Had to work Friday and didn't leave Fort Collins until 5pm. Bad traffic all the way to Co Springs and then finally arriving in Santa Rosa at 1am made for a shaky start to the weekend.
7am Sat came quickly, but it was a beautiful day and we were ready to play. A quick continental Bfast at the Adobe and off to BH. We pulled into the parking lot at 7:45 and it was almost full. The spaces close to to the water were surrounded by huge trailers, vans, trucks and tarps. The concrete area was filled with tanks, BCs, and random gear.
There were hardly any students there yet, just the Instructors and assistants from various shops all set up with their areas staked out.
We parked at the usual picnic tables under the trees and set up shop. It was like running a gauntlet to access the water.
Not really any jumpers or swimmers. Pretty much just gobs of OW dive students from numerous shops.
First dive at 8:30 in very clear water. Nice dive.
Second dive at 10:00. People everywhere. Viz still pretty decent.
Third dive at 2:00pm. Stuff everywhere, people everwhere. 30 foot viz at best.
Night dive at 7pm. Parking lot almost full. Looking down into the water was like holding a jar of fireflys. There must have been 40 divers in the water and gear was strewn everywhere topside.
We waited around for awhile and then finally descended when the last group looked to be on the way up. We passed each other at about 40 feet which caused a bit of confusion for the group that was already down there.
The rest of the dive was quite nice with only two other people beside our group.
Dinner at Joseph's which is serving until 10pm on weekends. Excellent margaritas. Tasty dinner. Great sopapillas!
Sunday morning was a repeat of the previous day. One of the dive groups set ropes up which spanned the hole in a few directions. It looked like a spider web from above. There were probably 60 divers in the water negotiating the ropes course and hoola hoops. Divers were criscrossing everywhere between 20 feet and 400 feet. We descended through the mess to the bottom where there were no other divers at all and the viz was still ok.
Our last dive was at noon. The crowds were packing up and heading out. Very few if any other divers but viz was down to about 20 feet. Despite the suspended particles and reduced viz, this was the weekend's best dive.
Overall, it was a successful and fun weekend. It will be really nice to head back down when the weather gets cold and the group sizes diminish!
Most of the fish were hiding, but there seemed to be overall fewer than in the past. Only saw a couple of crawfish. The cow skulls are on the bottom near the grate. Very few statuettes or memorabelia. Venus was lying on her side almost completely buried in silt.
Her story follows.
7am Sat came quickly, but it was a beautiful day and we were ready to play. A quick continental Bfast at the Adobe and off to BH. We pulled into the parking lot at 7:45 and it was almost full. The spaces close to to the water were surrounded by huge trailers, vans, trucks and tarps. The concrete area was filled with tanks, BCs, and random gear.
There were hardly any students there yet, just the Instructors and assistants from various shops all set up with their areas staked out.
We parked at the usual picnic tables under the trees and set up shop. It was like running a gauntlet to access the water.
Not really any jumpers or swimmers. Pretty much just gobs of OW dive students from numerous shops.
First dive at 8:30 in very clear water. Nice dive.
Second dive at 10:00. People everywhere. Viz still pretty decent.
Third dive at 2:00pm. Stuff everywhere, people everwhere. 30 foot viz at best.
Night dive at 7pm. Parking lot almost full. Looking down into the water was like holding a jar of fireflys. There must have been 40 divers in the water and gear was strewn everywhere topside.
We waited around for awhile and then finally descended when the last group looked to be on the way up. We passed each other at about 40 feet which caused a bit of confusion for the group that was already down there.
The rest of the dive was quite nice with only two other people beside our group.
Dinner at Joseph's which is serving until 10pm on weekends. Excellent margaritas. Tasty dinner. Great sopapillas!
Sunday morning was a repeat of the previous day. One of the dive groups set ropes up which spanned the hole in a few directions. It looked like a spider web from above. There were probably 60 divers in the water negotiating the ropes course and hoola hoops. Divers were criscrossing everywhere between 20 feet and 400 feet. We descended through the mess to the bottom where there were no other divers at all and the viz was still ok.
Our last dive was at noon. The crowds were packing up and heading out. Very few if any other divers but viz was down to about 20 feet. Despite the suspended particles and reduced viz, this was the weekend's best dive.
Overall, it was a successful and fun weekend. It will be really nice to head back down when the weather gets cold and the group sizes diminish!
Most of the fish were hiding, but there seemed to be overall fewer than in the past. Only saw a couple of crawfish. The cow skulls are on the bottom near the grate. Very few statuettes or memorabelia. Venus was lying on her side almost completely buried in silt.
Her story follows.
