Clark Hill/Lake Thurmond

[diveprof]

Well, the cooler temps this past week have started the lake turning over, a bit late this year. This means lower vis below 20', lights needed below 25'. Best shallow vis was on the plane, ski boat and rocks of the dam - maybe 10'. From 40' - 93' vis varies b/w 5' down to 1-2'. Oh well, it is an annual fall event. We will be glad to get this behind us so that we have the great winter vis. Actually we had fairly interesting dives today anyway. We stay below 93' much of both dives (vis 15'), enjoyed the 40' ledge (noew 20-30' due to low water). Five of us dove today. Several of us are going deep again tomorrow @ 1pm. The navigation part gets fun now, trying to hit small targets in less than 5' vis. Water temps are still 70 degrees surface and 62 at depth.

 

[diveprof]

Three of us dove today. Vis is 4-5' @ 0'-25' of depth (except the plane). Below this vis drops to 2' until you pass 93'. The lake is doing it's turnover thing. Yet, we three enjoyed a somewhat challenging dive. With lights need at 25', side by side we made our journey probably 80-100 yards in vis that you couldn't see 2' in until we hit 93'. Then, it opened up in a big way - 15-20' vis- we enjoyed our time at depth (max 110'). Alas, deco comes soon, so we made our turn back up the slope through the low vis, entering the trench, past the angel statue to the 40' wall (now 29') , past the gnome, and budda, where we were finally able to turn out our lights. Continuing to the plane we swam by the ow students in training in vis of about 8' @ 20' on the plane wing - not the best of intros to Clark Hill for them. We finished up on the rocks of the dam and engaged in our extended safety stop entertainment of tossing large logs and stumps at each other (diving is a full contact sport ). How weird, we all agreed that it was a good dive.....

 

[willardj]

Hey Andy. How long for it clears up again? Sounds like the lake temp is dropping as well.

We're headed down to Fl. next weekend to get her back in the water. but I'm looking forward to getting back up there to the lake.

 

[diveprof]

Hey Andy. How long for it clears up again? Sounds like the lake temp is dropping as well.

We're headed down to Fl. next weekend to get her back in the water. but I'm looking forward to getting back up there to the lake.

In any normal year this is a 2- 2 1/2 week event. Cool temps this week so I hope it will pass fast. Looking forward to the good vis, even if it means a few degrees drop in temps. I post as things clear...

 

[willardj]

Whats the temp's drop down in the mid of winter? 50?

 

[diveprof]

Last year it got down to about 45 in mid Feb. The sub fifty temps were confined to February. Vis was good though.