Finished up our dives today, both were great dives. Vis is much better then I'd seen it earlier this summer, I could actually see the line for the BC course as I went through the hoops.
Per diveprof's suggestion we stayed shallow (30-60 ffw) for the dives today.
Dive 1 (max depth 37 fsw(forgot to adjust computer) for 50 minutes: Started as soon as the water got to about seven feet deep. Took a nice slow swim along the rocks on the dam (that my buddy and I now refer to as the Clark Hill artificial reef system...) Took the rope to the plane. Took some time enjoying the great view of the plane and generally being stupid. Found some cool little pirate flags with weights on them that we put on top of the plane. Vis on the plane was the best I've ever seen it (in my extensive one year diving history....). Followed the BC course to the ski boat. From ski boat took the short swim to the 40' ledge. Swam along the ledge for about ten minutes, did an about face and went back to ski boat, BC course, then plane. At the plane we still had plenty of air, so we followed line to shore and went along the rocks of the dam toward GA for a while to observe some more marine life. After another ten minutes or so did an about face and headed along the rocks making a nice long safety swim back to the parking lot.
Lunch Break!
Dive 2 (max depth 55 fsw for 53 minutes): Plan was to start like the other dive, get to plane, take the 25 degree compass heading to the 3 big rocks. From 3 big rocks go to pool filters and the 35'-40' ledge. Then maybe go on to the 55'-64' ledge and big stump.
What actually happened: Swam out to plane (again nice slow swim along rocks), from plane nose followed a 25 degree heading using my terrible navigation skills. Crossed over line to the missile and managed to land about six feet west of the 3 big rocks. After doing a celebration dance that I managed to use a compass to find something, we continued moving at our 25 degree heading in hopes of reaching the pool filters (realized later this was not the correct navigation to get to pool filters). Ended up taking us a bit deeper and ran across a ledge at about the 50' level, not sure what feature this is on the map. At this point (about 30 minutes in) decided to head shallower and south (back to dam rocks), then back to plane so that we could play around on the BC course some more. Ran the BC course again, ski boat, BC course, plane, and then took our slow swim back to the parking lot.
Overall two very enjoyable dives. Although I screwed up the navigation to the pool filters, I was quite happy to make it to the 3 big rocks having never used compass navigation on a dive before.
You're exactly right about the vis though, at 25 feet I was wondering if this was gonna be another "if you can't feel your buddy you're not close enough" dive, but by 30 feet the vis was great!