Saturday

[ttph]

Just got back from Lannon Quarry. My advice: never, ever go there. If you do, it should be a matter of life and death. We got in and found visibility as follows: 0-10 ft was 5-10 ft vis; 10-25 ft was 2-3 ft vis; 25+ vis was ZERO! I could not read my gauges. I had to hold gauge on mask and try to somehow shine light on face of gauge. I temporarily blinded myself, not that it mattered anyways. I hit 45 ft max, and it was darker than a midnight dive on a winter night. It was as if I descended into a cloud of tar. Temp was comfy, and after several surface swims trying to find better vis, we settled on kicking around in 5-15 ft near the entrance. There is a rope near the entry point that leads to some miner cars, so we hung out at the rope, practicing skills for nearly 1500 psi. It was the only good part of the dive (being able to practice mask removal, reg swaps, bouyancy, etc). The park ranger did mention that Underwater Connection was coming by on a more regular basis, trying to clean up the quarry and improve conditions to use if for OW training dives. Although this was my first, and most likely last, time there I would say that any change in the conditions would be for the better. Good luck to Underwater Connection, they have their work cut out for them.

Matt