I
idocsteve
Guest
My girlfriend and I headed down to Virginia to visit my Dad for a few days, and I always try to squeeze in some sort of excursion or mini adventure whenever I travel. Quite often a trip to Virginia includes Busch Gardens but this time I had my sights set on Lake Rawlings.
We headed down there Monday of this week, and got there around 1 pm in the afternoon, with a bit of a delay due to me getting nailed by a VA State patrolman going 77 in a 60. He said "Didn't you see the speed decrease?". Turns out that for a mile or two the limit drops from 70 to 60, I guess there's one small sign somewhere, and this guy sits in wait just over the crest of a hill waiting for out of state drivers to fall right into his trap. He seemed nice enough and even smiled at me as I explained that I was visiting my Dad and we were taking a drive to do some scuba diving. Almost had me convinced he was going to let me off with a warning. When we got to Lake Rawlings I mentioned my ticket to the girl behind the counter and she told me that I-85 is one of the most heavily patroled roads in the state and the cops have no mercy.
Anyway, we checked in, paid the $25 per person entry fee and $15 each for a tank with unlimited refills, and filled out the waivers, they checked our C-cards, we grabbed two tanks, an Al80 for me and an AL60 for my girlfriend, and went over the dive site map with the girl working the counter. Don't bother bringing your own tanks if you're doing 2 or more dives, it will cost you more to fill your own tanks twice than to rent theirs with the unlimited refills. She showed me a laminated map which listed all the "wrecks" as well as the "deep water tour" which is a dotted line representing a rope connecting several of the larger ones. She offered to sell me the map for 5 bucks, stating that there was a large map by the entry point but "the pictures of each wreck were all scratched off so you can't tell which is which". Strike one because they can't redo the diagram on the sign near the entry point to make it easier for divers to plan their dives.
We drove around behind the shop towards the lake, and we dropped our gear as close as we could to the entry area, and parked the car. We returned to where we dropped the gear, found an empty table (there are only a few, in addition to the pavilions that you can rent for a daily fee), and geared up.
I planned on starting at the beginning of the 'deep water tour' and following the rope until we got as far as we could based on remaining gas, however after we got to the airplane, it appeared that the rope just "dead ended" there, and we surfaced along the line leading to the buoy marking the airplane wreck. Visibility was perhaps 20-25 feet when looking down from the surface, but at depth it was perhaps 10 feet in 'murk'. Reported visibility on the website was 30+ but we saw nothing close to that and there wasn't any reason that I could see for the poor vis. The place was deserted, there were perhaps 2 or 3 other dive pairs in the water the entire time we were there, and the weather was calm with a flat surface to the lake.
After we surfaced at the buoy, I remarked to my girlfriend that so far the wrecks were rather anticlimatic..not sure what I was expecting but most of them were small boats that didn't even offer the possibility of penetration. Yeah, we went inside the plane, swam to the front, then to the back, then over the wings, I guess that was what you might call "fun" but there was no "wow factor" at least not for me, and there were no fish or any other creatures inside any of the wrecks. When we got to the buoy I realized there was another buoy not far from it, and I still had about 1200 psi so I dropped back down and found myself at the bus. After swimming through the bus and exiting out the rear, I followed the line from the bus in one direction and hit two more small boats, then went back to the bus, and found a rope from the front of the bus that took me, back to the plane! The reason I didn't see that rope the first time we got to the plane is because it tied into the platform about 10 feet lower than the rope we had followed to get to the plane, and that makes absolutely no sense. With the poor vis the only way I would have seen the continuation of the rope marking the deep water tour would have been to descend at least 10 feet lower and there was no reason to go there. Later on back at the shop I remarked to the girl that the two ropes tie in at different places and she said "that shouldnt be that way, people are always messing with the ropes".
After picking up two more tanks we walked back down to the entry point, geared up, at which point my gauge indicated a tank fill of 2350 psi. It's work taking the rig apart and walking all the way back up the hill, throwing the tank in the car and driving back to the shop while wearing a 7mm semi dry suit in 90 degree heat. At the shop I pointed out the bad fill and she said nothing. While I was pointing out the bad fill a pickup truck pulled up outside and the guy came in and chastised me for parking in front of the shop where it said "No Parking". I said I wouldnt have been parked there if I didn't get the crappy air fill. I'm going to guess that was the guy Kevin that most divers have reported elsewhere on this board to be a bit of a prick. I grabbed another tank without checking the pressure and once back at the entry point found it to be 2650 psi. Incompetent dive fills earn Lake Rawlings another strike in my book. I didn't bother going back to swap out the tank again.
