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Also serving: Washington DC, Georgetown, Germantown, Rockville, Potomac, Gaithersburg, Wheaton, Silver Spring, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Hyattsville, College Park, University of Maryland, Tacoma Park, Glenmont, New Carrolton, BWI, Lanham, Upper Marlboro, Suitland, Aspen Hill, Olney, Beltsville, Cheverly, White Oak, Adelphi, Laurel, Fort Meade, Columbia, Bowie, Odenton, Glendale, Largo, Bladensburg, Clinton, Annacostia, Camp Springs, Oxon Hill, Riverdale, Mayo, Fort Washington, Andrews, Rosaryville, Accokeek, Seat Pleasant, Burtonsville, Calverton, Savage, Jessup, Ellicott City, Baltimore, Severn, Severna Park, Pasadena, Crofton, Crownsville, Annapolis, Stevensville, Graysonville, Queenstown, Easton, Ridgely, Centreville, Arnold, Edgwater, Eastport, Deale, Dunkirk, Prince Frederick, Mitchellville, Glen Burnie, Linthicum, Elkridge, Indian Head, Lexington Park, California, Solomons Island, Waldorf, St. Charles, La Plata, Temple Hills, Federal Hill, Fort Meyers, Arlington, Alexandria, George Mason University, Reston, Annandale, Fairfax, Falls Church, Dulles, Vienna, McLean, Chantilly, Sterling, Springfield, Newington, Manassas, Merrifield, Langley, Leesburg, Baileys Crossroads, Mount Vernon, Fort Belvoir

Next open meeting Friday February 10^th, 2012

8:00PM at Fido's for Freedon in Laurel. Speaker Mike Boring on "From the Battle of Jutland to the Scuttle at Scapa Flow.” Visitors welcome. Click link at left for directions

Disappearance of the USS Cyclops

From the day it was realized that the U.S.S. Cyclops would never arrive at her destination, much attention has been drawn to the subject of this colossal collier. Many have been curious because of the mystery surrounding her disappearance in the area known as the Bermuda Triangle. Others are interested in naval history and some because of a family connection to a member of her crew. At the Ranger's August meeting, author Marvin Barrash spoke to all three perspectives..

Diving the U.S.S. Monitor, Archeology at 240 feet

The Rangers' July meeting featured a talk by Technical Diving Instructor Ron Carmichael about his trips to the wreck of the U.S. Monitor. Topics discussed included the wreck's history, Trimix dive planning for 240 foot dives and training required to dive such a historic deep wreck.

Rangers Featured in "What's Up Annapolis" Magazine

The June 2011 issue includes an article titled "Deep Below the Surface" about scuba diving in the Cheaspeake Bay, Atlantic Ocean and regional quarries. The article leads with a mention on our club and quotes from president Robin Sparer, "Fortunately there are a number of places to dive within a one or two hour drive of this area." and member Brian Hughes, "If you know the right location, you can walk right off shore and dive in the bay." Check local visitors' centers for free copies of the magazine or click the title above to read the article on-line.

Outstanding "Fin and Feather" Photography

Atlantis Rangers member George Cathcart has created a website to sharte his photographic interests. Check www.finsfeathersfoto.com to see his pictures of birds and sea creatures.

September Meeting Introduces New Dive Shop

The speaker at the Rangers' September meeting was Jon Edwards from the new dive shop Submerged, Inc in Rockville. Jon says his shop is not just a tech-dive shop, and wants to dispel those rumors, BUT they do specialize in that area and provide all the gases (trimix, nitrox, standard air, argon, etc) and equipment. He talked about the services and products and training they offer, discussed DIR, dive-destinations they like to go to (deep wrecks, caves, etc), and answered questions about his dive shop.

Rangers get the scoop on closed circuit rebreather's

At our January meeting Pete Nawrocky from DiveRite gave a well attended talk on advantages of rebreathers as an offset to the significant investment they require in training and maintenance.

Rangers Learn About NOAA Work on U-Boats

David Alberg of NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary spoke at our March meeting on issues concerning this and other historical shipwrecks. He focused on a 2009 NOAA survey of three German WWII U-boat wrecks off North Carolina. These wrecks are war graves and the NOAA effort was intended to document and hopefully limit taking of souvenirs by divers. NOAA has produced a set of diagrams showing each wreck in plan and profile views and will make them available to dive operators and clubs..

You missed "Diving Lake Ontario & St. Lawrence River"

At the Rangers January meeting David Spaidal from Northern Tech Divers in Kingston Ontario gave a presentation and answer questions about diving in Ontario Canada. The Rangers dove with Northern Tech over Labor Day weekend in 2008 and 2009. We had clear warm weather, flat water and six well preserved historic wrecks - including the side wheeler Comet (circa 1850). Viz about 40 feet was better this year than last, but we had to trade a little lower bottom temp.

Paddle wheeler in Lake Ontario - 2008 Photo by Heather Sears

Wonders of the Galapagos

Tim Manuelides shared pictures and stories from the trip he and Kim made in October 2006 The trip was a 10-day live-aboard on the Nemo II. They visited Baltra, Wolf, Darwin, Isabella, Bartolome, Cousins Rock and Santa Cruz islands and had two shore excursions - one on Bartolome and the other at Santa Cruz. Highlights included a fantastic series of whale shark photos, hammerhead sharks, penguins and many, many seals

Rangers Learn about the DIR school of diving

Ranger Gary Truslow give a presentation on the DIR dive philosophy at a recent meeting. Gary will follow up the "classroom" presentation with practical sessions at date and location to be agreed among the interested participants. Try diving doubles and get hands on experience with the DIR equipment configuration. Gary is a NAUI instructor who offers certification for technical diving specialties including Advanced Nitrox, Decompression, and Trimix.

