scububa
July 30th, 2007, 09:38 AM
Decided to take the day off friday and go diving. Kristin went with me, but Sam had obligations, so Mom stayed home with her.
Friday - Drive to Table Rock. Went to the state park to set up a tent. Wow, not many sites opened, but we got one, put in the cots and headed to the dam. We were on the late side as we stopped in Springfield to visit MSU and pick up some catalogs, etc. So at 8:30 p.m. we are heading down the steps to get in the water.
I decided to use my dry suit. Diving a single steel and carried a stage 80AL. Bubble check at 20 ft. We had a very nice dive to 90 ft. Vis was real good past 50 ft. Plenty of crawdads. Most of the deeper ones were small. Trying to recognize the different varities, though I am not good with the names yet. On the way back up the wall, I practiced removing the stage and replacing it while keeping the bouyancy spot on. Not bad. Used the method of hanging on to it with my right hand and hitting the inflator with the left. As they say, timing is everything :-) Very nice dive. Afterwards, in the parking lot, met Mike and Stacy. They were finishing a dive. I introduced my self and he said "from St. Louis", I said "yes" and he told me he was the guy that answered some questions about an IrDA issue I was having a couple of years ago! Weather was cool and breezy, so sleeping was nice.
Saturday - Up at a liesurely pace and breakfast at TR Inn. Over to the dam for a late morning dive. Man was there a crowd there! Never seen so many people. I think there might have been two shops there. I know the KC Dive Shop was there. We did a dive to about 85' looking for old ber cans. Found nothing interesting. Kristin was having trouble with her mask, so we practiced holding trim and depth while she messed with it at several depths.
Then we went over to the State Park Marina to get refills. Of course we saw about everyone we knew except SLIM (who was on EMS duty). They are generally taking two boats out at least two times a day now. So, they had room and we went with AJ to Poverty Point. I dove wet this time with no hood. We dropped down to the 70' range to explore the caves, cracks, and stalagtite/mite features. We found they had hung an 80 with the bottom cut out and a hammer to ring it. Evidently every diver in the water heard it. The vis was super below 45' or so. My head was freezing!
It rained a tremendous amount for about 45-60 minutes that afternoon. I was at the marina getting ready for a night dive. Kristin was in the shower. It got a little windy, but we stayed tight and dry at the tent. (We saw one group throw their tent and some other items in the dumpster and leave.) We went with Roger and Jack on a night dive to Oasis island. Kristin decided to sit this one out, so we did a nice long, deep dry suit dive. They were both wearing doubles and I had the same single and stage setup from the dam. The vis was interesting here. Great from 50' to 85' or so, then it started to deteriorate consideribly. The 80 ft bluff was not nearly so impressive in limited vis. We bottomed out at 110'. We found a couple of debris areas with boards (like old siding) and a stair stringer, but no evidence of any structure. The mud down there is deep. Roger sticks his whole arm into it and it keeps going. We will have to push a stick into it some time to see if we can determine the depth. Usually we are trying not to stir much up. I think if we are ever going to find any sturctures it will be much further away from the bluff. And then, you are going to be in the channel. The logistics of doing this safely will be challenging.
Sunday - Kristin and I head back to St. Louis and stop at Roubidoux to do a short cavern dive. Things look pretty good at the surface. Running clear and a light/moderate flow. Getting in is no problem. Kristin is in 5 mm with 5 mm hooded vest. So I know we won't be too long. We run the reel, doing a few more tie offs than needed for the sake of practice. At the sign, the vis is definitely limited. Sort of a white haziness or cloudiness. The cavern opening is debatabily visible at the sign. We run up and down the line again. At the sign we tie off and swim to the other side of the cavern with the reel then turn the dive and take the reel up for a safety stop and back out into the sunlight and clear water. I was surprised that the water could appear so clear coming out but be so cloudy in the cavern. I'd say vis was at something around 15' (maybe a bit more).
