Where did the flag go?.......

Sunday the team did not get to do the ice diver training we were hoping for. The ice was not in great shape and it was to soft for what we needed. But that did not stop us from diving, with new member rich we need to get him up to speed and we do that by diving. He does come in with a lot of skills so this will not take long.

The day was bright and sunny and the ocean was flat with a little bit of wind, so the plan was to do an out and around and come up on the beach. We hit the water and found we had good visibility and the tide was just moving out. All was going well until about half way through the dive and the wind started picking up out of the south west pushing the water up the beach and around the front of the inlet. Everyone made the beach but Big Joe and I as we were bring up the rear with the second dive flag. We surfaced and came up the jacks.

Sue was our surface support on this dive and was right there and everyone made it out and up on to the jetty. It was at this point we found out we had lost a dive flag and float, Sue said she saw it an half hour ago and it was heading north with the wind. The flag was seen way up the beach (may be a half mile north of the jetty). We sent 349 back to the building and 347 took off after the flag, we hate to lose gear! We went to the north end of Manasquan and could see the flag was still going north, Greg and Chet took off up the beach and OJ, Big Foot and Nina headed for Spring Lake. We got the flag just as we made it to Spring Lake. The flag drifted over two miles, but we got it back!

It was a good dive. Greg found out you can’t hold the flag line in your hands, Bob and Rich found out not to get to close to the rocks coming around the end of the jetty when you have a south west wind blowing. Joe and Chet found out bring full sinker tubes up the jacks sucks. Ali found out how cold bags suits are and Sue found out her new mittens are really warm.