Neutral Buoyancy

Maui 2011 - Molokini Back Wall

2011-12-01T14:09:00.001-08:00

I was back to Maui for more diving a year later. I enjoyed Lahaina Divers in 2010 so I booked with them again. This year I only did one day of diving and I chose two locations I did not dive last time.

The first two dives were at Molokini Crater but not quite the normal routine of diving inside the shallow crater like so many beginning divers and snorkelers do. We cruised around to the backwall, outside the crater. Here's the description from Lahaina Divers website. "An advanced dive, the Molokini Wall is a World Class Wall and Drift dive for certified divers only. The Wall is approximately 360ft in depth, however divers will level off at 80ft or less. You may see white tip, black tip, and/or gray reef sharks; manta rays, dolphins, and schooling fish. This is a very exciting dive for the sheer, vertical wall and blue water. Divers should have recent diving experience, good buoyancy control, and be good on air consumption. This dive site is not suitable for snorkelers. This dive requires each diver to carry a dive computer and a safety marker sausage." The boat was not crowded. We had two groups of about 5 to 6 people each with 1 dive instructor/guide for each. The boat does not anchor for this dive site. They drop you off, stay close, and pick you up, hence the necessity for the safety surface marker sausage although we didn't need to use it this day. The seas were calm.

The first dive was called backwall/lighthouse due to the lighthouse (not really a house, just a beacon on a pole) on the rock. We entered off the back, as a group, and dropped to about 80 feet for most of the dive. Here there is not as much life as there is at around the 40 foot depth but some interesting lava formations. Molokini Crater is an old cindercone. There was little to no current on this first dive. The current flows from North to South and we were at the Southern most point. Keep your eyes on the open blue water as well as the wall. I saw at least one white tip reef shark out there. We dropped down to about 80 feet, swam along the wall and ascended back through the 40 foot "fish" zone to our safety stop. During the safety stop we were instructed to kick away from the wall, out into open water for the boat to pick us up. There are times when the boat cannot pull in to close to the rock due to surge/wind and the fact that the captain has to turn the props off while divers are climbing aboard. Even with 60 plus feet of visibility you lose sight of the rock quick and feel as though you've kicked dangerously far out to sea, blue in all directions, only to find upon surfacing that you've just made it half way to the boat, barely 100 feet from the wall.

They repositioned the boat and moored at "Reef's End" just inside the crater for our surface interval. We sat, peacefully gazing at Maui and the crater while the crew treated us to a vegetable crudite, fruit and sandwiches.

For Dive 2 we all hopped off at Reef's End and swam to the outside of the crater where the current picked us up and pulled us back towards the Back Side/Lighthouse. This was a true drift dive, maybe even a little faster then drifts I did in Cozumel. Highlighting the dive were least two more whitetip reef sharks, one of which was resting in the reef, and a stone crab. Exit procedures were the same as for dive one.

Maui - 2010 Day 5 - Zip Lining

2011-11-23T17:43:00.001-08:00

Day 5 started with a zipline tour at Flyin Hawaiian Zipline Tours. Yes, it was a bit expensive but worth it. Not any more then a two tank boat dive would cost. The tour is about 4 hours long with 8 zip lines in length from 250 to 3600 feet. As stated from their website, ". . . fly through the magnificent Hawaiian skies, where you'll cross 9 different valleys and 11 different ridges, all while gaining insight into Maui’s rich history and culture. Along the way, we will take time to plant rare, native Hawaiian plants as we zip through the incredible natural diversity that exists on Maui, ranging from the tropical rainforest to the desert and everything in between!" What a blast. The staff was great. All the equipment looked to be very safe and secure. The views are fantastic.

In the afternoon we found ourselves snorkeling at Honolua Bay. Honolua is a short drive North of Ka'anapali. It's quiet, a little secluded. The land next to the bay is sort of a preserve owned by one of the locals. The easiest way to get there is to park on the highway and walk down a dirt road through the preserve. The owner is doing his best to keep everything natural. He asks that you do not enter the water wearing sunscreen, gives a little lecture, might even ask for a donation but all in all I think he's cool. To see any good reef you have to swim out pretty far to the right. Once there, it's fantastic. I've been told that reef is also good off to the left but I don't know from personal experience. I hear conditions can be rough but on this day it was great. There may even be a few dive boats in the bay and this would be a great spot for a shore dive. I've heard, upon asking, the owner of the land will let divers drive down the dirt road to unload and maybe even park there. Donate a few bucks and keep this option open. Just before the beach there is a wash you have to cross. This may or may not have water in it. When we entered it was dry but was flowing upon our exit. I suspect water was coming down from a recent rain in the West Maui Mountains. The last photo shows the wash behind me and the road leading out.

Maui - 2010 Day 4 - Diving Moloka'i

2010-10-08T16:34:00.000-07:00

Back with Lahaina Divers at 7am again. Today I was signed up for 2 tanks off Moloka'i. In particular the location of Mokuho'oniki Rock. The site we did both of our dives on was called Fish Rain. It might have been a rain of fish if we had stayed closer to the reef but we swam out further into open water in search of Scalloped Hammerheads. Swimming we did a lot of. I guess this is sometimes done as a drift but today there didn't seem to me much, if any, current. Maybe five minutes into the dive we had our closest encounter with two Hammerheads. One of which was a big mama. I'd have to say 6 to 8 feet. Sadly I didn't get a picture. I guess I was thinking we would encounter a lot more and just wanted to savor the moment. We did see maybe 6 more but they were well out of range of my camera.

However I managed to capture this short video of what I believe was a Galapagos Shark. I was a little behind most of the other divers and he sort of snuck up on them, literally, then turned and swam way out behind us to my left.

My greatest depth this day was about 90 feet but I spent most of my time hovering at about 60, conserving my air for all the swimming and waiting for something to show up.

We spent a good hour between dives. I stood, much of the time, in the middle of the boat; motion sickness lingering on the edge of my mind. I didn't want a repeat of the foggy feeling so I only took one Dramamine this morning. All in all I did pretty good. Heading out to Moloka'i can be pretty rough but today was a "good" day.

Dive site - Fish Rain "Hammertime"
My max depth - 92
Time - 34 minutes
Vis - 90+ feet
Temperature - 74F

Dive site - Fish Rain "Hammertime" #2
Max depth - 86 feet again
Time - 37 minutes
Vis 90+ feet
Temperature - 77F I was cold (shivering) at the start of this dive but warmed up with all the swimming.

At the end of out second dive we were visited by about 60 Spinner Dolphins. Gah! Five minutes too late.

Maui 2010 - Day 3 - Diving Maui & Lana'i

2010-10-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

Monday morning got me up bright and early for a full day of diving. I called up Lahaina Divers the day before and they said be at the shop at 7am. Lahaina Divers is located in Lahaina on Dickerson, just a block from all the shops on Front Street. It's a nice, clean, modern shop. All the staff were professional and friendly. Upstairs you filled out waivers with coffee and danish. The boats are a few blocks away at Lahaina Harbor. The staff will take your dive gear to and from the boat and it's a pleasant walk through the historic Banyon Tree Park.

Our boat was the 46 foot Dominion. This was a sweet boat. Not crowded for how many people were on board. Extra room to spread out up top and on the bow. Life rafts, O2, all the good stuff. Dry places to store equipment. Two ladders on the stern for entry and exit.

They take a maximum of 24 divers which were broke up into 3 dive groups with 1 instructor/guide each. I think we were just about full for the mornings dives. The weather was beautiful although the trades were still blowing and the 50 minute boat ride between Maui and Lana'i can be rough. Today wasn't so bad but I had been popping motion sickness pills in preparation. We set up our gear on the way to Lana'i but the crew switched out tanks for us between dives. They also provided sandwiches, cookies and fruit.

Our "sub" group of 6 or so was led by Rebecca. She's da bomb. She is extremely knowledgeable on the fish, coral, etc. She also appears to be the shop photographer and, for a price, would provide you with a photo cd of the dive.

Our first dive site was Cathedral 2. This is a little cavern/lava formation with many entrances and holes for light to shine through. Watch your buoyancy. On the inside ceiling is a large black coral formation. It's apparently doing very well and we'd hate to see anything happen to it. Although considered endangered, much of the black coral around Hawaii has been mined for jewelry. There is also a black trumpet fish of considerable size here that Rebecca called out to her like a puppy dog. He and I posed head down (trumpet fish style) for a few photos. I'd forgot my camera, on the boat, bummer. On this day there was no current and a slow surge. Nothing like the surge I felt in the Keys or Akumal.

Cathedral II
My maximum depth - 59 feet
55 minutes
Minimum temperature 79 degrees F
Vis 60+ feet

We then motored a short distance and chilled off the scenic South cliffs of Lana'i for about 50 minutes. The next dive site was called No Name. This was a nice reef with some swim throughs. A bait ball of blue striped snapper impressed me on this dive. The reef is healthy here in Hawaii. Much nicer looking reef then what I saw in the Keys.

Dive site - No Name (really, that's what they call it)
My max depth for site 2 was 57 feet
50 minutes
Min temp again 79 degrees (((((warm)))))
Vis was about the same

30% of the fish in Hawaii are endemic. The following is a list of what I saw while diving & snorkeling that I could document with Hawaiian names, when possible, included. * indicates only found in Hawaii. Flying Fish (Malolo), Threadfin Butterflyfish (Kikakapu),Teardrop Butterflyfish (Lau-Hau) *Milletseed (Lemon) Butterflyfish (Lau-Wiliwili), Reef Triggerfish (Humuhumunukunukuapua'a) Hawaii State Fish, Moorish Idol (Kihikihi), Ornate Butterflyfish (Kikakapu), Longnose Butterflyfish (Lau-Wiliwili Nukunuku'oi'oi), *Bluestriped Butterflyfish (Lau-Hau)Yellow Tang (Lau'i Pala), Black Durgon Triggerfish (Humuhumu'Ele'ele), Orangeband Surgeonfish (Na'ena'e), Unicornfish (Kala), Convict Tang (Manini), Bluestriped Snapper (Ta'ape), Whitespotted Pufferfish ('O'opu-Hue), Red Bullethead Parrotfish (Uhu) (female), Blue Bullethead Parrotfish (Uhu) (male), Trumpetfish (Nunu), Needlefish (A'ha), Green Sea Turtle (Honu), Peacock (Bluespotted) Grouper (Roi), *Stripped Squirrelfish ('Ala'ihi), Spotted Moray, Seastar (Linekia), Pincushion Star, Octopus (He'e Mauli), Yellowstripe Goatfish (Weke), Manta Ray (Hahalua), Black Sea Cucumber, Slate Pencil Urchin (Punohu), Galopagos Shark, Scalloped Hammerhead, Orange Spined Tang (Unicornfish) (Umaumalei), *Brown (Goldring) Surgeonfish (Kole), Saddlewrasse, Indo-Pacific Sergeant, Agile Chromis.

See more pics of this dive here - Lana'i Scuba Diving Set

Back to the Lahaina Harbor to let off the morning divers and take on the afternoon. The crew also had to switch out tanks etc. I had about thirty minutes to and hour to poke around Lahaina. I felt a little light headed walking off the boat. I think that was from the motion sickness drugs. Some guy tried to sell me some weed under the Banyon Tree. I had lunch, felt better. Back to the boat.

We were a little less crowded in the afternoon then the morning. Did I mention that I kept running into people from Arizona or Washington? Yeah they were everywhere. On the boat, in the shop, on the beach. It's a small, small world. This always seems to happen to me. In the Florida Keys, where Clifford and I were kayaking, way back into a mangrove, we come across two other people. The only other kayakers we saw and they were from Seattle.

This time we had just a short trip South of Lahaina to the wreck of the Carthaginian. The Carthaginian is a replica of a 19th century whaling brig similar to the ships that first brought commerce to the Hawaiian Islands. It was docked at Lahaina as part of the whaling museum. She became to rusty to tow to drydock for repair and they were afraid it would sink right where it sat. Atlantis Submarine tours purchased the brig and prepped it to become a reef and part of their tours. As a bonus, we can dive it. She rests in about 95 feet of water for about 5 years now and is showing some growth. On our particular dive there were two frogfish resting on the bow which I wouldn't have noticed except one of the dive instructors kept pointing at them. One of Atlantis subs cruised by. Pretty cool.

Dive site - Carthaginian
Max depth - 95 feet
37 minutes
Min temp 79F
Vis 80+

We spent about 45 minutes between dives motoring to our last site of the day. A very short trip between sites. Manta Point was uneventful and it involved a lot of swimming. We went searching for Manta Rays. They're known to frequent this area. Something to do with a rise in the sea floor that sharks, the Manta's main predator, don't like. Today, however, they seemed to find refuge elsewhere. We saw one, about a hundred feet off, swimming away.

We did see a huge Moray (spotted, zebra) eel hanging out on the bottom. I wanted to drop down and take a photo but my ears wouldn't equalize. This has never happened to me before. I kept the whole dive above 38 feet because of it. There was a nice thermocline at about this depth keeping me warm anyway. Christine came down with a cold just before our trip and I think I caught a mild version of it which I blame for this. I had no problems the following day decending below 80 feet but more on that next post.

Manta Point
My max depth - 38 feet
40 minutes
Temperature was 80!!! at my depth
Vis 80+ feet

Maui 2010 - Day 1 - 2

2010-10-04T01:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I made it to Maui. Our plane landed in the early afternoon. As you walk out of your gate the airport is open air with beautiful views of West Maui Mountains and palms blowing in the trade winds. We were all walking to baggage and I remember looking at my friends who were all focused forward and saying, "Does anyone else see this?"

From the airport we picked up our rental van, hit the Costco & Kmart and headed South through the sugarcane fields. Slowly our highway curved round the South end of those mountains and up Northwards to Lahaina and Ka'anapali. To the left the coast with views of Molokini crater, then Lana'i and finally Moloka'i.

Saturday we spent chillin on the beach. I snorkeled for about 40 minutes in the morning and another 40 in the afternoon. This got my back a nice red sunburn. It turned into a decent tan after a few days but my back peeled after a week. We stayed at the Westin Villas and the snorkeling was great right off the hotel beach. Lots of fish, nice reef, even a turtle.

Sunday we got up early. Real early. About 3am. We all piled into the van and drove up Mt Haleakela for the sunrise. Mt Haleakela is about 10,000 feet tall and takes around 2 - 1/2 hours to drive up from Ka'anapali but it was worth it. It's like no other place I know on this planet.

From the summit you watch the sun rise over the volcanic crater. In the distance you could see the Big Island rising out of the clouds. The same clouds that were blowing up into the crater and right over us. The color and light kept changing from minute to minute. Clouds below in the crater were soon lit up like fire and illuminating the crater as if it were still active. The landscape varies in colors of reds, oranges, browns & gray. Aside from the clouds it's not unlike images sent back from Mars. I did a short hike down the Sliding Sands trail and all I could hear was the wind and my footsteps in the soil. No planes, no cars, nothing. Fantastic.

Oh and it's cold. At least for sunrise. Bring a jacket. Forty five degrees for the overnight low with those trade winds blowing. I told my friends this but they still weren't prepared.

More topside pictures here - Maui 2010 Set

Hawaii

2010-08-05T19:34:00.000-07:00

Going to Hawaii (Maui) in September. Finally.

Project 365

2010-06-06T23:05:00.000-07:00

One photo uploaded every day of something that happened that day for 1 year. To see it click - 365

Scientists worry current could carry oil to Keys

2010-05-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

The loop current is a ribbon of warm water that begins in the Gulf of Mexico and wraps around Florida. Some scientists project the current will draw the crude through the Keys and then up Florida's Atlantic Coast, where the oil might avoid the beaches of Miami and Fort Lauderdale but could wash up around Palm Beach.

Many scientists expect the oil to get no farther north than Cape Canaveral, midway up the coast, before it is carried out to sea and becomes more and more diluted.

The pollution could endanger Florida's shoreline mangroves, seagrass beds and the third-longest barrier reef in the world, the 221-mile-long Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, which helps draw millions of snorkelers, fishermen and other tourists whose dollars are vital to the state's economy.

Full story - http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20100516/US.Gulf.Oil.Spill/

Florida Key's - Day 6 & 7

2010-05-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

Day six was beach bum day, minus the beach. The girls went to Key Largo but we just didn't feel like driving anywhere else. We were ready to just chill out. We drank a few pina colada's, borrowed some bikes from the backyard, watched a movie, dried out gear, tried to eat the rest of the groceries, packed and reviewed dive pictures on the laptop. Marathon isn't the place for rock'n bars. There are a few watering holes but aside from water sports it's pretty laid back. If you're looking for something more lively hit Key West.

The following morning we were up EARLY to drive to Miami for an 8am flight out.

Hopefully, the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill will be under control soon. So far the keys look to be safe but if they don't get this under control it will ruin everything down there, both ecologically and economically. The diving and fishing operations are already taking it pretty hard. People are canceling their plans left and right. Over the next few weeks to a month might be one of the best times to go for a long while.

Florida Keys - Day 5 - The Thunderbolt

2010-05-16T04:43:00.000-07:00

Remember I was talking about losing and forgetting things on this trip. Well, I had left my fins aboard the Sea Eagle the day before. Fortunately for me, Captain's Corner held them at their kiosk for pick up.

We had breakfast, got my fins, started out return trip to Marathon, unsure of what, if any diving we would find. We still wanted to hit the Thunderbolt wreck, a 188-foot cable layer that later served as a research vessel to explore the electrical energy of lightning strikes. We called the 3 dive shops, in Marathon, we had numbers for. Of the 3, Abyss Dive Center was willing to take us out that afternoon. They didn't have anything planned but worked it out just for us. There was an additional 75 dollar fee to take the boat out to the wreck but it was split between us and a third diver who joined in. A dive instructor accompanied us throughout the dive so the fee didn't seem to extreme.

Their boat, a 34 foot Crusader, the Vitamin Sea, is equipped with a fresh water shower, a toilet facility, a dedicated camera rinse tank, complimentary sodas and ice water. There is a large cooler on board to keep any food or personal snacks cold as well. They carry a maximum of six passengers.

Great conditions again this day. Calm seas, very mild current on the wreck and more then 60 feet of vis. When we arrived there were about 5 or 6 fishing boats around. According to the owner they have an unspoken rule that when a dive boat arrives the fishing boats back off which is exactly what I observed. Two mooring buoy's are attached to the wreck and they are both submerged about 20 feet under. The captain finds the general site with gps and then we all kept a lookout for the submerged buoy. "Is that it off the starboard side?" I called out seeing a large, white object under the blue. "That's it" replied the capt. Then our dive instructor swims down with the anchor line and attaches it. The deck of the Thunderbolt is at a depth of about 110 feet although I never went below 106. This wreck has been submerged more then 10 years and is coated with colorful sponges, corals and hydroids, providing refuge and sustenance to large angelfish, jacks, cobia, tarpon and a variety of deep-water pelagic creatures. My buddy claims to have seen a grouper over the side the size of a dining room table. According to this website - http://www.fla-keys.com/news/news.cfm?sid=7439 "Perhaps the most popular residents are the three goliath grouper that hang around the engine room — one nearly 800 pounds." That must have been him. We saw three sharks coming back up the accent line. Each one slowly making its way in towards us from the deep blue and then back out again. I thought for sure these were some sort of reef shark (swore I saw a black tip on a dorsal) but our instructor claims they were bulls. We all agree that they were probably there because of the fishing.

Dive Site - The Thunderbolt

Site Depth - 120
My max depth - 106
Vis - 60 feet or more.
Coldest water temp - 76F Surface 81F
Bottom time - 24 minutes

Our second dive was an hour long shallow reef dive called Shark Harbor (no sharks). This was similar to the dives we did 2 days ago but with a little better vis and no surge. Coldest temp was 80F and max depth was 30 feet (it would have been hard to find deeper). Most interesting fish - spiny lobster and a fairly large green moray among the other beautiful reef fish.

Oh and this day I left my snorkel in their rinse tank. Later that evening we picked it up while heading out to dinner and it was a good thing we did. Not only did they have my snorkel but they had Cliffords mask. Hah! I'm not the only one forgetting stuff.

Florida Keys - Day 4 - Key West Diving

2010-05-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

We all got up early, 7am? Hopped in the rental car and headed South/West for about an hour to Key West. Check in time was somewhere around 9 - 9:30 am with Captain's Corner Dive Center. A PADI gold five star center. We boarded the Sea Eagle. Nice boat. As described on their website - "Sea Eagle" is a 60-foot, 37-ton, all aluminum dive vessel. The custom configuration features two dive ladders, state of the art electronics, and the creature comforts divers and snorkelers prefer. With all these custom features, it is no wonder "Sea Eagle" was chosen to feature in the James Bond film, "License to Kill." They keep all their rental dive equipment right on board, in a large room, below deck. Again all the staff of Captain's Corner were very friendly, helpful and professional. The owner was a real nice, older lady. She told me that she was thinking/planning to sell the business. She also was going to hook us up with a place to stay for the night but the girls already found something. Honestly I think we would have been better off staying in the place she had to offer. It was like a block away and close to Duval Street.

