Gilboa

[wreckchick]

It was cold. I was showing about 56 on the surface, 47 below the first thermocline, the tubes were around 39, and the 85 ft rung on the deco ladder was 41.

Vis was outstanding first thing Sat, I was getting 40ish feet, by that night it was down to maybe 20 and that's pushing it. Sunday I was on the deep side, maybe had 20-30 over there.

Rachel

 

[cstreu1026]

I'm glad I chickened out on Gilboa and went to Falling Rock with Jim and Chad. 69 on the surface and 53 @ 40ft is much better to deal with.

 

[dcostanza]

Good morning all...

Here is the dive report for Sunday. Vis was down quite a bit due to the number of students in the water, there were also a number of boy scouts in the water doing some sort of checkout dives and I'm sure that contributed to the vis being measured in inches instead of feet. (slight sarcasm here but I'm not off by much).

Sunday I was fortunate to hook up with "Big O" and "Rick W". First dive was with Big O and we decided to test out his new camera housing for his 5050 sans camera. Did a depth test to 100' "down the road" and his housing held its integrity like a charm. Came up on the other side of the quarry and ended up in a place I've nicknamed "the Enchanted Forest". Sun was out and the beams of light were coming over the wall and illuminating a number of trees which had long strands of what appeared to be moss / algae on them. Even saw a species of fish I had never seen before. They apparently hang out in the farthest area out so as not to be disturbed by the masses. For a moment I had flashbacks of a certain scene out of the movie The Lord of the Rings. It was pretty cool and a refreshing change of scenary. For those interested in a housing for that type of camera, pm to Big O as it looked like a very nice housing. 100' 41 degrees, nice and slow multi-level profile from there, top end of the temp in the 56 degree range. dive time 42 min. Vis= very good at greater depths, poor 60' and shallower. While we were off gasing at 20' I wrote Big O a quick note on my wet notes... I was disappointed he didn't know any good jokes... (Grin)

Second dive Rick W was able to join us and we had a nice leisurely dive. Team of three with Big O in the lead, Rick W in middle and myself in rear position. Maintained depth position and took in the scenery of the wall 50' for roughly 25min, went and to shallower depth and got a few more minutes of dive time in. We opted to get away from the usual attractions and thus were greeted with better vis.

Things were starting to clear out by mid afternoon. Have dive reports for Friday and Saturday which I will post later today. Friday, vis was pretty good, Saturday at 75' I was suprised that the silt was as bad as it was at that depth unless it was billowing over the edge??? Anyway...more detail to come for those that are interested.

Overall, you can tell Scuba is in the air by the number of people dusting off their fins and getting air in their tanks. While I don't understand why the instructors can't address the issue of staying off the bottom with their students, or at least to reduce the number of times they are vertical, it's still diving and its wet so how bad can it be. I take advantage of the silt outs to practice navigation as well as my ID (instrument diving). I suppose that's my attempt to put a positive spin on every dive.

Best Regards

Don

 

[Big-t-2538]

dcostanza once bubbled...

Even saw a species of fish I had never seen before. They apparently hang out in the farthest area out so as not to be disturbed by the masses. For a moment I had flashbacks of a certain scene out of the movie The Lord of the Rings.

This wasn't by chance the ever so elusive paddlefish was it?? We have only seen them once....it was a quiet day...a wednesday before Thanksgiving. He was pretty cool looking, and we snapped a few photos of him for evidence.

 

[dcostanza]

Nope, not the paddlefish... I didn't think they existed and WB416 and I were teasing Mike that the paddlefish were his version of the Loch Ness monster as a marketing ploy to get people to dive there. A few minutes later Mike took us out to show "one" to us. I state "one" in that manner as Brian was on top of Vertical Reality and we were guessing he was engaging in shadowography as we ONLY saw the silhoutte.

At first glance I thought they were large catfish but upon swimming closer realized they weren't. I recall Jody mentioning these fish a couple weekends ago but I can't remember what they were. She stated that that was one of the few times she saw them....hmmm??? Maybe someone here knows what they are??

Best Regards
Don

 

[Big-t-2538]

It is possible that what you are decsribing is what we saw.....I'll have to dig through the pics, scan something and see if I can't post it sometime tonight or tomorrow

How big was this thing you describe?

 

[Big O]

And they were in a group or "school" of about 7 or 8 fish. They had whiskers like a catfish. I don't know what the heck they were.

Nice diving with you again Don. Next time we will follow the road longer and deeper to see what we can find.

Dave

 

[dcostanza]

Big O

"Next time we will follow the road longer and deeper to see what we can find."

Ditto to you Big O. Always up for an exploration. Nice to see some new sites as I had only been down the road to 85' in the past. Looking forward to seeing how far it leads...??? We were discussing the depth and it will be intersting to see if it is accurate or not and more importantly....what is down there.

As I recall the dive you and I did I can't get out of my head how cool it looked when you pointed out that school of fish above us and the way the sun was hitting the water and the trees leaning off to the side. It was a "kodak moment" if there ever was one.

Nice job on both dives as team leader and thanks for the new sites and memories. Sorry I had to "dive and run" after our second dive but my wife was gracious in allowing me to dive since Friday and I felt it was only fair to get back in town so she could go riding with some friends of hers without having to watch the kids at the same time. If it weren't for that I would've been up to another three or four dives ..


Best Regards
Don

 

[Big-t-2538]

dcostanza once bubbled...
Big O

As I recall the dive you and I did I can't get out of my head how cool it looked when you pointed out that school of fish above us and the way the sun was hitting the water and the trees leaning off to the side. It was a "kodak moment" if there ever was one.

Yeah, out past the tubes is where brian and I usually have the best viz in that quarry. I imagine the quarry is a little deeper than normal....I know whitestar was about 4 feet deeper than normal.

I beleive the rungs on the deco ladder are stationed every 10 feet.