Sometimes I like to dive alone, but ...
... other times I get to dive with some pretty awesome dive buddies.
This weekend my friend Michel was down from Quebec and we planned to dive at Ginnie Sat and Sun.
I met Michel T. for breakfast at Alice?s in High Springs. During breakfast, we planned our dive through the Henkle Bypass and felt pretty solid about the plan. As we arrived at Ginnie to gear up for the dive, Mark S. (of the redundant glow stick fame) was getting ready to dive with no particular place in mind other than the water. So we invited him to join us. Now the three of us reviewed the dive plan to be certain we were all on the same page, completed gearing up and set off for some fun time.
Following a leisurely scoot up the mainline, went entered the Henkle Bypass. As we came to the first T, I added my own marker to the growing pile of cookies on the line. Continuing to the right, we eventually came back to the mainline and started our float back to the scooters and stage bottles.
After recovering the gear for the exit, we headed back to Stage Bottle Rock (SBR), where as discussed prior to the dive, Michel and I would visit the River Intrusion Tunnel. Pretty short passage but still fun. We turned at the EOL and returned to SBR where Mark had been waiting. At that point the three of us made our exit. A wonderful dive.
That evening I met Jeff D at the Amigos campfire and we talked about the Angel Sphere (never seen this name written out so I?m not certain if it is one or two words) circuit, a dive I had done with Jeff D. before. The following day started again at Alice?s in High Springs where Michel and I met for breakfast and developed our plan for the day?s dive.
Arriving at Ginnie, we geared up and set off for SBR where we would drop a stage and continue on to the Henkle Bypass so I could collect my cookie. Exiting the Henkle Bypass, we continued upstream and tied in a jump to Angel Sphere. I am still learning this dive and it seemed like a long way between the first and second Ts. Just as I was about to thumb the dive, the second T came into view. We completed the circuit and had another relaxing swim/float back to our scooters and stages.
After recovering the gear, we had a pleasant scoot back to SBR, recovered our remaining stages, and continued our exit. About this time Michel made me feel pretty slow on my Magnus. I have often said scootering is not all about speed, but this is easier to say when other folks are looking at your fins, not vice versa.
I do a fair number of solo dives as there are places I prefer to be alone. However I do not get the opportunity to dive with Michel very often and I always enjoy it quite thoroughly. A big win after coming out of dives like this is when you can relive it with your dive partner(s). Made even more special this weekend as some of the territory we covered was new for Michel (and Mark) even though this former student of Sheck?s has been diving for quite a while.
Thank you Mark and Michel for some awesome diving this weekend!
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Originally Posted by lonestarfl
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