As with all our dives it was about a 30-40 minute ride out to the site. Today we were heading out to the Vandenberg wreck. When we got to the site we tied up to the stern buoy of the wreck. There are about 5 mooring buoys along the wreck. It's huge! 523 feet long. The bottom rests in about 140-150 feet of water although the upper structures can be reached starting at about 40 to 50 feet. Most of the interesting structures are above 100. I was never below 92 feet. The crew tied off, from the mooring buoy to the front of the Sea Eagle. A second line was run at a depth of about 20 feet, attached to the mooring line and running to a second weighted line attached to red buoy the crew threw over. Make sense? No. Let me put it this way. We would hit the water, swim out to the red buoy, drop down 20 feet to a horizontal line, follow that line to the mooring buoy line and drop down that line to the stern of the Vandenberg. Still don't make sense, see the diagram. This method meant no one needed to hang on to the anchor line and possibly be jarred around/injured when the Sea Eagle rocked in the waves. Also a stage bottle was hung on the line should divers exceed no decompression limits and need a longer safety stop.

Dive conditions were about as close to perfect as they could be. The water was smooth, almost like glass. There was only a slight current. Visibility was 60 feet or more. We dove pretty conservatively as per the crew. With a 3000 psi tank we would start heading back to the accent line at 2000 psi and be heading up with no less then 1200. That would give us an extra 1000 psi should anything go wrong. I had no problems with this. We also did a 1-3 minute deep water safety stop which was 1/2 of our maximum depth.

As we descended there were schools of Barracuda around 60 feet and a thermocline at about 85 feet. The ship has been sunk for just about a year but is already starting to show growth. There was a slight current heading from the stern to the bow of the Vandenberg and this meant swimming against it to get back to the accent line. During the safety stop our captain swam by with 2 freshly speared Amberjack for his evenings dinner.

Because of the current we did the second dive as a drift, Cozumel style. As soon as we all hit the water the boat un-moored and moved to the bow mooring line of the wreck to pick us up. This was great. We effortlessly drifted past the whole 500' wreck from bow to stern.

1st dive -

Site depth 150 feet
My max depth 92 feet
Vis - 60 feet or more
Coldest water temp - 78 F
Bottom time - 30 minutes

2nd dive

Site depth 150 feet
My max depth 91 feet
Vis 60 feet or more
Coldest water temp - 77 F
Bottom time 24 minutes

Our surface interval consisted of an evening bar hop up the 1 mile stretch of Duval Street. Favorite bar - Sloppy Joes.

Florida Keys - Day 3 - Marathon Diving

2010-05-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

Finally we get to go diving. I called Captain Hooks the night before to confirm the dive was still going to happen.
Me - "Is there still a morning dive going out tomorrow?"
Girl on phone - "Yes there's one here in the books"
Me - "OK, cool, thanks."
But this got me thinking. This girl didn't sound like she knew anything about what happened that morning with the weather and the canceled dives so later that day I called back again. This time I got someone who was there for our previous experience. To my relief she confirmed that the wind was supposed to die down and the dive was still on. Unfortunately it was not going to the Thunderbolt wreck which we had originally been scheduled to do. Oh well, we'll get ourselves wet. It's been a little while since we dove last.

So we showed up again, 7:30 am. There were about 12 or more people scheduled for the dive and they were in the process of switching the equipment to their larger boat. Lucky for us. This boat, the Jolly Roger, is a nice 45 foot Corinthian Catamaran. Plenty of space for all of us. Small marine head in the back. Plenty of shade and sun. Three exits up front to giant stride into the water and 1 ladder on each side for getting back out.

Captain Hooks, a PADI 5 star dive center, is a pretty big operation. They do fishing and diving. They have several boats for both. The service on the dive boat is a little different here, in the keys, then down in Cozumel. They don't set up all your gear for you and they don't switch tanks for you between dives. Personally I have no problem with this although I've heard some others whine. I would much rather set up my own gear. That way I know how it's been handled and that it's set up right. This style is similar to what I experienced in Nassau and St. Thomas but I was just doing my open water training there so setting up my own gear was probably part of the class. Also, when diving in the Florida Keys don't expect there to be any food or snacks on the boat. All the operators we dove with did provide drinking water and every boat had an ice chest for anything you wanted to store. The staff on all the operators (Captain Hooks, Captain's Corner & Abyss Dive Center) were professional, friendly, answered any questions we had and provided good dive site briefings. I would dive with any of these shops again.

We did two reef dives this day. Both a little too shallow for my taste. My maximum depth was 21 feet. They had the typical reef fish, crushed coral sandy bottoms and coral formations. There was a noticeable amount of dead coral but a lot more that was living. Lots of sea fans here. There was also a lot of surge here. Not unbearable but a little annoying. There was still some swells on the surface and Clifford and I were "looking down the rabbit hole" of sea sickness. Fortunately we didn't go down the rabbit hole. Normally this feeling goes away during the dive but the surge wasn't helping. Most notable fish - Green Moray, Spiny Lobsters, Trumpet fish and a nice large school of Four-Eye Butterfly fish. Visibility was only 50-60 feet. This could have been due to the previous day's wind, swells and the surge. I lump these two dive sites together because they were only about 100 feet apart from each other. Each dive was about 50 minutes long. We were told to limit our dives to 1 hour or 500 psi, which ever came first. Being so shallow, 1 hour always came first.

Dive site 1

The Elbow - Coral reef shaped in a elbow.
Site depth - maybe 30 feet somewhere if you bury your computer in the sand.
My max depth - 17 feet
Vis - 50 feet
Coldest water temp - 81F
Bottom time - 47 minutes

Dive site 2

The Donut - Coral reef shaped in a donut.
Site depth - again maybe 30 feet
My max depth - 21 feet
Vis - 80 feet
Coldest water temp - 80F
Bottom time - 49 minutes

Oh did I mention I lost my mask? First dive, as I did my giant stride into the water my mask popped right off and sunk. Fortunately another diver quickly retrieved it for me. This boat did sit rather high out of the water. I normally grab my reg and press 2 fingers onto my mask to hold it there. Now I get a nice firm grab of both. This was the dive trip of forgetting/losing things. More on that later.

Florida Keys - Day 2

2010-05-12T22:58:00.000-07:00

This day was supposed to be our (Clifford and I) first dive day but when we got to Captain Hooks we were hit with some bad news. No diving. Lots of wind out to sea. Seven+ foot swells. No dive boats heading out. Bummer. We got dropped off by the girls and a staff member of the dive shop was nice enough to drive us back to our condo. Of course it would have been nice if they just called us in the first place and told us the dive was canceled.

Near the shore conditions were pretty calm, however. Our new friends, that hooked us up with the condo, were kind enough to loan Clifford and I their kayaks. The girls were heading to the beach.

This turned out to be a really great experience. Right outside their house is a narrow channel and on the other side is Boot key. Boot key is an island with solid ground in the middle, somewhere, surrounded by mangrove. We kayaked around the key and into the mangrove. Never have I experienced any habitat quite like this so it was a real treat. There are small channels into the mangrove where the trees grow right over you like a tunnel. In places, where it gets very narrow, you have to lay your paddle lengthwise on the kayak and pull yourself thorough. Stone crabs climbed up the trees as we passed and groups of clams were growing on the roots.

At one point we entered a small open area. The bottom was clearly visible only 1 to 2 feet down. I swung my legs over the side of the kayak and stepped down which upon reflection was probably not so good for this habitat. There appeared to be a grassy bottom and when my foot made contact it continued to sink right through. I could feel vegetation breaking apart as my foot was consumed. I stopped sinking through the bottom somewhere mid way up my calf. I took a few more steps. It was a fascinating and creepy feeling all at the same time. My mind raced through all sorts of things that could be hiding under there. I climbed back into the kayak. I was reminded of a similar experience probing the bottom of Lake Pleasant in AZ.

We left the mangrove and decided to head to the beach where Christine and her friend should be. They had left already. Time for a little snorkeling. Walking out into the water I thought to myself, "Shuffle your feet." A few minutes later Clifford confirmed my suspicion by reporting a sting ray sighting. Bad vis. Real bad vis. Back to the beach, the Laughing Gulls and the kayaks. Back to the house. We passed some shore divers along the way. Rescue diver training in progress.

The way back was tiring. The tide seemed to be against us. All in all we kayaked about 4 miles.

Florida Keys - Travel Day

2010-05-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

May 1st was a travel day. A really odd travel day for us. Normally we take an early morning flight somewhere. This time we took a red-eye. The flight left somewhere around 10:30pm. Straight shot from here to Miami. What was so bizarre was sitting around all day waiting to head to the airport. What we didn't expect was how dead the airport would be on a Saturday night.

Christine's friend knows someone that works for Alaska Air and got us a upgrade to "first" class for only $150. We were told to mention it at check in and pay the clerk there. She took care of us and never asked for any money. Oops, first class for free. It wasn't that much different up there. Oh yeah free drinks but I don't drink that much. The food was a little better but not really a meal. It was comparable to food you would get 20 years ago in coach. Yeah, anyone else remember when they used to give you a meal in coach?

We arrived in Miami about 8am Sunday the 2nd, picked up the luggage, hopped the shuttle to the rental car, got treated to some Cuban coffee by the rental car guy (sweet) and headed South. Christine's friend didn't want to wait 6+ hours for my friend, Clifford, to arrive from Phoenix so two hours or so down the Overseas Highway to Marathon and the condo, then 2 hours back to the Miami airport and, return again, to Marathon. Gahhh! I spent more time in the car then on the plane. Later we found out there was a fraking shuttle bus from Miami to the airport in Marathon that Clifford could have took! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

A few drinks and off to bed. Did I mention we got hooked up with a condo, on the water, for free? Christine's friend knows a friend who owns the place.

Florida Keys

2010-04-30T00:14:00.000-07:00

Going to the Florida Keys for a week. Gonna do some wreck diving.

Night Sky

2010-04-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

Visible last night during my ride home - Venus, MERCURY, Mars, Capella, Orion, Arcturus, Sirius, Castor and Pollux of Gemini, to name a few. It's nice to see stars in Seattle.

Bird Sightings

2009-12-28T12:23:00.000-08:00

I sighted two more birds around Seattle and added all the birds I could remember growing up. Here's the new list -

From our deck

1. American Robin 1.18.08
2. Anna's Hummingbird - female & male 1.18.08
3. Bald Eagle 4.16.09
4. Barn Swallow 5.27.08
5. Bewick’s Wren 2.25.08
6. Black-Capped Chickadee 5.05.08
7. Bushtit 2.21.08
8. California Gull 1.18.08
9. Canada Goose 5.28.08
10. Chipping Sparrow 5.05.08
11. Common Tern 6.14.08
12. Crow 1.18.08
13. Dark-eyed Junco - Oregon form 1.28.08
14. European Starling 1.26.08
15. Golden-Crowned Kinglet 5.03.08
16. House Sparrow 1.18.08
17. Northern Flicker 2.20.08
18. Osprey 4.20.09
19. Pine Siskin 5.30.08
20. Purple Finch 5.09.09
21. Ruby-Crowned Kinglet 2.03.08
22. Rock Pigeon 1.28.08
23. Steller's Jay 2.28.08
24. Violet-Green Swallow 5.19.08
25. Western Tanager 5.08.08
26. Wilson’s Warbler 5.09.08

Sub Total - 26

General Sightings

1. American Coot 4.07.08
2. American Wigeon 12.22.09
3. Barrow’s Goldeneye – male & female 2.04.08
4. Black Turnstone 2.04.08
5. Bonaparte’s Gull 3.28.08
6. Brant 3.28.08
7. Brewer’s Blackbird 4.27.08
8. Brown Pelican 1987. Mexico
9. Bufflehead – female & male 2.04.08
10. Cactus Wren Growing up. Arizona
11. Caspian’s Tern 5.01.09
12. Chestnut-backed Chickadee 1.30.08
13. Chihuahuan Raven Growing up. Arizona
14. Common Goldeneye - male & female 1.31.08
15. Common Raven Growing up. Arizona
16. Curve-billed Thrasher Growing up. Arizona
17. Gadswell 4.07.08
18. Gambel’s Quail Growing up. Arizona
19. Gila Woodpecker Growing up. Arizona
20. Great Blue Heron 2.04.8
21. Greater Roadrunner Growing up. Arizona
22. Great-Horned Owl. Growing up. Arizona
23. Great-Tailed Grackle Growing up. Arizona
24. Green-winged Teal 12.17.09
25. Hairy Woodpecker 5.28.08
26. Hooded Merganser 2.05.08
27. Horned Grebe 2.03.08
28. Inca Dove Growing up. Arizona
29. Mallard 4.07.08
30. Merlin 1.29.08
31. Mourning Dove Growing up. Arizona
32. Northern Cardinal Growing up. Arizona
33. Northern Mockingbird Growing up. Arizona
34. Peregrine Falcon 5.18.08
35. Red-breasted Merganser – male & female 2.04.08
36. Red-tailed Hawk Growing up. Arizona
37. Red-winged Blackbird 4.27.08
38. Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1.30.08
39. Sanderling 3.28.08
40. Spotted Towhee 1.30.08
41. Surf Scoter 1.31.08
42. Turkey Vulture Growing up. Arizona
43. Varied Thrush 1.30.08
44. Western Grebe 2.04.08
45. Western Meadowlark 6.27.09 Colorado
46. Western Scrub-Jay 6.14.08 SanFrancisco,CA
47. White Crowned Sparrow 4.01.08
48. White-winged Dove Growing up. Arizona
49. White-winged Scoter 1.31.08
50. Yellow-Rumped Warbler 5.23.09

Sub Total - 50
Total – 76

XS Scuba Mesh Bag

2009-09-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

		I gotta say I love this bag. It holds everything I need for a warm water dive aside from the tank. Everything. It can be carried as a duffel or worn (how I prefer it) as a backpack. Perfect for walking from the hotel room to the dive boat. I wish I had it on my last trip to Cozumel.	XS Scuba's Best-Selling Bag
			New features for 2005 - Large DRY pocket for camera, towel, clothes, etc. - Mesh pocket with XS Scuba Sport Bottle - Interior pocket for BG690 Dry Logbook Cover
			Heavy-duty, PVC-coated nylon mesh Adjustable shoulder straps, padded for comfort Exterior pocket with convenient key hook Adjustable sternum strap Tough, PVC-reinforced bottom Easy-access, side opening, #10 YKK zipper Convenient molded rubber side handle Drawstring access with heavy-duty nylon cord Marine brass grommets Interior pocket for BG690 DRY Logbook Cover Attachment point for BG540 Mask Bag Includes XS Scuba luggage tag Dimensions: 29" x 16.5"

Aeris Atmos 2 Uplink Cable

2009-09-21T13:56:00.001-07:00

I purchased my Aeris Atmos 2 diving computer back in November 2006. It took me a while, however, to cough up the money for a PC uplink cable. I finally purchased one about 2 days ago for 100 bucks. It's a shame that Aeris feels the need to charge so much money for what is little more then a usb cable. In fact, for the money I spent on the dive computer, I feel that they should have included it. Fortunately the software for it is free to download from their website. Establishing a connection between the dive computer and the PC proved to be a bit challenging, however once I got the feel for it and downloaded the dives I loved the additional information. For instance the dive computer will tell me what the coldest temperature was on a dive but the software will show what the temperature was throughout the dive, at different depths. That's just one example. While not a necessity, if you are a techie freak you'll love it. The software and cable also works for the Atmos Elite and the Atmos AI.

Lake Pleasant Dive 9/9/09

2009-09-14T16:21:00.000-07:00

Last week we flew down to AZ to visit our friends and families. Since one of my dive buddies (Clifford) lives in Phoenix I asked him if he wanted to jump in the lake (Lake Pleasant). Neither of us had been diving since Cozumel in January and we both wanted to get wet so I packed up my gear and brought it with me.

On Wednesday of our stay I drove up from Tucson to Phoenix and picked up Clifford. We then drove to one of the Sport Chalet's on the north side of Phoenix, rented some gear and finished driving the additional 15 miles or so to the Lake. We dove out of Vista Point, near the marina. The water in the lake is low right now and we had about a 200 foot hike down a rocky slope, in the 100 degree heat, to the water before gearing up. Fortunately this is a warm fresh water dive and not a cold salt water dive so I only had to carry 6 pounds of weights down that hill instead of 30+ pounds. Unfortunately we were just about ready to go when Clifford realized he forgot to rent regulators!! We stood there in the heat. We thought about the 30 mile round trip drive to the rental shop. We stared at the rocky slope. We thought about the 6 pack of Longboard Lager sitting in the trunk that were still cold but would not be after our dive (as we had no cooler). Then we decided we had to make the trip. Sport Chalet was not going to refund the money for the gear we already rented and I brought all my equipment from Seattle, on the plane, and made the 2 hour drive from Tucson. So we hauled everything back up the hill.

An hour later we were back in the same spot on the shore gearing up, again, to dive in a low vis lake with nothing really to see in it but a few fish and beer cans but we had big smiles on our faces and cell phone cameras taking pictures. We did our buddy checks, waded into the water, put on our fins and checked our buoyancy.

Of the 3 times I've dove in Lake Pleasant this was the most, ah, pleasant. For starters, it was 2 days after Labor Day weekend, on a Wednesday, at 3 in the afternoon in the 100 degree heat so we had the whole lake to ourselves. Second we weren't diving with any guides, instructors and were free to take our time and enjoy it. We started right in the middle of a little u shaped cove between Vista Point and the boat ramp. Looking out we faced due West so our plan was to swim out along the bottom following that bearing until a) we reached the bottom, or a maximum depth we were comfortable with, b) we used up 1/3 of our air, or c) it got to cold. Which ever came first. Then we would turn due South, up the slope towards Vista Point until we reached about 35 feet of depth and then turn right and follow the shore back to are starting point, maintaining that depth.

Upon entering the water we encountered what felt almost like a grove of dead trees. Mesquite and Palo Verde I assume. The visibility was between 4 and 15 feet making the water appear a yellowish green. As we swam these trees seemed to materialize out of no where. Their dark forms reminding me of Halloween and Sleepy Hollow.

The last time I dove in Lake Pleasant was in the month of June and the water below 25 feet was cold. This was September and the temperature was about 80 or above until we reached 45-50 feet. Here there was a thermocline but still the temperature wasn't unbearable in my 3mm wet suit. A weird misty looking layer hung at this thermocline. At about 70 feet we came to a small rocky gully where I imagined water once flowed only when it rained. There was a pool of cold water, almost like another thermocline, with in. My computer read 73 degrees. The bottom was a strange, silty, almost spongy sediment. I plunged my hand into it, feeling a bit like a robot probing Mars, and it easily sunk up to the wrist with no solid surface below. Quickly I pulled it out feeling disgusted and fascinated at the same time and also imagining that something just might be under there, ready to pull me in. I turned to Clifford and he was making gestures of being cold and pointing up and to the left.

We turned 90 degrees, South now, towards Vista Point ascending into warmer water. We came across a landscape full of 6 inch craters. I assume these are made by fish, blowing water into the sediment, searching for food. Clifford picked up a beer can and tried filling it with air and sending it to the surface to no avail. It was full of sediment. I took it and shook it a little. Then I squeezed it and clouds shot out like black ink. Then I reshaped it, scraped off all the zebra mussels (which have invaded this lake everywhere), shot some air into it and let it go. It ascended slowly for a few feet then shot up like a rocket into a blue gray abyss.

We then reached 35 feet, turned left again, according to our plan and followed the shoreline back to our starting point. We both reached 7-750 psi at about the same time, turned right (East) and ascended along the bottom to our 3 minute safety stop. We were both pretty sure that we overshot our starting position but upon surfacing we found ourselves about 75 feet short. Still, not bad.

A little note. Lake Pleasant is at an elevation of about 1650 to 1700 feet, depending how much water is in the lake and therefore is considered a high altitude dive. My Aeris Atmos 2 dive computer automatically adjusts for this but needs to be turned on at the dive site elevation to do so. I was glad I re-read the manual a few days before the trip.

Vista Point, Lake Pleasant, AZ
My maximum depth - 81 feet
Visibility - 3 to 15 feet
Coldest water temperature - 73F
Bottom time - 50 minutes

Sailing

2009-08-27T11:58:00.000-07:00

A friend and co-worker introduced me to sailing yesterday. A few months before we were looking out of the ballroom window, on the top of the hotel we work at, at Elliot bay and started talking about boats, sailing terms, etc. He mentioned he had purchased a boat and even had planned to live on it to save some money. Over the weeks he invited me to go sailing with him a few times and I finally took him up on the offer.

I forget what make of boat he has but it's a keel boat meaning it can't be capsized (or very unlikely), has a small cabin, outboard motor (which we barley used) and is about 22 - 24 feet. I forget but I believe it is 22. It is a Bermuda rigged craft as are most modern sailboats meaning it sports a single mast with a mainsail and, in this case, a Genoa sail. This boat could also fly a jib or a spinnaker instead of the Genoa.

