Posted by Wayne on May 19, 2001 at 09:00:03:
In Reply to: Re: Petting Nurse Sharks at 4200 feet. posted by Max Bottomtime on May 18, 2001 at 21:32:51:
Fortunately, the fish are so plentiful that you can always see lots of them. But the visibility is really poor. A couple of times I lost track of my friend and popped up to look for his bubbles. He was < 6 feet away.... All my photos are realy green.
I swim pretty straight, and I oriented myself to the layout and the compass, so I was able to get around pretty well. The lack of depth makes it easy to come up and look for landmarks.
The place is really small and the only way to spend an hour or more in it is to move really slow! So again the vis was not a huge inconvenience. Kind of part of the experience. We had no other divers when we entered so the water was better at the start. Later a few other divers were in and they did not hover well and allowed their fins to stir up the muck. Still, near the vents at the bottom, new water is entering and keeps the vis up at the bottom.
It is no California ocean. It is no tropic ocean. But it is such a wierd experience that if I find myself in northern Utah with some time and gear, I gotta go. There is another place up there that many people go to called Homestead Crater. Like a Jacuzzi that you hover somewhere above 30 feet in clear HOT water. Breathing compressed air with nothing to look at? I do not think I can get that hard up -- but maybe if you live there...
Wayne