Blue Hole conditions lately

[robint]

Anybody been over to Santa Rosa the past few weeks? We are heading over to dive in a couple of weeks and curious about conditions with construction, Stella's air fill station, etc.
How about Perch? Any reports?

I got my drysuit back with new seals and I am ready to try it out.

robin

 

[amascuba]

Kevin (ABQDiver) and I were out on January 20. At that time construction hadn't started yet. The city has placed a pink shed on the property to move Stella into when they tear down the building. It looks like a snow cone stand.. The visibility was pretty good. It's still pretty alkaline, but really milky like it was for a while. The crawdads are coming back with a vengeance. Just watch the weather to see what it's going to do. It might help to bring some tarps to wrap around a picnic awning if it's going to be cold and windy. It's made the surface intervals much nicer during the last couple trips.

 

[Divedoggie]

Has anyone actually brought PH strips with them and tested the water yet??

Unless its apt to disolve skin, I'm planning on being there mid-March.

 

[amascuba]

I still have a water sample from November sitting at my house, but I haven't actually made it to the aquarium store to get a ph kit.

 

[Richard Moody]

Dove Blue Hole and Perch lake this past Friday and Saturday. Pretty much had Blue Hole to ourselves on Friday except for another PSD team from Kansas. Blue Hole was 64 degrees and failry clear. Crawdads were very active (w/ an attitude) on the bottom. Hit Perch on Saturday. Lake had then sheet ice on surface. Surface temp was 52 degrees and bottom temp was 41 degrees. Viz was excellent. Winds were constant and steady all day, making dry suit undergarments a nice thing to have.

This was my first time to dive these two locations. Perch is definitely dry suit diving right now with 5mm gloves. However, my buddy dove in a 7mm semi-dry and was oaky. We'll be back to hit Perch again while its till cold and the viz is good.

Oh yea, lots of locals stopped by at BH and some seemed to be just casing the place and our stuff. We swapped dive times with the other divers to keep an eye on all the gear. Too bad there isn't more security or something. Re-fill station was closed, but we broght extra tanks with us. The Kansas team had no re-fills.

Cheers!

 

[Richard Moody]

Mineral content at Perch must be high as our hands were severaly chapped after the dive. A little lotion seemed to take care of it though...

 

[robint]

thanks everybody!
I think we need to keep a thread going for current conditions since the construction is starting (well, at least they have a trailor for Stella so something is happening).

Richard - the water always chaps your skin. I have a large bottle of Vaseline Intensive Care to take with us to Blue Hole. I just sit it out on a table and everyone uses it. I learned my lesson after going over once for a 3-day trip - by the end of the weekend my skin was ready to crack and bleed. Eewwww!

We will be heading over later in Feb. My hubby is teaching an OW class plus I need to try out my new drysuit. Woo hoo!

robin
RnR Scuba

 

[ABQdiver]

Ditto to what James said. Not bad viz, but not great.

I just got back from Ginnie Springs this weekend for a Cavern course and the water is SOOO clear there that it's almost freaky! Those caves are calling my name now.


From what Stella is saying, the main construction will be the demolition of the old dive shop and rebuilding of that in a different location. I still have major reservations about the plan to route all divers through the dive shop to the water.

 

[amascuba]

Ditto to what James said. Not bad viz, but not great.

I just got back from Ginnie Springs this weekend for a Cavern course and the water is SOOO clear there that it's almost freaky! Those caves are calling my name now.


From what Stella is saying, the main construction will be the demolition of the old dive shop and rebuilding of that in a different location. I still have major reservations about the plan to route all divers through the dive shop to the water.

You can't leave us hanging like that! We need a report from your cavern class.

I've had a craving lately to take a cavern/intro or GUE/NAUI cave 1 class lately..

 

[charlieo]

Ditto to what James said. Not bad viz, but not great.

I just got back from Ginnie Springs this weekend for a Cavern course and the water is SOOO clear there that it's almost freaky! Those caves are calling my name now.


"the lure of the dark side is great". But we have cookies