Royal Springs Conditions

Went to Royal the other day, it's just upriver of Troy I believe. I knew Troy was closed but thought maybe it'd be clear enough at Royal....

No dice. Water is up 8-10 feet. Visibility is almost negative....I swear I was looking into my own mind. Fortunately, I ran a line from the steps, or it would have been a horrible dive. We lasted 11 minutes in the 63* water with something like 1 foot of viz (beyond that, my 10w HID was eaten by the dark water) before calling the dive and heading to Manatee.

This is NOT Troy, but Royal. If you've been there this last year, you know that those steps go down about 6 feet, and then it's a 20 foot walk over rocks to get to the water. At about the point where I'm usualy sitting in the water putting on my fins, I was about 11 feet down...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2017/...543c10.jpg?v=0

Was there a whirpool over the spring? If so you were running a big risk of being sucked into the cave, and not being able to swim out! I know for sure that would be what would happen if you went into Little River right now! Royal may not have enough volume, but it is inadvisable to dive any cave along the Suwanee, until the river srtarts to receed.

With the rain in S GA right now, I suspect that won't be for a month or more.

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Originally Posted by FW

Was there a whirpool over the spring? If so you were running a big risk of being sucked into the cave, and not being able to swim out! I know for sure that would be what would happen if you went into Little River right now! Royal may not have enough volume, but it is inadvisable to dive any cave along the Suwanee, until the river srtarts to receed.

With the rain in S GA right now, I suspect that won't be for a month or more.

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I got bored Sunday afternoon and went by the various springs, and I can confirm that Troy and Royal weren't showing any signs of siphoning at that time. Little river was quite obvious from a video I saw posted on here though.

From what I understand, Royal floods out before just about anything along the Suwannee. Low flow and short distance from the river just gets it eaten alive when the water starts to go up. Troy is more reliable, so if its gone, don't expect Royal to be good :/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FW

Was there a whirpool over the spring? If so you were running a big risk of being sucked into the cave, and not being able to swim out! I know for sure that would be what would happen if you went into Little River right now! Royal may not have enough volume, but it is inadvisable to dive any cave along the Suwanee, until the river srtarts to receed.

With the rain in S GA right now, I suspect that won't be for a month or more.

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There was no whirlpool....if there had been, I would have put two and two together and stayed far away! :)

We basically swam out to the wall there by the stairs, and dropped down to the ground there, which is usually about 25 feet deep, going to about 30-35 at the platform. We couldn't see diddly squat, so about 10 feet out from that wall we turned and went back. We didn't get in any overhead at all. I halfway expected there to be clearer water at the bottom with a tannic layer at top but that's clearly not happening :)

Now I know!

When the river water is colder than the spring water, you won't see it floating ontop the clearer springwater as you will in the summer time.

Thanks for the pic though, definately shows how high the water has come up.

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Originally Posted by JahJahwarrior

. I halfway expected there to be clearer water at the bottom with a tannic layer at top but that's clearly not happening :)

Now I know!

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Places like Royal and Peacock when they flood it is like a toilet,they go completely. Usually in the past high flow places like Little River you'd hear stories of people swimming through tannic water,and then hitting clear spring water,but with the effects of the drought this system will be tannic throughout.