The weekend started out well with PERFECT weather! Ok, a few degrees warmer air temp would have been nice in the mornings, but by midday it was awesome!!! We had about fifteen people onsite by late Friday evening. Some of the regulars who showed during the weekend; Netdoc, Gibbon, Cardzard and Roxanne, Scubafool & family, Superbugman, Adder, Brian, Sheri, and Jean. I'm sure I'm missing someone! We also saw a BUNCH of new faces that I hope will make it to further megadives.
Friday night was somewhat uneventful as people were settling in. Some issues were; big man in a small tent, two black cats and an orange tabby stalking the campsite, and where's the booze?
Cardzard had the first confirmed drink at camp after setup was complete. I believe there was some bottle melting going on late Fiday night. I never heard or saw from Scubadilla.
Saturday morning, the Omelet patrol got up and went to work. Slow going as it was, ziploc omelets were a hit again. Unfortunately, I only had a single small electric burner and Roxy was helping with her own grill. To kick things into high gear, Dawn (Scubafool's better half) brought out their campstove to get the water boiling faster. (Man we need a stove!) The afternoon went well with food rolling from the grill to the table and many faces showig up. Never heard or saw from Andy, though!
Evening rolled in and many people had already hit the water Roxanne dressed up as a zombie, Dawn suited up as a Fairy, and John, (Minifool) as Darth Midget, no wait,... as Yu-Go-Girl!
MWU HA HA HA !!!!
Having been told of the need for a campstove for my megadives, Scubaboard (Netdoc) donated an incredible campstove! Thank you a thousand times over! The omelet bar evolves again!
Ready to begin the last dive of the evening, I slapped on about thirty pounds of medieval chainmail, picked up two dive lights to become,... a Knight-diver! My photo was taken by our friends at the Ginnie Springs Office Staff and I am told it will be posted to their website. I would have to say the most work went into Roxy and Dawn's costumes as they did makeup and outfits. Mine was by far the heaviest, though.
I am the only one who DOVE in their costume. As the vest alone weighs in at 16-17pounds, it negated my need for a weight belt. The problem was TRIM! I felt like a pipefish! If I wasn't resting on the bottom or actively swimming, I inverted to a head down feet vertical position.
Into the cave for the galaxy dive. I'm thinking,...a bunch of floating lightsticks? Possibly lame, we'll see. Most of the divers had assumed positions around the cave, and were handing their lightsticks over to a master surgeon with shears at the grate. I followed suit. Unfortunately, I did not have any contact lenses so I was straining to focus on distant objects. After the last stick was cut and blown out into the cave, the last of the dive lights went out. WAY COOL!!!!! It was like swimming in a sea of churning stars! They had been reduced to globules the size of a pinhead,... BILLIONS of them! For what seemed like an eternity, they swirled. There were also many large silhouettes floating around. Everywhere there was a diver, it was like a black hole, an emptiness in the universe. It made me aware of just how insignificant we are in our own universe, and at the same time, I felt like a god to be able to swim among the stars and hold them in the palm of my hand.
After my air dropped to 2/3, I headed out to the basin with my dive buddy. We carved minipumpkins in the basin by the light above the catwalk. Corey carved a face, I carved the bat signal. As an emergency buoyancy measure, I had strapped a liftbag to my right hip, in case I needed to offset the chainmail. Now I was beginning to realise that it was rolled up, but apparently not completely deflated! As I swam to keep myself from going feet up, (a futile attempt at the very best), I kept going in circles. I felt like a dying fish, swimming in small circles while laying on its side.
After exiting the basin, I watched as the rush for the hot showers began. I headed back to camp instead and went for the nearest to us, finding an open bay to warm up in. AHHHHHHH!!
Hot showers after a cold dive! Awesome relief! Soon, it was off to bed for me so I could be up early for the omelet bar prep.
Sunday, the morning from 7734! Normally, I am the first out of bed when camping. Rattling pans in the dark and sorting food at 5:30 am. NOT this morning! The evening's dive without contact lenses had come at an incredible price! A migraine the size of Brad Pitt's Ego! I could barely keep my eyes open, and later, chummed the sewer system with whatever I had! I was very proud to say that many people kicked into high gear to assist me with the omelet bar, and in getting our new campstove going. A few omelets later, and everyone had disappeared to get in that last dive of the weekend. Gibbon proceeded to break down camp as I deposited the wife and kids at Grandma's house for the day. I returned to Gibbon the tree climber as we broke the rest of camp down. After lunch, we packed the last of the gear into my car and headed out of Ginnie.
I can say that this was another incredible weekend, and yet another very successful megadive. I estimate that we had about twenty attendees for the weekend total. Thank you to Roxy and dawn for all the cooking help. Thank you to Gibbon for setup and breakdown of camp. Thank you to my wife who helped so much when my body said stay in bed, to get me motivated when I could not. Thank you to the many who helped in any way. It is every bit appreciated! Thank you most importantly to Netdoc and Scubaboard. Without you, we would not have these opportunities, nor the friends we have found, and continue to find through this forum. Now, on to planning for a Manatee Dive in November, and the May 2006 Megadive at Turkey Roost in Ginnie Springs!
BTW, I have it on good authority that Andy was tangled up in a bird's nest he created. Something about doing line drills in his living room and ending up as a fly in what a tangled web we weave. The neighbors quoted screams coming from inside his house as ," Shears! Shears! My kingdom for a set of Shears!" We missed all who did not attend. Look forward to May!