Contact Gary at gartius@yahoo.com
Click to Check Wikipedia for more on DIR.

Other Recent Dive Trips
	September - The Maldives Five Rangers joined a group of divers from Germany for a week of diving in this exotic Indian Ocean archipelago. The trip must have been especially rewarding after Rangers Kim & Rob Seegers presented a Maldives photo show at our August meeting. The Seegers' pictures were from 2002 and 2006 trips and showed Kani Island (north atoll) and Vila Mendhoo Island (Ari Atoll). Info on a possilbe 2011/2012 trip coming soon.
click photo for larger view	October - Beaufort NC Six Rangers spent a weekend diving with Capt. Leroy off his 6-pack Captains Lady out of Discovery Diving. It was mostly sunny all weekend with air and water temps in the low 80s/ It was bit rough on Saturday so we stayed in-shore to visit the Hutton and Indra. Visibility was poor, but we had the opportunity to check out new equipment on an open water dive. Sunday was almost calm and we headed off shore to the Schurz and Spar. Visibilty was 50 feet or better except when completely surrounded by fish. Highlight was the abundance of lionfish on the Schurz. We'll have 2 or more trips to Beaufort and Morehead City on our 2011 dive schedule November - Bonaire Bonaire in brief: air 80-90F, mostly sunny but occasional brief showers, pleasant breeze; water 84F; viz 60-100'. We did 3-6 dives daily sometimes starting at dawn and ending with a night dive; 21-26 total over 6 days. 6 were off boats; the rest were shore dives. Our package included airfare, airport transfers, accommodations at Buddy Dive Resort for 8 people in two 2-bedroom suites, a 4-door compact pickup truck for each suite, daily breakfast buffet, 6 boats dives and unlamented tanks for shore diving (air or 32% nitrox). We could pick up a tank at the dock any time or take our truck to the drive-thru fill station and load up on tanks to take to the 30+ marked shore dive sites on the island. Best dive was at dawn when all the fish seem to boil out of the reef, Photographed octopus, sea horses and tropical fish of every description. Saw no large animals, except a couple of turtles. Watch for info on the 2011 summer trip.
click photo for larger view

Manatee Tour - January 18-21 Cool in Every Way Six Rangers traveled to Homosassa Springs on the Gulf Coast to meet our Florida Branch for a weekend in warm water - but unfortunately cool air - of Florida's springs. We had two early AM excursions to snorkel with manatees, one afternoon of spring/cavern diving, and a drift dive in the Rainbow River. Full report coming soon.

Photo by Heather Sears

Rangers on TV A recent History Channel episode of "Digging the Truth" included Atlantis Ranger Mark Ragan and his K250 submarine. The show explored potential reasons for the sinking of the CSS Hunley - the famous Civil War submarine. Mark's latest book included his theory about how that boat sank after their successful attack. The star of the show spent some time underwater in Mark's sub (aee photo) to get a sense of what it would have been like underwater at night in a small submarine. Ranger Brian Huges was the safety diver and did all the underwater camera work with the K-250. Watch your local listing for rebroadcasts.

Curt Newport briefs Rangers on Deep Sea Salvage & Exploration

Curt Newport from the deep-sea salvage and exploration firm Phoenix International spoke club about his line of work, in particular the expedition he organized and led to locate and recover Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom’s Liberty Bell 7 Mercury spacecraft. The Liberty Bell 7 splashed down after the nations second manned spce flight in 1961, but sank before it could be pulled on board the recovery vessel. Curt succeeded in finding the tiny capsule on May 1, 1999 and recovering the space-age artifact from waters 16,043 feet deep later that year. He has participated in numerous high-profile undersea operations such as the search for the Space Shuttle Challenger, TWA 800, the broadcast of live images from the sunken ocean liner RMS Titanic, as well as many other classified missions involving the loss of military aircraft and weaponry. He also led an expedition to the Philippine Sea during a search for the Heavy Cruiser USS Indianapolis (covered by Discovery Channel in 2001).

The Secret Life of Lobsters

Author Trevor Corson was featered at our September meeting to give a presentation on his books “THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS: How Fishermen and Scientists are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean” and “THE ZEN OF FISH: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket”. Trevor’s presentation focused mostly on all the interesting aspects of the life of the American Lobster - the "bug" we chase off NJ, DE and MD. The presentation included great underwater video footage and discussion on the lives of lobsters, lobstermen, lobster industry, lobster scientists, etc. As a “spin” on the scuba/underwater theme, Trevor also gave a quick synopsis of his new book on sushi that also includes profiles of a number of interesting sea creatures. The meeting was well attended by current and prospective members.

Click here for a sample.

Jim Graham in Ray Tray. Photo by George Cathcart.

Rangers Dive into National Aquarium Club members took a behind the scenes tour of the National Aquarium in Baltimore and watched the winners of our guest diver raffle dive in the ray tank and Atlantic Coral Reef exhibit at feeding time. Safety Officer Chuck Eichholz guided us through a maze of corridors and rooms to see the dive equipment area, fish food preparation,nursery tanks, labs, and even an operating room. He talked about care, treatment and research for the animals on exhibit, including giving a male Sand Tiger hormone treatments to reduce his aggression. (Did they try counseling first . Our raffle raised $295 that we donated to the NAIB dive program for CPR and O2 training. Click here for more photos.

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