I took the ferry over to Bainbridge and met David at his berth. The first thing he had me do was step into the cabin and find all the rescue stuff. Life jackets, flare gun, whistle, etc. Then I helped some setting up the mainsail and the Genoa. After that we slowly motored away out into Eagle bay, raised the main, cut the motor, waited for the ferry to leave and sailed out into the sound.

It was a pretty calm day, perfect for a first day of sailing and shortly David had me raise the Genoa. Just after this was our first sighting . . . of . . . something. It was either a Dall's Porpoise, Harbor Porpoise or a Pacific White-Sided Dolphin. For a while I was convinced it was a Minke but that was before I learned that these other types of dolphin and porpoise lived in such cold waters. We saw these on one other occasion during our return trip. The last picture shows these.

We spent about 4-5 hours on the water sailing to Magnolia and back. Winds were from the North-Northwest from about 3 to 10 miles per hour. The biggest swells we encountered were from the wake of the container ship Midnight Sun as she rolled through to Tacoma. About that same time a coast guard procession came in to Elliott Bay with cutters from Japan and Russia and a Canadian hovercraft for the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum.

I learned a lot about sailing including the realization that someday I'll end up owning my own boat. You can view more photos here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/neutralbuoyancy/sets/72157622178182996/

Peppermint Mead Update

2009-06-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

I bottled the peppermint mead today. It is what it is. It's nice, pleasant but it just doesn't have that "punch". I'm also have mixed feelings about the lavender mead that I bottled on Feburary 24th. I think I'm going to steer my mead making away from metheglins for a while and focus more on what really worked for me. I might try some more fruit meads. For sure this summer, if I have the time to pick them, I'll do another blackberry. The 2 blackberry melomels I've produced were probably my greatest meads. Other's I might venture into; strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, pineapple and maybe a cyser.

Great Blue Heron

2009-04-17T08:08:00.000-07:00

The Great Blue Heron is the official bird of Seattle. I occasionally see them along Alki. It stands 42 to 50 inches.

Baldy's

2009-04-16T17:01:00.001-07:00

A couple Baldy's flew over yesterday. This is what reminded me I wanted to do some posts about birds/birdwatching. There was an adolescent and an adult. Here is a poor picture of the adult. They were probably 300 - 400 feet above me. Anyone who has been a faithful reader of my blog will probably remember the Baldy that came to visit in 2007.

This post is for the birds man!

2009-04-15T16:24:00.000-07:00

I don't know if it has something to do with growing old but last year I started bird watching. Growing up in the desert few birds interested me. The Roadrunner, Quail, humming birds outside of my parents house. The Red Tail Hawks and owls but not too much else. Moving to Seattle birds became a little more interesting. There are tons of waterfowl which I had never seen before. Bald Eagles and Osprey, although I didn't know they were osprey until later.

We put out humming bird feeders and started watching them from our deck and through the windows. Then some tiny birds (almost as small as the hummers) would come by in pairs and little flocks, depending on the season. I wanted to know what these were and start feeding/attracting them so I purchased a few bird watching books and looking around on the web. That's when my passion really started to grow. This is also the point where I learned the Osprey were called Osprey. The little birds are called Bushtits and I started providing them with suet. I had always thought that when birds migrate that they travel only a few hundred miles. Now I learned that many of our summer birds here in Seattle travel all the way to South America. This, by the way, is why you should buy shade grown coffee. Shade grown coffee plantations in Mexico, central and South America leave existing native trees and grow coffee underneath. They only clear out the underbrush to plant coffee. Our summer birds that migrate south still have trees to nest in on shade grown coffee plantations.

I then found a "yard bird" race on the web. The race is a year long and to win you identify as many birds as you can from your "yard". While I didn't enter I had my own personal little race.
Here are the results -

1 American Robin 1.18
2 Anna's Hummingbird 1.18
3 Barn Swallow 5.27
4 Bewick’s Wren 2.25
5 Black-Capped Chickadee 5.05
6 Bushtit 2.21
7 California Gull 1.18
8 Canada Goose 5.28
9 Chipping Sparrow 5.05
10 Common Tern 6.14
11 Crow 1.18
12 Dark-eyed Junco - Oregon form 1.28
13 European Starling 1.26
14 Golden-Crowned Kinglet 5.03
15 House Sparrow 1.18
16 Northern Flicker 2.20
17 Pine Siskin 5.30
18 Ruby-Crowned Kinglet 2.03
19 Rock Pigeon 1.28
20 Steller's Jay 2.28
21 Violet-Green Swallow 5.19
22 Western Tanager 5.08

Sub Total - 22
All of which were viewed from my 4th floor balcony. We also are fortunate to have trees growing up between out building and the building next to ours so many birds will land there.

In addition I also identified these birds around the city -

1 American Coot 4.07
2 Bald Eagle 1.21
3 Barrow’s Goldeneye – male & female 2.04
4 Black Turnstone 2.04
5 Bonaparte’s Gull 3.28
6 Brant 3.28
7 Brewer’s Blackbird 4.27
8 Bufflehead – female & male 2.04
9 Common Goldeneye - male & female 1.31
10 Chestnut-backed Chickadee 1.30
11 Gadswell 4.07
12 Great Blue Heron 2.04
13 Hairy Woodpecker 5.28
14 Hooded Merganser 2.05
15 Horned Grebe 2.03
16 Mallard 4.07
17 Merlin 1.29
18 Osprey 9.02
19 Peregrine Falcon 5.18
20 Red-breasted Merganser – male & female 2.04
21 Red-winged Blackbird 4.27
22 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1.30
23 Sanderling 3.28
24 Spotted Towhee 1.30
25 Surf Scoter 1.31
26 Varied Thrush 1.30
27 Western Grebe 2.04
28 White Crowned Sparrow 4.01
29 White-winged Scoter 1.31

Sub Total - 30
Total – 51

Bird watching blends well with 2 of my other favorite hobbies; cycling and photography.

Lavender Mead

2009-02-24T13:43:00.000-08:00

I bottled the lavender mead today. It has a sweet lavender flavor on the tongue with a slightly dry after taste, for a mead. A beautiful bouquet. Overall I'm quite happy with it. My original recipe is here - http://neutralbuoyancy.blogspot.com/2008/07/lavender-mead-29.html

Cozumel 2009 - Part X - Last Day.

2009-01-28T22:41:00.000-08:00

This was our last free day. Tomorrow would be another travel day back home. We rented a car and drove around the island. We headed south from San Miguel in a counter clockwise loop. Sometimes the low lying jungle was on both sides, sometimes the sea was to the right.

In the south east corner of the island there was a nice Reggae bar. We got a few drinks and walked out into the beach. This was the one of the closest things I saw to a sandy beach. It turned rocky as you got closer to the sea. We sat there for about a half hour and just chilled. I imagined Cuba just 170 miles away across the sea. In reality I was staring more in the direction of the Caymen Islands about 370 miles away. We got back in the car. The road turned north and we were on the east side of the island. To our right was the open sea, to the left the jungle now mixed with swamp land.

About 20 minutes up the road we repeated the routine at another bar, this time sitting down on some stone stairs that went down to a rocky beach. Our conversation took us to the beneficial effects of negative ions. Negative ions released by such things as thunderstorms, waterfalls, or the waves crashing on the rocks in front of us. Then we just zoned out again staring at the sea. There was some crappy rap song playing in the bar but it was so drowned out by the waves that all I heard was a low beat. I imagined it as some tribal drum. My mind drifted between natives, canoes and the memories of all the diving we did over the week. The stony shore made that crackly sound that all stony shores do as every wave pulled away. I thought about the huge cycles of the Earth, the currents that flow past the island, seasons, the barn swallows I saw nesting in the Cenote. They could very well have been the same swallows who were nesting on our building last summer, now at the other end of their migratory journey.

About 5 to 10 minutes further up the road we ate our last dinner in Cozumel at Coconuts. This is a nice bar and grill above the sea. Apparently it can be quite a party place. Take a look at their photo albums on the bar. There is no power to this place and if you listen close, behind the music you can hear a generator. They closed at about 6 and that was just fine because all the mosquitos that live in the swamp land we just drove past came to dinner at sunset.

A few more minutes north and the road again turns, this time west, across the island back to San Miguel. Back to our hotel. Back to airports, big cities and the daily routine.

Cozumel 2009 - Part IX - Last Day Diving

2009-01-26T09:35:00.000-08:00

We had booked for a night dive and our dive operator kept pushing it back due to the weather conditions. It was to be a single tank dive. Finally we just agreed to just add another two tank morning dive day. We paid a little extra for the second dive. Today was windy and we once again had to meet at the dive shop. We didn't get the cool boat this time however it wasn't raining.

Dive site 1 -

Palancar Caves
Site depth - 20 to 100+ feet
My max depth - 82 feet
Vis - 80+ feet
Coldest water temp - 73F
Bottom time - 44 minutes
As stated in my Cozumel souvinear dive map, " . . . has uncountable caves, cracks, coral canyons, with towering pinnacles, sheet coral . . . " "The caves have little current, but some current flows beyond the outer wall of the reef." It's true this is the first time, in Cozumel, I had to actually swim to keep up with our guide. Not as many fish as some other dives.

Our last dive was -

Paso del Cedral
Site depth - 33 to 100+ feet depending on if you are at Paso Reef or Paso Wall.
My max depth - 54 feet
Vis - 80+ feet
Coldest water temp - 79F (Our second warmest of the trip.)
Bottom time - 48 min.
Nice reef, fish. I chilled out a little, this being our last dive. Tried sneaking up on some grouper, barracuda

Cozumel 2009 - Part VIII - Dive Day 4

2009-01-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

Our dive operator (Dive with Martin) does not offer Cenote diving so a few days earlier we started inquiring with some of the other local dive shops, in the afternoons. One of the shops recommended German Yanez and his company of Yucatech Expeditions. I had inquired with Dive with Martin, via email, about Cenote diving before our trip and they also recommended Yucatech so we gave German (pronounced Herman) a call. He quoted a price of $150.oo US dollars for a 2 tank Cenote dive. This price included tanks, weights, ferry tickets to and from the mainland, shuttle transportation and lunch. The ferry tickets themselves are $11.00 US dollars each way so it sounded like a pretty good deal to us. German scheduled a meeting with us at our hotel lobby that night to discuss the details. During that meeting he proposed the option of doing a 1 tank Cenote dive and a visit to the Mayan ruins of Tulum on the same trip. This is something which we were sort of planning to do anyway and thus save us an extra ferry trip to the main land and car rental so we agreed. Our new plan was still the same price and included the admission tickets to Tulum.

For those of you who don't know there are no above ground rivers on the Yucatan. All water seeps through the limestone to subterranean river systems and then flows to the sea. There are places in the jungle where the roof of these cave systems has collapsed. These are what the Mayan's referred to as Dzonot (ZO-note). The Spanish called them Cenote (say-NOH-tay). During the last ice age the water receded and dripping rain water into the caverns formed beautiful formations. After the ice age the caves again flooded. These are now popular for cavern and cave diving.

In 2007 I did a cavern dive in Dos Ojos. Today German took us to Grand Cenote.

Dive site - Grand Cenote

Site depth - 35 feet?

My max depth - 31 feet

Visibility - 100+

Coldest water temperature - 72F

Bottom time - 47 minutes

To access Grand Cenote there is a stair case that splits to the left and the right. Our cavern dive followed a loop from one side to the other and then the reverse back. While still a beautiful cavern dive which I would recommend to anyone who never has done it, I preferred Dos Ojos Cenote.

German Yanez is a very knowledgeable and experienced technical/cave diving instructor and was an all around nice guy. Easy to talk to. I would recommend him to anyone.

Cozumel 2009 - Part VII - Dive Day 3

2009-01-22T12:14:00.000-08:00

Today we expected the same routine. We got up, went down and enjoyed our free breakfast again but when we got back to our room the phone rang. It was Dive With Martin. They said due to the weather we would have to go down to the marina if we wanted to dive today. They couldn't pick us up at our hotel dock. Well it had been raining all night and it was quite windy. So we hopped in a cab and rode down. The water was a little bit choppy and the marina is sheltered so it all made sense. On the plus side we got a bigger boat that had cover from the rain and we still only took 8 - 9 people. Two of which did get picked up on the way but it was tricky. I noticed a lot of people don't wait for the crew to tell them to get on. They'd just go for it and slip, fall, or come close to smashing their face into the concrete pier when the boat suddenly drops 4 feet on a wave. If a boat crew picks you up, let them do their job. Wait until they tell you to board and hand down your equipment first. As it turned out the closer we got to the dive site the smoother the water became. We must have been more leeward.
Anyway dive site 1 was -

French Lady (La Francesa)
Site depth - 40 to 66 feet
My maximum depth - 65 feet
Visibility - 80 to 100 feet
Coldest water temperature - 72 F
Bottom time - 47 minutes
This was a nice healthy reef.

Dive site 2 -

Punta Dalila
Site depth - 25 to 80 feet
My max depth - 61 (Our plan was to dive 50 feet for 50 minutes. One we used for many of our second dives.)
Visibility - 60 to 100 feet
Coldest water temp - 74 F
Bottom time - 53 minutes
Some of what I saw included beautiful coral, good size grouper, cozumel toadfish, coral crab, a 4 foot green moray swimming freely about the reef, an octopus, sitting out in the open, on the reef (probably due to the overcast sky) and a 5 foot nurse shark and a nice school of horse-eye jacks. There had been some talk about the small jelly fish we had been seeing in the water. Some people were stung and had some small welts the next day. I felt pretty save wearing my 3mm full wet suit but about 2 minutes into this dive one of them got me right between my reg and my mask, on my upper lip and across my left cheek. I felt a tingling, reached up and, sure enough, pulled of a tentacle. I wasn't sure how bad it would get so I quickly wrote a note to my buddy just to let him know followed by and OK. It just became a mild burning and tingling lasting for a few hours. No welts.

Cozumel 2009 - Part VI - Dive Day 2

2009-01-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

The plan today was the same as the first. We got up at about 6:15, took our Dramamine, went down for breakfast, grabbed our gear and headed for the dock. This was one of the best parts of diving here. We would just walk a few hundred feet from our room to the dock and get picked up. We had a different guide today, Raymundo. Raymundo was just as good of a dive master as David but maybe a little more reserved. He was our dive master for the rest of the week. Very helpful, friendly.

Dive site 1 was -

Santa Rosa Wall

Site depth 33 to 100+ feet. Our plan was a multi level dive, drifting at about 70 along the wall then 50 on top of the reef. The actual wall drops off several thousand feet but everything good to see is in this range.

My maximum depth - 88 feet

Visibility - 80 to 100 feet

Coldest water temperature - 75

Bottom time - 39 minutes

I've done this site before on my last trip here and I would do it again. Fairly strong current picks us if you drift away from the wall, not so strong near the reef. Has some caves and swim-throughs. Saw yellow stingray in the beginning, barracuda, grouper and many others.

Dive site 2 was -

Tormentos

Site depth - 30 to 66 feet

My max depth - 70 feet

Visibility - 80 to 100 feet

Coldest water temp - 76 F

Bottom time - 49 minutes

Tormentos has lots of reef and fish life including spiny lobster, splendid toadfish, huge black grouper and barracuda, to name a few. The fish seemed to grow larger the longer we drifted on.

Cozumel 2009 - Part V - First Day Diving

2009-01-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

Sometime in the wee morning hours we got a phone call, in our room, from Dive With Martin saying that they would pick us up at our hotel boat dock at 7:30. I think it was like 6:30. We scrambled out of bed, ran down and ate breakfast, ran back, got out gear and made it out there at like 7:35 or so. Our dive master was David and he really broke everything down for us such as the reef were going to dive on was Palancar but it is borken up into 4 parts - Palancar Gardens, Palancar Horseshoe, Palancar Caves and Palancar Deep. He was very helpful, great at finding/pointing stuff out and noticed/corrected quickly when divers were having problems and had a pretty good sence of humor.

Dive Site 1 was -

Palancar Gardens

Site Depth - 16 to 69 feet

My maximun depth - 79 feet (Hm figure that out)

Visibility - 80 to 100 feet

Coldest water temperature - 76F

Bottom time - 34 minutes

Great first dive of the day. Great dive. Many coral caves and recesses.

Dive Site 2 was -

Paradise Reef

Site depth - 22 to 40 feet

My maximum depth - 41 feet

Visibility - 80 to 100 feet

Coldest water temp - 80F (warmest of the week)

Bottom time - 52 minutes

I've been to this site before. It's an ok second dive. Notible fish included barracuda, spotted moray, spiny lobster, puffer, queen conch, yellow stingray, ocean triggerfish, horse - eye jacks, blue chromis, parrotfish, yellowtail damselfish (a personal favorite), angels french grunts, bearded fireworm, sea horse and many more.

Dive with Martin mostly used small fast boats with little shade. This wasn't a problem as it rained most of the week we were there. Getting in the boat at 7:30 was a blessing and a curse. We had to get up early but we were at the sites before everyone else. Clifford needed to rent his gear and they included it in the price. He never had anything bad to report except for the wet suit. He was always a little cold as his rental wet suit was a 2mm shorty. Water temperatures were colder then I had expected for the week, around 73F at depth. I was just slightly on the cold side with my full 3mm. I noticed some people wearing 5/3's and hoods. Our guide/divemaster wore a ratty old shorty but he quickly removed it and dried off between dives.

This was the only day the hot tub was sort of hot at our hotel.

Cozumel 2009 Part IV - Travel Day

2009-01-19T08:31:00.000-08:00

It started early. Sunday. I got to the airport somewhere around 5am, Seattle time, checked in, did the security dance, sat at the gate, boarded the plane and finally took off somewhere around 7:30. About 4 hours later I made it to Houston. It was something like 13:00, Texas time, and I met my buddy, Clifford at the Fox sports above our gate for some beers and lunch. We boarded around 14:00 for a fairly short flight to Cancun by 16:30, made our way through customs and found our shuttle driver rep outside. I'm glad we booked with the shuttle in advance. It worked out smooth and sped things along. The shared shuttle dropped us off in Playa del Carmen about a block from our ferry to Cozumel.

It had just become dark and we had about 40 minutes to spare so we dragged all our luggage into Senior Frogs for another beer and a huge platter of chicken nachos. We waved off the annoying, whistle blowing shot girl. I don't know who thought this was a cool thing. You know the girl. She comes over, tooting that sports whistle, pours a shot of tequila in the same glass she uses for everyone else, then shakes your head around while you try to drink it. Yeah . . . not for us.

The line to board the ferry was getting pretty big so we decided it was time to jump in. I don't know why, really. At this ferry all the tourists line up and when boarding begins the locals just go straight to the front in a big mob. Doesn't matter. We always got a seat. These ferries hold something like 300 people. If you have some full size luggage they will check it in the front or the back. You may or may not get a claim ticket. Kind of freaked us out but the 4 times we used this ferry we always got our luggage back, no problems. It drops you off in the heart of San Miguel the only real town on the island.

Cozumel has several hundred taxis on the island, dealing in pesos or American dollars. Although, for some reason they won't take coin, only paper. They never have change so have small bills or expect to be leaving them a tip. I've been told to agree with the driver on a rate up front, before getting in, but they seem to be pretty fixed depending on where to where you are traveling. Although it would have cost us only about 4 bucks, for some reason we choose to walk the 3/4 of a mile to our hotel, in the dark. As we walked farther away from the tourist zone towards our hotel we sort of freaked ourselves out. We had to laugh at this a few days later after making the walk a couple times. The town is actually quite safe.

We were the last of the day to check in. Hotel Cozumel turned out to be quite decent. For the rate it was great. Clean, swimming pools, dive shop, restaurant, activities (however lame). I'm not sure I would say it's 4 star. In fact I think the 4 stars are just part of the name and not a rating. Our room did not have the refrigerator as stated on the web site. The front desk staff told us that this was only for people who had medications that needed to be kept cold, etc. Our shower drained veeeeery slowly. What I did like was the wooden hooks on the balcony where we could hang our dive equipment to dry. The hot tubs were not hot. After diving you just wanted to plunge into one and that sort of sucked.

After several attempts at trying to make a local call from their phone and failing (impatience and misunderstanding on my part) I broke down and used my mobile to leave a message with our dive operator. T-Mobile worked great all over the island although their web site shows no coverage.

We did a little walk around and went to bed.

BCD Maintenance

2009-01-07T13:19:00.000-08:00

As we know there are many different types of BC's on the market. My BC, the Zeagle Stiletto had integrated weights (I don't wear a weight belt) and uses a ripcord system for ditching the weight in an emergency. They ripcord system is a little different then most BC's. Most with integrated weight systems have the weight in little pockets the pull out and are ditched with the lead, possibly never to be recovered. With the ripcord the weight does goe into little sleeves and placed into side pockets but the bottom of the pockets are laced with the plastic ripcord holding it all together. Upon pulling the ripcord, the bottom of the pockets open up and the weight falls out. The lacing of the pockets is a little complex. Nothing to hard to tackle but I decided I would like to get familiar with it should I ever have to re-lace it on a dive trip. I hung my BC on a hanger and gave the ripcord a pull. A little to my surprise, once the Velcro gave way the ripcord pulled smoothly and easily. The pockets opened up and had there been any weight in there I'm sure it would have fallen straight to the floor. Re-lacing took about 10 minutes. I recommend looking closely at how everything is laced together first before pulling the cord. It's all stated in the directions but helpful to look first anyway. Even so, after finishing I noticed I missed a few loops and had to go back. All in all no big deal but it will take a few minutes.

