SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
6:15AM and out the door, Patrick D. and I left the house with with blue skies and an early morning sun. By the time we hit Ponce De Leon, FL; we found the cloud cover we had the previous night. The good news is that we missed the rain, which had apparently just passed by - the roads were still wet. SeaYoda, Gulf Gulper, and PerroneFord were already onsite.
River level was around 3.3' when we arrived, according to the NOAA site. The water didn't reach the Cypress trees, normally a good sign, but the water looked milky. Patrick forgot his fins, so he headed to Vortex for a quick rental - D'Oh!
First dive had 10-15' of milky blue water. Water temperatures at the expected 68F. There were lots and lots of small bream in the water. I also spotted small pike, bass of all sizes, and a pair of striped bass in the basin. The cavern's flow seemed to be pushing fairly hard today. We burned off our first third in the cavern and looked at all the catfish and eels swimming about. The bowling ball is still missing, and I couldn't find any remains of the goose. There was also a new statue on a ledge directly opposite the large cavern opening. A quick pass in the shallow cavern and we were back in OW looking around the basin. PF had a cramp and called his dive and SY and GG decided to stick to the center of the basin to shoot(camera) some cooperative Rock Bass. Patrick and I headed north till we hit shallow water and followed the basin clockwise until we hit tannic water(didn't get far up the run). We then crossed the run and followed the other treeline back to our entrance point. Maxed my depth at 90' and the dive lasted 43 minutes. I got a few pictures, but my batteries croaked pretty early in the dive. Perrone's bouyancy and trim had definately improved since the last time I dove with him in Ginnie, the past fall. SeaYoda seemed pretty happy to have gotten his camera back!
After an hour SI, we were back in the water. This time visibility was 25-35', spring flow was acting quickly on the runoff and pollen after the rains. We spent some time in the cavern, until we burned 1/3rd our air supply down and we headed back to OW. We hung around quite a bit in the basin near the tree until a classed ripped through stirring up the bottom. PF and I decided to head to the platform and work on skills. No mask for me for a few minutes, no problem. Dawn and doft midwater, simple fun and I think SY has a shot of me riding my tank like a donkey
. PF and Patrick had enough and called the dive and SY and I headed back to the center of the basin. We were promptly run off by the largest UW avalanche I've ever witnessed at Morrison caused by another class. Yikes! We both signalled the 'hungry, must visit Sally's' sign and called the dive. I hit 89' in the cavern and a total dive time of 33 minutes.
We enjoyed our pair of dives and another excellent bacon cheeseburger ala Sally(hold the garden please) and sour creme and chives fries - friggin yummy! Headed to Vortex to drop the fins off and I spotted Rick Murchison and greeted him for a sec before heading home. Another good day! Now if only I can find a buddy for the Whiskey Wreck tomorrow...
Gotta a couple of pics, I'll process and maybe post anything worthwhile in a bit. Hopefully SY will come to the rescue with some quality shots
River level was around 3.3' when we arrived, according to the NOAA site. The water didn't reach the Cypress trees, normally a good sign, but the water looked milky. Patrick forgot his fins, so he headed to Vortex for a quick rental - D'Oh!
First dive had 10-15' of milky blue water. Water temperatures at the expected 68F. There were lots and lots of small bream in the water. I also spotted small pike, bass of all sizes, and a pair of striped bass in the basin. The cavern's flow seemed to be pushing fairly hard today. We burned off our first third in the cavern and looked at all the catfish and eels swimming about. The bowling ball is still missing, and I couldn't find any remains of the goose. There was also a new statue on a ledge directly opposite the large cavern opening. A quick pass in the shallow cavern and we were back in OW looking around the basin. PF had a cramp and called his dive and SY and GG decided to stick to the center of the basin to shoot(camera) some cooperative Rock Bass. Patrick and I headed north till we hit shallow water and followed the basin clockwise until we hit tannic water(didn't get far up the run). We then crossed the run and followed the other treeline back to our entrance point. Maxed my depth at 90' and the dive lasted 43 minutes. I got a few pictures, but my batteries croaked pretty early in the dive. Perrone's bouyancy and trim had definately improved since the last time I dove with him in Ginnie, the past fall. SeaYoda seemed pretty happy to have gotten his camera back!
After an hour SI, we were back in the water. This time visibility was 25-35', spring flow was acting quickly on the runoff and pollen after the rains. We spent some time in the cavern, until we burned 1/3rd our air supply down and we headed back to OW. We hung around quite a bit in the basin near the tree until a classed ripped through stirring up the bottom. PF and I decided to head to the platform and work on skills. No mask for me for a few minutes, no problem. Dawn and doft midwater, simple fun and I think SY has a shot of me riding my tank like a donkey
. PF and Patrick had enough and called the dive and SY and I headed back to the center of the basin. We were promptly run off by the largest UW avalanche I've ever witnessed at Morrison caused by another class. Yikes! We both signalled the 'hungry, must visit Sally's' sign and called the dive. I hit 89' in the cavern and a total dive time of 33 minutes.We enjoyed our pair of dives and another excellent bacon cheeseburger ala Sally(hold the garden please) and sour creme and chives fries - friggin yummy! Headed to Vortex to drop the fins off and I spotted Rick Murchison and greeted him for a sec before heading home. Another good day! Now if only I can find a buddy for the Whiskey Wreck tomorrow...
Gotta a couple of pics, I'll process and maybe post anything worthwhile in a bit. Hopefully SY will come to the rescue with some quality shots
