www.emeraldseadiveclub.org

In This Issue

Guest Speaker

President’s Corner

I trust all of you have had an enjoyable summer and are looking forward to the Fall Season. It is our hope you will add us to your diving calendar this fall. Mark your calendars for the Pumpkin Carving Contest at the Edmonds Underwater Park to benefit our local dive site. You will also notice that we are switching gears to two tank dives and a Friday night outing.

Last month I offered some thanks to our members of the club for their efforts in supporting our club functions and events. We also recognize Andy Norton, Pam Norton, Mary Lou Hernandez, and Michael Cadweller for their completion of the Rescue Course. When you see these guys please – give them a KUDO.

On a personal note, I would like to extend a heart felt thanks to Rich Carton for leading our August meeting. Thank you Gerald Dollar and Laura Orlich for hosting an awesome Rescue Course, drill, and very scrumptious feast. A special thanks to Ron Migas for organizing and hosting our club picnic this summer.

If you have not seen our photo contest on the website lately please do so and remember to thank Phil Morgan-Ellis for being our webmaster.

Finally, I would like to welcome some new additions to the ESDC: Amy Wilson, Billy Quinto, Patti Craggs, and Cassandra (Cat) Hale. If there is anything I can do for any of you as you transition into the club please do not hesitate to call or e-mail me directly loogplacowden@att.net

In conclusion, I ask that you continue to support the dives and events of the Club. See you down below!

Everyone is encouraged to submit stories about their dives or any dive related topic.

The deadline for submissions is:

November 28

photo by: Bill Quinto

Open to all ESDC members. Photographs may be of above water dive related subjects as well as underwater subjects.

Each participant may submit a total of 12 photographs with no more than 3 submitted in any one month. Photographs should be those taken from October 2005 through September 2006.

The photos can be submitted to me via e-mail to edscnewsletter@mindspring.com

or by hard copy at any of the meetings.

The contest is now closed and all entries must be submitted by October 5^th meeting.

Prizes and calendar price will be announced later.

Board nominations will be held at the October meeting. Please come and throw your hat in the ring. Your club needs your support. The positions that need to be filled are: President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary-Historian, Activity Coordinator, and Newsletter Editor. On a second note: The Big Buddy Coordinator, Web Master, and Club Greeter, which are not board positions, need to be filled also.

Voting for 2007 board members will take place at the November meeting. If you do not generally attend meetings this would be a good one for you to come to.

2007 board members will be announced at the Christmas Party in December.

The president presides over board meetings and general meetings, listens to everyone's ideas and adds them to the meeting agenda, makes each meeting run on schedule, shakes hands, is friendly, gets to know club members, and represents ESDC if needed. "President" may sound grand but, in reality, each board position is of equal importance and the president only has one vote.

Vice-president recruits guest speakers.

The treasurer keeps track of club funds. This person takes in money and deposits it into the bank, pays bills, and reimburses members for authorized expenses. It is also the responsibility of the treasurer to send new members their membership cards either at the meeting or via mail. All of the club’s financial information is entered into the computer using Quicken. With Quicken, reports are generated each month for the board meeting and yearly for the membership meeting. Comparative reports are also generated to compare previous spending patterns and predict future needs (i.e. Christmas party expenses). In addition to attending monthly meetings the treasurer will spend two to three hours per month on bookkeeping tasks. Willow Moore, the current treasurer, "enjoys this job and recommends it to anyone who wants to contribute to the club and isn’t put off by balancing their checkbook".

The secretary/historian’s job is to take notes during the board and general meetings and distribute them to the board; and anyone else who is interested. This person also updates the club bylaws when the board makes changes. When the club receives new members the secretary also updates the membership roster.

Activities coordinator maintains an up-to-date clipboard, adds new dives hosted by members and the dive planning committee to the clipboard as well as notifying the newsletter editor and the web master of new dives. Activities coordinator also encourages members to become active dive host by promoting the $50.00 drawing for hosting dives. 

