November 2009 FCDA Surface Interval.
Transkript
November 2009 FCDA Surface Interval.
FAIRFIELD COUNTY DIVING ASSOCIATION October 2009 Volume 16 Issue 10 Inside this Issue Presidents’ Corner page 1 Events of Interest page 2 FCDA Donors I page 2 Underwater World Record page 3 FCDA Donors II page 3 October Raffle Winners page 4 FCDA Donors III page 4 FCDA Member Ads page 5 FCDA Holiday Party page 6 Newfoundland Shipwrecks on TV page 7 Next FCDA Meeting page 8 M2 — The Presidents’ Corner The holidays are here and that can only mean one thing. It’s time for the annual FCDA Holiday Party. This year’s party will be at Testo’s in Bridgeport on Saturday December 5th. The food is excellent there and the company is always good so be sure to send in your RSVP. to hang. The October meeting was a blast as the group actively participated in a screening of “The Creature from the Black Lagoon”. Afterward we enjoyed our usual fare at Luigi’s. Our November meeting will be on Friday Novemeber 20th. Capt Bill Palmer of The Thunderfish will be presenting on the wrecks of Rhode Island. Billy is always an excellent presenter and draws large crowds at Beneath the Sea ( He’s like Elvis there). Some important safety tips I learned from the movie: 1: Do not dive with a romantic rival if that said rival is armed with a spear gun. 2: If you are being harassed by a water based amphibious creature, a boat in the middle of a lake, may not be the safest place 3: 30 second decompression stops at 3 feet are probably not sufficient. 4: Mixing volatile chemicals, in an enclosed cabin of a wooden boat, is not a great idea. Matt has organized an end of the season trip to Fort Wetherill on Sat Nov 20th ( i.e. the Saturday after Thanksgiving). It’s always a good time. Well, that’s all for now… Page 2 Events of Interest to FCDA Members Nov 28 Shore Dive @ Fort Wetherill meet in the main parking lot @ 10am; contact Matt Rownin matt@AssetBuildersCT.com or (203) 767-2361 for details. Saturday, December 5, 2009 7:00 PM - Annual FCDA Holiday Party - Testo’s Restaurant FCDA Donors The business listed on this page has donated dive gear and dive services to help support the Fairfield County Diving Association. New England's Tech Diving Center! FREE U/W Photo magazine Download issue #32 of X-RAY magazine @ http://www.xray-mag.com/pdfs/ xray32/X-Ray32_FS.pdf New England Dive Center 476 North Colony Street Wallingford, CT 06492 203-284-1880 Fax 203-284-1355 Dealer for OMS, UWATEC, Oceanic, M ares, D ac o r , C r e ssi -S u b , P o s e i d o n , Scubapro, Bare, O'Neill and Henderson. P.O. Box 3005, Fairfield, CT 06824 Internet mail: fcda@aol.com http://www.fcda.us The region's foremost source for scuba and technical diving gear, and training everything for the r ecr ea tio n al or serious tech diver. Draeger Atlantis I Rebreather training, certification and rental. 2009 Board Presidents Vice-President Secretary Treasurer Matt Rownin & Mike Cassetta Mark Shannon George Sharrard Paul J. Gacek New England Dive Center offers complete training for all levels of diving, from Open Water through the most advanced technical courses. Our instruction provides certification through SSI, PDIC, TDI and IANTD. Visit us on the Web: http://www.nedive.com Page 3 Turkish sportsman breaks underwater world record with over 135 hours Diver Cem Karabay has broken a world record by staying underwater for 135 hours, two minutes, 19 seconds. (The previous record was 120 hours, one minute, nine seconds ) Originally planning to stay in his specially designed tank in the parking lot of a shopping center in İstanbul's Beylikdüzü neighborhood until Sept. 9, Karabay ended his trial early due to health problems. Although Beylikdüzü Underwater Sports Team head Karabay ended his trial on the sixth day while he had aimed to stay in the 15square-meter tank for 10 days, he was successful in his attempt to make his way into the Guinness World Records. FCDA Donors The business listed on this page has donated dive gear and dive services to help support the Fairfield County Diving Association. Page 4 FCDA Donors October Meeting Raffle Winners The business listed on this page has donated dive gear and dive services to help support the Fairfield County Diving Association. After a boisterous showing of “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” the club held its monthly raffle at the October meeting to support our DAN sponsorship. The winners were: Dive Bag donated by New England Dive Center - Andy Cummings; Sea Drops donated by New England Dive Center - Jim McAuliffe; Great Lakes Diving Book donated by Northern Tech Diver - Andy Cummings; Four Air Fills donated by Rex Dive Center - Mike Cassetta; Two Nitrox Fills donated by Rex Dive Center - Paul Gacek; Octopus Print donated by Divers Alert Network - Mark Shannon; Two Carabiners donated by Divers Alert Network - Charlie Blanchette; Princeton Tec Dive Light donated by Orbit Marine Dive Center - Tom Thomes; Mask/Fin Bag donated by New England Dive Center - Andy Cummings and a Dive Gear Bag donated by Orbit Marine Dive Center - Tom Thomes. Thanks to New England Dive Center, Orbit Marine Dive Center, Rex Dive Center, Divers Alert Network and Northern Tech Diver for donating tonight’s raffle prizes for our DAN raffle. Remember, you can't win if don't buy tickets and you can't tickets if you don't get up come out to FCDA events meetings! you buy and and 'Bring A Friend' Special PADI OPEN WATER DIVER COURSE Sign Up @ Regular Price, 1st Friend 50% Off, 2nd 60% Off ___________________________ Nitrox Certification Special for Fairfield County Dive Association Members $99.00 Includes all PADI materials, and on-line PIC