Ordinarily,  I wouldn't write a report about a dive day at Dutch Springs, but today's visit
(aside from being spectacular weather in the face of these tropical storms), marked a
bit of a milestone for me.  Al Wells and I got in 3 dives. The last two (#143 & #144)
happened to be my 1st two dives in "doubles" (steel 120s with 1/8" steel Oxycheq BP
and Oxycheq 360 Doubles wing).   Kudos to Patrick etc. for a nice design and execution.

The dives went extremely well. I felt much more in control of my buoyancy/trim with
these than ever before, especially with my drysuit and fighting my single steel and
pony. I needed no weight in my pouches for these dives in fresh water and was able
to swim it up without difficulty, although the true test will be if I can climb the ladder
of the GB! I'll be doing addl. strengthening exercises that Al showed me along the way.
I'll also need to do another buoyancy check in salt water just to make sure I don't need
any addl. weight, but I'm thinking not, as I don't think I completely emptied the wing on
the way down on these dives.  I'll know better of course, when I do a longer dive with
emptier tanks than today (today's dives weren't as deep as I'll be going next).

Anyway, just making a little progress here. I have a few dives left on the NJ boats this
season, and then I'll hopefully be ready for my cavern class in January 2009 in Fl.
I'll have 2 weeks in Fl. this time (01/10 - 01/24 *including* my cavern class), so if the
So.FL'ians want to plan something for the week beginning 01/18 - 01/23)......

Curtis, you're already on the schedule.....

____________________________________________
Regards,

Arnold