The offer of surface support from the pontoon boat is still out there if y'all need it.
Matt
Matt
The Great Travis Traverse
- Thread starter mkiiisupra89
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FIXXERVI6
Contributor
Was out at the lake earlier, two weekends in a row.
Conditions were horrible, vis was in the inches and during the dive usually less, yes, it is possible to follow only line with 7mm gloves on but its not easy.
Buddy and I started a line, one that we can find this time. The problem with the old one is, we kept doing lots of dives and kept missing the line, so lots of dives to the bottom with no progress.
This line is white, much much easier to find and is marked with a cookie "GTTP" Its tied off to a tree, currently starting in ~100 feet of water. With the lake down this low after it gets back up to normal level that should put it at around 130 feet, helping keep it somewhat "safe" from destruction and out of entanglement range of most OW divers or at a minimum OW classes.
it heads south west and eventually goes to the first post, its a 4' long PVC pipe, I took a "home made scuba hammer" down today and drove it in a few inches deeper, due to the vis I can not tell how deep in the ground this is in but I can tell you its not all that secure.
Right now if someone gets on that line and tugs around on it, it'll be gone, so PLEASE PLEASE if you find this and start heading down on it be very careful with it until I (or someone) gets it fully secured, what I may do is keep using the hammer on it until I get it deep enough that its fairly tight. Progress is slow because I'd much rather put someting in place that is going to last. I'm going to be brainstorming some ideas on how to make this first stake more secure but most likely I will continue to hamer it in deeper on every dive until its solid.
From here the line goes due west, buddy did one hell of a job running it as at times one could not read a compass if they had to. We ran out about ~50' of line, then I sunk a 3' stake, it went in real easy, needless to say upon sinking of the stake vis was 0, as in, black 0, I actually thought my light went out. 3' is too short, the rest of the stakes will need to be at least 4' sunk in 3'.
After sinking the stake we hung out for a few minutes trying to let some silt settle so we could at least see the line to tie it off, somehow I managed to actually get this thing wrapped around my left arm and snagged on my computer and compass, getting it undone was a chore considering I had 7mm gloves on and couldn't see. Sat there for a few more minutes, vis opened up to like 2 inches, just enough for me to put my arm up to my mask and see where it was snagged.
After I got it un snagged we attempted the tie off, I moved to try to shed some light to help with the tie off and again vis went to complete 0 black out as I was pretty much just on the bottom right there. Hung out for a couple few minutes and vis opened up to about a "hazey" 6", made the tie off and proceeded to exit.
Max depth 138 feet, 54 degrees on bottom. Visibility was in inches, after sinking a stake it was 0, as in, can't read pressure gauages or read compass etc, I was however able to read my X1 if I put it up to my mask
Again PLEASE if you go down there on this line be very careful of the line, you can't tug on it, hopefully after I get the first stage pounded in solid and additional 4' stakes are added further out the stability will be greatly increased.
I'd rather take my time doing 50 - 100' additions at a time with it being more secure/proper direction than running several hundred feet out on one shot, the better it is put in the longer it will last, the better the chances of getting this thing going a lot further.
Conditions were horrible, vis was in the inches and during the dive usually less, yes, it is possible to follow only line with 7mm gloves on but its not easy.
Buddy and I started a line, one that we can find this time. The problem with the old one is, we kept doing lots of dives and kept missing the line, so lots of dives to the bottom with no progress.
This line is white, much much easier to find and is marked with a cookie "GTTP" Its tied off to a tree, currently starting in ~100 feet of water. With the lake down this low after it gets back up to normal level that should put it at around 130 feet, helping keep it somewhat "safe" from destruction and out of entanglement range of most OW divers or at a minimum OW classes.
it heads south west and eventually goes to the first post, its a 4' long PVC pipe, I took a "home made scuba hammer" down today and drove it in a few inches deeper, due to the vis I can not tell how deep in the ground this is in but I can tell you its not all that secure.
Right now if someone gets on that line and tugs around on it, it'll be gone, so PLEASE PLEASE if you find this and start heading down on it be very careful with it until I (or someone) gets it fully secured, what I may do is keep using the hammer on it until I get it deep enough that its fairly tight. Progress is slow because I'd much rather put someting in place that is going to last. I'm going to be brainstorming some ideas on how to make this first stake more secure but most likely I will continue to hamer it in deeper on every dive until its solid.
From here the line goes due west, buddy did one hell of a job running it as at times one could not read a compass if they had to. We ran out about ~50' of line, then I sunk a 3' stake, it went in real easy, needless to say upon sinking of the stake vis was 0, as in, black 0, I actually thought my light went out. 3' is too short, the rest of the stakes will need to be at least 4' sunk in 3'.
After sinking the stake we hung out for a few minutes trying to let some silt settle so we could at least see the line to tie it off, somehow I managed to actually get this thing wrapped around my left arm and snagged on my computer and compass, getting it undone was a chore considering I had 7mm gloves on and couldn't see. Sat there for a few more minutes, vis opened up to like 2 inches, just enough for me to put my arm up to my mask and see where it was snagged.
After I got it un snagged we attempted the tie off, I moved to try to shed some light to help with the tie off and again vis went to complete 0 black out as I was pretty much just on the bottom right there. Hung out for a couple few minutes and vis opened up to about a "hazey" 6", made the tie off and proceeded to exit.
Max depth 138 feet, 54 degrees on bottom. Visibility was in inches, after sinking a stake it was 0, as in, can't read pressure gauages or read compass etc, I was however able to read my X1 if I put it up to my mask
Again PLEASE if you go down there on this line be very careful of the line, you can't tug on it, hopefully after I get the first stage pounded in solid and additional 4' stakes are added further out the stability will be greatly increased.
I'd rather take my time doing 50 - 100' additions at a time with it being more secure/proper direction than running several hundred feet out on one shot, the better it is put in the longer it will last, the better the chances of getting this thing going a lot further.
FIXXERVI6
Contributor
oh and the line is knotted every 10 feet
FIXXERVI6
Contributor
Thanks for the update on your progress Fixxer...
PM before you come down next time. I'd be good to meet, & I'd like to join you in your efforts. I live 6 miles from WP now, so I'm pretty accessible, and we can stage at mi casa if needed. - Zinc
PM before you come down next time. I'd be good to meet, & I'd like to join you in your efforts. I live 6 miles from WP now, so I'm pretty accessible, and we can stage at mi casa if needed. - Zinc
FIXXERVI6
Contributor
Might be a few weeks, conditions are pretty bad right now, even if I had a good solid 1' of vis on the bottom that would be something, gonna give it a few weeks to possibly clear a little, cause it sure isn't gonna get any worse, I even had fish running into me thats no joke.
Scared the pee right out of me, catfish right to the mask, it was in panic mode after it ran into my arm.
thats no joke.Scared the pee right out of me, catfish right to the mask, it was in panic mode after it ran into my arm.
I even had fish running into me
Scared the pee right out of me, catfish right to the mask, it was in panic mode after it ran into my arm.
Know what you mean...I can't wait for the March/April window to come or whenever the lake turns next...
Nice to know this project is still in progress.
Dark Eternal
Contributor
Let me know when your taking trips down there, I may not be able to get to or stay down real deep very long but I'd be more than willing to act as shallower support or whatever else you may need.
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