It is Halloween morning but our minds are not on Ghosts and Goblins. We are going diving! It is just after sunrise. The boat is hitched to the truck, our gear is stowed and we are on the highway. It is fall and there is a definite chill in the air.
We arrive at the lake around 9:00 AM. It is partly sunny with an air temp' in the low 50s. We suit up and put the boat in the water. We have decided to dive along the south east shore of the lake. We will move up and down the drop off starting in shallow water and heading deeper. We are hoping for good visibility and lots of treasure. We head out across the lake and after locating the drop off we are looking for, we anchor the boat. We finish gearing up and drop over the side of the boat into the water. The water temp at the surface is a scorching 47 degrees (F). We move to a spot in shallow water and check our compasses. The visibility is not what we had hoped for. We can see about one foot in front of our faces.
We are connected by a ten foot buddy line that loops around one wrist. We are ready to go. It is 10:01 AM. As the air escapes from our BCs we begin to sink. The water comes up past our masks and we are back in the environment we love. All sound is gone except the steady sound of our breathing and the bubbles as they rush past our ears with each exhalation. We drop to the bottom and begin to move down the drop off. As we pass fourteen feet the bottom turns to muck. We continue on to sixteen feet. At this point not only is visibility zero but it is also "pitch black."
The water temperature at sixteen feet has dropped to 46 (F). It is comforting to feel a buddy on the other end of the line that connects us. Looking at my compass for guidance we begin our turn and start back up the drop. Back and forth we work like this, feeling the bottom constantly for treasure. The bottom is strewn with tree branches and pieces of wood and an occasional log.
On the fourth pass I feel that Angie has stopped. She has found something and I can tell she is fighting to pull it from the sand. I follow the line over until I am next to her. She has stirred up the bottom and we can see nothing. I feel for the treasure and we carry it to shallower water where we can see. What she has found is the hub from an old wooden wagon wheel. The type used on covered wagons from many years past. We surface and put it in the basket that I am pulling behind us at the surface. The air again escapes our BCs and we are back on the bottom moving slowly up and down the drop off. On the eighth pass Angie finds another treasure. This time it is an anchor. We surface. The anchor is also placed in the basket and we are back down.
After approximately one hour we surface to look for the boat. We make a plan to head back to the boat staying on the bottom in about six to ten feet of water. We surface at the boat at 11:18 AM. Exactly one hour and seventeen minutes after beginning our dive. We remove some of our gear and climb back into the boat. The treasure is moved from the basket to the boat. We eat lunch on the boat and decide to make a second dive. Our second dive goes much like the first. We find one anchor on the second dive also. After surfacing we head back to the landing and load the boat onto the trailer. We remove our gear, pack it away and exchange the cold for the heat inside the truck.
On our ride back to town we discuss the two dives and talk of dives we would like to make in the future. In no time we are back at the shop. The dives went well. We spent a total of one hour and fifty six minutes beneath the surface and we found treasure.
Life is good!
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