I dove Little River last Sunday. The vis was way down. 20' or so in the main tunnel. I went up the Small Creek Tunnel which was worse. It's taking a long time to clear from the flooding
Printable View
I dove Little River last Sunday. The vis was way down. 20' or so in the main tunnel. I went up the Small Creek Tunnel which was worse. It's taking a long time to clear from the flooding
Yes, I dove it late last week too and found the vis to be around 30 feet or so depending on where you were in the system.
I just figure it is the cave system trying to clean out all of the debris from the reverse flow of recent months.
It will be a great day when it returns to the normal crystal clear beautiful water!
(However, I also had the bad thought that what if -- due to our decades of mistreating and not appreciating our water -- this will be how the vis always is or worse....)
Well , it looks like the Aquifer is getting a good charging up today ...
Lots of rain around our area.
Jean
Last time we had similar conditions- a long drought followed by a flood,it took Little River a year to clear. Rain is great,but we need above average rain fall for a long period of time to have an impact.
sigh....I remember when Little River was as clear as Ginnie and it pumped like crazy....Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelly Jessop
Dive safe,
Celia
Some of the nasty water at little river is coming out of a crack near the source vents at end of main line, out of the small creek trib, and likely several other spots. Something nasty is dead and growing in the way back past the sources. I looked no farther - there is a limit to my curiosity. :vom:
There still seems to be clear water at the vents and the deep section so the traditional clear water sources seem OK - it's just they don't have the pressure and flow right now to supply the system with clear water. This seems very similar to several years ago and that cleared up eventually.
I dove LR about 2 weeks ago and vis was near 50ft...weird.
I dove Little River on July 3rd and it was flowing pretty hard. Viz was not great but it was fine on the main line well into the Florida room.
the fires of Mordor must be burning again.... :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary
Interesting, it has been on and off with LR for a couple (more) of years now, maybe some hefty rains will clear it up and bring it back to what it used to be 10 years ago...
Dive safe,
Celia
anyone know what's causing this? has there been a lot of rain in the area lately? its been raining for 2 weeks straight up here in Tally.
There was a *lot* of nasty river water sucked into LR during the flood. The only rain that will flush it out is what falls in the recharge basin, which is in the immediate area of LR.Quote:
Originally Posted by l31gc
I dove little river today (july 10) and it looked clear to me. some particles in the water and more silt than i've seen in the past in flat areas out of current - very thin and will surely wash away eventually. I didn't go far or do much, table rock. It was a nice short first dive after being away from florida too long. dang, i'd forgot what current was like, at first I thought I must be hung on something then the lightbulb went off - I was kicking just enough to match the outflow!
Running the line was a lesson too, all those memories flooding back on how to lay line in current. Our low-flow (real...low...flow) tennessee caves have spoiled me. And little river is a good place to remember buoyancy control (going in and coming out). But my favorite was still ducking behind outcroppings, staying high, to avoid the current on the way in, and the relax-and-ride on the way out.
Flow was still less than average (in my experiences), and viz was less too, but not nearly as bad as I thought from reading these posts. It must have been over 75 feet and most likely 100, but then again our tennessee caves with 5-10 make any viz look good!
No one else was there (just locals swimming), so maybe all that thin silt would be kicked up by more divers coming and going and thereby reducing the viz? when the weekend cave divers show up it might be telling. by sunday it could be down to 50 feet maybe, but I seriously doubt 30 feet or worse unless someone trys to get into some tight small silty passages and makes a mess of it.
-skip
Also dove LR today. Arrived at approx 4:30ish -
In the water by 530 or so.. Had to wait for the cat-fight to end :)
Should have taken videos of it, but the 2 gals that were going at it weighed more then me by 150 lbs--
Called the LEO's set around and waited for the county to arrive and clear it out a bit.
Dive was not too bad. Lot of flow and sand in the water. Cut viz to approx 70 ft or so.
Line past the table-rock has about 10 ft of slack in it (hmm around 500 or so ft in).
We tired to tighten it but my recovery from the cold last week had my ears / head all screwed up (as in squeeze pains) :) so we did not get it as taught as it should be---
Dove it this morning and I'll echo what Skip said. I would put the vis around 80ft and the flow at moderate for LR. There is definitely more silt and fuzz on the walls than I remember. I was surprised at how many swimmers were at the park considering it was just after nine when we started our dive. All in all a nice dive.