Winter Diving with Atlantis Rex Dive Center will be running winter dive out to the wrecks of Block Island Sound with Atlantis Dive Charters. Trips are planned for the Grecian and the U-853. Send an e-mail to George for more information @ georges00z@aol.com Page 5 FCDA Member Ads Hey - have you got a non retail-diving business that you’d like to share with fellow members of FCDA? Get your business card size ad in the FCDA monthly newsletter “Surface Interval” for only $50.00 for one year. Give your business a boost and help support the production of our monthly newsletters. For more information, write to FCDA, P.O. Box 3005, Fairfield, CT 06824 or email to fcda@aol.com. Page 6 Annual FCDA Holiday Party Saturday, December 5, 2009 - 7:00PM Testo’s Restaurant 1775 Madison Ave Bridgeport, CT 06606-5219 203 372-1627 Family Style: Stuffed shrimp, Roast pork, Chicken francaise Salad, Pasta, Potato, Vegetable, Rolls, Ice Cream and Coffee/Tea; Cash Bar All this for only $36.00 per person! Advance reservations required!! ab r G 5 g $ a B Di R a ve ffl e d o o G any p m o C Mu sic I want to have a great time at the 2009 Annual FCDA Holiday Party! Name(s) __________________________________________ __________________________________________ Number of people ____ @ $36.00 per person= ________ Make your check payable to FCDA and mail to: FCDA, PO Box 3005, Fairfield, CT 06824 postmarked by November 28, 2009. Page 7 The fight to preserve desecrated war graves CTV News W5 Date: Sat. Nov. 7 2009 6:56 PM ET High atop the cliffs, overlooking Conception Bay, Newfoundland stand the guns. Pointed out to sea, silent and watchful, recalling a dangerous time. It was World War Two and these mighty shore batteries stood watch against a fleet of German U-Boats that prowled the North Atlantic. Submarines that, for one day and one night of mayhem and horror in the fall of 1942, rampaged against a fleet of merchant ships in this now placid bay. And beneath the lapping waves lie the dead. Entombed in the wreckage of freighters that sank too quickly after being torpedoed. Watery graves of young men lost during a time of war. Bell Island, the site of the attacks, was the only North American location to be directly attacked by German Forces during WWII. For decades it had been a thriving mining community. Its primary resource was iron ore which was shipped to the blast furnaces to be turned into steel, used to make tanks, ships and weapons to fight the Nazis. As a result, Bell Island became a natural target for German submarines. U-513 On September 5, 1942, German U- boat U-513 silently slipped into Conception Bay, sighted the freighters loaded with ore from Bell Island and fired its torpedoes. The first ship to go down was the SS Saganaga. Minutes later, more torpedoes struck the SS Lord Strathcona. "All you see is a big explosion, you know. Looked like she was hit mid-ship. you know, that would be right dead centre I would say ...," said Patrick Mansfield, who was, back then, working on a nearby freighter. As the Saganaga and the Lord Strathcona quickly settled to the bottom, they carried with them crewmen who couldn't get out. Local historian Bill Flaherty recalls the shore guns taking aim. "They got permission, they armed their guns. They positioned themselves to fire but there was no sight of the U-boat." The German sub had successfully pulled off the first attack on North America and made its escape. Attacked again Two months later on November 2, 1942, another German U-boat, U-518, slipped into the bay and torpedoed the SS Rose Castle. Gordon Hardy was an 18-year-old sailor on board the ship that night, who managed to escape. "I got up on the railing and I just jumped or dove, whichever, and the torpedo come through the other side" recalled Hardy. Hardy barely managed to escape with his life. He was one of the lucky ones. "The ships were fully loaded with iron ore. The Rose Castle actually went down in like 30 to 90 seconds. Boom, straight down." Moments later another torpedo slammed into a Free-French freighter, PLM27, which went down in seconds. Once again the shore batteries tried to find the attacker, but the German U-boat slipped away into the mists of the North Atlantic. Nearly 70 years later the sounds of that night still haunt Hardy. "I could hear people all around me in the dark screeching and hollering to God and the Virgin Mary." A total of 70 men lost their lives in the Bell Island attacks. A few bodies were recovered but most of those killed went down with their ships that, to this day, rest at the bottom of Conception Bay. The wrecks are in pristine condition, likely because they have been sheltered by the bay and preserved by the cold North Atlantic waters. At low tide you can see, beneath the water, one of the ships resting upright. Dive beneath the sea and this graveyard unfolds in a vista of rusting hulks, huge blast-holes visible in their sides. Silent guns stand on the decks. Secretary’s Note Watch the W5 show @ http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/ story/CTVNews/20091106/ w5_bellisland_091107/20091107? hub=WFive There are two parts with part 2 having the bulk of the U/W footage. Page 8 Next FCDA Meeting Friday - November 20, 2009 - 8:00 PM Coast Guard Cottage - South Benson Marina - Fairfield, CT Capt Bill Palmer of The Thunderfish will be presenting The Wrecks of Rhode Island Vol 1 Capt Bill is a regular featured presenter at Beneath the Sea. He is a well known wreck diver and his insight proved invaluable in the efforts to identify the U-Who in the book Shadow Divers. Fairfield County Diving Association P.O. Box 3005 Fairfield, CT 06824 Address Service Requested