The newsletter editor is responsible for putting together the newsletter and sending it out to the membership. If you are creative and well-organized and enjoy writing, editing, and "hunting down the story" you will enjoy this position.

Web master maintains ESDC web-site.

 Big buddy coordinator gets together with new members and either takes them for local dives or pairs them with another club member in order to make them feel welcome.

Loogpla Cowden

Please join Marty & I on January 26, 2007 for a very unique seven day trip to the beautiful Gulf Coast city of Crystal River, Florida. This area of Old Florida is known for its crystal clear waters. It has one of the most popular freshwater dive sites in the world. The fresh water springs flow from underground and boil to the surface pumping millions of gallons of water daily. The force of the water opened caverns that vent in the floor of the river and also has created many underground caves nearby.  Central Florida is infamous for cave diving.

These waterways are perfect for supporting Red Fish, Trout, Grouper, Cobia, Bass, and Catfish (DINNER) that can be caught in Crystal River year round. Tarpon also find their way in, they'll be swimming next to you.

During this time of year the water is relatively warm. The temperature is a constant 72 degrees F, which is a popular habitat, and a "winter home" for the largest concentration of the West Indian Manatee in North America. Commonly known as the sea cow, these air-breathing mammals weigh between 1200-2000 pounds when fully grown. The Manatee is believed to be a relative of the elephant. A strict vegetarian, this gentle creature could not defend itself even if it had to. They have no natural enemies and are one of nature’s most fascinating creatures in the world. You'll find they thrive on affection.

We will be snorkeling and swimming with the manatees in the morning, and in the afternoon there are several excellent scuba diving sites. Here are the two options of the trip:

TRIP OPTION – SNORKELER

Includes accommodations, boat rentals, and entry fees to snorkel in Manatee Springs State Park.

TRIP OPTION – SCUBA DIVER

Includes the above, plus air fills and entry fees to Devil’s Den and Blue Grotto. We'll also be diving at Ginnie Springs(no cost).

While exploring the crystal clear waters of the Blue Grotto, Devil’s Den and Ginnie Springs you’ll be in paradise with rocks formations with stalactites, fossil beds, caves, caverns, fishes and sun lights, or relax and enjoy the Florida ambiance with a picnic. See what created all the interest in Florida cave diving!

Not included in the trip are meals, transportation, weights, and scuba cylinders.

The area is full of restaurants - family style, barbeque, as well as lots of fresh Seafood. There is a full service dive shop at the hotel. We will be staying in the town of Crystal River; it’s about an hour north of Tampa.

Our hotel is the Port Hotel and Marina http://www.porthotelandmarinacom/. They are located next to the spring, and have a restaurant, pool and tiki bar. Our rooms are adjacent to the marina. The hotel is basic, but adequate. It’s the most convenient for our trip. It is not the Four Seasons, so please remember the cost of the trip, and our purpose for going. We will not spend much time in our room other than sleeping, and we will be quite tired each night.

In order for us to keep the cost where it is, the rooming arrangements call for us to place 4 people to a suite. Each unit has a separate bedroom with double beds, and a pull out sofa. There are doors between each room. If you have a rooming preference, please let us know. You may have a private room with an additional cost or double occupancy. Please let us know as soon as possible.

Just in case you have energy left at day’s end – there is a wildlife park called Homasassa Springs, museums, and of course SHOPPING! For additional information please contact Marty at mrtyleonard@msn.com or see Loogpla at the meeting or loogplacowden@att.net

It's no fun without friends, we'd love to have your company and for you to go along on this trip.

Sharpen your knife and think up a Pumpkin Face!

It’s the 24^th Anniversary Fund Raiser at the Edmonds U/W Park on Sat., Oct. 28^th NOON. You must sign in at the park beach between 11:15AM and noon at the table. Briefing at noon. ARRIVE EARLY!