We dove our second tanks on the other side of the lake, my plan was to drop down and check out a large bus that was not connected to anything, then come back up and go to a buoy that marked the site of another boat that was the far end of the deep water tour, and then work backwards until we hit the plane again. Turns out the map very poorly represents the actual layout of the buoys, for example the bus had TWO buoys on it so when you're trying to map out your course from shore, that makes it, rather difficult to say the least. After the bus we dropped to a boat which started the far end of the deep water tour, and followed the line, which rather than leading to the boat marking the end of the deep water tour, in fact dead ended at the "dive shop van" which is a bit further out in the lake than most of the other wrecks, and as per the map is not part of the deep water tour and is not supposed to be tied to any of the other wrecks. So, once again at a wreck with no continuing line, we had no choice but to surface.
We then swam towards another buoy and dropped down to find "The Dead Zone" which is supposed to be scary and has faces painted on the rocks and skulls suspended near the bottom. At this point we were doing so much up and down in depths of anywhere from 25-60 feet trying to find the rope leading to the deep water tour that at that point I said "screw it" lets just follow the bottom and see what we find. We came upon a rope, that led us to a small boat, and that one dead ended as well. We decided to ascend along the line going vertically from that boat and when we got to about 20 feet we realized the rope just ended midwater! It probably broke loose from whatever wreck that boat was tied to and floated up towards the top.
So another whole bunch of strkes for lines that go nowhere, wrecks tied together that aren't supposed to be connected, two buoys on a wreck when only one is indicated on the map, areas of the lake with features that aren't mentioned on the map, and that makes for a lot of confusion, back tracking, additional and excessive ascents and descents, and a waste of time and effort.
I also found the wrecks to be rather small and boring for the most part, and fish life was sparse although we saw perhaps a half a dozen good sized fish.
Lake Rawlings is something that you might want to do once if you're in the area but I don't see ever returning there myself. It could be a heck of a lot better if the map by the entryway was fixed up to replace the worn off markings and the errors and omissions were cleared up. Oh, and maybe connect the wrecks with a cable instead of rope which obviously doesn't last very long. There is a "no knife" policy and they say it's because divers cut the lines. I find it hard to believe that fellow divers have nothing better to do than screw with other divers by cutting lines and connecting them to the wrong wrecks but maybe that's just me.
A final strike for Lake Rawlings is the "pay showers". That's right, after paying $50 for my girlfriend and I to walk in the place, we had to throw quarters in the machine in the bathroom to turn the shower on for a couple of minutes.
Don't be fooled by the warm air temperatures, bring your 7mm or dry suit because when you get to 25 feet or so it gets really cold due to the thermocline. At least one of the other dive teams didn't stay in more than 15 minutes because they got too cold in their shortys with no hoods.
We headed down there Monday of this week, and got there around 1 pm in the afternoon, with a bit of a delay due to me getting nailed by a VA State patrolman going 77 in a 60. He said "Didn't you see the speed decrease?". Turns out that for a mile or two the limit drops from 70 to 60, I guess there's one small sign somewhere, and this guy sits in wait just over the crest of a hill waiting for out of state drivers to fall right into his trap. He seemed nice enough and even smiled at me as I explained that I was visiting my Dad and we were taking a drive to do some scuba diving. Almost had me convinced he was going to let me off with a warning. When we got to Lake Rawlings I mentioned my ticket to the girl behind the counter and she told me that I-85 is one of the most heavily patroled roads in the state and the cops have no mercy.
Anyway, we checked in, paid the $25 per person entry fee and $15 each for a tank with unlimited refills, and filled out the waivers, they checked our C-cards, we grabbed two tanks, an Al80 for me and an AL60 for my girlfriend, and went over the dive site map with the girl working the counter. Don't bother bringing your own tanks if you're doing 2 or more dives, it will cost you more to fill your own tanks twice than to rent theirs with the unlimited refills. She showed me a laminated map which listed all the "wrecks" as well as the "deep water tour" which is a dotted line representing a rope connecting several of the larger ones. She offered to sell me the map for 5 bucks, stating that there was a large map by the entry point but "the pictures of each wreck were all scratched off so you can't tell which is which". Strike one because they can't redo the diagram on the sign near the entry point to make it easier for divers to plan their dives.
We drove around behind the shop towards the lake, and we dropped our gear as close as we could to the entry area, and parked the car. We returned to where we dropped the gear, found an empty table (there are only a few, in addition to the pavilions that you can rent for a daily fee), and geared up.
I planned on starting at the beginning of the 'deep water tour' and following the rope until we got as far as we could based on remaining gas, however after we got to the airplane, it appeared that the rope just "dead ended" there, and we surfaced along the line leading to the buoy marking the airplane wreck. Visibility was perhaps 20-25 feet when looking down from the surface, but at depth it was perhaps 10 feet in 'murk'. Reported visibility on the website was 30+ but we saw nothing close to that and there wasn't any reason that I could see for the poor vis. The place was deserted, there were perhaps 2 or 3 other dive pairs in the water the entire time we were there, and the weather was calm with a flat surface to the lake.
