Fortune Pond

[dfreeman]

Fortune Pond is an old iron mine of the quarry type that has been allowed to fill in by seepage. Like many of these quarries, the water quality is fantastic. We had between 60 and 80 feet of visibility. It was like being in the tropics.

There was one diference from the tropics, when we got to the dive site, it was snowing and the wind was blowing at 20 MPH. The temperature was 35 deg F, the wind chill was in the low 20's. With all of the wind, the snow was going horizontal and pelting us like a sandstorm. We set ourselves up to get ready like we do for ice diving. I even had my blaze orange hunting gear on.

After suiting up in the wind and the wet, we crawled into the water. The balmy 57 deg F water at the surface felt like someone had turned the heater on, balmy, much nicer than ice diving.

The visibility was fantastic. at least 60 feet, more like 80 feet. This is a quarry so there are a lot of rocks and some old equipment.

Here I have George giving some idea of the visibility.