Lake Jocassee update

[jimmy71]

Well here is a quick and dirty report from last weekend. I expect more of the same next.

The lake is WAY down. 10-15+ feet. This has changed the thermocline a bit. I went for two dives with Off The Wall charters. Got some big air tanks and topped off my pony and was ready to go. The surface was around 77.
40-50 ft was 68*
I did not really get a good gauge on the thermocline. I would say it is sitting around 80-90 ft. 10ft above and below it are bad for vis. All the muck and haze has settled there. if you are above or below you are fine. Great 20ft vis depending. Deep is still very clear.
First dive i dropped down to 156 off the wall. Traced the barrel to the end. It is now bolted in 156ft of water. VIS is great down there. Computer read 46* at the lowest (they always seem to lag behind on temp readings). I did not stay there long as one of my computers was alarming about things it should have not so i cut it short to play in the shallows.

Second dive after a very short SIT.

Got the computer sorted out and was good to go on the second. Rapid descent to 164ft and swam around a little bit following some line. Was already into deco before i hit max depth. VIz was good but my head was narked so i swam around a bit and made my decent up. Switched tanks and did a 25min deco with a little extra for safe measure. Looked at all the stuff they have setup for the Halloween party and added toys. Temperatures were the same. Vis is good right now except for the thermocline and the hazy it has. If you are wanting any particular info or temp in certain ranges and i can pull it from my computer or make a note of it this weekend.

Jimmy
(PS i can not spell and my grammar sucks, i am aware)

 

[krawlings]

Thanks Jimmy for the info. I know what you mean ,my spelling and grammer is not the best it suchs allso. maybe we will see you there some time

 

[NCBusguy]

Went out this morning and had a great dive. Surface temp was 70, went down to 54 ft, the temps dropped down to about 63. Plenty of fish at the 2nd platform and around the wheelchair boat. Spent most of the time between 35' to 50'. I was trying out my new (to me) hooded vest. Very few people (<15) and visability was great...35 to 40'

 

[krawlings]

NCBusguy THANK for the report . Sounds like temps are creeping down . But inall sound like you had a great dive . The viz was really good . Maybe I will see you there next weekend . We will be there for the hole weekend

 

[Garth]

Will anyone be diving nov 13th weekend? I would really like to get a camp spot be the lake and do some diving! Let me know who's interested. I would like to do some deeper dives. Anybody?

 

[Garth]

Sounds like off the wall will be at lake kiwi nov 13th (jk) but I am looking to do some dives at jocassee. I would like to meet up with some people and dive on Saturday November 13th. Anyone available? Any suggestions for dive plans? I'd like to do a deep deco dive but am interested in anything really.

Let me know if anyone is available.

 

[jimmy71]

Off the wall will not have a boat at jocassee on that day? I was kind of planning they would. Not sure if i was going to be diving or not that day. Will know later in the week. It is a lot easier to do some deco dives off the boat instead of swimming a mile to get to deep water. Just makes it annoying off the ramp.

 

[krawlings]

Check with the Scuba shop The Scuba Shop: Home They may be putting a boat in the water that week end . I don't know if they spoed for the season .But you can call them good luck

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Bill has two boats. I would give him a call. If he has enough people he often runs both lakes as his sons are working with him now and he has extra hands on deck.

 

[TonyW388]

The day started out like any other dive trip. Waking up early and getting all the gear placed in its spot in the back of the truck. The only major problem was it was cold as HECK here in Georgia(37^owhen we left the house.) We hit the road for Lake Jocassee a fews minutes before 6 am. We were to do a breakfast stop at MCD and then complete the drive to Lake Jocassee Dive Shop!

During our MCD stop I had a very unusual experience with my bacon,egg, and cheese McGriddle! Lets see if I can explain this! While I was chewing up my McGriddle I had a sudden sneeze attack. This caused a piece of egg to enter my nasal passage through my mouth. Now it was lodged there in my nasal passage and it was the weirdest feeling! I had always wondered how people got the spaghetti noodle to run from there mouth and out there nose! Needless to say a few minutes later another sneeze followed and expelled the egg from my right nostril! I thougt Krawlings was going to lose his breakfast when I offer to show my nose egg.:shocked2:
Back to the trip!

So we left MCD for Lake Jocassee! We usually arrive early, so we drove to into the park to check out the lake conditions and pay our park fee's. Next year I am buying a park pass to save some $$$! The park ranger stopped and chatted with us a few minutes and then proceed to let us park in the boating area since it is considered the "off peak season" now. The lake is a lot lower than it was two moths ago too. We drove back to Lake Jocassee Dive shop to pay the boat keeper for the ride and our gas. We were eager to get this party started!

Once the boat was in the water and under way it was like a mad dash to assemble gear and don our wetsuits(yes, I said, "wetsuit"). Only Bill and Danny were diving dry. One person had a semi dry and the other 4 were wet. The great thing is the boat is enclosed and heated! We dropped Bill, Danny, and the student off at the training platform while the rest of us went to play on the Junk and the wall.

Our dive plan was simple. We dropped down the buoy line to the rock. We settled ourselves and got an the ok from all divers(3) and then we proceeded to the back of the junk and off the wall. I stopped at a depth of 112' and then we swam up to about
105' and proceed to swim down the wall for approximately ten minutes until the first diver reached his turn point! We scaled the wall and headed back to the Junk where we played with some toys left over from halloween (The sting ray does a gentle glide from the top of the junk to the ground.) The first diver hit his bottom pressure and signaled he was going up. We followed him back to the ascent line and watched him ascend. The vertical viz was good but the horizontal viz was bad! We(the other 2) went and played checkers at the table for a while. A small torpedo was found nearby and we started throwing it back and forth when several bass thought they had found lunch and was trying to eat the little torpedo!:depressed:

STATS For DIVE 1

Depth- 112'
Time-52 mins
Air temp- 32^o
water temp-0-85' 68^o
90-112' 54^O
Vis was- @ 15' and hazy
Surface Int was- 1hr 4 mins

Dive two was a shallow dive that was planned around going to see the new stuff added to the grave yard. We played on the junk again and all three of us played with the torpedo. Another fun dive just to relax and check out any new underwater objects. We all stopped and had some pepsi out of the vending machine from the regulator attached to it. Another nice dive!

DIVE 2
Depth- 59'
Time-53 mins
Air temp- 69^o on the boat
water temp-0-85' 68^o
Vis was- @ 15' and hazy
Surface Int was- 1hr 30 mins

Dive three was on the ramp:shocked2:! It was cold after being on the boat.This dive was mainly to try out my new one piece 7 mil suit. It was pretty nice. Lots of fish swimming with us down the ramps and to the boat. We played and did a few drills and followed some more lines to see if anything was new. Getting out of the water was a pain. It was slightly breezy and the sun was hidden behind the clouds. We went over to the camping area after our dives and hit the warm showers.


Depth- 76'
Time-50 mins
Air temp- 62^o
water temp-0-76' 68^o
Vis was- @ 15' +




Great Dives all around. Thanks to everyone at Off the Wall and KRawlings!