Lyle, Thanks for posting such a great trip report! _Someday_, maybe, I'll get to dive in the Pacific Northwest...... <snip> >We take advantage of the flat water, and sail past the Agememnon, North=20 >to Blind Bay, and through Blind Bay to Telescope Pass, where Bryce tells=20 >us the story of Captain Nelson at Trafalgor, when the Admiral raised a=20 >Retreat signal, Captain Nelson put his telescope to his blind eye, and=20 >stated that he saw no retreat signal, and then performed brilliant=20 >maneuvers that made naval history. And now, Blind Bay will forever remain= =20 >adjacent to Telescope Pass. Cool! >Dive #4: 11/28/98, Lighthouse Island, in the Skookumchuck narrows, B.C. >Vis: Black Water >80 feet for 11 minutes, 46 degrees, on air, with Barbara, off the Topline. > >Comments: >A dive with more excitement than I bargained for. Coming through the=20 >Skookumchuck narrows, Bryce and I start looking at the current, and it=20 >looks flat. We talk, and he says that yes, it=B9s divable, but we need to= =20 >get in fairly quickly. We get in as fast as we can, with Barbara and I=20 >taking the last spot, but we drop just as the current starts to turn. We=20 >have about five minutes of control, and then we are picked up, gently,=20 >and swept out into the channel, where the current becomes a raging 7=20 >knots, that tears us off the reef, separates us, and drives me down into=20 >black water, where things go wrong. I=B9m being pushed down, deeper and=20 >deeper, when my mask is suddenly ripped down around my nose, and now=20 >there are lots of things that need my attention. I need to clear my ears,= =20 >I need argon in my suit, I need more buoyancy, and I need to replace my=20 >mask. I push my mask to my face and clear it, my ears, and look at my=20 >gauges, and then my mask floods again, and the cycle repeats. My mask=20 >won=B9t stay on my face, and I haven=B9t got time or hands to replace it=20 >properly. Now down in black water, with zero vis, and being driven deeper= =20 >and deeper, I drop my mask, hit both inflators, and hold them down. I let= =20 >them go when I surface. Barbara surfaces several minutes after I reach=20 >the boat, and the rest of the divers are scattered all over the rapids.=20 >Bryce picks us all up, and everyone agrees that that was one hell of a=20 >ride. Everyone loved it, except me. I would have loved it, too, if I=20 >hadn=B9t lost my damn mask.=20 And they say cave diving is crazy! Give me a break!!!!!!! On the boat, I examine my mask carefully, and=20 >find nothing wrong with it. I check everything, and then Bryce is asking=20 >if anyone wants to go back in, so I put it on, and get back in the water. (Does anyone else wonder if maybe on the last dive Jammer hit his head and didn't realize it??? <g>) I guess compared to that, I had a pretty uneventful Thanksgiving weekend, even though I _did_ get to pet manatees!!! Nanci
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