Open Water Dive Day 2

08/21/11

Sunday’s weather was not as nice but it was more comfortable putting on the wet suit since the air temperature was almost 10 degrees cooler. It drizzled on and off but never did it thunder or lightning. Rain doesn’t stop dives since you’re planning to get wet anyway. We kept the same order for the groups and this time boated over to Lourdes Camp where there are sunken metal platforms and other sunken objects to explore.

Again we did two dives and a few skills on each one. Our two “tours” kind of blend into one. We followed the ropes that connected the platforms and different "landmarks" like a small sunken boat, a motorcycle, a stairmaster, and toilet seats. There are those signs that say “Children at Play” marking the boundaries. We swam through a diamond hoop and look at a mirror so we could see what we looked like underwater. We went down to 30 ft where I saw the thermocline. It looks like an oily line where the warm and cold water meet. When we swam to shallower water we came to another platform where a stuffed Disney doll was resting. We couldn't figure out what character it was supposed to be (the tag said Disney on it that was our only clue). It looked like a deformed Pooh Bear.

At one point I swam up to a fish and was barely a half a foot from it. We were looking directly at each other until it decided to swim away. It seemed like it might have wanted me to follow him. I played around by swimming near the zebra mussels and watching them close up. The guys in our group were turning over rocks to find crayfish to play with. Back at the original platform they tried to get this big crayfish to fight the smaller ones like action figures. The big one was pretty aggressive and had pinchers that would probably hurt a finger. Other items found were a pair of sunglasses that were not colonized as well as a clean pair of Speedo goggles.