Afterwards I put on the BC and inflated it through the mouth piece. I heard a little leak. Oh no! This scared me since our new kitten was just walking around on it. Could his little claws have poked a hole in it? I'm going to Cozumel next week! I took off the BC and re-inflated. The leak was coming from one of the bottom dump, pull valves. I pulled on the valve and inflated again. Still leaking. Upon taking a closer look at the valve I realized they unscrew and did so. And there, plain as day, was the problem. Salt crystals. Some 1/8th of an inch in size. There must have been some salt water inside the BC. Not uncommon, but I'm pretty good at rinsing my gear, inside and out. I unscrewed the other two valves, also having salt, rinsed them and the inside of the BC. This will be my regular routine now after a dive trip. I re-inflated the BC, as much as I could, orally and it's now holding tight. I'm glad it wasn't the cat.

Cozumel 2009 - Part III - Hotel & Dive Package

2008-12-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

Ok we booked our dive package and hotel stay.

For diving we decided to go with Dive With Martin. I read an article in Scuba Diving magazine about Cozumel and there were about 4 operators at the end that they recommended. Dive With Martin was one of them. I looked at the others and we liked Dive With Martin's packages best. We chose a 3 day package of 2 dives per day and added 1 night dive. The whole deal came to $205.00. The package includes BC, mask, fins, snorkel and gauges. I have all that but my buddy does not.

While emailing with Paddi from Dive With Martin I mentioned we hadn't settled on a hotel yet and asked if they had any suggestions. They sent me a great list that answered all my questions. We were looking for something clean and nice, not to expensive, not to far from downtown San Miguel but far enough south that the dive operator would pick us up at the hotel dock (oh yeah a dock would be nice). We got all that at Hotel Cozumel. In fact it's ranked as a 4 star resort. $91.oo a night for the room split between the both of us.

Cozumel 2009 - Part II - Plane Tickets

2008-12-03T22:18:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah! My Cozumel trip is a little more secure. Clifford and I purchased our airline tickets. We have got to be the worst travel agents ever. We probably spent 2 hours talking to each other, on the phone, while trying to co-ordinate flights to Cozumel via the Internet. The trouble is that a) we are coming from two different parts of the US, b) we want the cheapest tickets but mostly c) airline schedules. No matter how we looked at it one of us was going to have either a long ass flight to some out of the way city or like a 20 hour layover somewhere.

Now during my last trip Christine and I landed in Cancun and rented a car but our hotel was along the mainland (Akumel). Clifford and I were trying to avoid having to take a bus from Cancun to Playa del Carmen and then a ferry to Cozumel by just flying directly to Cozumel, but that's exactly what we are going to have to do. It solved the long layover/long flight problem and saved us (at least me) a few hundred bucks on airfare. Some of that difference will be spent of shuttle service from Cancun to Playa del Carmen and ferry fair but it still comes up less then flying direct.

Next - Purchase hotel and dive package.

Cozumel 2009 - Part I

2008-11-04T15:59:00.000-08:00

My friend Clifford finally got scuba certified and if all goes well the two of us are heading to Cozumel in Januray for a week of diving. I keep nudging him to get his Advanced Open Water cert before we head down there. Hopefully this doesn't fall through. If so I'll use the money for a drysuit course and possibly the Rescue Diver class.

Review - DAN Surface Signal Kit

2008-08-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

I picked up the DAN Surface Signal Kit yesterday. Just as stated on their website it includes - 6’ orange safety sausage (with lpi attachment, dump valve and reflective strip), Wind Storm whistle, signal mirror and chemical lightstick. Accessories are incorporated into sausage’s base; clips to BC. Dimensions: 7.5” wide x 3.0” high (rolled); 7.5” wide x 72.0” high (unrolled).

As also stated the tube can be inflated with the low pressure inflator hose from your BC or by mouth. It just took me 4 deep breaths. A small threaded fitting on the tube is then adjusted to keep the tube from being accidentally deflated. There is also a tiny dump valve near the base for deflation. Update - It can also be inflated via octo through the bottom.

One side of the tube (sausage) has a reflective strip and a small clear plastic sleeve near the top which is most certainly for inserting the glow stick. The glow stick is nice but hopefully if I was stranded at night, at sea, I would still have a working dive light with me. But, again the more light the better your chances of rescue.

The signal mirror is small but I believe would be effective. There is a small hole in the middle of the mirror with a grid in it. Somehow, while looking through this hole from the back, you can see the reflected spot of sunlight even while aimed at the sky with nothing to shine it on. This is a great advantage if trying to aim at (signal) aircraft. Instructions for use are also printed on the back of the mirror.

The storm whistle is light and loud. I took it out of the kit and clipped it on the right shoulder of my BC.

The kit sells for $75.00 from DAN but I picked it up at Underwater Sports, here in Seattle, for $32.00. Must have been a sale or something.

How Hawaii became a second Cozumel

2008-08-15T17:38:00.000-07:00

We were going to go to Hawaii in January with Christine's sister and her husband, Eric (my main dive buddy so far). They had rented a condo and asked us if we wanted to join them. We agreed. Christine and her sister worked out a deal that if we joined we would chip in some of the price. I won't go into details but it was a lot of money which we would have coughed up anyway except our expenses, lately, are a little to much then our income and we wanted to catch up. So, sadly, Hawaii is out for now. I work for a hotel so we'll go another time and get a hot rate on a hotel.

Another friend of mine just got certified however. Knowing how much I am yearning to go diving, Christine agreed to let me go with him on a 'cheap' dive trip somewhere with money I've saved in a little personal spending account I have set up. We decided on Cozumel. He's never been there and I want to do some more in depth diving off the island. Plus the price is right. Christine could have gone but not being a diver and having been there already she decided she would be a little bored while we were out to sea each day. She's not a lay in the sun, beach bum, kind of person.

Thus is how the Hawaii trip became Cozumel II.

Peppermint Mead Update #30

2008-08-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

On July 25th I tasted the peppermint mead. It tasted like a plain mead until I saw what looked almost like a halocline or a thermocline. The mead was clearly stratified with the peppermint flavor up in the top half of the carboy near the tea bags. I removed the tea bags and racked. The racked mead, having been mixed together, tasted wonderful. It had been sitting on the peppermint tea bags for about 11 days.

Peppermint Mead #30

2008-07-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

Peppermint Mead

(Birthday/Harvest Moon Mead)
# 30
1 gallon removed from the 3 gallons of #28.
September 24, 2007

Ingredients (Original 3 gallon Harvest Mead recipe) -

8 pounds of Twin Peaks Mountain Honey from Snoqualmie Valley Honey Farm in North Bend, WA purchased at the Pike Place Market.
Filtered tap water
Wyeast Laboratories 4184 Sweet Mead Yeast in the smack pack
Wyeast Labs Dry Mead yeast in the smack pack
1 5/8 teaspoon Superfood
1 teaspoon DAP

Additives included after the 3 gallons were divided –
11 oz honey
Dried Peppermint leaves – About 1 cup
20 oz filtered tap water

Specific Gravity – OG – 1.104 or 13 ½%
October 3, 2007 - 1.068 or 9 ½%
Late December – 1.048 or 6%
February 9, 2008 – 0.996 or -1% After racking and adding 11oz of honey and peppermint tea – 1.010 or 2%
July 14th, 2008 – 1.021 or 2 ½ % before racking and adding 12 oz of filtered tap water. I think we’re looking at about 10% alcohol here. 11% before the addition of the 12 oz water.

Process –On the night of Sunday the 23rd I sterilized all the equipment and chilled 2 gallons of filtered tap water. At 09:45 on Monday the 24th I activated the smack pack of yeast. At 13:30 I noticed the smack pack was swelling nicely and so I started boiled 1 gallon of filtered tap water for 10 minutes. I removed this from the heat and added the 8 pounds of honey, 1 - 1/8th teaspoon of Superfood, 3/4th teaspoon DAP and brought the temperature back up to 160 degrees F for 10 minutes more. I then poured 1 gallon of the chilled water into the 3 gallon carboy with the must and enough chilled water from the second gallon of chilled water to top it off. This left my must at still over 100 degrees F so into the refrigerator it went. About 18:30 the temperature finally cooled down to about 78 degrees F so I pitched the yeast. It took 36 hours for an active fermentation. Just the amount of time Wyeast Labs web site says this strain can take up to. The lag time always scares me.On September 29th, active fermentation, I added ½ teaspoon of Superfood and ¼ teaspoon of DAP.On October 6th, I added ¼ teaspoon of Superfood and ¼ teaspoon of DAP.Somewhere around 8% the fermentation slowed to a crawl. After Christmas vacation I took another reading and the gravity was 6% or 1.048.On January 20th I added some Wyeast Labs Dry Mead yeast and fermentation resumed within hours.February 9, 2008. This mead has now been split into 3 – 1 gallon meads. A plain mead, Lavender and Peppermint. The process for the Peppermint mead will continue here. The Plain Mead will stay #28 and the Lavender #29. The dry mead yeast worked well and the gravity was -1% or 0.996. A tea made with about ½ cup of dried peppermint and 8oz of hot water was poured into a 1 gallon carboy. 11 oz of honey was added and enough of the mead to make up the full gallon. The new gravity after these additives is 2% or 1.010. The taste is ok but more peppermint will probably need to be added. I taste little to none now. Maybe steeped in the carboy. July 14th, 2008. Racked and topped off carboy with 12 oz filtered tap water. Good flavor. Peppermint hits you after you swallow. I am steeping 6 more tea bags of peppermint in the carboy. Should be excellent. Will probably add some acids.

Peppermint mead update.

Lavender Mead #29

2008-07-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Lavender Mead
(Birthday/Harvest Moon Mead)
# 29
1 gallon removed from the 3 gallons of #28.
September 24, 2007

Ingredients (Original 3 gallon Harvest Mead recipe) -
8 pounds of Twin Peaks Mountain Honey from Snoqualmie Valley Honey Farm in North Bend, WA purchased at the Pike Place Market
Filtered tap water
Wyeast Laboratories 4184 Sweet Mead Yeast in the smack pack
Wyeast Labs Dry Mead yeast in the smack pack
1 5/8 teaspoon Superfood
1 teaspoon DAP

Additives included after the 3 gallons were divided –
11 oz Honey
1 ½ cups of Dried Lavender Flowers
20 oz filtered tap water

Specific Gravity –
OG – 1.104 or 13 ½%
October 3, 2007 - 1.068 or 9 ½%
Late December – 1.048 or 6%
February 9, 2008 – 0.996 or -1%
After racking and adding 11oz of honey and lavender tea – 1.010 or 2%
July 14th, 2008 – 1.010 or 2% before racking and adding 8 oz of filtered tap water.
About 11% alcohol at this stage.

Process –
On the night of Sunday the 23rd I sterilized all the equipment and chilled 2 gallons of filtered tap water. At 09:45 on Monday the 24th I activated the smack pack of yeast. At 13:30 I noticed the smack pack was swelling nicely and so I started boiled 1 gallon of filtered tap water for 10 minutes. I removed this from the heat and added the 8 pounds of honey, 1 - 1/8th teaspoon of Superfood, 3/4th teaspoon DAP and brought the temperature back up to 160 degrees F for 10 minutes more. I then poured 1 gallon of the chilled water into the 3 gallon carboy with the must and enough chilled water from the second gallon of chilled water to top it off. This left my must at still over 100 degrees F so into the refrigerator it went. About 18:30 the temperature finally cooled down to about 78 degrees F so I pitched the yeast. It took 36 hours for an active fermentation. Just the amount of time Wyeast Labs web site says this strain can take up to. The lag time always scares me.

On September 29th, active fermentation, I added ½ teaspoon of Superfood and ¼ teaspoon of DAP.

On October 6th, I added ¼ teaspoon of Superfood and ¼ teaspoon of DAP.
Somewhere around 8% the fermentation slowed to a crawl. After Christmas vacation I took another reading and the gravity was 6% or 1.048.

On January 20th I added some Wyeast Labs Dry Mead yeast and fermentation resumed within hours.

February 9, 2008. This mead has now been split into 3 – 1 gallon meads. A plain mead, Lavender and Peppermint. The process for the Lavender mead will continue here. The Plain Mead will stay #28 and the Peppermint #30. The dry mead yeast worked well and the gravity was -1% or 0.996. A tea made with 1-1/2 cups of lavender flowers and 12oz of hot water was poured into a 1 gallon carboy. 11 oz of honey was added and enough of the mead to make up the full gallon. The new gravity after these additives is 2% or 1.010. The taste is pretty good. Semi-sweet with good lavender flavor.

July 14th, 2008. Racked and topped off carboy with 8 oz filtered tap water. Good flavor. Nice lavender taste and bouquet. I will probably add some acids.

Harvest Mead Update #28

2008-07-15T17:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a little update on my Harvest Mead, which I started back in September. This I took straight out of my note book -

On September 29th, active fermentation, I added ½ teaspoon of Superfood and ¼ teaspoon of DAP.

On October 6th, I added ¼ teaspoon of Superfood and ¼ teaspoon of DAP.
Somewhere around 8% the fermentation slowed to a crawl. After Christmas vacation I took another reading and the gravity was 6% or 1.048.

On January 20th I added some Wyeast Labs Dry Mead yeast and fermentation resumed within hours.

February 9, 2008. This mead has now been split into 3 – 1 gallon meads. A plain mead, Lavender and Peppermint. The process for the plain mead will continue here. The Lavender will become #29 and the Peppermint #30. The dry mead yeast worked well and the gravity was -1% or 0.996. After adding 11oz of honey the new gravity is 2.5% or 1.022. Tastes perfect. Not to sweet, almost a semi-sweet.

July 14th, 2008. Racked, added 8 oz of filtered tap water to top up the carboy. Still good flavor. Will probably add some acids.

Scuba diving video game

2008-06-30T22:29:00.000-07:00

Scuba diving video game - http://www.crazymonkeygames.com/Seascape.html

2008-05-05T21:55:00.001-07:00

Allergies

2008-03-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

Every year since moving to Seattle I've been plagued with seasonal spring allergies. Pollen. I suspected tree pollen. At work I'm the canary in the coal mine. The last week in February my eyes turned red, itchy, mucusy and feel like someone poured sand in them. I also get a cough and congested. Medication didn't really seem to help. A little but not much. I kept meaning to get tested and see about getting shots - immunotherapy. They find out what you are allergic to and then give you a shot, starting with a small dose and gradually increasing it, of that substance until your body says,"Oh hey, yeah, we really don't have to react to this stuff, it is no harm to us." The shots start weekly, then bi-weekly, then monthly when a control dose has been figured out. At which point, as I understand, your body doesn't react anymore. Every year I get the referral, then allergy season passes and I end up not going. This year was to much. Enough is enough. I'm not going through this again if there is an alternative. Plus two people at work had bad allergies, did the shots and loved the results. I'm sold. So today I went for my testing. They tests really weren't that bad. Not the torture that everyone told me. They do them on the forearms now not the back. I had them do food allergies while I was there. I knew I'm allergic to crab, lobster, shrimp, and crawfish and you can see the results for crab here on my right arm standing out against the other allergies. Here are some pictures of the results -

On my left arm you can see all the tree pollens standing out.

So they rate the reaction on a scale of 1 - 4 with 4 being the worst. It would appear I'm allergic to a lot of fraking sh*t!

crab - 4 (we knew that already)
soybean - 2
walnut - 2

I'm not putting up anything with a 1, but there were quite a few. Also food allergies can't be helped with immunotherapy. You just avoid the food. On with the show -

4 different types of molds got a 3 rating
2 other molds got a 2 rating

Ok keep mold out of the house.

2 different types of weeds got a 4 rating
5 different weeds get a 3
and one more with a 2

Stay out of the weeds.
Now for my terrible spring tree allergies -

Alder - 4
Birch - 4
Cottonwood - 4
Elm- 4
Oak - 4
Walnut - 3
Pussy Willow (hee hee) - 3
Ash - 3
Maple - 3
Poplar - 3

They only tested one grass as usually if you are allergic to one you are allergic to many.

Orchard grass - 3

That one reacted after like 4 minutes and she just whipped it off right away.

Cats & dogs, pet dander - both a 2

Who knew?!? I've had cats all my life and Bailey had pretty bad dandruff sometimes. He said not to worry about the cat since it didn't really bother me to much. Our cat, Capella, doesn't get up on the bed anymore anyway.

One type of house dust (dust mite) -4

Vacuum. Get anti-dust mite covers for the pillows and mattress, wash blankets, sheets weekly in hot water. We do that washing anyway but will get covers.

I knew I had allergies but nothing like this.

Smart - Fortwo

2008-03-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

Our friend Nicole (standing) Christine in the car. This is a first generation Fortwo.

Christine has been wanting a new car for . . . well just about as long as we've been together. First we didn't have the money. Then we had the money and almost bought a Mini Cooper. What stopped us? Christine found out Smart was coming to the US. We first saw the little cars in Germany about 4 years ago. Christine fell in love with them and once she found out they were coming here she held out for one. We even got on a waiting list for a refundable 100 dollars. Christine was able to order everything she wanted and now we are one of the first to have them.

In many ways they remind me of the 1969 VW Beetle I had. It's small, the engine is over the drive wheels in the rear. The engine is a 1000cc (1 liter) fuel injected 3 cylinder in line, now produced my Mitsubishi, yielding about the same horsepower (71hp) as my '69 Beetle's 1600cc (1.5 liter) engine and getting close to twice the gas mileage. Doesn't sound like much power but the Smart weighs close to 1/2 that of a regular sedan. About 1600 pounds. My old Beetle was about 100 pounds more. A 2008 Honda Civic weighs about 2700 pounds. The suspension is stiff. The people won't like it because of the "rough" ride. Those much over 6 foot probably won't feel comfortable in it but it fits me well and I'm 6'1". Unlike my old Bug, the Smart Fortwo has front anti-lock disc brakes, a steel roll cage duel front airbags, and all the comforts of most modern autos. And these 2008 Smarts are actually 7 inches longer and 2 inches wider then previous years. They are the second generation. Smart has been in Europe since 1998 and has sold more then 770,000 cars. They are owned by Daimler AG which was Daimler/Chrysler until they sold off Chrysler sometime in 2007. They are the world's thirteenth largest car manufacturer.

Edmunds had a pretty good article here - http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FirstDrives/articleId=119682#26

Another review from Automobilemag.com - http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/hatchbacks/0704_2008_smart_fortwo/index.html

Yet another review from Newcartestdrive.com - http://www.newcartestdrive.com/sneakpreview.cfm?ReviewID=124

Yet yet another from Theautochannel.com - http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2007/11/07/069937.html

The Fortwo has lovers and haters as do all cars. One of the most common comments we hear is "I'd be afraid to drive it. I wouldn't feel safe" What I have to say to that is then don't. I would feel unsafe driving a motorcycle and for that reason I don't. But that doesn't mean I don't like motorcycles. The other big comment we get is,"Do you drive it on the highway, do trucks blow you away?" Yes we drive it on the highway all the time. No, trucks don't blow me of the road. It cruises fine at 70. I've had it up to 80 with no problems. Would I drive it across the country? Probably not. Would I drive from Seattle to Portland or Canada? Sure I would, without a second thought. If you're someone like us, living in an urban environment with narrow streets, residing in a condo not a farm, with no kids and never planning to have any then the Smart might just be for you. Personally I prefer to rent a 10 mpg pick up when I need to do some DIY work around the house and keep my nimble Fortwo for daily use.

Here are some pictures of our little car with only 100 miles on it. Already dirty.

Cape Bees, Africanized Bees, European Honey Bees, Mason Bee

2008-03-03T12:31:00.000-08:00

I saw a fascinating show on the Discovery Channel last night about bees. I caught the show about halfway through and I believe the main subject was Africanized honey bees and how they have invaded the Americas. I was drawn into the show being a fan of honey bees all my life, a mead maker, and growing up in the southwest United States where the Africanized bee has recently (last 15 years or so) invaded.

The way I understand it the African honey bee is fairly aggressive although people have been living with them and using them for honey for hundreds of years. The Africanized is a cross of the European and African Honey bee and slightly more aggressive. (See "History" in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bees.) These Africanized honey bees were accidentally released in Brazil and have made their way up into the United States. They have dominated the European Honey hives which were previously used for honey and as a result they are now being used for honey production in Central America and in the Southwest US.

