Winnipesaukee Forum - View Single Post - Dive Winn Charters

Winnipesaukee Divers · 06-30-2004, 06:43 AM

The visibility just sucks this year... I've done over 20 dives so far this year and this has got to be the worst, just 3 to 5 feet. It's always bad in the spring with the run off in the water, but it clears up in the first part of June, however, this year it just doesn’t seen to want to settle out. Maybe it because the water is to high, to cold, to much rain, to much wind or maybe lack of sunny days or maybe I'm just getting older....

Just how bad is it, you ask? Well, here's an example: I dropped our new shinny red, 4' long bolt cutters down the beside the mooring that I was working on (so I could cut away the old chain) as I usealy do. When I got down there I couldn't find them I blew out 3 tanks of air on 3 seperate days feeling around the bottom searching for them before I finally got lucky. The funny part was, they were just 10 feet form the block sticking straight up, I must have been within inches of them a dozen times. Last weekend I headed out (under water) to another mooring to replace the chain. I had a heavy 12' length of S/S chain wrapped around me as I set a beeline course to the work site. When I got to the area where it should have been I dropped the chain to start a circle search pattern intill I found it. After I blew most of my air supply I kicked out in defeat. Another tank of air the next day had me swimming out the mooring on the surface and dropping to the bottom via the rode. There it was, right there on the bottom with the shinny chain piled right next to it just 3 feet away. Looking at my tracks I swam right past it 4 times... See why I call it mooring hell. What ever you can do on the surface is 10 times more difficult under water, not only are you weightless where everything has to be done by brut strength, but you can't see or feel anything either (I use heavy Kevlar gloves) and time runs out all to quickly. You have to keep monitoring your gage to your air supply as well as concentrate with the task at hand. You only have mear momments to complete this diffacult task.

I was anchored off the 40 islands, #38 I think was (just kidding) last Sunday for a raftup and cookout, I lost a part to my new grill over the stern in less then 10' of water. Since I lost it and I couldn't talk my dive buddy in to going, I donned the mask and fins and over the side I went to retrieve it. It was so murky down there I couldn't enen see it until I was just a foot away from it.

Better times are coming…… I hope!

06-30-2004, 06:43 AM	#4
Winnipesaukee Divers Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Exeter, NH or @ WCYC on weekends Posts: 250 Thanks: 7 Thanked 46 Times in 28 Posts	No need to rush up here to do the dive.... The visibility just sucks this year... I've done over 20 dives so far this year and this has got to be the worst, just 3 to 5 feet. It's always bad in the spring with the run off in the water, but it clears up in the first part of June, however, this year it just doesn’t seen to want to settle out. Maybe it because the water is to high, to cold, to much rain, to much wind or maybe lack of sunny days or maybe I'm just getting older.... Just how bad is it, you ask? Well, here's an example: I dropped our new shinny red, 4' long bolt cutters down the beside the mooring that I was working on (so I could cut away the old chain) as I usealy do. When I got down there I couldn't find them I blew out 3 tanks of air on 3 seperate days feeling around the bottom searching for them before I finally got lucky. The funny part was, they were just 10 feet form the block sticking straight up, I must have been within inches of them a dozen times. Last weekend I headed out (under water) to another mooring to replace the chain. I had a heavy 12' length of S/S chain wrapped around me as I set a beeline course to the work site. When I got to the area where it should have been I dropped the chain to start a circle search pattern intill I found it. After I blew most of my air supply I kicked out in defeat. Another tank of air the next day had me swimming out the mooring on the surface and dropping to the bottom via the rode. There it was, right there on the bottom with the shinny chain piled right next to it just 3 feet away. Looking at my tracks I swam right past it 4 times... See why I call it mooring hell. What ever you can do on the surface is 10 times more difficult under water, not only are you weightless where everything has to be done by brut strength, but you can't see or feel anything either (I use heavy Kevlar gloves) and time runs out all to quickly. You have to keep monitoring your gage to your air supply as well as concentrate with the task at hand. You only have mear momments to complete this diffacult task. I was anchored off the 40 islands, #38 I think was (just kidding) last Sunday for a raftup and cookout, I lost a part to my new grill over the stern in less then 10' of water. Since I lost it and I couldn't talk my dive buddy in to going, I donned the mask and fins and over the side I went to retrieve it. It was so murky down there I couldn't enen see it until I was just a foot away from it. Better times are coming…… I hope! Last edited by Winnipesaukee Divers; 06-30-2004 at 07:35 AM.