Nice weekend. Got in five dives two of them night dives and one cavern.
Friday - Drive to Table Rock. Went to the state park to set up a tent. Wow, not many sites opened, but we got one, put in the cots and headed to the dam. We were on the late side as we stopped in Springfield to visit MSU and pick up some catalogs, etc. So at 8:30 p.m. we are heading down the steps to get in the water.
I decided to use my dry suit. Diving a single steel and carried a stage 80AL. Bubble check at 20 ft. We had a very nice dive to 90 ft. Vis was real good past 50 ft. Plenty of crawdads. Most of the deeper ones were small. Trying to recognize the different varities, though I am not good with the names yet. On the way back up the wall, I practiced removing the stage and replacing it while keeping the bouyancy spot on. Not bad. Used the method of hanging on to it with my right hand and hitting the inflator with the left. As they say, timing is everything :-) Very nice dive. Afterwards, in the parking lot, met Mike and Stacy. They were finishing a dive. I introduced my self and he said "from St. Louis", I said "yes" and he told me he was the guy that answered some questions about an IrDA issue I was having a couple of years ago! Weather was cool and breezy, so sleeping was nice.
Saturday - Up at a liesurely pace and breakfast at TR Inn. Over to the dam for a late morning dive. Man was there a crowd there! Never seen so many people. I think there might have been two shops there. I know the KC Dive Shop was there. We did a dive to about 85' looking for old ber cans. Found nothing interesting. Kristin was having trouble with her mask, so we practiced holding trim and depth while she messed with it at several depths.
Then we went over to the State Park Marina to get refills. Of course we saw about everyone we knew except SLIM (who was on EMS duty). They are generally taking two boats out at least two times a day now. So, they had room and we went with AJ to Poverty Point. I dove wet this time with no hood. We dropped down to the 70' range to explore the caves, cracks, and stalagtite/mite features. We found they had hung an 80 with the bottom cut out and a hammer to ring it. Evidently every diver in the water heard it. The vis was super below 45' or so. My head was freezing!
It rained a tremendous amount for about 45-60 minutes that afternoon. I was at the marina getting ready for a night dive. Kristin was in the shower. It got a little windy, but we stayed tight and dry at the tent. (We saw one group throw their tent and some other items in the dumpster and leave.) We went with Roger and Jack on a night dive to Oasis island. Kristin decided to sit this one out, so we did a nice long, deep dry suit dive. They were both wearing doubles and I had the same single and stage setup from the dam. The vis was interesting here. Great from 50' to 85' or so, then it started to deteriorate consideribly. The 80 ft bluff was not nearly so impressive in limited vis. We bottomed out at 110'. We found a couple of debris areas with boards (like old siding) and a stair stringer, but no evidence of any structure. The mud down there is deep. Roger sticks his whole arm into it and it keeps going. We will have to push a stick into it some time to see if we can determine the depth. Usually we are trying not to stir much up. I think if we are ever going to find any sturctures it will be much further away from the bluff. And then, you are going to be in the channel. The logistics of doing this safely will be challenging.
Sunday - Kristin and I head back to St. Louis and stop at Roubidoux to do a short cavern dive. Things look pretty good at the surface. Running clear and a light/moderate flow. Getting in is no problem. Kristin is in 5 mm with 5 mm hooded vest. So I know we won't be too long. We run the reel, doing a few more tie offs than needed for the sake of practice. At the sign, the vis is definitely limited. Sort of a white haziness or cloudiness. The cavern opening is debatabily visible at the sign. We run up and down the line again. At the sign we tie off and swim to the other side of the cavern with the reel then turn the dive and take the reel up for a safety stop and back out into the sunlight and clear water. I was surprised that the water could appear so clear coming out but be so cloudy in the cavern. I'd say vis was at something around 15' (maybe a bit more).
Nice weekend. Got in five dives two of them night dives and one cavern.