inter_alia
Guest
I went up to see the in-laws this weekend in Madison and so planned on meeting my dad at Rock Divers Sunday morning since neither of us had ever been in that quarry. We lucked out. The weather looked threatening but no thunder ever started up -- crazy dark-light cloud formations, some gusts, etc. We are not deterred easily. Some people might be, as no other divers were there at 0900 when we arrived and checked in. Three hours later, only a couple other cars were down near at quarry. I realize this is odd for summer so I counted my blessings.
Temps were about 78 on the surface with a distinct thermocline at 30 feet dropping the temp to 68 or 70. I wore a full 3mm and was comfortable. The vis was predictably poor since it's been raining so much lately -- maybe 15 feet overall with pockets of "no vis," the kind where your hand might disappear as you reach for a rope, etc. We didn't have any sunshine, I don't know if that would have helped any, though, because my "big" light wasn't helping at depth. Eerie turbid water, but overall it was fun in a very low-key, no-rush, let's-just-dive-and-see-what-we-can-see sort of way. I admit we surfaced a few times (yes, conservatively slowly) and would surface swim to some of the markers -- we didn't have a map and some of the ropes between the sunken objects were not trustworthy.
Logged about an hour of bottom time. Didn't get any sand in my car, either, as the parking area is gravel -- hidden bonus. I also found the staff quite agreeable but, again, we were basically alone with them so maybe they weren't so pressed for time.
Temps were about 78 on the surface with a distinct thermocline at 30 feet dropping the temp to 68 or 70. I wore a full 3mm and was comfortable. The vis was predictably poor since it's been raining so much lately -- maybe 15 feet overall with pockets of "no vis," the kind where your hand might disappear as you reach for a rope, etc. We didn't have any sunshine, I don't know if that would have helped any, though, because my "big" light wasn't helping at depth. Eerie turbid water, but overall it was fun in a very low-key, no-rush, let's-just-dive-and-see-what-we-can-see sort of way. I admit we surfaced a few times (yes, conservatively slowly) and would surface swim to some of the markers -- we didn't have a map and some of the ropes between the sunken objects were not trustworthy.
Logged about an hour of bottom time. Didn't get any sand in my car, either, as the parking area is gravel -- hidden bonus. I also found the staff quite agreeable but, again, we were basically alone with them so maybe they weren't so pressed for time.
