Four of us drove to CBL today with a planned deep deco dive; two of us using 2 stages and two of us with 3 stages. First thing we noticed was the lake was way down from usual, perhaps 8-10 feet lower, and we could see a slight ripple in the water indicating where the spring meets the lake water (30 ft. deep); second was that there was actually some visibility in the lake water, perhaps 5-10 ft.!.
Jim & I were first in the water and descended to the lake bottom where the main line goes into the cave, and we had to do some work to get to the beginning of the main line (still in open water) due to the flow. We each made a run at getting into the cave through the opening restriction, and each failed to get more than a few feet in due to the stronger than usual flow coming out. Jim dropped 2 of his stages and tried again, again to be turned back by the flow. After surfacing and ditching all stages, we returned to the bottom to try again, this time succeeding and having a nice dive up the main line to the beginning of the pit.
Conditions in the cave were 10-15 ft. vis and hazy, with a water temp of 55-57 F. The flow was noticeable, but not too tough once in past the opening restriction. We had a short dive since we had used a fair amount of primary gas during our two attempts to get into the cave. Lake water temp was app. 45-50 F.
Our other two friends were not quite as fortunate, and did not manage to get in through the opening against the current. In any case, we all enjoyed each other's company, and the cave did get dived! Very happy about that since it had been 3 months since I had made the opportunity to go diving--the longest dry spell I have had in many years.
WJH
