Where did you solo dive today?

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Nothing complicated....solo at Dania Beach yesterday.
Followed the jacks out to Seatech ledge, then followed the ledge against current to my halfway point. Drifted back to the jacks and followed to shore. Vis wasn't spectacular, about 15', but the bath water made up for it. Usual cast of characters, 4 nurse sharks, tons of tropicals.
Better than going to work.
 
Mansfield Dam - Austin TX
What I thought would be a quick dive to clean up after a class I was teaching...took almost 30min to collect up all the stuff we had out there, mainly because lines were tangled all up in vegetation.
Low 50s at depth, was a bit chilly in a 5mm and hooded vest...ok no it was f-in' COLD haha
 
It's been a while since I checked in here.... Still solo-ing away up here in the Great Lakes...

I did three nice ones last weekend... 180'/58 minutes at the Dufferin Wall on Saturday, and then 155'/55 minutes at the Forest City and the Arabia 110'/40 minutes on Sunday... These are some of my three favorite dives in Tobermory, and I spend a stupid amount of time at them...

I snapped this selfie ('cause that seems to be the thing these days!) at the bottom on the Forest City in 155' of toasty 39° F water. If you aren't familiar with the Forest City, it's a large wooden steamer with stuck an island in 1904 before sinking a couple of weeks later. She runs down on a steak incline from about 60' down to 155'. The stern is in the deepest parts and the best part of the wreck by far...
 

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Pennyroyal Blue Springs Resort in Hopkinsville in southwestern KY. They allow solo diving with solo certification & a liability release form (the SDI form works) & dive plan handed in at the office before the dive. Their Facebook Page listed these conditions for today:

Water Conditions as of 7/3/2015:
Surface Temp 82, Visibility 10ft.
Thermocline @ 16ft. Temp 67 Visibility 10ft
Visibility below 30 ft opens up 30 to 40ft.
Bottom Temp 43 at 90ft Visibility 35ft.

Dove today to test out my cold tolerance wearing Henderson Thermoprene 5 mm full wetsuit, Aqua Lock 7/5 mm hood & 5 mm gloves & new to the ensemble, a pair of 6 mm SeaSoft Stealth scuba boots. Dove with 12 lbs. weight, 2 4 lbs. in detachable pockets, 2 2 lbs. in rear trim pockets, same weight each side despite having the pony bottle setup on my left as usual when I solo here. 130 cf HP steel tank (one of those Worthingtons you can't get anymore); had a 30 cf pony for redundant air due to soloing.

It was very cold. The Oceanic VT3 registered a low temp. of 40 degrees. Even the Cobalt 1 said 45 degrees, & it tends to over-shoot low temp.s by about 4 degrees. Perhaps the coldest dive I’ve ever done. I’d guess viz. around 15 feet. I hit around 91 feet max., didn't hurry with that since the cold was initially powerful, ended the dive over the shallow plateau with most of the sunken attractions, & had about 1:06 dive time.

Head, trunk, arms, legs & feet were okay. The new boots did their job. Face was distressingly cold for quite awhile till it numbed up. Both hands stayed uncomfortably cold at depth, worse for the left for reasons unknown. I saw 1 or 2 dead bluegill (at least one at depth) & 3 or 4 dead catfish - one by the old firetruck & 1 by the motorcycle, so a mix of deep & shallow on those. I saw boats, including one with a huge tractor tire upright in it, a blue port-a-potty, a freezer, the white van, the school bus, a number of things. I’m guessing that boat early in the dive toward the start of the picnic tables, not far from the wooden platform I went in via, might’ve been the ‘blue boat,’ though my max. dive depth was 91 feet or so.

Saw some live bluegill, but no catfish or bass.

Richard.

P.S.: I have never travelled to dive colder than 68 degrees & don't plan to this year. Lord willing and providing, I hope to someday boat dive the Channel Islands out of California, & I got spooked reading about people diving dry suits or else using 7 mm wetsuits (& some cutting dives short due to cold). At 6'1" & around 270 - 275 lbs., a big head & hands & size 15 feet, I tend to take my gear with me rather than rent; not the easiest off the rack guy. But I don't want to train for a dry suit or buy a 7 mm wetsuit just for several dives on a one time trip I may never make. So I picked up the 6 mm SeaSoft Stealth boots (since my feet got cold diving Sunrays in the mid.-40s) & they did fine today.

If late summer or fall Channel Islands diving entails fairly warm water at the surface (so I don't freeze when it initially floods the suit), & water in perhaps the mid. 50's (?) at depth, I think this setup would work for me. Quarry diving gets dissed a bit now & then, but it's useful for testing things out.
 
Apologies for the delay, last sunday out of Swanage in the UK, I got to dive the Caratan. A second world war French warship, which capsized in bad weather. Its not the biggest of wrecks but it is a very interesting dive. The ship rests on its side with the engines still in place as is one of the ships toilets. There is still a deck gun and depth charges in place. There was also plenty of fish swimming around. 40 minutes bottom time and ten minutes of stops. Nice and warm at 16 degrees.

Pics can be seen here
 
Yesterday at Hearthstone Point State Park on Lake George, NY. The vis was terrible because of all the people in the swimming area and there was at least one class of new divers doing their OW cert dives. Silt, silt and more silt. Probably try again Tuesday when there will be less activity.
 
Did a long (84 minute), deep (137 fsw max) solo dive in Hood Canal on Saturday. Was looking for a six-gill shark I encountered the previous week-end. Didn't find it, but it was a lovely dive anyway. Found some new (to me) structures, and spend most of my deco time at 22 feet in a kelp bed infested with hooded nudibranchs ... best part, I had the whole dive site to myself. When I came out of the water there was only one other car in the parking lot, and they were diving well south of me ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
October 2014....solo side mount dive off the Bonaire Belmar Apartment's dock....bottom time 40 minutes if I remember correctly with 10 minutes deco on bottom gas....max depth 100' on 32%....alot of the usual Bonaire suspects observed but nothing unusual...
 
Equipment check time, did a solo in Antigua off of Runaway Bay it's on the Caribbean side of the island. Swam with a school of squid then met up with clear/purple jelly fish known as Moon Jellies. lots of small tropical fish it was like being in a fish tank. Water was warm (Water is always warm in Antigua) viz was about 50-60 feet because it was shallow waves causing a small about of silt from the bottom. Depth 10-25 ft. Okay so it was a lazy easy dive as a Sunday dive should go.
 
I was back at the Forest City yesterday for a bit of a dusk dive... A brief penetration into the Captain's cabin @ 140', then off the wreck to look around the area at 150'. Total dive time was 65 minutes, including deco...

This was an image I made looking back at the stern as I wandered off...
 

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