Stuck in the mud

[Squishy]

Hello all!

Went for my first dive of the year last night in a very small private lake! Woo Hoo! The ice is off the lakes now and my buddy and I decided to try to go someplace close to work on our weighting, and get just a little practice. The owner has been stocking fish in it and we wanted to see how many fish were thriving.

We geared up and headed for the water, only to find that we were sinking up to our shins in mud as we tried to walk out. It's always tricky to extract yourself from the mud, but this was the first time I ever tried it wearing a tank and weights. I finally had to sit down to pull my feet out. The water was too shallow near the shore to float all all so I managed to scoot myself out on my backside until the water was deep enough to float out. The never taught us that entry method in OW class! Ha Ha!

It took a while to get most of the mud off ourselves and check to make sure there was no mud in octopuses, etc. The water was 53 degrees, but we warmed up in our suits pretty quickly. Those first few moments were exhilarating, though.

We dropped down briefly to check visibility because it looked pretty bad and found it was literally zero. We decided to abort the dive but now we had to figure out how to get out. We tested the shore in several places and finally found a spot where the ground was a "little" firmer. (We only sank up to our ankles.)

The rest of the evening was spent hosing and scrubbing that clay/mud from all of our gear. All in all... it was a great dive. Ha Ha! We had fun, laughed a lot, spent some time away from the TV, and added a new adventure to talk about.

I'm starting to think that there is no such thing as a bad dive as long as it ends safely.

-Mike-

 

[spectrum]

My wife and I had a skin-diving fiasco like that up the coast here in Maine. Luckily we barely needed a foot of water to make headway on the surface but it was low tide and there was a long span between shore and that first foot of water. Some of that mud was clay like and it was a while before it all cleared from the suits.

My definition of a good dive is:
* Nobody got hurt
* All the gear came back
* You learned something

You did well.

Pete

 

[Gary D.]

Welcome to basic entry level PSD training.

Gary D.

 

[tstormdiver]

Don't feel too bad, my first dive in a strip mine pit was very similar. There were 3 of us (another lady, a guy & myself). The other lady & I were in singles with regular BC's & the guy was in doubles with a BP/W's. We geared up & I started out into the water, looked like an easy enough entry with a nice gentle slope (that is why we chose that particular body of water- for an easy entry). As soon as I got about 3ft from shore in what seemed like about a foot of water I hit a mud shelf & immediately sank up to mid thigh in mud,.... thoroughly stuck. Uh, oh.... The lady saw what happened to me & was able to belly crawl out past the mud shelf into deeper water. She then tried to help me out, but wasn't strong enough. The guy finally got himself geared up & belly crawled past the mud shelf, also & then was able to help pull me out. By then I was quite cold (it was the end of Oct.) & both the water & air were quite crisp & I had been waiting to be pulled out for about 15 min. Being I was stuck, I wasn't ale to move around very much to try to keep warm. I did have a dry suit on, but the undies weren't quite thick enough for the temps, so needless to say, it wasn't a very long dive, but it was still interesting, as we found an underwater forest & an old abandoned pick- up truck. The whole situation with the mud was quite embarrassing, but I did learn not to trust everything I see from the surface, as the bottom where the mud shelf was looked to be quite sturdy, but I found out otherwise. I also learned how to belly crawl out to deeper waters in such situations. I never knew a drysuit could collect that much mud,.... ever! I have to say it was quite a learning experience to have to deal with an environment like that.

 

[Squishy]

Thanks for the responses! It was bad enough sinking to shin depth... I can't imagine trying to extract myself from thigh depth. Yikes!

On another note... I'm glad we went on Wednesday night because we're supposed to get up to 8 inches of snow today and tonight! Aaaauuugghh!!!! I'm going to have to take up ice diving or Minnesota dive seasons are going to be really short.

-Mike-

 

[Gary D.]

Now you need to try diving in that stuff. I've hit a 30' bottom and done a 60+ foot dive. Everything slows down, gets real sluggish and there is nothing to see except the stuff your mind comes up with.:11:

Gary D.

 

[caymaniac]

My brother in-law called me to retrieve a hatch from his mothers sailboat parked at a marina that fell off due to a boat wake/wave. I loaded up my gear and went to the marina and went into the water at the dock. As I descended I felt I was going past the bottom, the bottom was so loose I sank into it nearly to my waist, I wasn't stuck though and just had to kick my fins a couple times to get out of the murk. Once I realized that the bottom was that loose I thought I might have a hard time finding the hatch, of course this is in zero visibility. To my surprise just feeling in an area close to where they thought it dropped the hatch was just sitting on top of the silt and I was easily able to retrieve it. Sinking up to your waist in that ooze was scary as well as stinky. I hosed off my wet suit for a while after surfacing with the hatch. My brother in-laws mother was very happy, I on the other hand would hesitate to do anything like that again.

 

[Gary D.]

My brother in-law called me to retrieve a hatch from his mothers sailboat parked at a marina that fell off due to a boat wake/wave. I loaded up my gear and went to the marina and went into the water at the dock. As I descended I felt I was going past the bottom, the bottom was so loose I sank into it nearly to my waist, I wasn't stuck though and just had to kick my fins a couple times to get out of the murk. Once I realized that the bottom was that loose I thought I might have a hard time finding the hatch, of course this is in zero visibility. To my surprise just feeling in an area close to where they thought it dropped the hatch was just sitting on top of the silt and I was easily able to retrieve it. Sinking up to your waist in that ooze was scary as well as stinky. I hosed off my wet suit for a while after surfacing with the hatch. My brother in-laws mother was very happy, I on the other hand would hesitate to do anything like that again.

Did your suit change color?

Gary D.

 

[spectrum]

Of course there was a silver lining to the fiasco I told about in post #2.......

When we got out of the water all mucky and reeking of disturbed clam flats there was a marine biologist exploring the mud doing research for a book he was working on. For about 1/2 an hour he led us along the shoreline turning over spades of mud and pointing out all sorts of cool stuff.

Fundamentally there is a lot to be said for just getting out there and doing SOMETHING. Whether it goes to plan or not serendipity will usually come and visit.

Pete

 

[caymaniac]

Did your suit change color?

Gary D.

That was gross goo that stuck and stunk. I think part of the loose goo was from a Heinz pickle plant not far from the marina, probably part brine from the pickles and then rotten leaves plus marina pollution. Most of my wetsuit is black but I came up grey. It was scary dipping down feeling no bottom just slowly sinking, sinking waiting to touch bottom and deciding that maybe you weren't going to touch the bottom, then a bit of short panick, kick your fins and rise back up out of the ooze. It was another experience in scuba.