Lizard Leg
Contributor
A member of our dive team wrote this assessment of diving St. Andrews Saturday, so I plagiarized it 
Our initial conditions assessment was not encouraging. The water was a peculiar shade of brown. It was the kind of brown that really showed no resemblance whatsoever to chocolate milk, nor did it look like coffee that has just enough cream added to really tick you off. If pressed, I'd say that it didn't look entirely unlike a freshly brewed pot of tea that's been made too strong, into which some over enthusiastic college freshmen has added a pitcher of sangria with the best of intentions. The end result would be the mixological equivalent of a train wreck. Repulsive, yet it will somehow draw your gaze.
...
I'll summarize for the non-reading' folks out there: it was bad, m'kaay?
Undeterred, we acknowledged that we had driven a long way. We were bound to try it unless it was deemed unsafe, or we had something better to do.
After gearing up, we waded out in the tannic water through the kiddie pool. I was reminded of snorkeling in the mangrove-lined boat channels in the Florida Keys. Down there, there was the occasional report of a salty croc-- something that I decided not to share with the group as we waded through the brown juice.
When we crossed the keyhole, we discovered a tumultuous halocline, and some weird reddish layer that obscured all visibility.
We pressed on.
Descending through this mess, my hopes of improving conditions in the channel dwindled. Then, somewhere around 12-15', we dropped out of the clouds. We were pleasantly surprised to find 20-30 visibility from 15' down to 70'. The tannic layers on the top filtered out much of the light, and cast a dark red hue on everything until most light was lost by 60'. Rolling on your back would reveal quite a sight: the surface was gone, and instead was replaced with what I can describe only as an even, reddish fog. The lighting really was something right out of a hollywood studio. Half night dive, half Martian twilight dive, all awesome.
Needless to say, we did a second tank and enjoyed swimming in and out of the different sub-layers that composed this surreal underwater filter.
If you're in the area, and are comfortable with low-light diving and variable visibility then GO DIVE ST. ANDREWS. NOW.
These pics were taken between 12:30PM and 1:30PM under sunny skies - at 66' it was pitch black.
Our initial conditions assessment was not encouraging. The water was a peculiar shade of brown. It was the kind of brown that really showed no resemblance whatsoever to chocolate milk, nor did it look like coffee that has just enough cream added to really tick you off. If pressed, I'd say that it didn't look entirely unlike a freshly brewed pot of tea that's been made too strong, into which some over enthusiastic college freshmen has added a pitcher of sangria with the best of intentions. The end result would be the mixological equivalent of a train wreck. Repulsive, yet it will somehow draw your gaze.
...
I'll summarize for the non-reading' folks out there: it was bad, m'kaay?
Undeterred, we acknowledged that we had driven a long way. We were bound to try it unless it was deemed unsafe, or we had something better to do.
After gearing up, we waded out in the tannic water through the kiddie pool. I was reminded of snorkeling in the mangrove-lined boat channels in the Florida Keys. Down there, there was the occasional report of a salty croc-- something that I decided not to share with the group as we waded through the brown juice.
When we crossed the keyhole, we discovered a tumultuous halocline, and some weird reddish layer that obscured all visibility.
We pressed on.
Descending through this mess, my hopes of improving conditions in the channel dwindled. Then, somewhere around 12-15', we dropped out of the clouds. We were pleasantly surprised to find 20-30 visibility from 15' down to 70'. The tannic layers on the top filtered out much of the light, and cast a dark red hue on everything until most light was lost by 60'. Rolling on your back would reveal quite a sight: the surface was gone, and instead was replaced with what I can describe only as an even, reddish fog. The lighting really was something right out of a hollywood studio. Half night dive, half Martian twilight dive, all awesome.
Needless to say, we did a second tank and enjoyed swimming in and out of the different sub-layers that composed this surreal underwater filter.
If you're in the area, and are comfortable with low-light diving and variable visibility then GO DIVE ST. ANDREWS. NOW.
These pics were taken between 12:30PM and 1:30PM under sunny skies - at 66' it was pitch black.
