Loonie Trip to Strom Thurmond?

[Flightlead]

After seeing a few posts about Lake Thurmond and the veritably TOASTY water temps there I'm interested in diving it.

Any other loonies feel like making a road trip down there for a day of diving? Weekends of 3/24 (O trip), 3/31 (hot hole) and 4/21 (Martha's, TN) may already conflict with some.

 

[mikerault]

How long of a trip is it?

Mike

 

[diveprof]

How long of a trip is it?

Mike

Y'all are about 2 hours from God's county . I would suggest giving it a week or so before coming though as our lake rose almost 3' in just a few days last weekend following the storm that blew through. Vis has dropped to 6-8' and the river is not very diveable. However, we are not expecting much rain in the next week, so the vis may clear. We are hitting the lake tomorrow and I'll give a report in deep south divers. Here is a quick review of two of our dive sites:

1. Lake Thurmond (Clark Hill Lake to most long time Augustans)
Best sites are both East and West Dam along the rocks. The S.C. side (East Dam) has an airplane at 35' (follow the rock dam out at 20' to find the rope line leading to the plane). A Bouyancy course and ski boat are found off the line leading to the left (if facing towards the front of the plane)off the tail of the plane.The remnants of the old diversion dam used during construction made for an interesting deeper dive wall(75'- 90'). A rocky ledge is in 35 -40' of water parallel to the parking lot on the SC side of the dam. This host a gnome and angel statue. Depths of up to 125' are a short swim from the plane. Vis varies depending on rain from 6' to 15'+. Water temp this weekend was 83 degrees on top and 64 degrees at 100' with vis about 10 -15'.
2. Savannah River - A nice 1 -1 1/2 hour drift dive from the 5th street marina to the old marina/boathouse downstream. Depths are 21' max. Vis can be great at times 15' -20' during periods of low rain. A lot of history on this dive with a shipwreck (bow, deck planking, boilers and other stuff) just below the first bridge support for the 5th street bridge, the remnants of the old Hamburg docks (cotton docks) that run the length of the dive 1/3 of the way out into the river from the SC side (lots of fish here around the pilings and rocks), and the old Hamburg bridge remains (about 1/2 the way down the GA side). The river is 70 degrees currently. We dive just about every weekend.

PM me if you would like to join our group

 

[diveprof]

Opps, I did some cutting and pasting from last summer for the above sites. The lake temps are currently 49-50 and the river is the same.

 

[divinginn]

thought that sounded awful warm for this time of year. would like to get down there sometime this year.