Murray Report -- Dec 30

[richerso]

Most excellent day of diving at Marietta Landing. In attendance were zzzKing, timeliner, TexDiveGuy and richerso.

We launched out of DFW at about 730am. Was at the landing at about 930am. Chatted, visited, had a great time. Weather was perfect today for diving. Just warm enough. Just cold enough. No wind.

We geared up and hit the water. Had a nice pleasant wading beach entry. I believe water temp was 48F at depth. Wasn't much warmer on the surface. Somebody correct me here if I got the temp wrong. My computer doesn't record coldest temp just the most recent.

We had a nice 47 minute dive / max depth of 72 ft. We entered at the beach (west end of Marietta Landing) and headed 330 degrees out toward open water. Wandered around out there for a while. Found an old creek channel (depth 72 ft.). Channel was very interesting with lots of rocks and vertical walls. Wandered a bit along 270 degrees and finally turned to about 180 / 150 to head back toward shore.

Visibility was a fairly consistent 10 - 12 ft or so. Maybe as much as 15 ft. We had good ambient lighting down at 60 ft with some ambient lighting reaching 70 ft. Very cool. I popped one light bulb on my dive light -- had to flip the switch from left to right.

After the dive, everyone remarked on the great visibility and good ambient lighting. Top side, timeliner built a pretty good camp fire. We sat around the fire and had a great friendly discussion. We ended up chatting too much and forgot to do a second dive. By the time we checked the time, it was getting late in the afternoon and we were all starving. Kunk, we could have used those brownies

We opted to break camp to head for Gainesville for food and drink.

 

[YellowfinKunkfish]

Wow!! Sounds like you guys had a great day! I haven't had the pleasure of diving at Murray when the vis was that good. The best I've seen is maybe 8 to 10 feet. That old creek bed sounds pretty cool, I'd like to see that someday. Sorry the brownies, cookies, and poppy seed bread didn't make it all the way to Murray. It almost did, I had everything packed, and ready to go when he discovered his empty tanks.

We'll have to catch you guys next time.

Rhonda

 

[Timeliner]

That had to be some of the clearest water I've ever seen at Lake Murray.
Being able to have light at 70 feet was just off the hook !
I had 46 degrees. Super day !

 

[texdiveguy]

Thanks fellows for a nice day that included a relaxing dive with dang 'clear water' and some interesting bottom formations not seen before. Also enjoyed the 'chat-chew' portion of the afternoon!

 

[ZzzKing]

Frank was right about the Amish. They were on strike so no warm towels or cognac. It was a beautiful warm December afternoon, however. There were no brownies or monster hamburgers so we had to make do with chips, peanuts and hot cocoa. There was no heated three bedroom tent. We somehow survived.

Full disclosure on the second dive, Frank and I were just a little too cold and, being the gentlemen we are, offered our humble services to John and Alan as surface support / valets. They discussed it at length and never came to a conclusion as whether or not to do a second dive. They just talked until it was too late to do it.

Frank's fire building skills were up to par so we had no need to swipe Alan's long hose to use as a gasoline syphon.

Good weather, good friends, good cocoa, passable snacks and water that was just a bit nippy. Overall, a quality dive day.