NW CT diving spots for a newbie

[ctmax]

Apparently the guy that came to my house to fix the cable today has been out on west hill quite a bit. I was not able to talk to him but my wife interrogated him. I got his # and plan on giving him a call to find out what's up. He told her that you could hit 70' ish near the rock formation and that there is a nice channel that heads out from the launch about 30'.

 

[ctmax]

Just 1 more incentive to get the "A" certification and more experience. :scubadive

Ken,
I hear Dave is bagging us to go hang with the "A" divers this weekend and dive the 853, dbg40 and JIMJAM, what a pair.. One to scare all of the lobsters out of the hole and one to scare them right back in...... I am not going to say which is which........ :05:

 

[ScubaSarus]

That is a nice dive in that area CT-Max. That sunken pinnacle is cool to dive around. I think you hit near 60 a little bit more. We rented a boat a few times and dove out there.

 

[ctmax]

We must talk. Sounds to me like a good kayak dive. dbg40 was going to get in touch with you to see if we can put something together. Where did you rent the boat? I don't know anyone around here that does that, other than rowboats.

That is a nice dive in that area CT-Max. That sunken pinnacle is cool to dive around. I think you hit near 60 a little bit more. We rented a boat a few times and dove out there.

 

[JimJam]

Ken,
I hear Dave is bagging us to go hang with the "A" divers this weekend and dive the 853, dbg40 and JIMJAM, what a pair.. One to scare all of the lobsters out of the hole and one to scare them right back in...... I am not going to say which is which........ :05:

Hey...I resemble that remark!!!

Why don't we let everyone decide for themselves who is going to be scaring the lobsters:

dbg40
http://www.beckett.com/celebriducks/three_stooges/curly1.jpg

or

Jimjam (...a fine piece of @$$)
http://www.gimpcity.com/how/why-fat-guy.htm

 

[dbg40]

Hey...I resemble that remark!!!

Why don't we let everyone decide for themselves who is going to be scaring the lobsters:

dbg40
http://www.beckett.com/celebriducks/three_stooges/curly1.jpg

or

Jimjam (...a fine piece of @$$)
http://www.gimpcity.com/how/why-fat-guy.htm

Nice... verrrry nice. I thought you only wore that outfit for me, and that picture of me is an old one... back when I had hair!

 

[ctmax]

Priceless....
Everyone in the office is looking at me right now wondering why I am laughing so loud.

Nice... verrrry nice. I thought you only wore that outfit for me, and that picture of me is an old one... back when I had hair!

 

[warpig]

gfisher and I dove west hill lake last summer, it's a great dive.

I wouldnt get excited about the depth though; not much to see at 60'.

it's also a spring fed lake, so the bottom is COLD.

actually here's my dive long entry:


just got back from a nice lake dive up in the foothills of connecticut. what a beautiful day it was.

1st dive--
depth 47 ft
bottom time 21 minutes
visibility 10 feet (murky)

2nd dive--
depth 19 ft
bottom time 40 minutes
visibility 20+ feet (excellent)

air temperature 87 degrees
surface temperature 74 degrees
bottom temperature 52 degrees

so the plan was for dan, neil and i to meet at the brodie park entrance at 10 am. no problem right? wrong.

i pull into the 'brodie park entrance' parking lot right on time: 10 am sharp. and there i sat, waiting. after cursing to myself for 45 minutes as to why these 2 hadnt shown up, i decided to see if there was another entrance.

come to find out; there are 2 entrances. they were at the niles road entrance; i was at the west hill road entrance. the best part is they were about 300 yards apart.

after exchanging blame and a few choice words about each others intelligence, we all dawned our gear and got into the drink.

for the 1st dive we dropped down to about 10 feet and headed for the center of the lake. when we got down to about 15-20 feet there was a steep drop off that seemed to go straight down into a bottomless, black abyss.

neil kicked me in the head 4 or 5 times, and on the last kick knocked the regulator clear out of my mouth. note to self: give you and your buddy a little breathing room!

as we broke the thermocline, it started getting colder, and colder, and colder. the visibility dropped rapidy to only 8-10 feet. we all kind of stared inward to each other forming a triangle as we kept decending.

it's hard to feel a soft bottom with diveboots and fins on. dan and neil turned their lights on, and visibility was piss-poor. it seemed impossibly cold. the temperature had dropped 22 degrees in just a few minutes; from 74 at the surface to 52 at the bottom. we knew that lake's depth bottomed out at 60 feet, but it was too cold to continue further. we were only wearing the top halves of our suits. (later after the dive neil stated his dive computer registered a bottom temperature of 49 degrees. west hill lake is spring fed from the bottom; hence the near freezing water)

we took an hour long surface interval to rehydrate, desaturate and exchange bootcamp war stories.

our 2nd dive we decided to stay in the shallow water at the 10-15 ft mark. saw a lot of sun fish (they're curious and not a bit intimidated by the human submarines), a lot of baby bass, and tons of fresh water clams. some of them were almost as big as my fist.

(my wife) stood bubble watch on the small boat dock we dove from (which was illegal come to find out). she made friendly with the locals and told us when we got back that we had first been tailed by a kayaker and then by a family in a canoe.

it was an excellent day of diving!

Apparently the guy that came to my house to fix the cable today has been out on west hill quite a bit. I was not able to talk to him but my wife interrogated him. I got his # and plan on giving him a call to find out what's up. He told her that you could hit 70' ish near the rock formation and that there is a nice channel that heads out from the launch about 30'.

 

[michaelp68]

Nice... verrrry nice. I thought you only wore that outfit for me, and that picture of me is an old one... back when I had hair!

Dave, I think that was a very very very long time ago.

 

[ctmax]

Boat Dock in Brodie Park? Did one of you have a pass? Was it off Season? The park employees usually monitor passes fairly closely. I am trying to see if we can use the lower lot off season with out causing a problem.

(my wife) stood bubble watch on the small boat dock we dove from (which was illegal come to find out). she made friendly with the locals and told us when we got back that we had first been tailed by a kayaker and then by a family in a canoe.

it was an excellent day of diving!