Lanier Report 04/16/05

[JKSteger]

Me and Jesse decided to go to WBP on Sat. after lunch to get a couple of dives in this past weekend. I debated on getting up early Sunday to dive with some of the other Lanier Looney’s but the past week had been very long and I wanted to sleep in this weekend.

First stop is usually Divers Supply to get air and Jesse his wetsuit for cold water. 1st problem! Divers Supply's compressor was out getting repaired and no air fills. Yikes! So Divers Supply let us use 2 AL80 rental tanks and didn't charge us anything since the compressor was out. They are the absolute greatest LDS! While there I bought a Cressi Big Eyes mask with the black skirt for a good price.

On the way to Lanier I was trying to clean the mask lens because I wanted to dive with it. So while Jesse is driving us to WBP I'm scrubbing my mask with 500PSI and using generous amounts of spit. By the time we got to the "Dam Store" I was satisfied with my mask cleaning; not as good as I do at home but it would work for this dive.

The lake looked pretty bad from the dam. Yellow pollen everywhere. Well we didn't drive this far (across town) to turn back now...time to dive! We parked over at the cove where the infamous mask was lost...then retrieved. There were some serious sized geese guarding the entry by the sand so Jesse and I staked out one of the picnic tables and setup our gear.

I'm trying out the new mask and a different wetsuit. I'm using a buddy's 7mm Deep See Quantum. He's trying to sell this one to me and I'm down to either it or a Sea Elite 7/5 semi-dry.

Our dive took us from the cove over to the dam and back. We were working on some basic navigation skills.

A few other notes: the new mask was great. I love the black skirt and the larger field of vision...Awesome! I was really warm in the wetsuit and never even felt the slightest bit of cold. This was a new experience for me at Lanier this year as I am usually freezing due to the water being extremely cold.



Now the dive info.

Where: Lake Lanier - West Bank Park

Vis: 3' to 8' depending on depth...it was ALOT lower than anytime I have been out this year.

Max Depth: 37'...carrying a dive flag sucks...and to only find out you have 40' of nylon rope sucks worse!

Bottom Time: 44 minutes

Water Temp.:62F on surface and 60F at 37'



This was the most enjoyable dive of the year. This was due to the fact that I wasn't freezing the whole dive like I have in some of the dives past. Like 02/05/05 when it was 42F at 64' and all I wore was a 5mm wetsuit!



I really wished you could have joined us Matt. I'm looking to go to Jocassee again soon and also take a trip over to Alabama to dive the quarry.



Oh, I almost forgot. We saw our first fish in Lanier. A carp about two feet long. Swam right in front of Jesse and me. To actually see a fish in Lanier is about like having an encounter with a whale shark out in the sea.



Jeremy

 

[SeaYoda]

Sounds like you had a good dive. I hate dive flags too - talk about task loading with that and a camera I hardly remember to enjoy the swim .

 

[The Kraken]

Hey, Jer !!!
Glad you guys had a good dive.
Cliff, Tim, Allen and I dove yesterday. We met up at "Mask Cove" around 0930. I persuaded them into going over to Mary Alice Park to see if we could locate some old ruins, but it seems that they must've been cleaned up when they lowered the lake back in the '80's. No dive is a bad dive, but this one was no where near the top of the list.

I went back over to WBP to do some more mapping for my D/M. Did an exploratory down the coutour lines out toward the middle of the lake. Temps below 40' were 47 degrees, so it's definitely warming up. A friend of mine, whom you guys haven't met yet, was diving with me. We had a nice tour among the trees. Visibility was about 20' below 40'. Was nice and quiet.

Post dive check and debriefing yielded a SAC rate of .36.

Still got to put together a chart correlating the interactive relationships of temperature and SAC rates.

Oh, well, that's another day.

Catch you guys in the pond.

the K

 

[Corigan]

Thanks for the report fellas. I knew the pollen was still going to be out there and that it would be bad above the thermocline. Atleast it is getting warmer and there is a thermocline to stay above. My SAC rates are always worse in cold water.

My rescue class is still up in the air, I need to call and see if this weekend is a go or not. If not maybe Kyle and I will get something going this weekend if anybody is interested in diving. More information later on in the week once I figure out what I'm doing this weekend.

