I was with Frank at Millbrook, yeah it was me that couldn't keep up.
Frank was very understanding after the dive, I felt as if I'd let him down.
We did plan our dive but due to me, all my fault, the plan was buggered up.
I have 35-37 dives under my weight belt and all but about 5 were using shorts and t-shirt.
Almost all of my diving has been warm Caribbean waters.
The few times I've used a wet suit, I was in the river or pool and it was a 5,4,3 mm suit.
At Millbrook I was using a 2 piece 7mm, which I'd only used once in a farm pond and I was only the water for about 5 minutes, I was looking for whatever was cutting fishing line when g/f's father was fishing one evening, it was a pipe and I found it while swimming on top of the water......
There were weight issues that I'd not encountered before also.
I had a difficult time getting down to start with, so I used a buoy line from the platform, once down I was able to stay down but I felt as if I had an anchor attached to my backside.
Air usage was usually high for me that day, 1700 psi in 20 minutes......
When river diving, max. 20 feet down, I can get an hour and fifteen minutes to 1 and 1/2 hour out of 2500 psi.
Excuses, excuses right?
I found out that day that I will need pool time or pond time with the 7 mm.
As far as the solo diving, and let's not get on that issue..please. My usual dive buddy is my 28 year old son but due to our schedules we have very few days off together to go diving, so I go alone. Although I don't really think that had anything to do with not being able to keep up.
I was tired from working all night before we got to Millbrook and again the bulk of a 7 mm suit.
I will say that the very short time we were in the water, I enjoyed the good viz and the scenery down there.
I may not be the best but, I sure as heck love being under the water.
side note: My first dive after doing cert dives for OW was solo with a tender in my boat. I lost my glasses the day before while fishing so the next day I borrowed air from my instructor and had a friend hold one end of a rope while I held the other. I got plenty of advice from my instructor and if he had said "Don't do it" I'd not have done it and just gone and ordered a new pair of glasses, which I had to do anyway...250$ on the bottom of the Shenandoah river somewhere, tri-focals at that.......
But, I feel the experience was very worth while, I was scared but now I'll dive solo anytime. I gotta die somehow, right?
Frank, Thank you again for the dive at Millbrook and sorry it was so short. I'll get out the 5,4,3 and do some pond diving before we go again. Maybe we can get more than 20 minutes out of the next dive.
Tim
Can't Swim
