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FORTY SIX September 6 - Today I went to Why Not to meet Barry and Kay and then pick up Jay to look at a property. While I was there waiting for them, I was finally able to get a photo of some of the waitresses who work there. They are a great group that work so hard for not much money and always manage to keep a smile on their faces. Also saw a couple ... Dave and Sandy who I've become friends with over the past year or so. They live on a sailboat and have traveled the world on them for over 30 years. Presently they are throwing their anchor in the Philippines.
September 8 - Today was the day I tested out the dive sled. We went to the beach located between El Dorado and Pura Vida in Dauin at about 10:00am and proceeded to unload the equipment. I had organized everything properly so I was able to be in the water about 20 minutes later. As in the past when I did off-the-beach dives I first carried the Dive Sled to the waters edge and then got the three (3) tanks which I proceed to place on the sled. I then put the first stage on the middle tank and allowed the hose line to unravel by putting it into the water where it would go with any current. I already had the tow line attached to the sled and tied the other end of the line to a fence to keep the sled from floating away. I suited up and then put my mask fins on in the water. I started out a little south of the Dive sanctuary which was practically in front of where we parked. and was quickly down about 50 feet and before the end of this dive 71 feet. All was well most importantly with the ease of breathing even with 100 feet of hose.
I then hit a snag when the sled and air hose got caught up in the sanctuary buoys and I had to surface to free them up. I always used my other sled in open water so never experienced this as an issue and also my other design was built higher with a more rounded bottom and no doubt would have glided over them with ease as well as the hose being high enough off the water to avoid entanglement. I also noticed the stainless connector that enabled me to connect my two 50 foot lengths of hose to come together was leaking despite Teflon on the threads. I guess I will have to take the connectors back to the local manufacturer for retooling. Another issue was lack of enough weight for me. I had forgotten how buoyant a 100 foot air hose becomes so next time I will bring more weight. Lastly, as I mentioned briefly before, I found the sled didn't have enough height or fatness so when I was towing it, it would pull down at the bow to almost being in the water (especially at a severe angles that would occur at deeper depths) and this made it difficult to comfortably tow it. Nevertheless
all these issues are easily correctable and I will be look forward
to trying again. I had a great time and my son Joe even tried it
(with my supervision of course) in shallower water and was thrilled
as this was his first time with a regulator in his mouth underwater.
This was the catalyst he needed to now get his certification and
looks forward to that. We left at around 2:30 pm and the funny thing is I haven't felt this good in weeks. I guess this was a day that I was able to put stressing issues on the far back burner and really enjoy being in the water again.
I had arranged a meting with a friend Bart for 3:00 pm in Why Not as I hadn't seen him for a long time since he had a real tradegy befall him. He looked great and it was really nice to see him in such good spirits. Make a long story short as he tells it. A girl he had raised practically on his own for the past 5 years (from age 2 to age 7) was taken from him by the natural mother (a former girlfriend) who had literally abandoned the child 5 years earlier to him as she didn't want the responsibility. She had assured Bart she would never interfere with him in his raising of the girl as he was so good at it. He was for all intent and purposes the father of this child and was going to formally adopt her. Then a few months ago the mother shows up in the Philippines from the states where she now lives and is married (to an American) and takes the girl away without any goodbyes. Anyway, it was devastating to him especially with the knowledge he could not do anything about it as he was not the natural father. Imagine how devastating to the little girl as well. Well after this Bart lost all interest in just about everything. Well the good news it apppears he is on the last part of the road to recovery. Oh, Barry was there as well.
2005
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