Blue Springs - Orange City 12/12/2004

Blue Springs Orange City 12/12/04

Pictures: http://cavediver.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=692

I arrived at the park at 7:10 AM and Ray showed up at about 7:40 AM. The air temperature had warmed up to the 50s. I finished some of the final preparations and took some land pictures around the gate area.

The gate opened at 8 AM and we signed in as group number 1. After signing in we headed back to our vehicles and drove to the parking area. We started to suit up and we headed to the water. The air temperature warmed up to 61 degrees.

While walking up, we noticed our breath showing up in the air. We made it to the steps and Ray did the honor of entering first. We were the first divers entering the spring run for the day. Off we went to the head spring. On the way we noticed several Manatee.

On this day we saw about 8 Manatee in the upper spring run, with most of them in the basin around the head spring. We saw two pairs of Mothers Manatee with their Calves. The other Manatee were swimming solo. It was strange to see Armored Catfish clinging to some of the Manatee like Remoras. We also noticed an abundance of Armored Catfish swimming around the bottom by the head spring. I guess they also come into the spring for the warmth, because we haven’t seen that many of them this year until the colder days.

When I checked in, I read the waiver closer and it said to maintain a 50’ distance away from the Manatee. Today we didn’t go anywhere near the Manatee and we didn’t take any pictures of the Manatee. We observed the no flash and 50’ distance rules to the best of our ability.

We entered the head spring and headed to the bottom. At the bottom Ray started to take pictures. I got a new 24 mm lens for my camera and I added a modeling light to line up the pictures. I started trying to take pictures, but my camera acted up today at about 120’. It goes into a weird mode, cycling between continually seeing the last picture and then the flashing a busy light (it was in the picture taking mode). I wasn’t able to take any pictures with my camera at this depth. We both took pictures with Ray’s camera. Ray took a nice photo looking into the vent (you can see the bricks).

After 10 minutes, Ray wanted to head up to 15’ for a deco stop. I wasn’t aware of it, but he was diving 26% today and he went into deco a lot earlier then I expected. After a little while, Ray got cold and wanted to head up. We were able to take some pictures at the 15’ cavern, but I wasn’t happy with the pictures my camera took. The 24 mm lens reduced some of the back scatter, but it produced a reddish blob in some of the pictures. Also, the modeling light, combined with the strobe, produced some hot spots in most of the rest of the pictures. Oh well, the warm up dives with the camera will now proceed to some other locations!

Dive Statistics:
Location: Blue Springs – Orange City, FL.
Divers: Ray Eccleston and Chip Wuerz
Goal: U/W Photography
Air Temperature: 61 degrees, with a sunny sky
Water Temperature: 72 degrees
Dive Time: 53 minutes (43 minutes in the spring and 10 down the run)
Visibility: 60’ – 80’
Maximum Depth: 119’
Average Depth: 59’
Ray’s U/W Camera Gear: Olympus C5050Z, Ikelite Housing, 100 degree ION Lens and DS125 strobe
Chip’s U/W Camera Gear: Reef Master DC310 Pro Set with 24 mm lens
Land Camera: Cannon EOS Digital Rebel