Clark Hill/Lake Thurmond 5/6/07

[diveprof]

Six diver today. 3 were working on "Flamongo trail." The other three of us dove two dives 85' for :50 and 70' for :55. Vis was 6-8' ('cept around flamingo trail where the flamingos were flocking . First dive was to the airplane, downward past Captain Bob to the missle. Then onward to the wall @ 80'. New skull and crossbones at the wall. We swam past the log with dive flag and then ascended to the 60' ledge, turned into the trench and onward to the angel statue and 40 ledge. We swam past the pool filters to the three big rocks and upward to the plane and part of the bouyancy course before our safety stop and exit. Second dive was to the three big rocks, 40' ledge, angel statue, trench, 70' ledge. then 50' ledge to the big stump. Lots of small fry on the big stump. We then dropped back down the N. wall aways before turning south past the pipeline, stumps and made our exits after a swimming safety stop. Nice afternoon on the lake.

 

[MaconBubbles]

And where did you see the gator?:11:

 

[diveprof]

Factoid - No diver has every been killed by a gator in the State of GA (horribly mauled beyond recognition, well.... ) Seriously, Gators aren't much of an issue They look for smaller targets than humans. This guy was in the river in a location that we do not dive as often. We just both parted ways. He made the local paper. GA Dept. of Natural Resources caught this gator and relocated him further South. There are gators a few miles (5 miles) South of where we dive, but the area in which we dive has now developed substantially in the past few years and there is no habitat for gators. Basically we are diving in downtown Augusta. Also, the river at Augusta is a bit cooler (72 in the summer). They like this only for brief periods of time. We do see a few snakes in the river occasionally, but they are really as scared of us as we are of them. No diver snake bites.

 

[MaconBubbles]

I'm familiar with the River-walk there. It's a beautiful place. I didn't know there was diving around Augusta. Good to know.

 

[diveprof]

We do a 1 -2hour drift from the 5th street marina to the old marina about a mile south. Lots of history. Shipwreck in 18' of water, the remains of the old Hamburg cotton docks, old hamburg bridge, fish, etc. Vis up to 15-20' in the summer when no rain. The dive is no deeper than 24', but a nice way to spend an hour or two.

 

[diveprof]

By the way, Boca Raton is nice diving. Two reef lines, a shallower one at 50' or so and a deeper one at 80-90' or so. Generally smaller boats (6 packs) with good service.

 

[MaconBubbles]

We do a 1 -2hour drift from the 5th street marina to the old marina about a mile south. Lots of history. Shipwreck in 18' of water, the remains of the old Hamburg cotton docks, old hamburg bridge, fish, etc. Vis up to 15-20' in the summer when no rain. The dive is no deeper than 24', but a nice way to spend an hour or two.

That sounds great! I would definitely like to do that sometime.

 

[diveprof]

For great summer vis, the requirement is usually just 5 days of no rain. Temps of 72
(65 now). Just holler (pm) when you are thinking about coming and I'll let you know the local conditions. You are welcome to join our group. Lake is generally ok most times in the summer (our best vis is June - march), river is a bit more variable. We had fun dives today in the lake. We are diving the lake next Sat.

 

[MaconBubbles]

For great summer vis, the requirement is usually just 5 days of no rain. Temps of 72
(65 now). Just holler (pm) when you are thinking about coming and I'll let you know the local conditions. You are welcome to join our group. Lake is generally ok most times in the summer (our best vis is June - march), river is a bit more variable. We had fun dives today in the lake. We are diving the lake next Sat.

You got it! I have plans next weekend to try out Juliette, and then the week after, Boca. Then I don't believe I have anything set up until the end of July, so that leaves lots of weekends. You can probably tell this has been a boring weekend for me. I've done a lot of posting. Was supposed to go to Jocassee, but thought the weather was going to be too bad, then tried to make last-minute plans for Lanier that didn't quite work out. Hopefully, I won't have too many weekends like this one this summer. I went to the pool yesterday cause I had nothing else to do and just practiced my mask removal and clearing until my nose and eyes hurt...the things I put myself through to get in the water! Then I had nightmares about my nose getting all stretched out and it was so huge you could see up into my brain. (Didn't see a whole lot up there.) :shakehead I need help.