Any Labor Day Diving?

[MikeS]

Return Expedition to the Mysterious Bus at Millbrook

Excepts from an earlier expedition as recorded in o-rings dive log:

“Knowing full well that better divers than us had lost
their lives trying for the fabled first class school
lunch trays, we tried to keep our wits about us as we
descended past the first OW skill platform and headed
for the mysterious bus...

Since we had planned ahead of time, we took a surface
bearing of about 30 degrees to the milk carton buoy
where we knew the Mt. Everest of quarry diving was
awaiting us in her silent slumber. As we descended
past the 20' mark, we were silently glad that we were
breathing 12/70 as back gas instead of any other
stroke mixes...nobody does the bus on deep air, at
least not us. The bus slowly emerged out of the haze
like a dark curtain had been slowly lifted from our
field of vision. It was enough to make you
cry...years of training for this moment. We had to
have a group hug underwater before pushing on.

We deployed our wreck reels and tied off outside the
wreck. Rolf dropped in first, entering through the
now famous Giblet's Hole. Lights popped on and we
made our way through the twisted carcass of a once
proud child transportation vehicle. After breaking
through to the other side, we checked our SPGs and
realized we had burned at least 30 psi finning down
the promenade deck through the entire wreck. We
figured it was time to head up...”


Intrigued by the earlier experience of O-Ring, we decided it was time to mount a serious scientific expedition to discover the true secrets of the Mysterious Bus at Millbrook. So on Saturday we assembled a diverse dive team from trhoughout the greater Baltimore / Washington Metropolitan Area, consisting of O-ring, divernva, kstakem, sillygrendel, and myself, not to mention the hundreds of people that worked behind the scenes to make this dream a reality.

There was little to no swell, as Mother Nature had provided perfect weather above the water, and unprecedented visibility below. We dropped off the wall, filled with anticipation of what lay ahead. As we drew nearer, the carnage from this disaster started to become evident as we passed the discarded barrels one by one. Then suddenly, she appeared out of the gloom, the mysterious bus. It soon became apparent that rather than a single wreck this was the final resting place for multiple vehicles, a veritable graveyard of abandoned transport.

We’ll never know if the bus hit the van or the van plowed into the bus. The only certainty is that the van won the struggle for dominance and today rests squarely on top of the overturned bus. Due to the great depth, 54 ffw, and heavy silting, we were unable to totally solve the mystery; all that we were able to recover was a rusted tail light assembly. Perhaps that’s for the best, as future generations of divers will still be able to have the lofty goal of some day returning, to uncover the mysteries that lie buried in the silt.

Mike

 

[sillygrendel]

I must say that I feel priveleged to have been part of such an elite team of explorers.

Perhaps we should erect a museum on the shores of Millbrook to hold these ancient artifacts. These artifacts may one day elucidate the origins of the bus. Leading to a greater understanding of how and why it came to its resting place at the bottom of the quarry. Pushing the envelope of human achievement and understanding just a tiny bit more...

What about the children who used to ride on that bus? Do you think they know of its watery grave? What would they have to say??

 

[O-ring]

not to mention the hundreds of people that worked behind the scenes to make this dream a reality.

Yeah, without our support divers we couldn't have done it. MikeS did a wonderful job of navigation and had it not been for the "spaghetti incident" we may have made another startling discovery inside the bowels of the beast.

I still want to know how the golf ball I found a while back fits into the mess. I wonder if the bus swerved when an errant golf ball smashed through the window, hit the van, which then swiped the white car, and caused them all to end up in the quarry...

We may never know...

 

[Spectre]

Thursday started with the Jimmy Buffett tailgate at noon, proceeding into a wild drunken party in the rain. Arrived at the beach to clear skies and glass-like seas @ 1:00 am.

Friday was searching for my buddy's lost anchor. No luck on the anchor, but we found a friends lost lobster trap. I also found about a zillion old bombs from the target ship that we trap/dive by. The second dive was scrapped due to us both shivering madly on the boat after our first dive. We returned to drop off our surface support, pick up the fishing gear and a spare fisherman, and headed back out. Only a few blues, but plenty 'o fun.

Saturday was a couple dives [with a little more exposure protection, I had my 7mm jacket over my 3 mm and was toasty]. First dive was mostly untangling 4 lobster traps off the wreck, with a little unsuccessful lobster hunting. Second dive was untangling the last trap off the starboard side and more lobster hunting [alas, no luck once again].

On the trip back to shore we noticed some birds freaking out, so we paused to do a little sunset fishing... 10 blues in about 1/2 hour.

Sunday the tides didn't let us on the water until about 3:00. A little rough, definately cold and windy, so we just fished [1 black bass (kept) and another blue], listened to music, drank a couple o' beers and overall enjoyed ourselves dancing on the boat while we trolled around.

Monday ended up pretty rainy, and we didn't feel like getting up to catch the tide on the way out [4 nights 'o partying 'til 3am caught up with us]. We decided to not stick around until the water came in [4:00], so we packed it in and called it a weekend.