It was disappointing to not get in more dives, but the boat is almost always available to us, so we will be doing more dives down there.
The air temp was about 92F all week. The surface water temp was around 82-83F, at 35 ft the temp was 75F and there was at least another 10 degree drop at the thermocline. We were diving without wetsuits so going before the thermocline was chilly. Since we are newly certified OW (our first dive post certification), we didn't plan on going below 40 feet anyways.
The visibility in the cove we were in was about 10-15 feet, partly because we kicked up a bit of the silt on the bottom.
Diver's Den told us they usually take their OW class out to Marathon Island, at the mouth of Beaver Creek and Otter Creek because it has a fairly easy entry point and the shale is shelved there making for convenient platforms for skills demonstration. Marathon Island is out towards the main lake and the course of the original Cumberland River. Where we were diving used to be farmland, so the bottom tends to be muddier and siltier.
We plan to continue our training, there is supposed to be a few submerged buildings near the cove we were tied up in that we would like to swim around (not go in....YET).
It was a great opportunity for us to practice our buddy skills and bouyancy control. No rushing, plenty of time to get ready.
It would have been great to go out to Buffalo Ridge or Marathon Island for our second dive, but the compressor being down squelched that plan. Next time we go down, we will not ask the marina if they do tank fills, we will ask if the compressor is working. So we learned some lessons on dive planning as well.
All in all, a very worthwhile experience.
Tyki
The air temp was about 92F all week. The surface water temp was around 82-83F, at 35 ft the temp was 75F and there was at least another 10 degree drop at the thermocline. We were diving without wetsuits so going before the thermocline was chilly. Since we are newly certified OW (our first dive post certification), we didn't plan on going below 40 feet anyways.
The visibility in the cove we were in was about 10-15 feet, partly because we kicked up a bit of the silt on the bottom.
Diver's Den told us they usually take their OW class out to Marathon Island, at the mouth of Beaver Creek and Otter Creek because it has a fairly easy entry point and the shale is shelved there making for convenient platforms for skills demonstration. Marathon Island is out towards the main lake and the course of the original Cumberland River. Where we were diving used to be farmland, so the bottom tends to be muddier and siltier.
We plan to continue our training, there is supposed to be a few submerged buildings near the cove we were tied up in that we would like to swim around (not go in....YET).
It was a great opportunity for us to practice our buddy skills and bouyancy control. No rushing, plenty of time to get ready.
It would have been great to go out to Buffalo Ridge or Marathon Island for our second dive, but the compressor being down squelched that plan. Next time we go down, we will not ask the marina if they do tank fills, we will ask if the compressor is working. So we learned some lessons on dive planning as well.
All in all, a very worthwhile experience.
Tyki
