jchapman3
Contributor
Dive Buddy Kory and I meandered up to Lake Murray yesterday. I had frost on the windshield when I left my house in Wylie Sunday morning at 6:30am; but changed to a short sleve shirt and shorts by the time I got to the lake. Shame y'all missed it; Vis was almost blue water quality on the south end of the lake. We didn't see any other divers all day.
I recorded an atmosphere temp in the afternoon at 86. Of the three dives, surface temp was 60 at noon. It was 63 when we finally put out about 7:15PM. The temp below 18' was 57; substantially warmer than the 46 I recorded on 2/24. All the siesmo stuff is gone and have been replaced by bass boats. I only counted 10 boats "on" the water, but counted 25 trailers in the 3 boat landings around the lake...there was a bass tourney going on; which had me a bit edgy but they weren't interested in the area around Marietta Landing. I wanted to dive south of the spillway, but that WAS a popular fishing spot, so we didn't even put in there.
We started at the Rock Bluff north of the Amusement park at Marietta Landing for the first dive. We found a line of steel drums, and hung out to their groovy tune for a while, then moved on and met a cat named Whiskars that wanted to know who it was that was rap-tap-tapping on his his chamber door. We hung out with Whiskars for a while, but he didn't dig the scene and split like cool cats always do. Vis was about 15 feet for the entire dive. The surface had 1 inch swells. :-D
Next, we rounded the lake and went over to Tuckers Tower and put in at the walkway at the bottom of the parking lot. We had a dreadfully long surface swim to get to the bluff. Lot's of interesting stuff over there, but vis was about 2-3 feet (and that might be generous). Too bad, there is some super interesting rock formations and interesting construction debris left over from the tower's construction in the 30's down there. There's a HUGE overhang that simply blotted out the light from above. It was SOOO dark. At first I thought we were at the mouth of a cave... turns out we were just at the edge of the shadow of the ledge; I found it VERY uncomfortable, but would like to go back with a dive light to explore the shadows. I found my first underwater treasure... a pair of cheap sunglasses.
We got out of the water at 4:50, hauled the gear to the truck and realized the parking lot was completely empty. Kory then had a flashback memory and asked what time the tower closed. :11: We through all the gear in the cars as fast as we could and raced for the gate...to find it closed and latched...but thankfully not locked. (whew). Y'all keep that in mind if you head over there.
We finished the afternoon with a leisurly dive of the grasslands south of Marietta landing; it was like cruizing over the plains. There was a neat formation of old willows that had wide spaced "fingers" that were a blast to navigate....great finish. Water temp was about 60; we didn't see any other underwater breathers except for a few of the bait variety. We continued to fill our treasure chest with a fishing pole an old steel boat anchor...both of which we left on the dock for someone who needs such things to add to their treasure chest.
I think I've read that "vis is overrated" on the forum somewhere. After 2 15'++ dives and one merk dive in succession...methinks I like being able to see better.
We also struck up a conversation with someone who is a teacher in Marrietta and also a diver. He told us of an old legend about a bank robber in the 20's that had stashed a pile of gold and silver coins in a cave shortly before being caught by the coppers. In his final year in prison, dying of Cancer apparently, he contacted Sherriff Monroe (grandfather of our story teller) and told him where the cave was. The sherriff informed the bank robber that the cave was now under a lake... I may have to change my advanced dive course preferences...
Who knows, maybe THAT's why all that siezmo stuff was out there! They were really hunting for gold! I grew up in SW Oklahoma and every town has stories of burried gold from Jessie James to Bonnie and Clyde and the bank robbers of the late 1800's and the 1920's...Who knows if any of them are true, but they are fun to pass on.
I recorded an atmosphere temp in the afternoon at 86. Of the three dives, surface temp was 60 at noon. It was 63 when we finally put out about 7:15PM. The temp below 18' was 57; substantially warmer than the 46 I recorded on 2/24. All the siesmo stuff is gone and have been replaced by bass boats. I only counted 10 boats "on" the water, but counted 25 trailers in the 3 boat landings around the lake...there was a bass tourney going on; which had me a bit edgy but they weren't interested in the area around Marietta Landing. I wanted to dive south of the spillway, but that WAS a popular fishing spot, so we didn't even put in there.
We started at the Rock Bluff north of the Amusement park at Marietta Landing for the first dive. We found a line of steel drums, and hung out to their groovy tune for a while, then moved on and met a cat named Whiskars that wanted to know who it was that was rap-tap-tapping on his his chamber door. We hung out with Whiskars for a while, but he didn't dig the scene and split like cool cats always do. Vis was about 15 feet for the entire dive. The surface had 1 inch swells. :-D
Next, we rounded the lake and went over to Tuckers Tower and put in at the walkway at the bottom of the parking lot. We had a dreadfully long surface swim to get to the bluff. Lot's of interesting stuff over there, but vis was about 2-3 feet (and that might be generous). Too bad, there is some super interesting rock formations and interesting construction debris left over from the tower's construction in the 30's down there. There's a HUGE overhang that simply blotted out the light from above. It was SOOO dark. At first I thought we were at the mouth of a cave... turns out we were just at the edge of the shadow of the ledge; I found it VERY uncomfortable, but would like to go back with a dive light to explore the shadows. I found my first underwater treasure... a pair of cheap sunglasses.
We got out of the water at 4:50, hauled the gear to the truck and realized the parking lot was completely empty. Kory then had a flashback memory and asked what time the tower closed. :11: We through all the gear in the cars as fast as we could and raced for the gate...to find it closed and latched...but thankfully not locked. (whew). Y'all keep that in mind if you head over there.We finished the afternoon with a leisurly dive of the grasslands south of Marietta landing; it was like cruizing over the plains. There was a neat formation of old willows that had wide spaced "fingers" that were a blast to navigate....great finish. Water temp was about 60; we didn't see any other underwater breathers except for a few of the bait variety. We continued to fill our treasure chest with a fishing pole an old steel boat anchor...both of which we left on the dock for someone who needs such things to add to their treasure chest.
I think I've read that "vis is overrated" on the forum somewhere. After 2 15'++ dives and one merk dive in succession...methinks I like being able to see better.
We also struck up a conversation with someone who is a teacher in Marrietta and also a diver. He told us of an old legend about a bank robber in the 20's that had stashed a pile of gold and silver coins in a cave shortly before being caught by the coppers. In his final year in prison, dying of Cancer apparently, he contacted Sherriff Monroe (grandfather of our story teller) and told him where the cave was. The sherriff informed the bank robber that the cave was now under a lake... I may have to change my advanced dive course preferences...
Who knows, maybe THAT's why all that siezmo stuff was out there! They were really hunting for gold! I grew up in SW Oklahoma and every town has stories of burried gold from Jessie James to Bonnie and Clyde and the bank robbers of the late 1800's and the 1920's...Who knows if any of them are true, but they are fun to pass on.