There will be two divisions for the event: Scariest and the funniest. The judges will be grade school children.

Tickets are $10.00, and pumpkins are provided. The money raised supports the volunteer effort at the Edmonds Underwater Park.

Hope you can come and support the Park’s on-going – all volunteer effort.

Bonaire, N. A.

Cheng-Hui Wong

8/25/06. This year’s flight to Bonaire was much easier than in previous years. We left Seattle early in the afternoon and arrived in Houston that evening. We flew the new route from Houston to Bonaire for the first time. Last year and the year before we had several plane changes and layovers that took us almost an entire day to get there. This time we arrived Bonaire at 5:30 am, checked in to Captain Don’s Resort at 7 am, did our orientation at 9 am, check out dive at 10:37am……..it was good not to lose any time for diving but my body was complaining for not laying straight the whole night, not to mention not having slept enough….

8/26/06. We did our check-out dive at Capt. Don’s front yard, called "Habitat". The lack of rest from the trip made me feel mentally and physically unstable to take any good enough to keep pictures, but the clear, warm water made this 53-foot, 61 minute dive feel short …… I came back with 1,200 pounds of air.

We quickly signed up for the first boat dive to Small Wall, which was right near the resort. It was a great wall…..a lot to see, but still not many good pictures.

After lunch we went out for Janet’s 200^th dive at the Habitat. While we were gearing up one family came back from the dive and tried to tell us where a frogfish was……we went looking for it….sure it was Bob who found it……..and lots of anemones with a couple different kinds of cleaning shrimp in them…….

After the third dive, we gave up the idea of a night dive and went for a nice dinner at the Lion’s Den and went to bed early.

8/27/06. The first boat dive was my 500^th dive, and the dive master insisted we have a group picture at the end of the dive. At 80’ Bob and I found a black crinoid and I held the #500’s dive sign for Bob to take my picture……the divemaster just returned from over 100’ and came over to take a picture of both Bob and I with the sign…..at the end of the dive, the dive master dug out sand stars from under the sand and found a huge turtle that must have been 6 feet long…..with all 4 of our cameras clicking it took off to the surface in no time. We had to watch it go.

After a long lunch we took another boat dive to Sampler……visibility was even better. More of all things we had been seeing…..this was a dive site one must do and we have done it every year.

We did the first night dive and the basket stars were everywhere. They were all very sensitive ….. once the light hits on them they crumbled up. What a challenging task to take a picture of them…….we had a late dinner at Lion’s Den again, so no dawn dive next day.

On the way out for dinner, at the porch, the yard cat was meowing around my feet, I bent down to tell him, "You stay here and watch my camera." Who knows when we came back, but the cat was laying down on the porch table on the towel I wrapped my camera in ……..be careful what you have wish……I yelled at him, "I told you to watch it, that doesn’t meant you have to sit on it." He jumped away and made me felt sorry for not being nice to him for the duty he was taking so seriously……next morning I brought bacon back from breakfast for him to make up for my yelling.

8/28/06. A late morning boat dive at 11:30am to Thousand Steps…...this was where Bob did his #1000th dive in 2004, now he has over 1500 dives. There was a couple from Germany who joined us for this dive. They both were very friendly…… the wife, Brigitte, quickly started conversations with everyone, especially with me…..and we were friends instantly…….this dive site was for fire worms and all sorts of angel fishe……at least they were the ones that showed up good in my pictures……...

A long break before our afternoon dive…..halfway through the dive I saw a whole bunch of squid. No one was paying attention to me……10+ pictures later Bob finally turned his head and saw my signal to come………I kept on watching Janet and Jim while Bob was chasing and dancing with the squid. Another dozen plus pictures later we needed to move on……..so bye-bye squids………We showed the pictures at the surface, Janet said, "Oh, no, there are our fins behind the squid….." Jim said "Yeah, yeah…..until I see the squid I won’t believe you." He didn’t even want to see the pictures……

Only Bob and I did the night dive and we were excited by basket stars everywhere, tarpons following us, golden soft corals, sleeping parrot fish and at the end two squid came right in front of us with their tentacles way up, like saying "Hi" to Bob and I. I took a picture of each and they swam away. When we showed the pictures, Jim said, "It must been something to do with those anchovies you ate…….squid come to see only you."

