I had an unexpected family issue come up and flew back to the US last week. My brother flew with me and we’re home in Texas now. Nothing life-threatening, just something that required our attention. Like brothers in other families I suspect, we get along pretty well except for the occasional times we want to kill each other 🙂 Most of the time though he’s one of my favorite people to hang out with 😉
This trip instead of renting a car like I did the last time I came home in May I opted to take my Harley Davidson out of storage and ride it instead. Probably should have done that last time :)) It’s been in storage for over a year. It ended up needing a new battery. The battery on a V-Rod is a pain to replace as we had to remove the air-breather to get to it, but my brother and I got it done. Then I had to purchase insurance, get it inspected, and re-register the bike. In all I probably spent about $220 bucks, but still a lot cheaper than renting a car for a month or longer!
I expect to be here about 4-6 weeks all together. During my last week in Puerto Galera my Hollis DG-03 Dive Computer malfunctioned. It didn’t want to surface from a dive! I understand not wanting to come up, but unlike my dive computer I don’t have a choice when the air in my tank runs low :)) The computer was locking up at 3 feet. I managed to get it to clear a few times, but it kept doing it again so I broke down and borrowed a dive computer from Rick.
I contacted the folks at Hollis this week and explained the problem and it’s been sent back to the factory for service. Since it’s less than two years old it will be covered under warranty so my only expense was postage to the factory. Surprisingly, they expect only a 10 day turnaround so I’m quite happy about that!
My Dive Rite RG-3500 regulators happened to be due for service also. With over a 100 dives in the Philippines in the last year, it seemed like a good time to get that taken care of as well. I’ve owned these regulators since 2009 and although they’ve been discontinued, they continue to give me good service! My setup consists of a RG3500 1st Stage and two RG-3500 2nd Stages. I use miflex hoses, with my primary on a 5 foot hose and my secondary on a short hose I wear on a necklace. I’ll be dropping them off at Sea Sports Scuba in Cypress, Texas which is about a half hour from where I’m staying with family while I’m in Texas. They estimated about a 2 week turnaround. Parts have to be ordered.
I dive an Oxycheq Mach V Extreme Wing on a Dive Rite SS back plate. This is basically a wreck diving setup. I’m Wreck and Cavern certified and was thinking at the time I bought the gear that I might get into Tech Diving. I’ve since chosen not too as I don’t think it’s something I would do often enough to justify the expense. Who knows though, I still might do it at some point. In the meantime, it’s still a good setup for the limited penetrations I do and I like the streamlined feel of it 🙂
The bladder developed a leak which I noticed in Puerto Galera. The wing is over 7 years old with 100’s of dives on it. I initially thought about replacing the bladder as the best option, but instead I’m going to try patching it with AquaSeal. The bladder isn’t ripped or torn (difficult to do with the Extreme Wing because of the Armored Extreme Explorer Fabric used for the outer shell) It’s very tough and was a big reason why I chose the this particular wing. It’s just a pinhole leak so it should be fine I think with AquaSeal.
No reason not to take care of some diving related stuff while I’m here 🙂 I’m hoping to be out of here and on my way back to the Philippines by the 1st week of November. I’ll keep you all posted!