Looking for Free! Dive spots.

[mr3d]

Times been a little tough and need to try to find some close free spots near Ocala.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Not free, but Alexander Springs is cheap. So is Blue Springs in Orange City. Closest free spring I know about will be over an hour away, at Royal?

 

[PerroneFord]

The state parks are $10 a day. Pretty cheap. Or an annual pass for $40 and then you can dive all over the state on that. Show your pass and c-card and you're golden.

 

[tlawler]

For a totally free dive, there's Blue Sink. It's not too far from Alexander Springs and maybe 40 miles from downtown Ocala. Been a couple years since I dove it, and I have to admit it's not the most exciting dive, but it's fairly clear and no overhead. Last time I dove it, there was a nice assortment of appliances and other debris to play around. Another place I haven't been, but I want to dive is Croaker Hole in Little Lake George. You'll need a boat and overhead environment experience there though. If you're adventurous, there's Devil's Sink near Interlachen. Be very careful there, though. A lot of entanglement hazards and it's easy to get into an overhead there due to the diameter at the base. Buses, trucks and cars abound there. You're only 50 miles or so from Buford in the Chassahowitzka Forest. That's a three dollar dive that's not to be missed. For other cheap dives, the various state parks are your best bet. Get an annual pass and the cost per dive drops dramatically. Manatee, Troy, and Blue Springs (Deland) are all within an hour to an hour and a half from you.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

Can you list links with info to these sites? Some info I found on Blue Sink suggests it is private and no diving is allowed. Is this true?

 

[tlawler]

Can you list links with info to these sites? Some info I found on Blue Sink suggests it is private and no diving is allowed. Is this true?

There's probably a few places known as blue sink...I didn't think of that. The one I'm referring to is in the Ocala Nat'l Forest in the Farles Lake quad off highway 19 where NFS 573 crosses it. I'll make a list of the GPS numbers for the sites I mentioned and post it. As far as blue sink being private, it's in the forest, so it's wide open. If diving isn't allowed, there's no signs and no has ever hassled me. It's a popular spot with the ATV crowd, with a lot of them going there for a swim to cool off. A diver there is kind of a novelty, so expect a few questions about what's "down there". Other than that, they are a friendly crowd(but then I'm a redneck myself)and actually pretty helpful.

Years ago, before the atv's became so prolific, we used to park at the access road to the sink and hike with our camping and diving gear and spend a couple nights right on the bank of the sink. Now you wouldn't get any sleep with the atv's going almost around the clock.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

yeah, info on that site would be nice. All of the others are pretty easy to find info about.

I'm looking for a place to dive potentially April 16th, and free is fine, and new is great. I'm sure the place can't be more than 30-40 minutes from Gainesville....maybe an hour, I dunno.



Can you advise as far as depth, average vis, alligators? How far from where we can park to the water? Easy walk or should I bring an ambulance with me ? My dive buddy and I both have trucks, but they are not "truck" trucks....2.5l engines

 

[scubafool]

I have heard about Blue Sink in Ocala National Forest, but I have never been able to find out anything about it. Many thanks, as this is less than an hour's drive from me.

Question, though. I pulled up NFS 573 and SR 19 on MapQuest, and got an aerial shot of the area. Is Blue Sink the dark spot to the west of SR 19, north of 573 just after 573 makes a curve to the left?

 

[tlawler]

For a totally free dive, there's Blue Sink. It's not too far from Alexander Springs and maybe 40 miles from downtown Ocala. Been a couple years since I dove it, and I have to admit it's not the most exciting dive, but it's fairly clear and no overhead. Last time I dove it, there was a nice assortment of appliances and other debris to play around. Another place I haven't been, but I want to dive is Croaker Hole in Little Lake George. You'll need a boat and overhead environment experience there though. If you're adventurous, there's Devil's Sink near Interlachen. Be very careful there, though. A lot of entanglement hazards and it's easy to get into an overhead there due to the diameter at the base. Buses, trucks and cars abound there. You're only 50 miles or so from Buford in the Chassahowitzka Forest. That's a three dollar dive that's not to be missed. For other cheap dives, the various state parks are your best bet. Get an annual pass and the cost per dive drops dramatically. Manatee, Troy, and Blue Springs (Deland) are all within an hour to an hour and a half from you.

