Jocassee Dives instead of Lanier - 3/26/05

[Corigan]

Kyle and I got up to the lake around 9am. Turned out to be a great day. Nice and sunny with 70 degree weather.

Our first dive was a deep dive and we went down and looked at the Stump at 113' that the main down guideline is tied off to. Viz was in the 15' range at best. Lanier has been showing better viz than what we had today. The deeper we went the worst viz got. It usually is the other way around. Water temp was 51F at the surface and 49F at 113'. Life was devoid and all we saw was a skeleton on a crappy dacor rig.. BT for the dive was :30 minutes.

During our Surface interval we were chatting with a gentleman that dove out of bermuda triangle ashville. Nice guy. He was diving a rebreather and was nice enough to field our questions.. Didn't take long to warm up as it was a great day out there.

Our second dive was to be the shallower of the two. We hung out around the jon boat and the skellie wreck. I had fun driving the jon boat and writing obscene words in the muck on the surface of the jon boat. We saw a nice big bass and some minnow fish on this dive. Our max depth was 58' and kyle called the dive at the :33 min mark due to being cold. I know I wasn't complaining one bit and had no problems coming up for a safety stop. Must have hit a cold pocket on this dive as min. temp was 47F.

Overall a great day of diving. Would have liked to have seen some of the Loonies out there, but I know one day we will all get out there and dive. Next week I'm going out with the NC Wreck Divers for some salt diving. I am praying to the weather gods to be nice to me..

Matt

 

[JKSteger]

Glad to read the report. Jesse and I saw you and Kyle as we were turning into Jocassee Lake Rd. Jesse waved but I was busy turning the car. We managed to find the correct boat ramp (thanks for the directions, Matt). We were actually unsure if it was the correct ramp or not but alas we saw bubbles comming from around the bouy at the end of the ramp.

2 guys were comming out of the water wearing dry suits and they looked warm as they were sheding the drysuits. They said that the vis was about 20' and degraded with depth. We found this to be true. This was my first time at Jocassee so I don't know if this is normal or not.

We went in at a balmy 51F. We found the main guideline and went down to 52' where the visibility was noticably worse than my last few times at Lake Lanier at 52'. We stayed down for 32min at which we had to surface or I was about to turn into a popcicle. We only did a single tank dive as it was getting late and Jesse needed to get home. Not too bad for a cold water dive at a location I had never been to before.

Some notes/observations:
I live about an hours south of Atlanta. It took me about 3hours or so to drive to Jocassee which had conditions similar to Lanier. Add another hour to the drive and I'm at Vortex / Morrison springs and it only takes me about 4.5 hours to get to Panama City Beach and to get to Ginnie Springs. (Advantage of living an hour south of Atlanta:biggrin2: ). Would much rather dive PCB or Springs.
Also, Since Lanier is an hour and 1/2 drive for me I'll probably just stick to Lanier and go to Jocassee every "once in a while".

Jocassee has guidelines, 2 big platforms, and alot of other stuff to "see". With Lake Lanier being alot closer and conditions marginally the same over at the dam at West Bank Park, I'm wondering why we (Atlantan's) don't have a similar setup at Lanier? I know we (Looney birds) have been slowly working on a few things out at Lanier and I would like to see us do more. I'm available to help in any way I can. I would like to have some "landmarks" around WBP and have guide lines to them, platforms, etc. there must be alot of divers around Atlanta that would help us out and like to see platforms, etc out at Lanier where it's closer.

One note on Drysuits...
I spoke with Divers Supply and the new manager at Doraville, (Jack) said that they share drysuits with the Marietta store and they are available for rent. $30.00 per day. He made it sound like you had to of had your drysuit specialty course before he would rent them out. He said that Divers Suppy offers the drysuit course for $150.00. (2) days in pool and (1) day at Lanier, Jocassee or Quary. Once the course was taken he would rent you drysuits anytime you needed them. Because of limited supply you would need to call ahead and reserve the wetsuit for the day you would be diving. Jack said that he had drysuits for rental that would fit me and you know that I on the heavy side of the fence. Oh, all rental drysuits are neoprene, no trilam.

Yea, I had a good time yesterday, Matt and Kyle, sorry I missed you guys but I look forward to diving with you two again real soon.

Jeremy

 

[kylepreid]

If I could dive while I was sleeping I would, its just that much fun to me. I had a great time out at jocasee. I also got my deepest dive in this weekend at 106ft. Sorry we missed you guys at the lake, but we will all get together soon. Matt and I were talking about camping up there when the water is a little warmer, and anyone is invited that wants to go. We will just camp at the state park. If we plan ahead mabe we can reserve a spot on the boat to dive the hot hole. Hope to see you in the water soon.

kyle

 

[Corigan]

Hey Jer, sounds like you still had a good time. I saw you all when we were leaving and waved. Unfortunately we couldn't stop as time was against us as it was.

I noticed a ton of downed guidelines while I was out there. Plenty of lines just laying in the dirt that had gone to depth, back and forth between the jon boat and skellie, etc. Would be nice to clean up all the old guidelines. I noticed the newest guideline that we followed down was white as could be. You could tell it was newly laid. I also noticed that what was the bouyancy course seemed to be totally trashed.

I wouldn't mind running some guidelines in Lanier.

Matt

 

[JKSteger]

I was thinking that it wouldn't be too bad to try and clean up some of the guidelines at Jocassee. There were alot of old lines down there! Also I would like to "map" out the boat ramp. You know, where all the lines go to and the depth. Would make for some good "work" dives. It seems that Clif is always up for a "work" dive. It would be fun I believe.

Let me know your thoughts on this or start a new thread for it and we may get more input.

Jeremy

 

[Corigan]

I was thinking that it wouldn't be too bad to try and clean up some of the guidelines at Jocassee. There were alot of old lines down there! Also I would like to "map" out the boat ramp. You know, where all the lines go to and the depth. Would make for some good "work" dives. It seems that Clif is always up for a "work" dive. It would be fun I believe.

Sounds good to me. Kyle and I have been working on our seasigns. Great system they have in place. When I saw some of the lines I signaled to him "Look, Lines broken". Let me know when you all are planning on doing it and I will try to come out and help as long as I don't already have other plans.

Matt

 

[adder70]

I vote we start a new thread for posts concerning the Lanier dives for line and possibly platform placement.

Does anyone know whose if anyone's permission we need to do any of that?

I would love to be involved, but I don't have a drysuit, so no water time from me until surface water temps are above 63F.

 

[Corigan]

Does anyone know whose if anyone's permission we need to do any of that?

We would need the Corp of Engineer's permission, which wouldn't be granted. Basically the only way to get it down there is to DIY and make sure the rangers don't see you doing it.

Matt