Well… the dive to drive ratio was pretty low today, but despite the many hours of driving, it was great to get back in the water.
The last time I’d dove was on a cave diving trip last September when I ripped my drysuit neck seal. A week later, our friend Richard passed away in a cave system we had been doing the previous week, so that kinda sucked the wind out of my sails and we canceled a cave diving trip back to that cave at Thanksgiving, and Penny’s much needed surgery kept us out of a trip we were going to do over Christmas.
So, incentive to get my drysuit neckseal repaired didn’t really happen until we setup a trip to Seattle. While I can’t say that I’ve gotten the “dive bug” back, I will say that experiencing White Star quarry today felt like the early days of diving when I first got certified there.
I’d forgotten how beautiful White Star can be, especially when the visibility is “primo”!! Going into the block house and being able to see the bright green glow down the tunnel at the bottom of the crusher was pretty damned awesome. I hid my light most of the time because it was so bright as we decended down the tunnel. Once into the bottom of the crusher, we slowly poked our way around the bottom. I’d only seen the viz that good a couple of other times!
After we ascended out of the crusher, I took Penny on a mini-tour of the north side of the quarry where many that don’t frequent the quarry get to go. One of the things on the tour was the police car. While covered in a my thicker layer of muck than I last remembered, I decided to try my old game of climbing through the back seat. Being extremely slow, my goal was to generate as little silt and disturbance as possible. Once I got through, there was some moss floating around, but all in all, I was tickled with how relatively clear I’d left it. 
We continued on through several of the “tailing piles” from the old quarry operations. I’d always referred to these as “the dunes” ’cause they help give the quarry quite a bit of character!
Finally we headed back around and finished our dive before a nice slow and controlled ascent to the surface. Despite my sinuses and a couple of averted “reverse blocks”, we got back to the ladder unscathed.
It was like riding a bike… and the remarkable part was we were saying that the gear felt a lot lighter since the last time we used it, so the workouts must be paying off. In fact, I was chuckling at how much room I have in my Weezle undergarments now…. I could almost fit Penny inside with me now…. 
I took White Star for granted all those years when I lived 15 minutes away, but even though it’s over 3 hours away now, it’s still just as great a place.
There were only a couple of other divers there when we arrived, but they were leaving by the time we got back up from the dive. Except for the fishermen, we had the water to ourselves! 
Looking forward to more diving this year! It’s a heckuva lot of fun diving with something where things are very intuitive, casual, and relaxing… I’m a lucky guy!
This is the highest I’ve ever seen the quarry. It used to be a 5 foot drop off the top of the rock face here.
Ain’t she cute?
Obligitory Shrink wrap shot
Hee Hee! Hee Hee!
Bob and Penny's Great Outdoor Adventure 