After we surfaced at the buoy, I remarked to my girlfriend that so far the wrecks were rather anticlimatic..not sure what I was expecting but most of them were small boats that didn't even offer the possibility of penetration. Yeah, we went inside the plane, swam to the front, then to the back, then over the wings, I guess that was what you might call "fun" but there was no "wow factor" at least not for me, and there were no fish or any other creatures inside any of the wrecks. When we got to the buoy I realized there was another buoy not far from it, and I still had about 1200 psi so I dropped back down and found myself at the bus. After swimming through the bus and exiting out the rear, I followed the line from the bus in one direction and hit two more small boats, then went back to the bus, and found a rope from the front of the bus that took me, back to the plane! The reason I didn't see that rope the first time we got to the plane is because it tied into the platform about 10 feet lower than the rope we had followed to get to the plane, and that makes absolutely no sense. With the poor vis the only way I would have seen the continuation of the rope marking the deep water tour would have been to descend at least 10 feet lower and there was no reason to go there. Later on back at the shop I remarked to the girl that the two ropes tie in at different places and she said "that shouldnt be that way, people are always messing with the ropes".
After picking up two more tanks we walked back down to the entry point, geared up, at which point my gauge indicated a tank fill of 2350 psi. It's work taking the rig apart and walking all the way back up the hill, throwing the tank in the car and driving back to the shop while wearing a 7mm semi dry suit in 90 degree heat. At the shop I pointed out the bad fill and she said nothing. While I was pointing out the bad fill a pickup truck pulled up outside and the guy came in and chastised me for parking in front of the shop where it said "No Parking". I said I wouldnt have been parked there if I didn't get the crappy air fill. I'm going to guess that was the guy Kevin that most divers have reported elsewhere on this board to be a bit of a prick. I grabbed another tank without checking the pressure and once back at the entry point found it to be 2650 psi. Incompetent dive fills earn Lake Rawlings another strike in my book. I didn't bother going back to swap out the tank again.
We dove our second tanks on the other side of the lake, my plan was to drop down and check out a large bus that was not connected to anything, then come back up and go to a buoy that marked the site of another boat that was the far end of the deep water tour, and then work backwards until we hit the plane again. Turns out the map very poorly represents the actual layout of the buoys, for example the bus had TWO buoys on it so when you're trying to map out your course from shore, that makes it, rather difficult to say the least. After the bus we dropped to a boat which started the far end of the deep water tour, and followed the line, which rather than leading to the boat marking the end of the deep water tour, in fact dead ended at the "dive shop van" which is a bit further out in the lake than most of the other wrecks, and as per the map is not part of the deep water tour and is not supposed to be tied to any of the other wrecks. So, once again at a wreck with no continuing line, we had no choice but to surface.
We then swam towards another buoy and dropped down to find "The Dead Zone" which is supposed to be scary and has faces painted on the rocks and skulls suspended near the bottom. At this point we were doing so much up and down in depths of anywhere from 25-60 feet trying to find the rope leading to the deep water tour that at that point I said "screw it" lets just follow the bottom and see what we find. We came upon a rope, that led us to a small boat, and that one dead ended as well. We decided to ascend along the line going vertically from that boat and when we got to about 20 feet we realized the rope just ended midwater! It probably broke loose from whatever wreck that boat was tied to and floated up towards the top.
So another whole bunch of strkes for lines that go nowhere, wrecks tied together that aren't supposed to be connected, two buoys on a wreck when only one is indicated on the map, areas of the lake with features that aren't mentioned on the map, and that makes for a lot of confusion, back tracking, additional and excessive ascents and descents, and a waste of time and effort.
I also found the wrecks to be rather small and boring for the most part, and fish life was sparse although we saw perhaps a half a dozen good sized fish.
Lake Rawlings is something that you might want to do once if you're in the area but I don't see ever returning there myself. It could be a heck of a lot better if the map by the entryway was fixed up to replace the worn off markings and the errors and omissions were cleared up. Oh, and maybe connect the wrecks with a cable instead of rope which obviously doesn't last very long. There is a "no knife" policy and they say it's because divers cut the lines. I find it hard to believe that fellow divers have nothing better to do than screw with other divers by cutting lines and connecting them to the wrong wrecks but maybe that's just me.
A final strike for Lake Rawlings is the "pay showers". That's right, after paying $50 for my girlfriend and I to walk in the place, we had to throw quarters in the machine in the bathroom to turn the shower on for a couple of minutes.
Don't be fooled by the warm air temperatures, bring your 7mm or dry suit because when you get to 25 feet or so it gets really cold due to the thermocline. At least one of the other dive teams didn't stay in more than 15 minutes because they got too cold in their shortys with no hoods.
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