Jenny and I arrived at our beloved local mudhole a little after 8:00 a.m. The Forsyth County Fire Department Water Rescue Unit was on the scene at West Bank Park preparing to do some dive rescue training. We chatted with them briefly and then decided to dive the cove next to the tennis courts rather than the area with the view of the spillway and dam riprap.
We geared up and splashedor rather trundled inat 8:56 a.m. Me in all-Pinnacle exposure protection, 3mm Seal wetsuit and hood, both with Merino wool lining, gloves, and boots, and Jenny in her new 5mm. I was diving my Evolution+ rebreather, Jenny her Titan open-circuit rig.
Visibility was excellent (for Lake Lanier) above the thermocline, easily 15 ft. and water temp was a balmy 72°F. As we descended below the thermocline (at about 40 ffw) towards our maximum depth of 70 ffw, the temperature dropped to 55°F, which was the coldest we recorded (on Sept. 4, when I dove the main river channel to 118 ffw, it got down to 50°F). The visibility below the thermocline was pitiful, 5 ft. at best. I had clipped my Manta reel to one of the shallow platforms to provide a navigation line, and we mucked around for a half hour or so bumping into the trees. Jenny would later say my light (a 12-watt H.I.D. canister from OMS) and my bright yellow Evo box were the only things she could see!
Despite our best efforts to stay together, we got separated. But both of us followed the rules and surfaced after searching for each other for one minute, and we reunited on the surface. We then ducked back down for an easy nine-minute mini-dive to take us back to shore so Jenny could change cylinders and have a bit of surface interval.
On our second dive we went back to the cold and dark for a bit, but soon came back above the thermocline and did some clean up. Our treasure haul: Pabst Blue Ribbon cans, Michelob bottles, some vintage Coca-Cola pop-top cans, and a pint liquor bottle (a pint, not 500ml) that I think is pretty old.
Our wetsuits held up pretty well; my 3mm dives more like a 5mm because of the excellent seals that barely allow any water exchange and the merino wool lining. But on any future closed-circuit dive where I plan to spent more than, say, 40 minutes below the thermocline, it's drysuit time.
Let's go again next week. Who's in.