8/29/06. Bob insisted we do the Hilma Hooker…… a drug ship sank by the government. I am not a fan of wrecks and because it was at 100’ our dive was limited to 35 minutes but, I did it so let’s go do something else…….

We stayed on the boat for the next dive at South Bay. A new divemaster was leading us and he was very enthusiastic……..he pointed out two frog fish and all sorts of other fishes……after two deep dives at 90’ and 81’ I felt tired and wanted nothing but to take a nap….so I did……….

We all decided to do the night dive right at sunset. I’d got a picture of Bob in the red sky and red sea right after we jumped in the water…….at the descent a few squid were there but didn’t stay long. Janet and Jim were moving way ahead of us. Tiny drum fishes were out…..after a while you could see they were swimming around trying to hide but always in the same pattern so I aimed my camera at a spot where it had been and before long it came back to the same spot…….everyone of them did the same thing…..so I had an easier time taking pictures…….large tarpons following our dive lights everywhere again……as we returned there was an octopus that tried to hide from us by piling broken corals over itself.

8/30/06. Morning boat dive at Joanna’s Sunshi…..it started with Peacock Flounder and ended with Peacock Flounder with a conch shell near by…..of course in between there were all the anemones with cleaner shrimp that I was able to take a decent picture of, as well as all sorts of fishes………Bob said that was because my buoyancy was getting better, so I got those shrimp pictures that I couldn’t get last year.

We packed down a heavier lunch for our anticipated long dive at Salt Pier in the afternoon… we did a 44-foot, 84 minutes dive……it was the most gorgeous man-made structure that all the sea critters took for a shelter…….but no frog fishes, barracuda or squid, only gazillions of other fishes………

Janet and Jim had a hard time getting in and out of their shore dive so they wanted to rest for the evening. Bob and I went right back in the water at the Habitat…..and we saw the huge grouper had the cleaning team from banded shrimp to all sizes of little fishes in and out of its mouth and all over its cheek and eyes………..one yellow fish was showing off its catch of a hermit crab and kept on dropping it on the brain coral in the front of me….can’t resist taking a picture of its catch…..Queen Angels, sand dabs, and the squid - a lot of them……..Bob danced around with them and they kept on coming to me……. I found the easier way of taking their pictures again …..on our return, right before the staircase, there was my first baby angel fish still black with 3 yellow stripes……..back to the room, Jim said, "miss squid, from here on I don’t want to hear that word – squid…….." "Okay, so I call Bob my big buddy and the squid my little buddies."…….we were all laughing so hard, except Jim……..

8/31/06. The morning boat dive to Rock Pile was for Janet’s birthday dive. I paid for all four of us. I tried to take as many pictures for both of them as I could without intruding too much………I did it quite okay, even luckily found two golden tail moray eels at one spot for pictures……..one lookative lettuce leaf nudibranch picture. Back at our room I used Bob’s memory stick to copy all Jim and Janet’s pictures from the dive to Janet’s computer.

After the boat dive Jim and Janet both insisted that Bob and I take the truck to do other shore dive. They were content to dive the Habitat because of the easy entrance and exit. We went to Andrea II…… it was as beautiful as ever, but the entrance could easily break a leg ……tons of Flamingo Tongues and the midnight parrot fish had followed us quite a way. There were other big blue and black fishes every where? Because there were no other divers around I was able to answer nature’s call………

Bob wanted to do Karpata, which is at the north end of the island. When we got there the surf was so big it looked to me as though we could not go in. We might not be able to get out in one piece…….so we drove to the dive sights at the south end of the island…..thus we got the chance to say "Hi" to the donkeys and goats all the way around………

We did Angel City were we spotted cleaner shrimp, banded coral shrimp and little blue shrimp, queen angels, eels…….and the squid, my little buddies…….back at our rooms Jim said "This is ridiculous how the squid show up only when Cheng is around." I told him that he had to eat a lot more anchovies in order to see squid…..

