Lake Murray 12/1/12 – Bryan, Cyprian and Franco

[Cyprian]

Alright, this was an interesting day that started rather poorly, but ended well.


I’ll try to make a long story, somewhat short…..or medium, if you will.


Bryan and I meetup at Denton for a usual Sat dive at Lake Murray. Destination: Marietta’s Landing. We get there only to find Marietta’s Landing campground closed! That’s the first time I’ve seen this. Ok, so we check out Buzzard’s Roost and then go to the Marina (restroom break).

Buzzard’s has some nice entry spots, but the wind was vicious and it is a little too close to the marina and boats for my taste.


We try to go in at Tucker Tower….it’s closed!


Alright, let’s go to the “deep” tower. We drive there and see someone at the East entrance. We agree to head back toward Marietta’s Landing and pull to the side of the road and see what other entrances we can find.


Well, that someone at the East entrance follows us. He walks down and we start talking a little. As I walk up toward him I see a “Revo” cap. Then he mentions diving at the tower a couple weeks ago. Ding, ding, ding…..I know who this is instantly: Francousste

We exchange pleasantries and, after he mentions cursing me for talking about that rocky entrance by the deep tower (water level is way too low for that entrance)....lol....we go off to explore various alternate entrances to get to Marietta’s Landing. Well, after a couple of moves, sorry Franco….we end up parking just outside of Marietta’s and hiking to the water. It took quite a bit longer than normal to get setup and get to the water.

Alright, 3 divers in the water and they pick me to lead…..bwhahaha….ok. Brave souls.


We drop, Bryan ties off the flag/float and we head North across the channel. I turn us back South and hit the wall and head West. Franco has never dove here, so I want to give him the dime tour. Well, even though I was frog kicking, I set the pace a little fast. J That’s fine, they stay with me. I take Franco to the platforms, boats, etc and then out along the wall West of the platforms. We come back to the area and surface after 1hr 18 min dive. Franco pops up and is happy. Good, good. I was afraid he wasn’t going to like the dive.


Well, Franco is a good guy…and I’ll tell you why. I have never been out with a rebreather diver before and I completely forgot one vital thing…..when diving a rebreather, you cannot control buoyancy with your lungs! DOH. I’m used to cruising the walls at Murray and varying my depths, gliding over big fallen rocks, tree stumps, etc by simply inhaling, and then dropping down the other side by exhaling. I’m also not worried about PPO2 change and shallower depths.


We surface, Franco is all smiles……..we get our gear up to the vehicles and I go over to talk to him. Again he is still all smiles and happy with the dive. Then he says something along the lines of “Hey, by the way, when diving with a rebreather diver……” LOL. As soon as he mentioned buoyancy, I wanted to slap myself in the forehead. And I never even thought about him having to work his PPO2 as we moved from 40 to 20, then back down. But he was still smiling and telling stories….so that is a good thing!


Anyway, a diving day started normal, went bad and then turned out good. Again, I probably pushed the pace a little hard as I wanted to show Franco the area, so to speak, but still a fun dive. I’ve got a couple videos from my GoPro that I haven’t uploaded to check out yet, but if I got anything decent, I’ll post it.

Bryan, Franco.....I enjoyed it. Next time, let's make sure our dive site is open, huh?

Safe dives,

Cyp

---------- Post added December 1st, 2012 at 07:59 PM ----------

Oh, and I didn't even mention the fire and all the Fire trucks and EMS vehicles that made us second guess the dive.......

 

[Bryan]

It was a fun day of exploration! I've never seen the place so deserted or the water so low; however, due to the Zebra Mussels, the viz was still consistently good.

Enjoyed meeting and diving with Franco--hope to do more diving together.

There was a fire to the east end of the lake that brought out a number of emergency vehicles, including water tankers. This was during a period of wind gusts so we did wonder if it might be headed our way. They got it under control really quickly though.

Thanks for an enjoyable day, guys

 

[TwoBitTxn]

Marrietta closes for the winter, but I admit, I have never paid a whole lot of attention to that fact. Never had a problem with it.

 

[francousteau]

Thanks a lot Cyp & Bryan for letting me dive with you! The weather was just too warm (77°) to let a nice day go by without trying to get in the water, so a trek to Murray was the order of the day. As you know, my dive plan was foiled by not being able to find an easier way down any goat trail to dive around the metal tower and hit some deeper water. We really need some rain!! Very glad though to have chased you guys down to see what your plan was to get in. While it was still a long walk to get the gear to the water's edge, the entry point was really easy. As for the dive itself....you're a great guide and excellent navigator, Cyp! I really got the whirlwind tour and saw more "attractions" than I thought were in there! @Bryan- I'm glad you had those yellow Jets on, because there were some parts during the dive that your fin blades were all I could see.
As for the other stuff about not thinking of ups & downs with a breather guy....don't worry about it I was having fun, cause if I wasn't I would've waived sayonara and struck out on my own. But since it was such an enjoyable tour, I was very happy to "endure"..lol I especially enjoyed all of the "sculpture" work that the underwater artists are making. Beer can trees....Tire sculptures... Fun stuff
Thanks again!! You're both great divers!!

Surface temps--mid 70's
Water temps--58°
Viz--depends...3' to about 20'

 

[Cyprian]

A few shots from the dive to illustrate the changing vis that Franco was referring to....these are vid caps from my Gopro, reduced in quality for posting.

Oh, and before I post them, I must say that those Yellow Jets are pretty impressive in the green murk, even if I give Bryan a few good-natured jabs about them.

Franco, getting ready for a photo op of the dilapated wooden boat:

Franco drifting on the back side of the same boat, notice the vis change:

The vaunted Yellow Jets of Bryan...with Franco following:

These Yellow Jets are pretty impressive, notice them popping out in the distance on this shot beyond Franco:

---------- Post added December 2nd, 2012 at 08:40 PM ----------

Marrietta closes for the winter, but I admit, I have never paid a whole lot of attention to that fact. Never had a problem with it.

Twobit,

Hummmm.....I'm not doubting your word at all, but I was up there a couple times in Dec last year and they did not have the chain across the entrance to Marietta's Landing. We drove in and went diving. Perhaps they were working on it and we got lucky?

Regardless, it's good to hear that you had no issue parking close by and diving there even when it was "closed." We were a little iffy at first.

 

[Bryan]

I knew you'd be jealous when I got them, er, uh, I mean, the choice was all about team safety.