Timeliner
Contributor
We slide down the chain that spans the distance between the channel marker buoy and the bottom of Lake Murray. I can see John’s bubbles but not John. He’s just about 7 feet away I’d guess and as we slip through the ink he gets a bit closer.
Like a couple of fireflies our lamps flicker signaling to that other glowing orb in the dark . The end of the buoy chain hits the mud at about 60 feet and somehow we sort of knew it would be more shallow then the last time and stopped a bit short.
The Mud is still there just like before. You can always count on Mud. It is a constant in an ever changing world. The dive plan was to do a big square along the bottom in the black. 10 minute legs on each side of the square in the dark seemed like plenty of time to get lost.
Some where along the way I hoped to find a channel or a drop off that would take us on down to the bottom of the lake. Maybe we would find another airplane or just something really crazy to talk about later. We picked up a hitch hiker (a sun fish ) along the way and he followed us through out the dive. The Moonscape continued surrounded by black. Some people pay lots of cash to be cover with mud this smooth and fine. It's like butterscotch pudding. They like it to be much warmer I know but the texture is the same. Personally I like the mud just the way it is. Most people really don’t care to much about it but it’s honest and doesn’t pretend to be something it isn’t. We dropped off slowly and found 69 feet and that is about as far as it went. Darned...This was not going to be a record depth or one that we’d thrill our friends with as we recounted our dive later. Oh well... Even still , it was a special event. There we were. Just a couple of guys and a sunfish drifting along .
I could turn off my C8 and at some point John would turn off his and there was nothing.... I mean nothing..... I could only imagine I could see. Funny how your eyes do that thing when you rub them and you see colors. It’s sort of like that. Other times I would just turn off my light and hide for a few seconds. John could always find me because I would be laughing .
The 3rd leg heading back South always seems to be a problem at Lake Murray. They tell me it’s because there is a bunch of metal out there and the magnetism plays with your compass. I think it’s just the dark , the low visibility and that crazy mud again that does it to you. I could kick and do everything I could to turn right and that compass just would not move at all. Eventually I just gave up and followed the second hand on my watch and soon we were pointed it the correct direction. It started to get brighter as if the Sun were coming up in the distance and before too long we turned on to the last leg of the square. We coasted upwards and back into the ambient light then took our safety stop on the move. The sun fish was gone. I wonder where he went ?
Thumbs up and back into the odd world of air and Sunshine. After 50 minutes or so in the dark and never being able to see more then 4 feet it was funny to see the dive flag within legal distance from us. What a laugh . We didn’t find a thing to take home as a prize. I don’t even think there was anything to mark up as life changing. But down there in the dark there isn’t much you expect to find. What I think you find out down there is “The Mud Rules“. You can leave it alone or you can stir it all up as much as you want but give it just a little while and it will look just the same.
I kind of like that ……………
Like a couple of fireflies our lamps flicker signaling to that other glowing orb in the dark . The end of the buoy chain hits the mud at about 60 feet and somehow we sort of knew it would be more shallow then the last time and stopped a bit short.
The Mud is still there just like before. You can always count on Mud. It is a constant in an ever changing world. The dive plan was to do a big square along the bottom in the black. 10 minute legs on each side of the square in the dark seemed like plenty of time to get lost.
Some where along the way I hoped to find a channel or a drop off that would take us on down to the bottom of the lake. Maybe we would find another airplane or just something really crazy to talk about later. We picked up a hitch hiker (a sun fish ) along the way and he followed us through out the dive. The Moonscape continued surrounded by black. Some people pay lots of cash to be cover with mud this smooth and fine. It's like butterscotch pudding. They like it to be much warmer I know but the texture is the same. Personally I like the mud just the way it is. Most people really don’t care to much about it but it’s honest and doesn’t pretend to be something it isn’t. We dropped off slowly and found 69 feet and that is about as far as it went. Darned...This was not going to be a record depth or one that we’d thrill our friends with as we recounted our dive later. Oh well... Even still , it was a special event. There we were. Just a couple of guys and a sunfish drifting along .
I could turn off my C8 and at some point John would turn off his and there was nothing.... I mean nothing..... I could only imagine I could see. Funny how your eyes do that thing when you rub them and you see colors. It’s sort of like that. Other times I would just turn off my light and hide for a few seconds. John could always find me because I would be laughing .
The 3rd leg heading back South always seems to be a problem at Lake Murray. They tell me it’s because there is a bunch of metal out there and the magnetism plays with your compass. I think it’s just the dark , the low visibility and that crazy mud again that does it to you. I could kick and do everything I could to turn right and that compass just would not move at all. Eventually I just gave up and followed the second hand on my watch and soon we were pointed it the correct direction. It started to get brighter as if the Sun were coming up in the distance and before too long we turned on to the last leg of the square. We coasted upwards and back into the ambient light then took our safety stop on the move. The sun fish was gone. I wonder where he went ?
Thumbs up and back into the odd world of air and Sunshine. After 50 minutes or so in the dark and never being able to see more then 4 feet it was funny to see the dive flag within legal distance from us. What a laugh . We didn’t find a thing to take home as a prize. I don’t even think there was anything to mark up as life changing. But down there in the dark there isn’t much you expect to find. What I think you find out down there is “The Mud Rules“. You can leave it alone or you can stir it all up as much as you want but give it just a little while and it will look just the same.
I kind of like that ……………