Going back to Africa - The African Honey bee is used in most of Africa but on the Cape they use the Cape Honey bee. What really blew my mind is what happened when they accidentally placed Cape Honey bees hives near African Honey bee hives. Some of the Cape bee workers would invade the African bee hives. Most would be driven out but a few would make it in and be undisturbed. Once inside the Cape bees were not under the influence of the African queen bee or their own queen and thus their reproduction organs turned on making them, in a sense, also queens. They would even get the African bees to feed them. Now I'm not sure of the specifics but all the workers and the queen in a hive are female. The hive only produces males during certain times to fertilized new queens which go out and start new hives. So the invading Cape bees could not be fertilized but they somehow produced eggs which were complete clones of themselves!! The African bees would take care of the eggs. More Cape bees would be born into the African bee hive and the problem would worsen. Less and less attention would be given to the African queen and she would eventually be driven out. Now no more African bees are being produced. All or most of the new Cape bees are acting like queens. The African bees die from old age and there are no workers to produce new comb for the eggs or to take care of the queens. Finally the whole hive collapses.

I believe the problem has been taken care off by keeping the two types of bees separate. Cape bees back on the Cape, African bees to the rest of Africa. The thought may arise could we introduce these bees to America to eliminate the aggressive Africanized "killer" bee? The answer is Yes and No. Yes we could but the Cape bees wouldn't stop with the Africanized bee. They would move on and destroy all the European honey bee hives we currently use.

Many of our European honey bees are currently suffering from CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder). As much as 25% or more of hives in the US have died because of this. No one is really sure what is causing it. The latest thing I read is possibly a virus which is been found in many of the affected hives. Although there are several factors such as poor nutrition, bees are trucked around the country to pollinate crops and only get one type of flower then the honey is removed and the bees are fed corn syrup for the winter. Fraking corn syrup. During the off season the colonies that have been trucked all over the country are stored together, thus allowing disease to spread. Plus I don't think I even have to speak about pesticides being sprayed on crops. Pollinating honey bees help produce 1/3 of all the food we eat. Which brings us to . . .

Wild bees. There were flowers in the Americas long before Europeans brought over honey bees. What pollinated them? Well, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, bats, but also wild, solitary, non-honey producing bees, such as leaf-cutters and Orchard Mason bees. These bees are non-aggressive. You can help them by building or buying their homes to place around your garden. Examples are here - http://www.pollinatorparadise.com/Solitary_Bees/mudholes.htm
Or the photo on this page. A single female bee will nest in one of the holes, lay up to 10 eggs, seal them up with mud and then die. The larvae will grow, hibernate over the winter and hatch in the spring to do the whole thing all over again, pollinating all your flowers in the process. Large be houses/boxes are used to pollinate whole orchards. Different size holes will attract different types of bees. For more information see the above link.

Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-28T14:59:00.000-08:00

I took some photos of the Lunar eclipse on the 20th. Here they are. The first two are from out at Duwamish Point on Alki. The last two are from the West Seattle Alaska Junction area.

1:20-23

2008-01-30T01:42:00.000-08:00

1:20-23 Then God said, "Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens." God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

Hawaii

2008-01-09T16:39:00.000-08:00

Looks like in about a year we are going to Hawaii. Of course while we are there I expect to be doing some diving! I'm going to have to go somewhere before that. Maybe the Caymen's are still in.

More on Iridium Flares

2007-11-05T23:10:00.000-08:00

So Christine and I went outside to catch an Iridium Flare last evening. This was Iridium 57. The magnitude was -4 (that of Venus at her best). For it's 3 seconds of glory it was quite amazing. I had this strange feeling, in that brief time, that I had telescopic sight and I could see every detail on the satellite. Heavens Above showed another flare (Iridium 60) for tonight at almost the exact time and location. This one even brighter at a magnitude of -8. I took my camera out and caught the last second and a half outside a near by church in this photo. Click on the photo for a better image. The fuzzy "star" at the bottom/middle of the image is Comet 17P Holmes again.

Comet 17P Holmes & more astromony banter.

2007-10-30T00:29:00.000-07:00

Comet 17P Holmes has just brightened dramatically and can now be seen with the naked eye. I just found out about this poking around here - http://www.heavens-above.com. I took some photos of it last night. The comet is in the constellation of Perseus. Each photo takes us a step closer. Click on the image to see a larger, clearer file.
The first image shows much of Perseus and the bright star, Capella (which our cat is named after) in of the constellation Auriga, at the bottom. You will see a small triangle of stars in the middle of the image. The next image shows this more closely. The bright star at the top of the triangle is Alpha Persei or Mirfak. The bright star in the lower right is Delta Persi or Basel (the brave one). The third 'star' in this triangle is not a star at all but the comet 17P Holmes! I didn't expect to see it without binoculars. It was confusing me on my star chart. The third photo is a close up of the comet itself through my 300mm lens.
All of this was visible even though there was a near full moon out. I was observing near midnight at a latitude of about 47 degrees and Perseus was almost directly above me, slightly to the east.
Other objects to note, Mars rising in the east in Gemini along with probably my favorite constellation, Orion, Capella (as stated above), and to the west Vega.
This morning I woke up early for a chance to see a Iridium Flare but of course it was foggy to the south east. There was Mars and the Moon again, now above and slightly to the west, southwest. To the southwest Sirius was trying but sadly failing to out shine Venus who stood just above the fog, in Leo, to the east.

Fall Color

2007-10-17T23:48:00.000-07:00

We just had out 5th wedding anniversary. In celebration we took a drive up to Leavenworth for Oktoberfest. The town was way overcrowded for us to really enjoy it and there was no lodging. We should have planned this better. But the fall color in the mountains was beautiful!

Mead Fermentation

2007-09-27T00:38:00.000-07:00

My latest mead in the process of fermentation for those of you who have never seen mead, beer or wine ferment before.

Pretty exciting, eh? It took 36 hours for it to reach an active fermentation. That lag time always scares me.

Royal Metheglin

2007-09-26T00:16:00.000-07:00

Since I'm posting about mead I'll tell you a little tale about a mead I did a few years ago. It's a metheglin. A metheglin is any mead with herbs or spices added. I got the recipe from the book, Making Wild Wines & Meads: 125 Unusual Recipes Using Herbs, Fruits, Flowers & More. Or, at least, the basic recipe. I may have altered it some. Here it is -

Royal Metheglin

One of the Autumn Meads of 2003

(Apparently I prefer the start meads around my birthday)

# 22
1 gallon
September 24, 2003

Ingredients -
3 Pounds of Huckleberry/Maple Honey from Tahuya River Apiaries, Hood Canal area.
Filtered tap water
Wyeast Laboratories 3184 Sweet Mead Yeast in the smack pack
1 tablespoon Rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon Fresh Thyme leaves
1 tablespoon Fresh Chopped Ginger
1 tablespoon Orange Zest
1 tablespoon Lemon Zest
3 Fresh Sage leaves
3 Fresh Bay leaves
1 teaspoon Dried Hyssop (Had to go to the Pike Place Market spice store for this one.)
4 Allspice Berries
6 Cloves
1 teaspoon Malic Acid
3/4th teaspoon Tartaric Acid
1/4th teaspoon Citric Acid
1 1/4th teaspoon yeast nutrient
½ teaspoon Tannin

Specific Gravity –
OG – 1.105 or 14%
October 6th, 2003 – Racked 1.072 or 9.5%
October 15th, 2003 – 1.072 or 9.5%
1.070 or 10% after adding water
October 21st, 2003 – 1.056 or 7%
November 17th, 2003 – 1.004 or 0% 
1.038 or 5 ½% after adding honey
January 27, 2004 – 1.038 or 5 ½%

Process –
Heated honey and water to a boil and then lowered the heat to a simmer and skimmed off the foam. Added all herbs and cooled. Added acids and 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient. Added yeast. This mead sounds gross but smells wonderful!
Started fermenting 2 days later.
Racked off most herbs and zests on October 6th, 2003. Fermentation slows.
October 10th, I added ¼ teaspoon of yeast nutrient. Still slow.
October 13th I added ½ teaspoon of yeast energizer.
October 15 and there has been no gravity change in 9 days so I added some tap water and a pinch of Epsom salts in case this may be a PH problem. I also aerated.
October 18th, 2003 fermentation resumes!!! One bubble through the airlock every 8 seconds. On October 19th I was getting one bubble through the airlock every 3 seconds!
Racked and added ½ cup of water and 1 cup of honey on November 17th, 2003.
Bottled on January 27th, 2004. Excellent flavor. Going to Estrella XX.
Mid Feburary, Estrella XX. Did not place in the Atenvelt brewing competition, although everyone in our camp thought for sure it would win. Judges comments were, ”Improved a lot with breathing. Spices overpowering to start but improves. Might try less spicing.”
Sometime in 2005 I tasted another bottle and very displeased in the flavor.
Decided to give it another taste yesterday. It is now 3 years old and it has a good flavor. Very complexed. All the flavors seem to be there at the same time but in a good way. The judges could have been right. There may be to much spice but I like it again. Maybe the last bottle was corked or it aged in a strange way. I will take it to my friends at next years Estrella.

Harvest Mead

2007-09-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

It was a mead day yesterday. I call it a mead day instead of a brew day because technically making mead (and wine for that matter) are not brewing. Brewing is a beer making term. But I think people use brewing to describe the process anyway because we get all our supplies from the local home brew shop. Think about it. Have you ever sampled wine at a brewery? No, you go to a winery. Likewise there are meadery's. Anyway it's been a long time since I did any mead and I was feeling the need. Plus a friend from work has a back yard full of lavender. I've done a lavender mead before and loved the result although last time I added the lavender during the initial fermentation and this time I'm going to add it after. I've also done a spearmint mead with good results. My wife loves it. But I'm not to into spearmint. However I recently saw dried peppermint in the grocery and so I'm going to give that a shot. It will also be added after the initial fermentation. So my plan is to do 3 gallons of a regular sweet/semi sweet mead in the initial fermenter and then split it up into 2 gallons of lavender and one gallon of peppermint. Here's the recipe of what I've done so far -

Harvest Mead

(Birthday Mead)

(2 days from now is the harvest moon and my birthday)

# 28

3 gallons. The intent of this mead is to become 2 gallons of Lavender and 1 gallon of Peppermint, both of which I will add after the initial ferment.

September 24, 2007

Ingredients -

8 pounds of Twin Peaks Mountain Honey from Snoqualmie Valley Honey Farm in North Bend, WA purchased at the Pike Place Market

Filtered tap water

Wyeast Laboratories 4184 Sweet Mead Yeast in the smack pack

1 1/8^th teaspoon Superfood

3/4^th teaspoon DAP

Specific Gravity –

OG – 1.104 or 13.5%

Process –

On the night of Sunday the 23^rd I sterilized all the equipment and chilled 2 gallons of filtered tap water. At 09:45 on Monday the 24^th I activated the smack pack of yeast. At 13:30 I noticed the smack pack was swelling nicely and so I started boiled 1 gallon of filtered tap water for 10 minutes. I removed this from the heat and added the 8 pounds of honey, 1 - 1/8^th teaspoon of Superfood, 3/4^th teaspoon DAP and brought the temperature back up to 160 degrees F for 10 minutes more. I then poured 1 gallon of the chilled water into the 3 gallon carboy with the must and enough chilled water from the second gallon of chilled water to top it off. This left my must at still over 100 degrees F so into the refrigerator it went. About 18:30 the temperature finally cooled down to about 78 degrees F so I pitched the yeast.

Here also are some photos from mead day -

Here you can see the expansion of the smack pack yeast pack as the yeast is actively working inside.

Next is one 12 pound container of honey, nearly empty now.

Aeration it the key to getting a good start.

Everything in the carboy.

Update on this mead here - Harvest Mead Update

Feast Fit For A King

2007-09-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

So as I may have stated before we have trees that grow up to the level of our balcony where I trim them off for the view. Well there has been this squirrel foraging around in those trees eating the seeds. The other day he discovered our deck and in about 2 days made quick work of all the sunflower seeds there. The place was a wreck! Seed shells and leaves everywhere. But the birds weren't eating them so at least something did. Squirrels are crazy. This one hangs upside down, by his hind legs, and picks off the seeds.

Replacing our trim and the Home Depot Morons

2007-09-05T23:20:00.000-07:00

Labor day weekend meant work would be slow this week, for me, so we decided to replace our crummy ghetto apartment baseboards with something better. Christine's still in good with the construction company that she used to work with and they had a lot of trim piling up from old jobs so they let us have some. The trend for base boards here is white and they be getting taller. The stuff we picked up is about 3 1/2 inches tall. We've seen between 3 and 6 inches in the new homes we've toured.

In Arizona my dad had all the tools I ever needed and would usually come over and help me with our projects but now that we live 1500 miles away it's not so easy. Although dad is still a great resource on the phone almost any time of the day. But I still needed some tools. So off to Home Depot to rent a miter saw. The process went well, wasn't too much money (although I've never rented tools anywhere else to compare) but I'm convinced the people working are morons. Now I know there's a lot of tools for them to have knowledge on but this is your job here. The miter saw I rented worked great. I've used a circular saw before but never a miter and frankly they scared me. But this was nothing. However for some reason my miter saw came with an extra piece. A table saw miter gauge. Well of course I didn't use it. And then I forgot it and had to make 2 trips returning the stuff. All the while thinking, "How does this fit on the miter saw?" and "It looks like it's for a table saw."

When I got back to the Homely Depot I asked the guy, (we'll call this guy HD1) (that could mean Home Depot 1, Head Dummy 1, Highly Dysfunctional 1 or what ever you see fit) "How does this fit on that miter saw?"

Well, he looked at it for a minute, scratched his head and then asked the other guy (we'll call the other guy HD2). HD2 looked at it. The you could see a light bulb go on as he realized it was for a table saw. "That's for a table saw. Must of got mixed up when the orders went out."

When the orders went out. Think about that. It sounds like there was this big order being picked up by some contractor with all these tools. Truck loads of tools. Well when I got my order filled that morning it was for one, just one, miter saw. And the best part is HD2 (the guy who just made that comment) is the one who filled the order. HD2 helped me carry it out, complete with the odd table saw attachment. I can't help wonder who got the table saw without the table saw miter gauge.

So now a day goes buy and I'm sanding and painting all the trim and it's ready. All I need is a nail gun. Back to you know where! Who should be behind the counter of the rental dept.? HD1. I go with a Paslode cordless "brad" nailer type nail gun. It's like a brad nailer but without the compressor and hoses and all that stuff to lug around. Uses these little compressed air cylinders they call fuel cells. Not that I think of when I think fuel cell but anyway. So I rent the thing, and buy some nails and 2 of the "fuel cells". HD1 gets a few kudos because he actually gave me the instruction manual with the thing. Which I proceed to read when I get home only to realize that HD1 rented me a nail gun that uses 16 gauge nails and sold me 15 gauge nails. Nails which also happen to load into the nail driving firing chamber at an angle. The nail gun I rented doesn't load nails at and angle, they come straight up from the bottom (such as the first picture here, not the second). Back I go with the nails. HD1 happens to still be there. I tell him the problem and hand him the unopened nails.

"Well, so they didn't work? Did you try them?" HD1 said.
"Ummmmmm no " said I. (Thinking now about nails jamming in the gun, injuring myself, or not going far enough into the wood, etc.) I read the instructions you gave me and they called for 16 gauge nails. These are 15."
HD1, now looking dumbfounded at the cage full of nail guns and the nails on the shelf beneath them, says, "Well all the Paslode nail guns use these nails that load at an angle and we don't have any of those in 16 gauge."
I proceed to explain what I just told all of you about how the nails load, blah blah blah. But HD1 doesn't believe me and goes looking in a file cabinet for another copy of the instructions. Finally finding one, he goes through, it page after page, looking for some thing that tells him the nails don't load at an angle but never finds such page, only the note that says 16 gauge nails. The whole time I'm looking over his shoulder as diagram after diagram go by showing the nail gun and the obvious way it loads.
"Well it says 16 gauge here but it doesn't say if they are angled or straight" says HD1.
I'm like, "It's right there! Look at the picture, the nails load this way. They're straight."
He still looks like he doesn't believe me, mumbles something about the tool tech being here tomorrow (tool tech . . . I gotta meet this person! Shouldn't you all be tool techs?!?) but gives me the box of nails and reprints the contract. I ask him is there is a difference in the price of the nails (I already know the answer is yes but I ask him anyway).
"Well you can just bring them (the wrong nails you sold me) back tomorrow and we'll take them off your bill."
That's nice, I'm thinking, since, "I just gave you the nails when I walked in!"
HD1 reprinted the contract, yet again, grumbling when he should have been on the floor kissing my shoes by now.

So the nailer worked just fine. Hmmm I guess those were the right nails after all. I guess I do know how to read directions. When I took the nail gun back I had to wait for 15 minutes while THREE of those Home Depot knuckleheads tried to figure out how to ring me up right. And there were no other customers at the time! Anyway . . .

For such a small place replacing the trim was quite a job. Picking up the trim one day, sanding and cutting on day 2, painting the on day 3 and finally today nailing in place, chalking, filling the nail holes, and paint touch up. Of course moving and ducking under all the furniture didn't help. I also painted the window sill in the bedroom and the step transition board for the sliding door to the balcony. Both of which were just a bare/finished wood and slightly weathered. I'm so relieved everything is back in place. Next we'll replace all the interior doors and door frames to match. Once that is done this place will really look less apartmentish and more condo like.

Flower Garden

2007-08-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't done much blogging lately. Not to much is going on. Mostly I've been just working. But I do spend about 20 minutes or so each day on out balcony, much of it watering and admiring out flowers. When we moved in it was so drab out there and I missed having a yard so I started planting things. On our humble 5 - 1/2 by 12 foot balcony we now have a wonderful little flower garden including but not limited to - Mammoth Sunflowers (now about 8 feet tall and about to bloom), multi-headed sunflowers, Dwarf Sunflowers, Fragrant Petunia and Alyssum, Bachelor Button (Cornflower), Coreopsis Tinctoria, Painted Daisy, African Daisies (from seed my parents gave me), Mint, Rosemary, Geraniums, Zinnia, spider plants, Sweet Pea (although planted to late and they may not get to bloom), some unknown succulents (also from my parents), and even a small Sago Palm which is growing 2 new fronds. It's buzzing with activity such as little butterflies, bees of all sorts, moths at night, even a dragon fly today. I let the spiders make their webs in the flowers until they stretch one out across the deck, then I throw him over the side onto the trees. There were several lady bugs for a few weeks but I haven't seen them lately. I've got a humming bird feeder but, unlike in Arizona, I only saw one once a few months ago. I also tease my wife that we have garden Gnomes which tend to the flowers. She thinks Gnomes are brats and that we should get rid of them but she is basing this of her Harry Potter books. What do they know?

Inside

2007-08-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

Christine and I love to travel. Well, right after we moved back to Seattle we bought a little Condo. Then we took a trip to the Yucatan. Or was it the other way around? Oh well it doesn't matter. The point is that we spent more then we should have in doing both of those things and now we are taking a little time playing catch up. Bear in mind we are in no way poor, destitute, or broke but we want to pay off some things before we plan anymore big travel plans. Well today I was on the bus listening to my I Pod and a certain song hit home by Jethro Tull. It's kind of about re-learning to enjoy life at home. Here are the lyrics -

Jethro Tull - Inside Lyrics

All the places I've been make it hard to begin

To enjoy life again on the inside,

But I mean to.

Take a walk around the block

And be glad that Ive got me some time

To be in from the outside,

And inside with you.

I'm sitting on the corner feeling glad.

Got no money coming in but I cant be sad.

That was the best cup of coffee I ever had.

And I won't worry about a thing

Because we've got it made,

Here on the inside, outside so far away.

And we'll laugh and we'll sing

Get someone to bring our friends here

For tea in the evening --

Old Jeffrey makes three.

Take a walk in the park,

Does the wind in the dark

Sound like music to you?

Well I'm thinking it does to me.

Can you cook, can you sew --

Well, I don't want to know.

That is not what you need on the inside,

To make the time go.

Counting lambs, counting sheep

We will fall into sleep

And we awake to a new day of living

And loving you so.

My rap on buoyancy as related to scuba diving

2007-07-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

It's been just a few days over a year since my blog's inception. Over this time period I've noticed a trend in the way that people find my website. Most are through search engines where people are seeking answers to all sorts of questions relating to buoyancy. Many of them scuba related -

buoyancy dive, buoyancy diving, etc. Many of them not - neutrally buoyant pets?!?, neutral buoyancy in fish, buoyancy of plywood. Since the title of my blog is "Neutral Buoyancy" it pops up as one of the first few results in the search engines. Now I've been putting this off but I feel the time has come to post something about buoyancy to slightly appease the masses.