The last night dive we all went…..we saw our first lobster…..a lot of banded coral shrimp, spider crabs, anemones, brittle stars and one red worm and one red nudibranch, the same look as our yellow lemon peel and a gold dotted eel…….how awesome it was for the last night dive.

9/1/06. The last half day of diving before going home we did the boat dive to Knife Reef with the German couple and one other photographer. There was a sea horse at an easy angle for pictures…..colored scorpion fish, spotted trunk fish, angel fish, gray scorpion fish, barracuda……..it was all nice……at the end some divers were up at the boat and Bob and I were under the boat just milking our air ….the dive master came free diving to shake Bob’s fin and pointing as he swam away……..we kicked hard to follow…….wondering how far he will go. and there was a good 2-1/2’ turtle………when Bob stopped me I started to take a picture when the turtle lifted up and started to swim away, Bob and I kicked hard one more time to be next to it for more pictures……I was so happy that I could out swim the turtle……or more precise, the turtle let me catch up to it. No matter how hard Bob chased it, the turtle kept coming back in the front of me………I was so excited I screamed out loud about the turtle on the stairs coming up to the boat.

Back at the dock we changed our tanks and went right to the Habitat for the last dive of this trip. Janet wanted to go to La Machaca but the noticeable current forced us go the other way….we found an eel in the open, a fire worm, Bob found a tiny black frog fish, how did he do that? Angel fish and more angel fish….and squid…..again Janet and Jim were way ahead of us…….after 20+/- pictures the squid turned grayish blue…..that meant they had enough of us, so we retreated…. For whatever reason I found myself crying and crying so hard and loud my mask flooded. Bob took a picture of me … did he see my tears pouring out? I felt like those kids that couldn’t be parted with toys that were not theirs to keep. This had never happened in my life. After I calmed down I saw Janet and Jim were still around so I signaled to Bob to bring Janet and Jim to the squid…..Bob went to Janet and I went for Jim……I showed Jim the picture in my camera and pointed to his air gauge asking if it was okay to go see the squid. Jim signaled OK and we went. Halfway to the squid there was a small turtle that had tags on both of its elbows…..of course we wanted to dance with it…this little one must have not been having fun with all four of our cameras. Soon it took off fast … and there were the squid. I kept on making room for Janet and Jim to take pictures but Jim was not taking any. After we surfaced Jim was so mad with his camera ….. the batteries had died right after the turtle took off! But it was still a wonderful dive to end this trip………

We cleaned up all of our dive gear and hung it to dry on the porch and dressed up in dry clothes to go into town for lunch. While we were having lunch one diver from Habitat came over to our table and said "Your squid won the photo contest last night." Ye Ha……..they liked my squid buddy……I turned to Bob "See," I said, "if my squid did not win you would have been in trouble, now you are out of trouble." I was going to submit a frog fish but Bob insisted I submit my squid instead……..

What a trip…this one was by far the best of all my warm water dive trips….thanks to Janet’s birthday celebration that sent us all there and thanks to Bob for paying for my trip…….thanks to Jim for making huge and many issues over my squid buddies that made my squid win in more meanings than one……….

Watch photo show: http://photoshow.comcast.net/watch/BD9NR6Gv

Everyone is encouraged to submit a paragraph or two about themselves. How and why you got interested in diving, where’s your favorite dive site and what you enjoy most about diving are all subjects you could include. Don’t be bashful, tell us about yourself.

