just one drive way to the north of the park entrance. Also, there is a short cut via the gravel drive just at the end of the access road; right where you would turning left on to the paved parking for the swimming area.

3:00 PM – Almost forgot to mention – the sun broke through the grey skies as we pulled away…damn weather forecasters!

We hope to see some of you at the next hooky day on July 15th.