Merriam-Webster's definition of buoyancy (at least the definition relating to this subject) is as follows -
"Main Entry: buoy·an·cy
Pronunciation: 'boi-&n(t)-sE, 'bü-y&n(t)-
Function: noun
1 a : the tendency of a body to float or to rise when submerged in a fluid b : the power of a fluid to exert an upward force on a body placed in it; also : the upward force exerted"

PADI's open water dive manual goes in to quite detail about buoyancy (as it should). Here is some of what they say -
"Buoyancy
Have you ever wondered why a large steel ocean liner floats, but a small steel nail sinks? The answer is surprisingly simple: The ship's steel hull forms a shape that displaces - pushes aside- much water. The same amount of steel reshaped into a giant nail would sink, of course, like the regular sized nail. This demonstrates that whether an object floats depends on both its weight and how much water it displaces - its volume.
You can state the principle of buoyancy this way: An object placed in water is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the quantity of water it displaces.
That means that if an object displaces an amount of water weighing more than its own weight, it will float. If an object displaces an amount of water weighing less than its own weight, it will sink. If an object displaces an amount of water equal to its own weight, it will neither float nor sink, but remain suspended in the water. If an object floats, we call it positively buoyant; if it sinks we call it negatively buoyant; and if it neither floats nor sinks we call it neutrally buoyant."

When we learn to dive we learn to control our buoyancy to stay positively buoyant at the surface and neutrally buoyant under the water. We do so using a buoyancy control device (BCD or sometime just called BC) (more on mine here - Scuba Gear Part IIII) and weight. The BC has an air hose coming from the tank of compressed air on our backs. With a few simple controls we add air to expand the BC vest and thus increase buoyancy or release air and decrease buoyancy.

But there's more to it then this. Think about all the miles of air above you, from here to space. This air, the atmosphere, as thin and wispy as it seems exerts a certain amount of pressure on our bodies. Standing at sea level this is called one atmosphere, or one ata of pressure. Water is many times more dense then air and thus the distance to equal this pressure is much shorter. Every 33 feet/10 meters that we dive under the water equals one atmosphere of pressure. On most of our body this has really no effect, (well it has a lot of effects but I'm not going to get that detailed here) as most of our body is composed of liquid and a liquid is incompressible, with the exception of certain air spaces like the lungs, inner ear, etc. In our lungs we just continue to breath in a greater volume of air to equalize the pressure. Under 33 feet/10 meters our lungs hold twice as much air as they do at the surface in the same amount of space.

Now back to buoyancy. The air in our BC has been compressed to take up half the space and so we need to add air to the BC to stay neutrally buoyant at that depth. These are generally very subtle adjustments made with the BC. To much and you will start to float back to the surface. Likewise we need to release air from the BC as we ascend to the surface. Failure to do so and you will end up shooting to the surface as the air in your BC expands. An uncontrolled ascent to the surface is something you don't want to have happen in scuba diving. I'm not going to go into all that here though, this post is just a little about buoyancy. If you are interested in scuba diving I strongly recommend training. Serious injury can occur if you are not properly trained. Scuba is extremely enjoyable when properly trained and a course is not that difficult. That said once neutral buoyancy is achieved you will tend to rise and fall with each breath. If fact buoyancy of just a few feet can be controlled in this manner. Shallow breath, deep breath, etc. But, of course, never hold your breath while scuba diving.

The other tool we use is lead weight. A certain amount of weight is needed for the initial decent from the surface. This is based on many factors. Body weight, and composition - fat is more buoyant then muscle. Exposure suit - the thicker the wet suit the more buoyant it is. And the type of water you are diving in. Objects and humans are more buoyant in salt water then fresh water. I for example in Mexico, using the same wet suit and equipment need about 12 pounds of lead to dive in the ocean and only 2 - 3 pounds to dive in the fresh water cenotes. Another point to know/remember is that your tank will be more buoyant at the end of your dive so it may be a good idea to check buoyancy with a nearly empty tank and add weight as needed.

Buoyancy in cold water as opposed to warm water should only be affected by the fact that you have to wear a thicker exposure suit which in turn makes you more buoyant.

As I understand there is also a slight difference in buoyancy while diving at high altitude such as a mountain lake. This is due to the thinner atmosphere allowing your wet suit to expand slightly more then at sea level.

Other questions people have typed into search engines to find my blog -
- the buoyancy of a ferry? Hey I'm not an engineer.
- how stingrays are affected by buoyancy? Yeeeah, I'm no biologist either.
- neutral buoyancy in fish? Ditto. I think they have some kind of buoyancy bladder.
- neutral buoyancy of plywood. Eeeeeee . . . I believe all wood is positively buoyant but maybe under enough pressure . . .
- neutrally buoyant pets?!? I hope whoever typed this is looking for aquatic pets.
- buoyancy as relating to other types of fluids. Ya got me man.

Also see - Diving one atmosphere above sea level.

Thus ends my rap on buoyancy.

All American Hero - Part 2

2007-06-04T11:48:00.000-07:00

Hmm, what got me started on this? The fact that David and I have been talking and dreaming about the Hero. That and the cheesesteaks I've been making at home. Let's see at the Hero we started with rib eye steak. The rib eye's came in, we cut them in half and then froze them. Each morning we would have to take some out of the freezer and thaw them just enough so that they would be firm, yet not too hard to slice on our Hobart slicer. Let me tell you if you are going to buy a slicer go with Hobart. Besides working at the Hero for a year and a half I also worked in a grocery store deli and I gotta say Hobart slicers rock! Anyway the meat would be sliced to about a 1/16th of an inch thick and then weighed out. The second ingredient wasthe onions. Man it sucked having to slick those onions. We used onions of some big yellow variety and usually would slice about 10 to 20 at a time depending on business levels. They would be sliced about 1/8th of an inch thick and then chopped a little with a big knife. After about the 5th onion my eyes would stop watering and I would just taste it in the back of my throat. This was the late 80's, early 90's and we didn't have to wear rubber gloves while preparing food. I think the whole time I worked there my hands smelled like onions, even when I wasn't at work. After a few hours at work your whole body would smell like cheesesteaks. I remember trying on shoes at Diamonds department store and the sales person said,"Oh man I smell food. Somebody's got something good!" Then I had to reply,"Ah no . . . that's just me." Third was provolone cheese. This was the only cheese we used, also sliced to about 1/16 of and inch thick. That and some garlic salt was everything in our basic cheesesteak. Sure we added all sorts of other stuff but that was the basic platform and a great classic sandwich. We used a big, flat, steel grill to cook on. I believe we set that sucker to about 350. We didn't use any oil but we did have a condiment type squirt bottle of water. A good scoop of onions would go on the grill (about 1/2 and 1/2 with the meat), I'd shoot some water into them and get some steam going, then slap the meat on top of that. Wait a few seconds, joke around, sprinkle some garlic salt and then go to work with the spatulas pulling the meat apart and mixing it with the onions. After this was cooked it would be pushed up into a neat little sandwich shape and the cheese would be added to the top. While the cheese is melting we'd breakout and slice the roll. Very important factor here. A good soft roll. The whole thing would be scooped up onto the bread and there you have it.

So my version at home was a pretty good imitation but not perfect. We bought some meat that was sliced to about 1/4 of an inch then I sliced this into little strips with a knife. I think that was the deciding factor, the beef wasn't sliced thin enough. I cooked the whole thing up in my 12 inch cast iron skillet which worked pretty good. For the bread I ended up buying a french roll, cutting it in half length wise and again across the middle. This turned out real nice. The whole roll only cost me 99 cents and gave me 4 sandwiches. The outside was hard enough not to fall apart and the inside was super soft. Use the same day or it will be too hard.

Telescope

2007-05-30T01:45:00.000-07:00

I found a telescope. More kookie stuff I've biked with. I'm a little bit of an amateur astronomer and tonight I got a lot of use out of it. With this cheesey little scope I could see the rings of Saturn, Jupiter and it's 4 largest satellites (moons) and what phase Venus was in plus great views of our almost full moon.

In fact I then broke out my camera with my 300 mm lens and with a little cropping in Photoshop I can show you Jupiter and it's 4 largest moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Now you aren't going to see any great details but with a simple telescope or some good binoculars you can see this on your own. Look again on a different day and you will see these moons change positions.

I was also able to get this shot of the moon with my camera.

Recollections of the All American Hero - Part 1 - Roaches

2007-05-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

I believe it was the year 1988 - 1989. My friend David and I got a job working in the Tucson Mall at a sandwich shop called the All American Hero. It was a franchise out of Philly and when I got hired on had recently bought by a private owner. We made, you guessed it, hero's and Philly cheesesteaks. It was a fun place to work. Sometimes busy, mostly not. The owner was cheap. For example, instead of using plastic wrap we had to start using the left over bread bags. And she would never get an exterminator. I remember a couple times while closing up as I was leaving I would have to set off the "bug bomb". And that old phrase "for every roach you see there are fifty more hiding" is true. Dave and I found the fifty . . . on more then one occasion. As I remember Dave had more of a problem then I did with this. The following is a recollection of what happened one day.

There was a partition between the ice machine and the dish washing area. The partition was made of some plywood covered with a plastic type of paneling and the whole thing stopped about a foot away from the ceiling. Well one day we noticed roaches coming from the top of the partition, or hanging out up there or something.

Dave and I were the only ones working . . .

I climbed up on top of the ice machine to see that the paneling wasn't sealed on the top and was coming away from the plywood. Well . . . in the crack between the paneling and the plywood were several little tiny antennae wiggling about. A chill went down my spine. What follows went something like this -
Me - "Ah . . . David . . . I think I need the insect spray. Oh . . . and get ready to run!"
David - "Oh no, what is it?"
I gave the top of the partition a quick spray. Immediately tons of roaches came swarming out of the top and down the sides.
Me - "AHHHHHHHHH!"
David - "GOOD GAWD!!!"
I leapt off the ice machine and both of us ran out the back door, or very close to it.

It didn't help matters that there was no set rules on how to clean the place, when to clean, where to clean. And no discipline for not cleaning things. Especially at night while closing. There were times when I would come in to open and the floors weren't mopped, or swept, slicers weren't cleaned, counters weren't wiped down. We had a grill right in front and would make cheesesteaks for all to see. During the height of the Great Cockroach Empire roaches would occasionally run right out onto the grill. Or as legend has it, while scooping ice, someone found a roach frozen in an ice cube. I was starting to convert. One day I found the holy white cockroach (later I would find out that roaches molted and were white right after doing so.) Instead of killing it I captured it, put it in a cup, feed and cared for it. This was my way of letting my boss know how ridiculous the situation had become. I named my little roach friend Rykoff, after one of the companies that brought us canned goods. Rykoff died after only a few days. Must have not had enough water or something. I don't know. I thought those things could live through anything. It must have been sabotage. I don't think the roach situation ever really resolved itself and we, the humans, just came to a mutual peace treaty with the cockroach.

But ever since we worked there Dave and I occasionally have reoccurring dreams about the place. Davids dreams usually involve not having enough food prepped, tons of customers, etc. In most of my dreams I come back to visit (even though the place doesn't exist anymore) and end up helping out. In my latest dream I told the owner that David and I have been having dreams about this place. The dreams have been coming more often lately but this is probably due to the fact that we have been talking more about them.

Fantastic Fractiousness!

2007-05-15T17:17:00.000-07:00

Bailey.

1992 - May 12, 2007

I adopted Bailey from the Tucson Humane Society in the early part of 1992. She was somewhere around 6 - 8 weeks old. Cute as can be. While other cats and kittens hid in the cages Bailey pressed her body right up against the front, rubbing back and forth, purring and meowing. She was always a very vocal cat. Her whole life. And she had a large vocabulary to go with it. The reason her previous owners gave her up to the Humane society was because they were moving. Moving. Bailey went on to live with me for 15 years in 12 different residences in 3 cities and 2 different states.

Bailey tolerated her step sister, Capella. They chased each other around the house as kittens and "play" fought many times over the years, Bailey always dominating. Never anything serious. Although once she reached adulthood she never really sought out any affection from Capella.

Bailey was my cat. Capella could be antibody's cat, enjoyed anyone who was nice to her but friends, family and guests always got the warning, "Touch the black cat at your own risk!" As a general rule it wasn't a real good idea for most people to even stand within 3 feet of her. She did scratch many people I know/knew and it seemed she disliked females more. Of course this usually gave me a bit of pleasure. "I warned you." At the vet it was night and day, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. She had the deepest meanest growls and attacks I'd ever seen in a cat. Sometimes Christine would have to leave the exam room. Fractious. That is the term they use. Yet I was always able to read, approach, pet and hold her. We had an understanding. She was my cat.

I remember one day when she was a kitten/teenage cat. I was at my desk and she came into the room. She was poking around in my closet giving out little chirps and meows. I don't know how she did this but each time I looked over at her she was up one shelf. Finally she was on top of the open door. "How did you get up there!?"

Bailey didn't care much for store bought toys. When she was young she would run through newspapers opened into little tents. String and feathers provided some amusement. While her favorite toy for most of her life was half sheets of paper crinkled into little balls. She would jump for them when thrown about 3 - 4 feet over her head and catch many. Anxiously waiting the next one with full attention. She would even fetch some of them.

The first apartment I lived in with her had a leaky bath tub spout and Bailey would drink much of her water there. She wasn't afraid of getting a little wet. In many places I lived after that she would go into the shower and cry until I turned it on a trickle for her to drink. For a while I had a 45 gallon aquarium and she would jump on top of it and drink which sort of scared me since she was overweight and the whole thing shook when she did so. It worked itself out though. One day I was cleaning the aquarium and broke one of the glass panels in the lid. The next time she jumped up she got a rude, wet awakening. She never jumped up there again. When Christine and I moved in together Christine put an end to Bailey's shower drinking habits. Although sometimes I would still let her sneak into the sink for some fun.

Right after I had Bailey spayed she started gaining weight and was over weight for most of her life. I believe this was a huge contributor to her fractiousness and I think sometimes it gave her hip problems. In her full glory she weighed about 18 - 19 pounds. About 3 years ago she suddenly started losing weight and her water consumption went way up. In about 4 months she lost around 6 pounds. A few months later we would find out that she had become diabetic. For the rest of her life I had to give her insulin shots, once or twice a day, depending on the vet we had. This was a more a nuisance then anything. Giving the shot to the cat was actually quite easy and painless for her. But it had to be done at regular times. Finding someone to watch your cats when you go on vacation is hard enough but when you tell them one needs injections twice a day it is nearly impossible. We started boarding our cats on vacation. Bailey hovered around 10 - 12 pounds during this period and with the loss of weight she mellowed a little. But guests were told to still be wary. :)

Sadly about the last week of her life she started having trouble breathing. At first I thought it was a hairball but then I realized it was something more. Last Saturday we went to the vet. They took x rays. Bailey's lungs were about 1/2 full with fluid. They said it could be cancer or the start of heart disease. All options would only prolong her life for a little while longer and would add stress to an already stressed cat. We decided the humane route was to let her go. I had been mentally preparing myself for this for many months, even years when I found out she was diabetic and I wasn't even sure I would cry. I did. It was quite sad.

I try not to think to much of that last day, although I do. I'm trying to look back on fonder memories. One of my favorites is about a month back, laying on a deck chair, together with Bailey, in the sun. Purrrrrrrrrr.

Bailey is survived by Capella cat (her step sister of the same age), myself and her step mother (mother cat, Mutterkatze) Christine.

Gone but not forgotten. You truly enriched my life. Our house is much quieter without you. You are sorely missed.

Day 8 - The Long Road Home

2007-03-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

Our trip was over. The fun is gone. We got up, ate our final meal at the hotel, took our luggage to the car and hit the road. Traffic wasn't to bad and we actually found our way back to the rental car drop off quite easily. All checked in and waiting at the gate. But what gate? Our plane was to board at gate A-10. Our airline was US Air which is now owned by America West (America's Worst). About the time our plane was supposed to start boarding from said gate a Continental airplane was de-boarding there. A look at the departures screen didn't even show a flight by our number. However there was a different US Air flight leaving about 10 minutes later, to Phoenix, but with no gate assigned. Sadly there wasn't even a desk with US Air personal to ask questions. Finally I snuck up to a gate where another US Air plane had just loaded and cornered someone. I don't remember the flight number in the next scenario so I've substituted some but it went like this -

Me - "Do you work for US Air?" as I didn't even see a badge or real uniform showing this.
The gate man - "Yes"
Me - "Our flight 309 is supposed to be boarding at gate A-10 right now but there is a Continental plane there. Do you know where it is going to be boarding?"
Gate man - "Ahhhhh . . . were not sure where it is going to be boarding yet. Probably this gate (A-8). I'm going to make an announcement when they decide."
Me - "Oh . . . OK . . . ((((thinking - Maybe you should make one now for all the people wandering around like zombies trying to figure out where to go and what is going on.)))) Our flight number isn't even on the screen up there but I see there is a flight 318 going to Phoenix. Is that our flight?"
Gate man - "Ahhhh yeah. We (I'm assuming he means US Air here) changed the flight number a few weeks ago but the airport hasn't updated the board yet."
Me - "Oh OK thanks." ((((That gives me a lot of faith in this airport.))))

Our plane arrived. About 40 minutes late. We boarded. We waited. Finally someone on the plane announced that one of the doors is not showing that it is secured and the plane can't take off until the problem is fixed. We waited as maintenance worked on the plane with no updates and no clue as to when we were leaving. Finally about 40 minutes later the problem was fixed and we could leave. Now we are about 1-1/2 hours late to our destination in Phoenix and we will miss out connecting fight for sure. A few hours later we arrive in Phoenix and they manage to book us on another plane. Some people are not as lucky and have to stay the night. We get to our gate and notice that the plane we are to board is headed for Las Vegas. We don't live in Las Vegas. Fortunately we are in the US now and there are actually people who work for the airline at kiosks with computers who can answer our questions. The man there told us we had to take this flight to Vegas and make yet another connection to Seattle. This was the best employee for US Air I met. I wish I could remember his name. He was very nice, called us back up twice to juggle seats for our next two fights so we could actually sit together. We were supposed to get back to Seattle by 10:00pm but didn't make it until about 3am.

Well this is just one of the risks we take with travel. I'm glad Christine and I always plan our vacations so we have an extra day on the end to recover, unpack and sometimes for flight delays.

Day 7 - Coba

2007-03-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

Our last full day started with a little walk about on the beach for the sunrise poking around in the tide pools and taking some photos of the wildlife. Like these little birds (sand pipers?) and this colorful vulture preying on a washed up fish. The rest of our gang had already left for home so it was just us. This was my favorite time of the day for the beach. There were very few people out. All was quiet. No waiters, sunbathers, swimmers, music. The beach was ours. After our walk we did our usual breakfast buffet run. Ummmm . . . café con leche. I tell you what this hotel had some of the best coffee. I don't know where they got it or how they brewed it but it was good. We tried the coffee a mile down the road at Eric/Adriana's hotel and it was not the same. So it's not a regional thing. I may have mentioned that the food at our hotel was good although many things that we eat here tasted different down there. I suspect that this is due to what they cook the food in. Fried potatoes for example. I suspect that they are either fried in good old lard or butter as opposed to vegetable oil or some other "low fat" oil that we use here. But I could be entirely wrong. It could be in the seasoning or something else.

Christine wanted to get some souvenirs for some of her friends at work and originally our plan was to go back to Playa del Carmen but that is such a busy place and we had already been there twice this week. So we decided upon Tulum. Not the Maya ruins of Tulum this time but the actual little town itself. So we hopped back into the rental and headed down south again. As we approached Tulum we saw the signs for Coba. "Maybe we should just go to Coba." I said. "Sure, if you want to." Christine replied. We took a left at Tulum. Coba is yet another Mayan city/ruin and one that I had been interested in since this trip was just in the planning stages. It is about 30 miles inland from Tulum. If you are staying in the same area as we were and don't have time to make it all the way to Chichen Itza, or just don't want to travel that far the ruins at Tulum and Coba at your best bet. You could easily drive to both in one day, even half a day. The road narrows slightly going inland from the highway but the site of Coba is well marked. The ball court at Coba is much smaller then the one at Chichen Itza. I would have to say maybe a 5th of the size. Coba still has a feeling of being recently discovered. The jungle hasn't been cleared away as much as Tulum or Chichen Itza and thus there is more shade to walk in. Coba has the tallest pyramid in the northern Yucatan and of the three places it was the only one that we were still allowed to climb on. About 1/3 to 1/2 way up you can already see over the jungle. (The jungle is still growing up the back side.) Just outside the main entrance Christine found her souvenirs.

It was close to noon or just after when when we got back to our hotel. We hit the buffet again and then did a little snorkeling. She is not comfortable in the open water. But after I went out and came back she decided to give it one more try. I took it slow with her. It helped that we were in clear, shallow water with white sand. She could always see the bottom and stand up at anytime. Most of the time it was about 5 feet deep. At first she had problems putting her head under water. Then I think it was just breathing while her head was underwater. She could breath through the snorkel while out of the water and look under while holding her breath but not do both. We worked on this slowly and she eventually could do it. Then, with my arm around her we swam and snorkeled. She was doing it! Actually breathing, not holding her breath! Eventually she could snorkel while just holding hands. And she was actually enjoying it. I saw some of the largest fish 100 feet of shore at our hotel then on any of my dives. It was a break though. She may never be a diver, but we can at last snorkel together.

