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Adventures & Training Above and Below the Water!

Lake Marburg, Codorus State Park, Hanover PA - February 24, 2009

Who's idea was this? was the resounding question of the day...

We awoke to ambient temps in the teens with a wind to bring the chill in line with North Pole picnic weather!  Jeff and Chris met at Jeff's place then ventured west to my place where George arrived to put his gear along with mine in the new trailer.  Off we went at 09:45 to explore a new dive site.  Our expectations were low based on first-hand reports of others who had gone forth below in past years...we were just game for something different and wanted to take Jeff's shiny new trailer for a test run.  The list of Park and State rules for scuba diving in the Lake are numerous, including signing in/out daily at the park ranger station on Smith Station Rd.  Cindy was more than helpful and rather surprised we wanted to dive in this weather; she doth not know who she speaketh with...  The Park requires c-cards, full contact information and an emergency contact, as well as the usual liability release, but doesn't charge a fee for diving.  According to the 2008 daily log, August was the last month any divers signed in.  All of us were duly impressed with the quality and comfort of the "ranger station".  They have a nice conference room, fireplace, kitchen/dining area for employees, numerous animal mounts on display and a ton of informative pamphlets; and we could see all of this just from the reception area.

So back to Sinsheim Cove we went, pulled in to use the trailer as a wind block and started the process.  I heard it 100 times if I heard it once, "damn its cold out here!", and it WAS!  Thankfully the propane heater in the trailer kept the edge off while we got dressed (and undressed) but the gear remained outside.  We really don't appreciate the comfort we have at Bainbridge until we expose ourselves to the elements like we did today!  I pulled the surface dive flag required by the Park, attached to my handy S.E.A.L. Reel by Reef Scuba, unfortunately discontinued in July 2008.  Down we went after a shore entry with the wind in our face.  We crossed some grass beds then were surrounded by mud bottom as the depth gradually increased.  A NNW heading took us straight out of the cove toward Round Island and we planned a square nav pattern after that.  The only great find of the dive was "the road"; a macadam surface that reportedly once made its way in/through/around the former village of Marburg.  It had a thin layer of light dirt on it that was easily brushed away with a wave of the hand.  We followed the road for a bit, then started our square.  One of my turns left George and Jeff behind and they ventured forth on their own dive journey.  Chris remained in my peripheral view so we pushed on.  We completed our turns then agreed the exit was good idea.  It seemed like a really long swim back with the depth decreasing ever so gradually, we thought we'd never make it back.  Jeff and George were already on shore when we returned and they said our dive flag showed us about 2/3 the distance to Round Island...yep, a long swim it was!

Bottom line - been there done that.  We agreed another dive is not necessary to understand what Sinsheim Cove does or does not have to offer.  Our consensus was that in the summer months, with a mud bottom, the vis must be much less than desirable, nuff said.  56min bottom time, 29' max depth, 35F    Note: the three degree difference between BSC and Lake Marburg DOES make a difference - my hands have never been colder!  We warmed ourselves over a cold one and a good lunch at the Sherwood Inn in York New Salem, après scuba never disappoints!

Learn more about Codorus State Park here

Map of Lake Marburg here (opens in pdf format, enlarge map for more detail)

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