Glad to hear you stayed warmed above the thermocline Jer. I'm also glad you saw a fish. I have noticed the fish are becoming extremely more active now that the water is warming up, imagine that.. Still sounds like a good day diving, even if the conditions wear subpar.

Matt

 

[scubaPT]

Oh yes the water is definitely warming up, it was a balmy 60 degrees at 25' and even hotter on the surface, almost time for your 1mm skin Jeremy. I was comfortable in a 5 mm with 3 mm hooded vest for about an hour in the water. Mary Alice wasn't too bad, at least it was wet. I dropped down to 6 pounds in my BC with a LP 95 and the bouyancy was spot on. It was kind of nice just hovering above the bottom and poking around. The bottom at Mary Alice is more of a sand/clay mixture with less silt. Found all kinds of neat stuff like beer bottles, but alas they were all empty of the good stuff, found a large truck wheel as well. I did find a kids Zebco rod/reel, but didn't feel like toting it around, not to worry another scavenger found it as well and brought it up. Overall another fun day in the water.

 

[The Kraken]

A certain Looney Bird needs to lose his mask again so we'll have something worthwhile for which to search !!!!

 

[JKSteger]

Oh yes the water is definitely warming up, it was a balmy 60 degrees at 25' and even hotter on the surface, almost time for your 1mm skin Jeremy. I was comfortable in a 5 mm with 3 mm hooded vest for about an hour in the water. Mary Alice wasn't too bad, at least it was wet. I dropped down to 6 pounds in my BC with a LP 95 and the bouyancy was spot on. It was kind of nice just hovering above the bottom and poking around. The bottom at Mary Alice is more of a sand/clay mixture with less silt. Found all kinds of neat stuff like beer bottles, but alas they were all empty of the good stuff, found a large truck wheel as well. I did find a kids Zebco rod/reel, but didn't feel like toting it around, not to worry another scavenger found it as well and brought it up. Overall another fun day in the water.

Glad to hear you all had a great time. The 1mm is ready to go. Another 2 degrees warmer and you will see me in it. Should be toasty down to say 90' or so.
Where is this Mary Alice park? I've never been there but then again I'm from a little south of the city and not too familiar with everything at Lanier. I would love to dive there as well especially if the bottom is not quite as silty. I saw alot of beer bottles Sat. at WBP but to read the lable ment a complete silt-out.

Looking for us all to get together at Jocassee. It fits my budget better right now.

Jeremy

 

[scubaPT]

A certain Looney Bird needs to lose his mask again so we'll have something worthwhile for which to search !!!!

You know it is kind of nice to be immortalized by having a cove named after me. I enjoy the dives whether we are searching for something or not, but it is nice to have a goal of some sort. We still need to find that roadbed or the culvert at WBP.

Another option would be to do an underwater clean up. there is enough junk down there to keep us busy for awhile. There was trash all over topside when we arrived on Sunday, some folks just refuse to clean up after themselves.

 

[The Kraken]

Isn't that the truth!!
I cleaned up the area around the trash can. I think a racoon must've gotten into it.
As you know, I'm pretty much game for anything.
I still have 20 Mayfield 1 gallon yellow milk jugs with which I need to do something . . . (hint, hint, hint). And plenty of polyprop line!!!

 

[kylepreid]

Glad to hear you guys had a good time diving. I have the big eyes too, and I love it. It has made a major difference on my field of vision.

I dove vortex this weekend and heather got her open water cert. FINALLY. She did great, and had a great time too. Saturday was PACKED. There must have been 200 people there, and they all seemed to be in the water at the same time. The viz was crapy on saturday 10-15', even the cavern was nasty. Sunday was a different story. When we woke up, everyone that was camping was gone. That put a smile on my face, cause I knew that I would be able to get a few good dives in. The viz on sunday was a great 20-30'. and no students. I went in the cavern and started playing with an eel, it was awsome, he was swiming all around me playing with me. Then from out of nowhere we were face to face, and he bit me on my nose. It didn't hurt, cause he mostly got the rubber form the mask, but I started laughing so hard I almost spit out my reg. My buddy seen the eel bite me too, and when I looked over at him he was laughing his head off. All in all we had a great time, and heather can finally go diving with me anytime now. That was worth dealing with the silt.

I up for diving lanier anytime, if anyone wants to go next sunday. Matt said he's in if he dont go to vortex.

kyle