Day 6 - Chichen Itza

2007-03-12T00:08:00.000-07:00

On day 6 we took a bus tour to the once great Mayan city of Chichen Itza. We would have drove but which route to take on the map wasn't quite clear, it was on smaller roads and about 100 miles away. Still it was worth it. The ruins were incredible. What our tour guide told us was absolutely fascinating. Our bus stopped for lunch along the way and drove though some beautiful little towns. The crowds at Chichen Itza weren't so bad considering how many tour buses were parked outside. Sadly for us you cannot climb the pyramids here anymore.
The Maya's were great at math and astronomy. The main pyramid here is not only aligned up with the spring and fall equinoxes but was also a calender. There are four stairways, each with 91 steps and a platform at the top, making a total of 365, equivalent to the number of days in a calendar year. The actual Mayan calender is slightly more accurate, over the years, then our Gregorian calender.
Be warned here's some plot spoilers and things I noticed from Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. The moon is full during one night scene. During the following day (or was it the day before?) there is a solar eclipse. This cannot happen in a span of a few days. For there to be a full moon the moon must be on the opposite side of the sky as the sun. For a solar eclipse the moon will cross in front of the sun (new moon phase). The phase of full moon is half a month apart from the phase of new moon. Also at the end of the movie the Spanish appear. Chichen Itza was in ruins for about 500 years before the Spanish even arrived. From an entertainment standpoint though, I did like the movie. And if your down in the Yucatan I highly recommend a day at Chichen Itza.

Cozumel Diving - Day 5

2007-02-22T11:46:00.000-08:00

Tuesday we again got in the car, picked up the rest of our gang and headed back to Playa del Carmen. My ear was a little sore from the day before and later I would come to realize I was coming down with a cold, but this in no way affected my diving today. Playa del Carmen was jam packed. We drove down the streets where we parked on Sunday and there were no spaces so we ended up paying for parking.

A short walk later we were at the ferry terminal buying tickets. This is a passenger only ferry. I don't know if they have an auto ferry or not, maybe out of Cancun, but a car really isn't necessary over there, especially if you are just going to hop on a dive boat. While waiting in line the seas were getting a little choppy, waves were crashing on the seawall, spraying all of us and then it started to rain pretty hard. I was glad I took my sea sickness pills this morning. I saw a few people on the ferry turning green. But as we approached Cozumel the storm had already blown over and we were now on the leeward side of the island, protecting us from the wind. The sea was now calm. The sun came out.

There are dive shops everywhere in Cozumel. Although they are nothing like the shops here in the states, with their fancy showrooms and gear galore. Our plan was to walk from shop to shop and find a nice one that didn't run a cattle call boat but right on the ferry dock there were some podiums set up where you could sign up to dive. Since it was already around 11 we took a chance with one of these. It turned out to be OK. The man at the podium called up the shop and signed us up. Take a left, walked about two blocks down the street, take a right and on your left is the shop.

When you walk in Scuba Staff Divers looks more like an office then a dive shop. There is a little equipment for sale to the left, a long desk with computers to the right and straight back is where they have the rental gear and rinse tank. Although I didn't use the rinse tank as it smelled of soap, there is a waterspout just above it. We didn't want to be hauling our gear around all day so we rented much of the stuff. I just brought my reg, fins and mask. They gave me a 3mm shorty which was a little cold even though the water is 80F. I'm pretty thin but you might ask for a 3mm full.

We signed in, tried on, picked up our gear, got in the taxi (van) that they had called and all headed out to the boat. The drive was about 15 minutes. The boat, I believe was the Enigma. Their website says it holds 8 passengers and 2 crew members. Besides the crew I believe we only had 4 divers with us. Despite how it looked the Enigma turned out to be quite nice. I never felt crowded, there were nets under the canopy to hold your dry stuff and only holding about 8 it definitely was no cattle call. The procedure for entry and exit was the same as for the Akumal dives. Gear up, sit up on the side, roll off, meet at the back of the boat and all descend together. But this time we would do so as the captain told us, two at a time. Our dive guide was Julian, and assistant instructor according to their website. He was good. Friendly, informative, good pre-dive briefings.

Santa Rosa Wall, Cozumel, Mexico

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Dive site 1 - Santa Rosa Wall

Site depth - 1000+ feet

My maximum depth - 82 feet

Visibility - 80 to 100 feet

Coldest water temperature - 80F

Bottom time - 40 minutes

From what I read on the web, the Santa Rosa Wall is an advanced dive. I didn't see what was so advanced about it but then we are "advanced" certified. It is a drift dive. We had a nice slow current taking us past the beautiful coral outcroppings and fish. They say this wall descends down below 1000 feet. We floated at about 70 - 80. We saw much of the same fish/coral I listed in the Akumal dives with the addition of one nurse shark. We focused most of our attention on the wall but I believe one should keep a lookout away from the wall for larger pelagics. Video here - Santa Rosa Wall

Dive 2 - Paradise Reef
Site Depth - 40 to 50
My maximum depth - 41
Visibility - 80 to 100
Coldest water temperature - 80
Bottom time - 48 Minutes
Another drift dive over reef and sandy patches. Much the same life as before.

Cozumel itself has a nice little town square, resturants and shopping for you or your non-diving friends. There are also many hotels and if I were doing a pure dive trip with no other family/friends I would probably stay here on the island.

Akumal Diving - Day 4

2007-02-19T10:26:00.000-08:00

We drove our car a mile south to Eric/Adriana's hotel and spent the day there. Christine, Adriana and Emma hung out at the beach while Eric and I did three more dives through the Bahia Principe Dive Center.

It was a short walk from the dive shop down to the beach and the awaiting boat. Our dive instructor/guide's name was Nester which really didn't fit his local appearance. Nester was a good guide, funny and informative. His 8 year old son, you guessed it, little Nester, rode on the dive boat with us. Each dive was about 15 minutes from the shore. The boat was a decent size and it wasn't overcrowded. The standard method of entry was to get into your gear, sit up on the side of the boat, back roll off, meet behind the boat and descend. Although there was little or no current here the procedure was to all follow Nester. When someone was low on air Nester took out an inflatable buoy, on a reel, and sent it up. The person low on air would either ascend, along the buoy line, with their buddy or if two buddy teams agreed they would swap buddies so the 2 lowest on air could ascend together and the other two could get some more bottom time. The boat would follow our bubbles and then the buoy to pick us all up via a ladder of the side. Weights were handed up first, then fins and the BC/tank. The crew switched our tanks for us. All the dives had some surge but it was nothing bad.

Dive site 1 - End of the World

Site Depth - 100 feet?

My maximum depth - 94 feet

Visibility was 60 + feet

Coldest water temperature was 81F
Bottom time - 39 minutes

This was probably my favorite of the 3 dives this day. We reached the bottom and I was surprised to see 94 feet on my depth gauge. Maybe this is because of how light it was compared to the murky waters of the Pacific Northwest. I think most of our dive was spent at about 60-70 feet. Although I didn't see any large pelagics there was still plenty of beautiful fish and reef to look at and it was just good to be in warm, open water again.

As I may have stated there had been a storm blowing in and the reported visibility 2 days before was about 10 feet. The ferries to Cozumel had even stopped running. But the storm blew over and the vis must have been returning. I thought it was quite good but I'm sure it gets better.

We returned to shore to drop off some divers, pick up some others, grab some burgers for ourselves, the captain, the deck hand (plus a cup full of jalapenos), and headed back out.

Dive site 2 - ? reef close by

Site depth - 70 feet?

My maximum depth - 61 feet

Vis - 60 + feet

Water temp - 79F
Bottom time - 47 minutes

As we hit the water I looked down to see about a 5 foot green moray on the reef which everyone soon proceeded to scare under the reef. Shortly after Nester pointed out a turtle, the Eric (my buddy) pointed out 2 more above us. Sadly all were fleeing away, apparently late to some very important turtle meeting. Otherwise we saw the usual beautiful fish and reef. I did experience some pain in my right ear while I was at depth for about 30 seconds. I think I turned to the left and swam into the surge while equalizing. This went away and I had no trouble over the next few days/dives.

Back to the shore for the diver exchange again. This time we lost Nester to another dive instructor/guide. This one I really didn't like at all. I don't remember his name. He seemed to have a stuck up attitude, but it in no way ruined my dive.

Dive site 3 - Paradise?
Site depth - 50 feet
My max depth - 41 feet
Vis was less here - 40 - 50 feet
Water temperature - 81 F
Bottom time - 52 minutes
Nothing too notable but still a good dive.

Other then previously noted sea life seen on the dives this day included french grunts, blue striped grunts, stoplight parrot fish, blue tang, yellow tail damsel fish, great barracuda, several different types of wrasse, spot fin butterfly fish, trigger fish, blue chromis, sergeant major, puffer, trumpet fish, yellow tail snapper, sea fans, sea whips, sea rod, brain coral, elk horn coral and mountainous star coral.

Eagle

2007-02-18T10:20:00.000-08:00

Just a little break from our Mexico vacation stories to show some photos of a Bald Eagle that came to visit us yesterday. The view right off our balcony looks on to the roof top of the building next door. Their roof has very poor drainage. Bad news for them, sort of nice for us as it brings various birds to drink the fresh water. Most of the time there is anywhere from 1 to 8 seagulls sitting there but for a brief 2 minutes this eagle came down. The whole time being harassed by the territorial crows.

Playa del Carmen - Tulum - Day 3

2007-02-15T22:56:00.000-08:00

On day three Eric and Adriana had something planned during the morning and so we got in our rental car, broke our of our all inclusive compound and drove 30 minutes north to the small town of Playa del Carmen. Playa del Carmen is a small town made up mostly of one way streets. There are about 5 or 6 stop lights on 307 where you can cut into the town. The town is divided in half by the highway. There is tourist shopping on 5th, by the water, as well as supermarkets and a Walmart. This town is where the ferry runs to Cozumel. Driving here can be extremely busy, not is a fast sence but as in gridlock. Sunday was a great day to go there. Driving was easy. We did some touristy shopping on 5th for a while and headed back out.

This time we drove back south, past our hotel for about another 20 minutes and met the rest of our gang at the Mayan ruins of Tulum. I found the walled city to be facinating. Probably more so then Coba (Coming in a future post). Tulum is built on a cliff overlooking the beautiful blue Caribbean sea. After visiting the ruins one could hike down the stairs and spend the rest of the day at the beach but you won't find bathrooms or waiters bringing you drinks.

Dos Ojos Cenote - Day 2

2007-02-14T07:15:00.000-08:00

The first night that we arrived we received a message from Eric that he had scheduled a 2 tank cenote dive for us in the morning. The weather had been very windy for the last few days and no dive boats were going out. But the cenote's are fresh water cave systems unaffected by the wind. For a more complete description see my blog entry - Cozumel/Cancun trip update. We went with the Bahia Principe Dive Center that is located in Eric/Adriana's resort. They drove us from the shop, in a van, about 30-40 minutes to the Dos Ojos cenote. When we got there you walk down about 30 or so stairs to the cave/cenote opening. It's a beautiful crystal clear pool with a small wooden platform extending from the edge. You can jump off the platform, take some stairs or a ladder. Many people come just to swim in the pool but it was by no means crowded. Dos Ojos means two eyes and just below the surface on the far side are two caves. So, of course, we did 2 dives, one in each cave. What we did is "cavern" diving which means you are never very far from light or an exit to the surface. To dive deeper into the system requires full cave diving certification. Our guide, Victor M. is full cave certified. No more then 4 people go with one guide. We swam single file over a guide line that is laid out on the bottom. Keeping 6 feet between each diver. Good lights are a must and I'm glad to say mine worked out very well. The lights are also used for signaling. We used the rule of thirds with our air supply. One third to go in, one third to go out and one third only for emergency. We used the frog kick technique so as not to stir up any sediment and to protect the cave formations on the bottom. Dive one was called the Barbie Line and dive two is the Bat Cave. Halfway through the Bat Cave we surfaced in a room that is cut off from the outside. The cave formations all along the dive are fantastic. In the places where the sunlight comes through it is spectacular. There were many small freshwater fish very closely resembling the fish I used to have in my aquarium. I believe they were some sort of tetras. We also saw two fresh water shrimp. By doing these cavern dives I've come to realize I will never need to do full cave diving. That's just two much risk and what I saw is amazing enough. I do recommend these dives though to any divers out there seeking something a little different. While we were diving, our dive shop also took Christine, Adriana and Emma snorkeling in the cenote. And . . . they got to play with monkeys.

Dive 1 - The Barbie Line
Site depth - 35 feet?
My maximum depth - 27
Vis - 100 + feet
Coldest water temperature - 77F
Bottom time - 40 minutes

Dive 2 - The Bat Cave
Site depth - 35 feet?
My maximum depth - 32
Vis - 100 + feet
Coldest water temperature - 76F
Bottom time - 31 minutes

Travel Day - Day 1

2007-02-12T16:13:00.000-08:00

We woke up to the alarm sometime around 2:30 in the morning. We had only slept something like 4 hours. We figured we could sleep on the plane. I think our taxi came about 3:30 am. We were checked in by probably 4:00 and on our way to the gate, sipping our Starbucks lattes. Double, tall, hazelnut latte for me. Grande, decaf, soy, peppermint, mocha for Christine. Yeah, she has a long winded order. Our bags were checked, we made it through all the security check points. Christine laughed when I said,"I like airports."
"Why?" she said.
"I like them because when we are in them we are usually traveling someplace new and exciting." I said. My feelings for airports would change on our return trip but this was my mood in the beginning.

One Boeing 757 to Phoenix and Airbus A 319 to Cancun. Now we were going through customs and dodging the time share hustlers on the way to the Thrifty car rental. Thrifty set us up with a nice silver Nissan Altima which I somehow managed to get through our whole trip on that crazy mexican highway 307 and through crowded the one way streets of Playa del Carmen without a scratch. All in all driving in this part of Mexico was quite painless. We drove for about one and a half hours, through the jungle, 60 miles, to our hotel.

Hotel Grand Oasis Riviera Maya is an all inclusive resort. Gated. With lots of marble (marble and tile is something they don't appear to be short of in this part of the world), a friendly staff, and just about everything you could want. I believe it's owned by Italians. One wing of the resort is for Italians and the other is international although anyone is allowed to all pools, amenities, restaurants (there are like 5 restaurants here) of the hotel. It is located on the beach. They have a dive shop but the dive boat that I saw is sort of rink-e-dink. I talked with 2 of the dive staff. One of them, an Italian and co-owner, Vittorio didn't speak much english. Enough but not enough to have a good conversation with. The other one, a lady, was very friendly, and full of knowledge. Still we didn't dive with them. It was very rare that I saw anyone leave a tip at this place. I don't know if this is because most of the guests are European of something to do with the all-inclusive thing. To make matters worse, there is no where in the resort to get money. No ATM. Not even the front desk can help you. Although I believe the staff will accept them. We left some during some of our meals and for housekeeping. Ah, I did mention it is "all inclusive" right? For this reason if you are going down there with some friends or family you had better all being staying at the same resort. When you check in you will get wrist bands. If any members of your party aren't staying with you they will have a very hard time getting in to visit and will not be able to drink or dine at the restaurants. It is so obvious but we made this mistake. Our hotel was next to the hotel that Eric (my brother-in-law), Adriana (Christine's sister) and their daughter Emma were at. Both hotels were all inclusive and it made things difficult.

Anyway . . . we checked in, passed the peacocks, geckos, and made it to our second floor room. Our room had, yes, more marble, a nice shower, minibar, balcony, safe, TV, and 2 king beds. Ummmmmm . . . beds. We slept.

Mexico/Yucatan Trip

2007-02-12T07:23:00.000-08:00

We are back. It was a great trip. We saw the ruins, we swam the seas, we shopped the shops and ate the food. The weather was good. About 85 degrees, humid. Most days were partly cloudy. The first few days were real windy so open water dive conditions weren't that good. Most every day it rained at some point during the day but then the sun would come out. Our rental car really came in handy. We were about 45 minutes drive south from Playa del Carmen. Eric and I did 7 dives. 3 of Akumal (where our hotel were), 2 in Cozumel, and 2 cenote. We visited

the ruins of Chichen Itza, Coba and Tulum. I've got a ton of photos and posts to do about our trip but no time to do it right now so here's just a few pics to keep you going. I'll post more tomorrow when I have the day off.

Even in the snow.

2007-01-15T22:47:00.000-08:00

Oh man King 5 News was reporting on the weather up here and came across some people getting ready for a dive. These are some people who post on the Northwest Dive Club website I visit a lot. The water in the Puget Sound is in the 40's and pretty much stays constant, but with the snow on the ground these people look really crazy diving. They get to the divers about 3 minutes into the video. http://www.king5.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=113599&catId=81 There is also some photos that "Tom Nic" of the Northwest Dive Club took while on that dive here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/82311222@N00/sets/72157594476346085/

Seattle Snow

2007-01-15T21:27:00.000-08:00

Ok I'm stepping off the scuba subject here. It snowed like last tuesday and there is still about 3 inches on the ground. Not very common for Seattle. They say there might be more tonight. Anyway I just had to post some pictures for my family and friends down in Arizona. No great photography, just snow pics.

Diving - Are You A Natural?

2007-01-12T09:20:00.000-08:00

Amy Rhodes, AKA Pinkpadigal, posted on the Northwest Dive Club website the question, "Are you a Natural?" There were many replies. Here is mine-

Natural. Yeah I think I'm pretty confident with that answer. I grew up in Arizona. My parents have had a house with a pool since I was in the first grade. My friends all had pools. We swam for hours on end, all summer long. Played a lot of "Marco Polo". I never really learned to do the traditional swimming "strokes" very well. I never really tried. I always wanted to be under the water. Sometimes I would just lay there on the bottom for as long as I could hold my breath which I couldn't do unless I vented about 1/2 of the air in my lungs. I remember my friend, David, and I would get into a "cannon ball" pose, holding our breath, at the surface and float. Then we would exhale a little and sink. So doing the buoyancy drills came real easy to me. (Makes me wonder how many feet I would have to decend in a pool with a full breath to be neutral. I'll have to try that sometime.) I remember reading about the "frogkick" and thinking I used to do that all the time as a kid. When I did my open water certification Eric, my brother-in-law/dive buddy, said I was like a fish.

Shortly afterward, looking back, I realized I may have been too comfortable. I remember sometimes being as much as 20 feet away from him. Oh I should mention this was in the caribbean and the vis was like 80 feet. Not like that is any excuse. I would never get that far away from my buddy now, much less in low vis. That would have been a long swim if one of us needed to share air!

I also spent many years doing medieval reenactment , much of it in armored combat , and I did quite a bit of hiking, so walking around on the surface in scuba gear doesn't bother me much either.

What I'm not comfortable with is the cold. And right after our trip to Cancun/Cozumel, this Feburary I'm going to be all over that drysuit course. I'd also like to point out that being comfortable/feeling natural is still no replacement for experience/knowledge and I don't let the fact that I feel natural go to my head. At least not anymore.

Scuba Pod Casts

2007-01-07T22:40:00.000-08:00

It was through the Northwest Dive Club that I found these podcasts.
Bottom Timer Radio.

And for the more Technical divers out there - Pod Diver Radio.

Northwest Dive Club

2007-01-06T18:55:00.000-08:00

There are several times I'm looking for an answer to something (or just plain looking) and I find it at the Northwest Dive Club's web site. Or I post a question to their website and let them answer. Divers check it out. Especially if you live here in the northwest.

Equipment Test/Refresher "Dive"

2007-01-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

I cruised up to one of the Underwater Sports stores and gave my newly acquired equipment a test "dive" in their pool. Everything went well. I have no complaints about anything I purchased. My Zeagle Stiletto BC felt rugged and reliable. It fit well and didn't feel like it was sliding around on my body like some BC's I've worn in the past. The double tank straps reasure me that my tank is going nowhere. All of it's dump valves were easy to reach and operate. My Aeris dive computer/console is easy to read and use. As I type, it's sitting here showing me that I have 20 hours and 38 minutes left before flying, that my "dive" was 16 minutes long, my max depth, temperature, etc. Both regulators breathed and performed well, although who can really tell at a depth of only 11 feet, but I'm sure they will do great in the sea.

Since September was my last dive I also did some refresher drills. Mask removal/flood and clear, removing and donning my BC, swimming breathing in different positions, buoyancy control/neutral buoyancy (heeeeey) and frog kick. The frog kick is used when you don't want to stir up silt or otherwise disturb the bottom. I've read about it and wanted to give it a try. Turns out this is something I used to do as a kid in the pool. Thanks mom and dad for buying a house with a pool. Because of that I'm very confident in the water. So it was a good day. I'm more sure of myself and my equipment for Cancun/Cozumel in Feb.

