Today Rob and I headed to Union Lake in the early afternoon to get a dive in.
We suited up and hit the water. Surface temperature of the water was 68 degrees, but the bottom when we got out to 40 feet was 51 degrees.
I headed out carrying the flag, and a camera.
As you can see, the visibility was not all that great, Rob is only arms-length away in this picture.
Visibility is still not great but much improved from what it was.
So we kicked out and found the line from shore rather quickly and headed out to the boats. At the photo copier boat (so named as , believe it or not, there's a photocopier in the stern of the boat).
At the boat we had a chance to compare my new LED canister light with Rob's 21 Watt HID.
My new canister light is a LightForMe TEK ONE, and it quite simply rocks. It's so hip, it's square. A single large LED light, it gives off a square light pattern rather than a traditional circular pattern. The light is bright and really cuts through the particulate in the water like a hot knife through butter. I bought it from Tec Dive Gear, and the service was simply phenomenal - they answered all my questions and got me the light fast and with no problems. If you're planning to buy a serious dive light, give them a call.
At the photocopier boat we needed to decide which line to take out:
We took the line less traveled.
And in taking the route less traveled, we found, the legendary lost colony of Golf Balls! This place is Union Lake's own mysterious Stonehenge-like site. How the golf balls came to be placed here, and what the formation means is all a mystery and still unexplained by any expert who has taken a swing at the question. It is likely that ancient golfers trudged along and played this course before it flooded and became Union Lake and left these balls here for some reason yet unfathomed.
Another ball a few feet away sat apart as a guardian of the rest of the colony.
We then headed back to the photocopier boat after pondering the mysteries.
See, I told you there was a photocopier there on the boat, but the copies it makes these days are rather grainy and soggy.
There was also a fish hanging around the photocopier boat.
We also passed by a crayfish surrounded by zebra mussels.
Leaving the crayfish we headed into the weeds as we began to ascend.
As we ascended, we had to vent the air from our drysuits as it expanded. Air expands as pressure is reduced which occurs when you ascend. To prevent this expanding air from lifting you up uncontrolled to the surface you ahve to get it out of the drysuit. The air comes out via the drysuit cuff dump when the arm is raised above the rest of the suit.
Yep, sometimes, you just gotta vent.
We then were almost at the end of the dive, and the gauge tells the tale, a 68 minute dive.
It was a great dive, celebrated by some adult beverages at a local bar once we had exited the lake and packed away our dive gear.
2 comments:
So when conditions are murky do you get a bout of vertigo? What do you do to combat it?
When you come to a fork in the line, take it!
Not too much vertigo when its murky. I solve it by always reminding myself that bubbles go up.
I will sometimes get vertigo doing multiple ascent/descent drills - if one of my ears doesn't equalize on a descent then its a serious feeling, complete with visuals, that you're spinning around in a circle even if you're not moving - not a pleasant feeling at all. You then need to ascend until your ears balance out again and then it is ok.
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