The good news is, the Doc finally cleared my surgical shoulder for diving. The bad news is, lots of stormy seas with 20-30 foot swell.
The good news is we had a clear weekend with good diving, so I pulled my camera and housing out of mothballs and charged up the batteries.
The bad news is I didn't pull the sync cord out of the bulkhead when I stored it, and it grew enough salt crystals (even though I soaked it before putting it away) that the cord was frozen solid in the bulkhead and shredded the o-ring coming out.
The good news is, I had a spare o-ring on my single cord. I cleaned it out, greased it up and crossed my fingers.
The bad news is, descending on my first dive the strobe flashed twice all by itself, confirming my worries that the bulkhead might be buggered and leak. The strobes wouldn't work in ttl.
The good news is, the YS-110's will slave, so I turned on the camera flash and switched them to slave. The strobes flashed without a fiber optic cord.
The bad news is, I've never slaved the strobes before so my settings didn't seem to work. The sync was totally off, and all I got was the built in flash illuminating my pictures. They all stunk. Lots of backscatter, dark pictures.
The good news is, Backscatter is right up the hill from the breakwater, so I dropped off my housing and they sent it to Salinas for Subaquatic to repair the bulkhead.
The bad news is, they didn't know the bulkhead was a Heinrichs/Weikamp, so they sent me an estimate that said "New PT-030, $250".
The good news is, I called them up and straightened them out, and they're checking with Ryan on a bulkhead or bulkhead & housing.
The bad news is, this weekend looks good for diving and I've got no camera. It may be a couple of weeks.
The other bad news is, the boat has a prostate problem in its coolant stream.
The good news is, the shop didn't have much of a backlog and the pump issue is already fixed.
The bad news is, I had them check out the balky fuel gauge while it was in for a service and cooling, and while I was at it why not a nice stainless steel prop with a slightly lower pitch to let the motor rev out. The sender was bad, it's already apart and the nearest sender is in Florida.
The good news is, the prop should be here Friday and I told them to overnight the sender.
The bad news is, I won't know till Friday afternoon if we get to dive off the boat this weekend.
The good news is, I have friends with boats.
The bad news is, they might not like this weekend's conditions as much as I do.
The good news is, we could always shore dive like the other less privileged folks.
The great news is, camera or not, I had a fabulous weekend diving the day the camera broke and I'm thrilled to be back in the water.
The good news is we had a clear weekend with good diving, so I pulled my camera and housing out of mothballs and charged up the batteries.
The bad news is I didn't pull the sync cord out of the bulkhead when I stored it, and it grew enough salt crystals (even though I soaked it before putting it away) that the cord was frozen solid in the bulkhead and shredded the o-ring coming out.
The good news is, I had a spare o-ring on my single cord. I cleaned it out, greased it up and crossed my fingers.
The bad news is, descending on my first dive the strobe flashed twice all by itself, confirming my worries that the bulkhead might be buggered and leak. The strobes wouldn't work in ttl.
The good news is, the YS-110's will slave, so I turned on the camera flash and switched them to slave. The strobes flashed without a fiber optic cord.
The bad news is, I've never slaved the strobes before so my settings didn't seem to work. The sync was totally off, and all I got was the built in flash illuminating my pictures. They all stunk. Lots of backscatter, dark pictures.
The good news is, Backscatter is right up the hill from the breakwater, so I dropped off my housing and they sent it to Salinas for Subaquatic to repair the bulkhead.
The bad news is, they didn't know the bulkhead was a Heinrichs/Weikamp, so they sent me an estimate that said "New PT-030, $250".
The good news is, I called them up and straightened them out, and they're checking with Ryan on a bulkhead or bulkhead & housing.
The bad news is, this weekend looks good for diving and I've got no camera. It may be a couple of weeks.
The other bad news is, the boat has a prostate problem in its coolant stream.
The good news is, the shop didn't have much of a backlog and the pump issue is already fixed.
The bad news is, I had them check out the balky fuel gauge while it was in for a service and cooling, and while I was at it why not a nice stainless steel prop with a slightly lower pitch to let the motor rev out. The sender was bad, it's already apart and the nearest sender is in Florida.
The good news is, the prop should be here Friday and I told them to overnight the sender.
The bad news is, I won't know till Friday afternoon if we get to dive off the boat this weekend.
The good news is, I have friends with boats.
The bad news is, they might not like this weekend's conditions as much as I do.
The good news is, we could always shore dive like the other less privileged folks.
The great news is, camera or not, I had a fabulous weekend diving the day the camera broke and I'm thrilled to be back in the water.