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December 9, 2007 - York Divers' Annual UW Christmas Tree Decorating at Bainbridge Scuba Center

These pics feature the York Divers group of decorators at BSC on Sunday, 12/9.  It wasn't exactly the best surface weather to represent the season of Christmas spirit with rain and a gray sky favoring the scuba scrooges who chose to stay home.  However, the waters of BSC did not disappoint with great vis and a cool, refreshing dip for decorating.  Thanks to York Divers for providing the tree and thanks to all the divers who participated in this seasonal specialty event!

Knowing the vis had improved remarkably in the past month, Jeff, George and I decided an early arrival and deep dive were in order.  Rick Huck joined us for the tour as well.  We dropped in at the road and followed the contour just east of the mystery boat to the dozer at 60'.  With everyone sporting an OK signal, we followed the pipe toward the stairs but arrested our descent at 80'.  The vis turned to the familiar white cloud layer that totally obscured our sight distance, even with Huck's powerful HID light.  We turned south over the mounds to arrive at the deep cruiser.  Our plan was to head east to the step van but the cloud layer was so thick we all agreed on plan B.  SSW under the platforms brought us to the south wall which cleared a bit so I turned us ESE/SE to cruise along the wall at 80'.  What a dive this turned out to be.  We had great vis all the way out to the blossom tree where we turned the dive based on air.  Our return included a swimming ascent to 50' which brought us right back to the 50' plateau on the south wall, through Sherwood Forest.  Up to the pipe is where we crossed paths with York's Sherri S & Steve L leading a pair of dry suit students, Christina and Kevin, wow did they look good, and warm!  We passed the dolphins and a school of bluegills, crossed over the boats in the Bowl, hit the slope, admired the three lunker bass just ahead of us and did our 3-minute safety swim at 18' back to our exit below the road.  87' max depth, :48 run time, 32% nitrox, 41F bottom temp.

Dive #2 was the actual Christmas Tree dive, sinking the tree on a training platform, securing it in place, top & bottom, and adding the usual decorations, recycled from year to year.  Lancaster Scuba was on site as well and created a so called environmentally-friendly tree (pic below).  George, Jeff and I cruised around a bit after the tree festivities, capturing imagery from the Pennsy and the steam shovel bucket.  Another great dive and more bottom time!  43' max depth, :48 run time, 32% nitrox, 40F

HiRez pics available upon request.

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