Wow.. list was quiet.. take a day off on Monday, and come back in Tuesday to
77 messages most of which hit the trash without being read! Sheeeeesh.

Here's a weak attempt at some SCUBA content.  For those not interested in
dives in the snowy north... delete now!  Oh, and Brad.. 3 inches of snow on
the ground this morning.  Sure you don't want to come back to Ohio?


Saturday, 13 March 2004

Arrived at Blue Springs Stone Quarry about 1000 with my regular cold water
dive buddy Dennis.  Filled out the usual "will not sue" forms, and paid our
ten bucks to get in.  For the uninitiated, Blue Springs is a retired stone
quarry that fell to disuse and filled with water.  Surface area is easily a
couple of acres and depths range to 50+ ft.  I'd offer a web site if they
had one, but alas, no such luck.

Twas a beautiful sunny Saturday when we hit the dock.  Blue Springs has
about 6 different docks to choose from, although some of them are a steep
stair climb down from the parking area above.  The more popular ones are the
ones you can drive right down to.

Three other vehicles graced the parking area when we arrived, and we choose
a dock away from the others.  It was a quiet day by Blue Springs standards,
but considering the air temp of 50F and the fact that it was still pretty
early in the season, not too surprising.

Dive one.  Entry time about 1100.  Max depth 55ft (console in the silt :-).
Water temperature 38F (yeah... that's f***ing cold!).  Drysuit, dry gloves,
hood.  Bottom time 33 minutes.  A giant stride off the dock, and down over
the ledge to an initial depth of about 30ft brought us to Blue Spring's
newest "wreck": an armored car.  After cavorting on the armored car for
awhile, skirted across the bottom of the quarry diagonally to reach an old
favorite: a 40ft or so cabin cruiser in about 45ft.  Surprisingly few fish
noted today.  Visibility was decent for the springs, probably about 30ft.
After the requisite pictures on the cabin cruiser, skirted around the edge
of the quarry in 30-40ft back to the armored car, and surfaced at the dock.
Enroute to the entry, passed several large pipes, easily 6ft in diameter and
20ft long or so.  I hadn't recalled seeing these before, so I concluded they
had also recently been added.

Dive two.  Entry time about 1330.  Max depth 50ft.  Entered from the same
dock and dropped down on the armored car again, but headed directly over to
take a closer look at the tubes.  They appeared to be fiberglass, and made
for great buoyancy practice while swimming through them.  Found that they
were immediately adjacent to a dive platform.  Most notable about the dive
platform was the lobster trap on it.  Of even more interest was the
obviously real lobster in it.  (It was obviously dead, and had been for some
time :-).  Tiring of the tubes, we made an out and back pass along the
quarry wall before returning to the armored car again and ascending under
the dock.  Also noted surprisingly few fish on this dive.  Apparently they
had enough sense not to venture into the cold water :-).  Bottom time: 31
minutes.

I recently joined the ranks of the digital underwater photographers with the
purchase of a Canon from Crusty.  It now goes with me on every dive, and
these were no exception.  Pictures here:

http://home.fuse.net/kf8ki/divingpix/20040313/20040313.htm

I didn't do any editing or anything on these yet.  They are straight from
the camera (except for reducing size for posting).  I am still looking for
inexpensive suggestions on an underwater strobe to use with this thing.
I've learned (no surprise actually) that in low vis water, the internal
strobe is useless due to backscatter.

Steve