Blue Sink is at N29deg 3' 37.6" W81deg 40' 11.6". You can either take NFS 573 West and follow the power lines, then turn North when you reach the right longitude or turn right off of 573 on to SE 309th Ct. Three quarters of a mile on the left, look for a dirt trail. Take that due West for 1.5 miles then look for a trail going South. Turn there and the sink will be about 250 yards away. Pull up to the cable gate and follow the path for about 50 yards to the sink.

Croaker hole:
From the St. Johns River Water Mgmt. website: "Croaker Hole Spring is located about 3.5 miles southwest of Welaka in Little Lake George, which is part of the St. Johns River. Croaker Hole is a relatively deep, small-diameter hole in the bottom of the St. Johns River. The river is generally about 5 feet to 9 feet deep in this area, except in the immediate vicinity of Croaker Hole, where it plunges to a depth of about 48 feet.
Latitude 29°26'18" N, Longitude 81°41'21" W". It's on my to dive list, but as of yet, I haven't.

Devil's Sink is at N29deg 37' 27.1" W81deg 57' 15.1". It is on the North side of Hwy 20, 4.5 miles East of the intersection of Hwy 20 and 21 in Hawthorne. Lake Galilee will be directly across Hwy 20 on the South side of the Hwy. You can either take the dirt trail directly off of 20 or turn North on Lake Galilee Dr. (the first paved road East of the sink) and take the first trail leading West. This one is pretty interesting. The water is at the bottom of a very steep crater with sides of at least a 70% grade. From the rim to the water, it is about 80 ft. It's getting your gear down and then back up that requires some ingenuity. What I did was to use a plastic job box (home depot Tuff-Box). The sides are so steep that the box with the weight of the gear slides nicely down the embankment. I installed stout handles on the box and tied two ropes to it. Then with my Blazer backed up to the rim, I payed out the rope with it wrapped around my ball hitch.To get my gear back up, I just tied the box off to my hitch and slowly drove in a straight line until the box cleared the rim. Two ropes are important. If you lose it going down, or coming back up, it's going all the way to join the vintage vehicles on top of the debris mound and you'll probably never see it again. Having a rope down makes it a lot easier to walk down and back up rather than picking your way over tree roots and slipping and sliding all over the place. I've read accounts of this dive that compare it to a cess pool, but I thought it was pretty cool. The top of the debris mound was at 78 ft. sloping down to a bottom I couldn't find. The vis was really bad, maybe 15 ft. Buried in the mound were a Mustang II, an old school bus, and an old truck and a virtual forest of trees. I couldn't find the sides with the limited survey I did, but judging from the diameter of the top, it may be in excess of 200 feet in diameter. There is some flow indicated by a thermocline and temperature gradients observed while at depth. I've only done one dive there, but I'm itching to get back to it. I want to do a better survey and look for passages that may lead to Lake Galilee across the street.

Buford Sink is at lat. 28°38'00.2" N., long. 82°35'26.4" W (From Mike Emmanuel's Cave Diving page) just off of State road 19 in the Chassahowitzka WMA. See my dive report on Buford:http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=186447

 

[tlawler]

yeah, info on that site would be nice. All of the others are pretty easy to find info about.

I'm looking for a place to dive potentially April 16th, and free is fine, and new is great. I'm sure the place can't be more than 30-40 minutes from Gainesville....maybe an hour, I dunno.



Can you advise as far as depth, average vis, alligators? How far from where we can park to the water? Easy walk or should I bring an ambulance with me ? My dive buddy and I both have trucks, but they are not "truck" trucks....2.5l engines

You can park about 50 yards away and it's an easy walk...no hills and fairly packed ground. Vis is generally in the 20 to 30 foot range, but I've seen it as much as 50 ft., but that was years ago. There are alligators, but usually on the far side of the sink. They stay away from the activity on the side you'll be diving from. The deepest spot I've found is about 50 ft. You will probably need 4wd to get back there. I've seen cars and 2wd trucks, but it is pretty soft.