1.  Port Authority Fleece Vest R-TEK - #JP79

2.  Port Authority Polo Shirt KP 60? 

3.  Jackets: black – 754-BK  gold –754-GD

4.  Jackets: All Season, men’s & women’s – black 779-BK

5.  Full Fleece Zip Jacket – available in black – 77-BK, midnight heather 77-MH

Available both men’s & women’s styles

Members can order directly from Dan Singley at www.thelogopress.com

FREEDOM ORDER – Have the ESDC logo embroidered on blankets or any article of clothing.

Personally customized by Rodney Windhorst: lsvision@earthlink.net

Be sure you have your ESDC membership card with you when you go shopping at dive shops—you just never know. If you find a dive shop that offers you a discount for being an ESDC member please let us know and we will publish their name.

You could win a $50.00 ESDC check by hosting club dives. Every time you sponsor a club dive your name "goes into a hat" and twice a year a raffle will be held and one person from each drawing will receive $50.00 from ESDC as a Thank You for sponsoring dives, friendships, and fun! Remember, a club dive is a dive approved by Skip Stacy, Activities Coordinator, and placed on the clip-board and on the ESDC web site. This is a great way to meet club members and have lots of fun. Book your dives today! Remember: the more dives you book the more chances you have of winning.

When you take a class that furthers your diving experience, such as Advanced Open Water, Rescue, Dive Master, etc., show The Board your certification card and you will receive a congratulatory $15.00. This offer is only good one time per calendar year.

E-mail Jason Miller, our mailing list moderator, jason.t.miller@comcast.net or Loogpla Cowden, loogplacowden@att.net to be put on the ESCD yahoo group mailing list

(www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ESDClist) where you can communicate with other members regarding various dive topics, find dive buddies, or let everyone know about a

planned dive that did not make it to the newsletter or clipboard in time. Join the list so YOU won’t be left out!

Wednesday, October 4 at Alfy’s Pizza

4820 196^th SW

Lynnwood WA

425-775-5459

Board meeting, 6:00 p.m.; everyone is welcome to join. General meeting, 7:00 p.m.

Heading north on I-5: take exit 181B (196^th St SW/Alderwood Mall Pkwy). At the top of the exit there is a stop light, turn left. At the next stop light turn left onto 196^th St SW proceeding to 48^th. Alfy’s is on the south side of the road. (Alfy’s is 4 blocks down from The Rock.)

Heading south on I-5: take exit number 181 (Lynnwood). At the top of the exit there is a stop light, turn right onto 196^th St SW, proceed to 48^th. Alfy’s is on the south side of the road. (Alfy’s is 4 blocks down from The Rock.)

President Loogpla Cowden loogplacowden@att.net

Vice-President Rich Carton addcorich@verizon.net

Secretary/historian Mary Lou Hernandez hmarylou@hotmail.com

Treasurer Willow Moore-Mukherjee dr.moore@verizon.net

Activities Coordinator Skip Stacy skipstacy@aol.com

Newsletter Editor David Ripley esdcnewsletter@mindspring.com

Big Buddy Coordinator Wendy Drucker astromoi@earthlink.net

Greeter Shawn Miller shawnm1833@yahoo.com

Web Master Phil Morgan-Ellis pmorg@olympus.net

Visit our web site: www.emeraldseadiveclub.org

Write us: Emerald Sea Dive Club

PO Box 73

Edmonds WA 98020

Contact any of the board members via telephone or e-mail www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ESDClist

₪ Greg Becvar

360-659-2853

tridoxia@yahoo.com

₪ Bruce Bury –PADI rescue

425-788-8063

bury1of6@aol.com

₪ Jason Miller –Rescue

425-778-7548

Jason.t.miller@comcast.net

₪ Skip Stacy – rainy days

425-775-2410

₪ John Laggart –weekday dives

jmnlaggart@msn.com

If you are interested in being included on this list please contact the editor.