Cozumel/Cancun Trip Update

2006-12-29T09:32:00.000-08:00

On the travel front everything is still a go for Cancun/Cozumel. I've been doing some research on the internet and I'm getting more and more excited. First I was looking into cenote (pronounced 'say no tay') diving. The Yucatan Peninsula's highest elevation above sea level is only abut 150 feet and it is made up of a porous limestone material. From what I understand there really are no rivers. At least not above ground. All the water runs through underground caverns/caves. Some places in the jungle the ground has caved in to reveal these underground rivers. The Mayans considered the cenotes (cenotes is in fact a mayan word) to be a very magical place. The entrance to the underworld. The underworld was not hell to the Maya's. It is at these points that they can be dived. Although special training is required to dive deep into the cave, "cavern" diving where you are never 50 feet or so from the outside light source is allowed with a guide and a basic open water certification. They are supposed to be very beautiful and from the pictures I've seen they are. Visibility in the cenotes can be up to 400 feet!! Next I was looking online at local dive shops and pretty much all of them will take you to the cenotes. I also found out that there is a dive shop right in our hotel. Blue Caribe. Whoo hoo! Our dive shop will take us on day trips to the island of Cozumel (famous for it's aquatic life, drift dives and visibility up to 200 feet) and we can dive, locally, right from our hotel all day. Their boat leaves for 2 tank dives in the morning and single tank dives in the afternoon. Topside between/after dives we will visit the mayan ruins.

Leisure Pro Final Update

2006-12-29T08:42:00.000-08:00

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh Leisure Pro finally credited us back for the octo that I didn't like and returned. It took them a week to do so after they received it. I had called them a few days after they received it and they said it can take up to 2 weeks. All & all dealing with them went smooth and I probably would use them again. However I think I'm going to try to do all my scuba business locally from now on.

The Last Dive

2006-12-28T00:25:00.000-08:00

If you like the book, Shadow Divers, read this. I'm just about to the last chapter of the book, The Last Dive, by Bernie Chowdhury. Both books take place in the same locations with much of the same people. A true life story of a father and son's fatal descent into the ocean depths. It follows their lives and how they got into scuba, tech/wreck/cave diving, and the terrible end. Chowdhury also probes into some very interesting stuff like the evolution of scuba and tells of his own experience getting severely "bent", his trip to the hospital, treatment in a recompression chamber, and recovery. The book makes me throw out any idea I may have ever had about doing a decompression dive, which was none in the first place. I'll stick with my recreational, no-decompression dives, thank you. I highly recommend it to any divers and non-divers alike.

Dive Training Magazine

2006-12-26T23:34:00.000-08:00

I found a new dive magazine in the book store the other day. Dive Training. It had some interesting articles. Their motto on the cover is, "Good divers are always learning." Which I fully agree with. I may subscribe to this one for a year and see how it is.

Scuba Cat

2006-12-24T22:40:00.000-08:00

I saw this on You Tube. The title says it all. Scuba Cat.

Calypso/Titan Octopus

2006-12-22T21:29:00.000-08:00

I stole the truck from Christine today and cruised over to Underwater Sports to pick up an Octopus for to replace the one I returned. I chose an Aqualung Calypso/Titan. Although I've seen nothing in my research saying this reg/octo is cold water rated the guy in the shop told me that unless I was going ice diving this one would be good. As you may remember from my other posts this is the same brand as my primary regulator and first stage. In fact this is the model that Aqualung created specifically for my first stage and reg.

Aqualung's Specs for it are as follows -

A mid-sized, feature-rich alternate air source
Diver-controlled Venturi Adjustment Switch (VAS) reduces sensitivity to free flow on the surface and provides maximum airflow at depth
Equipped with Aqua Lung's exclusive Comfo-Bite™ mouthpiece
Equipped with 39-inch yellow hose for visibility

Scuba Diving Magazine had this to say - Although it just missed the cut for the Testers' Choice rating in this category, our evaluation clearly shows this simple, no-frills octopus version of Aqua Lung's Calypso second stage to be a worthy backup breather. It comes with a high-vis yellow 39-inch hose and a large yellow full-cover purge that delivers a powerful burst of air. This makes clearing the octo easy for an out-of-air diver on the verge of panic. A Vane Adjustment Switch (VAS) helps prevent free-flows when the octo is not being used. Test divers found it to be a little small for a gloved hand and not very well-marked, but said it gets the job done. Its exhaust tee is larger than most, which contributes to better-than-average bubble dispersion, but also makes the reg a little harder to stow. All in all, however, the Calypso/Titan is a full-sized octo with full-sized breathing performance. It earned Very Good to Excellent scores on the breathing simulator, and test divers found it to be a smooth, dry breather.

I was going to try out all my new equipment in the pool at the shop but someone was having a refresher course at the time. I did pick up a few more items. Some clips for attaching equipment to my BC and a dive slate.

Update - Although neither I or my buddy needed to use this back up breather I had no problems with is over my Mexico trip.

Seattle Power Outage/Wind Storm

2006-12-21T21:53:00.000-08:00

Well I'm back. Last thursday we had a killer wind storm sweep through the pacific northwest and it knocked out our power for 5 days. Puget Sound Energy (serving the area around Seattle) reported 700,000 customers without power. Seattle City Light reported having 375,000 without power. From what I under stand "feeders" are the poles that transfer power from the sub stations to the neighborhoods. Each feeder supports about 3000-4000 customers. During a typical wind storm here Seattle City Light claims usually one or two feeders are knocked out. This time they had 61 knocked out. Power crews came to help out from all across the western United States.

The first day we stayed here and bundled up. We actually tried to find a hotel but everyone else in the city beat us to them. The second day Christine called around all day for a hotel and finally found one up in Edmonds. We stayed there for 2 days then, since I work for Starwood, I managed to hook up a "hot rate" at the Westin. This worked out pretty well since our holiday party was on the 19th. We just walked from the hotel to the party and back.

During the outage I would come home to see if the power came back on again and feed the cats. I called it the dead zone. No one was around. All the usual noise was gone. No lights in the neighborhood. No heat. No hot water. No phone. For the first 2 days even our cell phones didn't get reception here. It was almost like a ghost town. Many gas stations were without power and lines were getting long at the others. I heard someone say they saw a bunch of people wandering around like zombies in front of a powerless grocery store. That cracks me up. Like the movie Dawn of the Dead.

Lets see, scuba wise, I'm going to go have all my new gear checked out by a local shop, buy another octo and possibly try it all out in their pool tomorrow. UPS shows that Leisure Pro received the octo I returned but I haven't seen a credit back to our card yet.

Oh we closed on our condo.

Update on the Leisure Pro Experience

2006-12-13T16:40:00.000-08:00

My quick release, low pressure inflator hose for my buoyancy compensator (which Leisure Pro forgot to send me) came in the mail today, along with the instruction manual for the BC. This actually made it here in pretty good time so I'll give Leisure Pro a few more points.

My Experience with Leisure Pro

2006-12-07T22:10:00.000-08:00

My order came in yesterday from Leisure Pro. Leisure Pro is an online store for scuba gear. I know, I know everyone recommends buying equipment from a local scuba shop and for this reason I've been wary for a number of years. Then one of my dive instructor friends recommended them to me. So I made my choices and ordered my goods. About a week and a half later they arrived. A side note here, UPS has been in our apartments everyday this week between 1 and 3. The day my stuff is supposed to come they get here at 5:30pm. But I digress. My equipment came packed well and in good condition. I carefully inspected everything, slowly, as I was unpacking. The scuba equipment I chose impressed me even more in my hands then on the internet and I can't wait to use it. Two small problems, however. 1) My Bouyancy Compensator didn't come with a low pressure, quick disconnect, inflator hose and 2) a manual. So the next day I called Leisure Pro. Their phone number was easy to find on their web site. (A plus.) They were polite on the phone and took care of me. (Another Plus.) They are sending me the hose and the manual. In the mean time I downloaded a manual from Zeagle's website. One other issue (this one my mistake) is I'm not happy with my choice of Octo. The octo looks great, (see my blog, Scuba Gear Part III) however I will be doing some diving in cold water and it's not cold water rated. So I wanted to return it. Leisure Pro had no problem with that either and gave me all the information for shipping it back. Over all I give them a good rating. I'll post again how the return pans out and if and when my LP hose comes.

Scuba Gear Part IIII - The Buoyancy Compensator (BC)

2006-12-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

There is yet one more hose attached to our first stage (unless I get a dry suit one day, then 2 more hoses, but I digress). This is the low pressure inflator hose and it, of course, connects to our Buoyancy Compensator (BC) which is where we will be concluding our tour of my new scuba equipment. When I notice differences in equipment I notice them most in the BC. Where the control buttons are positioned are very important to me. I like a 'trigger' style grip as opposed to the buttons being side by side. The Tusa Liberator BC, for example, has one button sitting nicely by the index finger and then one poorly positioned on the side (some Tusa BC's do have the positioning I like however). The size and fit is very important to me. I think for my first 4 dives I had a BC that was to large and was always riding up. And I've decided that back inflation BC's are less bulky under the arms then the jacket style inflation. Also I prefer weight integrated BC's over wearing a weight belt.

I chose the Zeagle Stiletto. Here are it's features as per their web site -

The Stiletto is ideal for the diver who wants a system
for both travel and local diving. It is designed to pack
easily into a lightweight travel system, yet has plenty
of capacity for cold water or drysuit use.
• Zeagle’s most rugged Travel BC
• 35-lb lift capacity heavy duty low profile .
. retracting bladder
• Personal Fit System (PFS)Sizing
• Reinforced 1000 denier nylon construction
• Two zippered utility pockets
• Adjustable elastic waist panels
• Lumbar Pad
• 5 Stainless Steel D-rings
• Adjustable Sternum Strap
• 30-lb capacity Ripcord weight system
• 20-lb Capacity (sewn on) rear mount
weight system

I also like the fact that Zeagle is a family own business and still designs and produces their BC's in their own factory in Zephyr hills, Florida. About Zeagle.

Update - This BC worked great on my Mexico trip. Never felt like it was riding up. Never felt like it was riding funny, no problems, easy to reach and use controls. Although thankfully I didn't need to dump the weights, they were easy to load and unload.

Scuba Gear Part III - The Octopus

2006-11-30T14:10:00.000-08:00

Now yesterday were on the subject of regulators and 1st stages and we'll keep that train of thought so lets travel from the regulator (2nd stage) back up the air hose to the first stage again. Yes here on the first stage this is where everything really happens isn't it? All these hoses coming together up here. This really is the party place in the SCUBA harness. Now for today's post we are going to jump onto a third air hose. This is a bright, easy to see, yellow one. Yeah that's right, Dorothy, we're going to follow the yellow brick road. Down we go now to our Octopus. Our little, or not so little, yellow regulator we share with our buddies when/if they run low on air.

Well, sadly, this piece of equipment I did not spend a whole lot of money on. Yeah if you are my buddy and you run out of air, it's not going to be as nice breathing on my octo as it was on your reg. But it should deliver the air just fine and we should both make it back to the surface a'ok.

I chose the Aqua Lung ABS. It can't be all that bad. It is made my Aqua Lung after all. And it received a "testers choice" award from Scuba Diving Magazine. Here are the features from Aqua Lung -

The New ABS Octopus combines excellent breathing performance with the benefits of a low profile body style.
Exceeds CE breathing requirements for regulators
Versatile design allows proper function when right side up or upside down
Unique 120° angle between hose and mouthpiece: This Aqua Lung innovation is ideal for giving your octopus to a buddy - will work in either right hand or left hand positions. No more sharp bends in the hose or upside down octopuses in the mouth
Custom quick-release mounting clip keeps the ABS properly located on the body at all times
39" yellow hose easily distinguishes your ABS hose from your primary hose. This high visibility hose is easily spotted in case of an out-of-air emergency

Scuba Gear Part II - The Regulator

2006-11-29T21:17:00.000-08:00

Since I covered the computer console yesterday I will just follow our high pressure hose up to the first stage and down to the regulator. Man this was a hard one. I know at least 20 manufacturers of regs. Most companies have several different models in a vast range of price. It's really quite amazing the amount of features, types of material, and construction that goes into something which basically just delivers air. Hmmm, just delivers air. Did I really say that? Air is life! We need air! In all types of environments. Polluted, silty, cold, warm, under various pressures in a single dive. We need a regulator that delivers a nice breath of air with no moisture in it. We need regulators that deliver air sideways and upside down, with little effort, regardless of the volume of air were taking in under the increased pressure. And one that will allow oxygen enriched air, should we choose to do so.

Yeah can you imagine what it was like 20 - 30 years ago. When you put it in perspective we really have it made today. I'll quote Scuba Diving Magazine again from their article, How Much Should You Spend on a Regulator? They say,"How a regulator goes about delivering air--pistons or diaphragms, balanced or unbalanced first stages, adjustable or nonadjustable second stages--isn't as important today as it was 10 years ago. Credit clever engineers or blame clever lawyers, but today no company can afford to sell an underperforming regulator. Nearly all of them--regardless of price or design--will safely deliver all the air you'll need down to 130 feet and a good distance beyond. There are many regulators priced well under $300 that do the basic job and even some budget models that deliver as much air in extreme conditions as the most expensive ones." A note again that when I speak of regulators I speak also of the First Stages since they usually come together.

One of the big factors for me was cold water. You see while I prefer to dive in warm water environments I live here in the Pacific Northwest. I've dove here before and I know I will again. So do I buy a cold water regulator or not. You may know as air expands it gets colder and when it gets compressed it heats up. (Pump up a bike tire to it's maximum pressure and feel the pump hose afterwards. It's warm.) So you're in the cold water, chillin your air hose and as the air comes into the regulator it expands, thus making it more cold. There is the possibility that any moisture in there will form ice crystals and "freeze up" your reg. Not good. So they have "cold water" regs that get around this. Water below 50 is considered cold water for a regulator. I've dove around here in water between 43 and 60. So I opted for the one of these regs. Here are the specs from the Aqua Lung website -

The Titan LX Supreme is the cold-water version of the Titan LX and can be identified by the "snowflake" seen on the front of the case. It has all the same features as the Titan LX and additional cold-water features:

First stage environmental dry seal kit to prevent ice from forming in the first stage
Specifically adjusted to pass the stringent European Standards for cold-water regulator performance
Built-in heat exchanger
A mouthpiece lip shield for warmth in extreme cold
Proven Titan balanced diaphragm first stage.
Air Turbo System
Compact 1st stage design
Pneumatically-balanced compact, lightweight second stage maintains consistent ease of inhalation as tank pressure drops
Diver-controlled Venturi Adjustment Switch (VAS) reduces sensitivity to free flow on the surface and provides maximum airflow at depth
Exclusive Comfo-Bite™ mouthpiece virtually eliminates jaw fatigue
4 low pressure ports and 1 high pressure port.
All ports angled for optimum hose position.
Compatible with EAN 40 right out of the box

Update - This reg and first stage worked wonderful over my Mexico trip. I noticed no difficulty breathing at depths up to 90 feet.

Scuba Gear Part I - Computer Console

2006-11-28T16:11:00.000-08:00

So I actually purchased my SCUBA gear. After reading a sea of articles, manufacturers websites ans some posting to the Northwest Dive Club about "cold water" regulators I finally made some decisions. It was tough. Each specific piece of gear seems to have an unlimited number of options and ranges of performance. But with all that comes greater and greater price tags. I'll post about each of the items I purchased over the next few days. Today we'll talk about the dive computer.

It's an Aeris Atmos 2 in a quick disconnect console with a compass, analog tank pressure gauge and dive knife on the back. Scuba Diving magazine's Scuba Lab gave it a Tester's Choice.

Overview -
•Nitrox compatible (21-50%)
•PC downloadable, up to 255 dives
•Manual & water activation
•Audible alarm with flashing LED
•User-replaceable batteries
•User programmable alarms (ascent rate, max depth, PO2, N2, O2, dive time remaining, elapsed dive time, PO2)
•Advanced dive plan simulator
•Desaturation countdown timer
•No-fly timer
•Depth to 330', 1st deco stop @ 60' Gauge mode to 399'
•Temperature (on the surface and at depth)
•Time and date stamps for log & download
•N2/O2 bar graphs
•Imperial/metric
•Dive log

Check out a complete list of features, with descriptions, at the Aeris web site here - http://www.diveaeris.com/p_computers_atmos2_features.html

Update - While diving in Mexico this computer and console delivered all the information I needed. Easy to read and quite easy to use. I'm quite satisfied.

Scuba Equipment

2006-11-24T23:44:00.000-08:00

So it's been like 2 and 1/2 years since I first dove into this wonderful world of SCUBA and finally I may be getting my own equipment. It's really a Christmas gift from my wife but I have to pick it out. We are going to Cancun/Cozumel in February and she wants me to have my own kit. I always figured I would buy one piece at a time but she said I should just buy the full package. Who am I to argue? I'll post more once I purchase the stuff.

American Accent?

2006-11-10T00:13:00.000-08:00

I saw this on Dave's Beer Blog and I had to try it myself. Apparently this is my American "accent".

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
North Central
The South
Boston
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Diving one atmosphere ABOVE sea level.

2006-11-07T22:41:00.000-08:00

This morning I read a great article in my Alert Diver Magazine. Alert Diver is put out by Divers Alert Network (DAN) to it's members. I highly recommend a DAN membership to anyone who is an active diver. DAN can be called anytime for advice on a dive emergency from anywhere in the world. They will help with transportation and can recommend the nearest hyperbaric chamber and/or hospital.

In the Article, Diving the USS Barometer, written by Richard D Vann, PH. D., DAN Vice President of Research, a man was messing around with his turtle pond. He filled a jar with water, raised the closed end above the surface of the pond and a fish swam up into the jar. This got him thinking. What if the jar were 10 feet in diameter, 60 feet long and filled with sea water? Suppose the open end were under the water and the closed end above sea level. What would be the pressure at sea level inside the jar? What would happen if a diver swam up into the jar? As a diver I found the answers extremely interesting. First off since every 33 feet of sea water is equal to one atmosphere of pressure the water in this giant jar would only raise up 33 feet. It would rise no further, no matter how high the tube was raised. Pressure in the tube would of course decrease as the diver ascended. The empty headspace at the top of the column is really water vapor. Pressure at the bottom of the tube (sea level) would be 1.0 ata or atomsphere. Swimming up to a mere 16.5 feet the absolute pressure would fall to half or .5 ata and would be equal to an altitude of 18000 feet! At 24 feet pressure would be equal to .3 ata or 30000 feet. Almost the pressure equivalent of an astronaut's space suit! Mt Everest is 29000 feet. Two problems will occur. First, a diver breathing air at 24 feet in the water column will become unconscious from insufficient oxygen (hypoxia), because the oxygen partial pressure at 30000 feet of altitude is only .06 atm or equivalent to 6 percent at sea level. The astronaut's suit is filled with pure oxygen. Second, just as decompression sickness (DCS) will occur from poor diving practice, acending to quickly, etc, the diver will develop incapacitating or fatal altitude DCS as the nitrogen (which makes up most of our air, as you may know (all you divers should!)) dissolved in our tissues becomes bubbles. Think about this!! This blows my mind! As diver we follow the Recreational Dive Planner (RDP) or our dive computer to stay at certain depths for specific amounts of time so we don't absorb to much and/or we off gas the nitrogen as we slowly ascend and do our safety stops. It never occured to me that we already have nitrogen dissolved in our tissues just standing, walking around at sea level. Nor the fact that astronauts have to off gas nitrogen before they decompress into their space suit pressure. They breathe pure oxygen for up to four hours at sea level. Think about this artifical world: A column of compressible air more than 100,000 feet tall was replaced with a 33 - foot tall column of incompressible sea water.

The article goes on into some other interesting points such as cold boiling. Kudos to DAN and the aurthor Dr. Richard Vann.

A New Chapter

2006-10-24T23:26:00.000-07:00

Our house in Arizona has sold. The final deal is closed. We didn't make as much as we had hoped but we didn't lose anything. A burden, a weight has been lifted. The weight of paying rent here and mortgage (Mortgage- Etymology: Middle English morgage, from Anglo-French mortgage, from mort dead (from Latin mortuus) + gage ) there. And from paying utilities on both. And, although I do not miss the desert heat and my 30 mile commute to work, I do miss my house. It was a fine house, a new house, a house we put work into. A place we called home. It was ours to do with as we felt. The door is closed.

Now the quest for a house here in Seattle begins. And with it a new chapter in our life. We will find a house here. We will purchase, invest in, live in and love in our new home.

Und das ist alles!

2006-10-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

Ah let's see, been a little while. I'll start with the two new episodes of the new Battlestar Galactia. So far we are happy with both.

We had our forth wedding anniversary. We went out to dinner. Christine got to have a lottle shopping spree and I got a new digital camera. It's a Nikon D80 and so far I'm extremely happy with it. I was going to buy a Cannon but with this camera I can use my lenses from my old Nikon 35 mm SLR. Photography is another of the many hobbies I have. My wife and her family say I should sell my photos so I may give it a shot.

The weather actually behaved normally again with a few days of rain and fog. Looks like the season is here. Finally.

Our house is still in the process of being sold but everything seems to be going as planned.

A few bike posts and new links - Bicycle Banter

On the SCUBA side a co-worker and I have been talking about doing a local dive but I don't know if it will ever happen. Eric and I are still planning on Cozumel in January.

Und das ist alles.