Advanced Scuba Diving Class

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Location: Lake Jocassee in the Cherokee Foothills about an hour or so west of Spartanburg, SC

There's nothing like a large, blue, glistening lake to bring out the fish in us all. This past weekend, after "X-files Friday" (which the movie was good, lots of Mulder and Scully but sadly not 'x-filish' enough for this x-philer...yes, I'm pathetic, I know the lingo and it just wasn't the same without The Lone Gunmen and the Cigarette-Smoking Man) I tried to unwind and get a good night's sleep Friday night. On Saturday morning, I showered and got out of here around 10:30am or so and took off for the hills. It was a nice drive even though it was kind of cloudy. Once I got off the interstate, it felt like being back in rural Idaho as the highway was only 55mph, the trees ran all of the way up to the road, and you had to constantly be on the lookout for animals.

Around 1:20pm, I was a little worried that I had taken a wrong turn (not knowing that Hwy 11 turned into Greer Road which then turned back into Hwy 11) and so I turned around and drove back about 4 miles to where I had made a right turn. On the corner was an old native man, selling boiled peanuts, a specialty of the area. When I got out and just asked him for directions, he looked a little disappointed that I didn't buy any peanuts, but he still pointed me in the right direction. I got back on the road and about 10 miles down the road, there was a sign that finally said Hwy 11. I cruised along through the Cherokee Foothills, by a small place called Pumpkintown (yah, that's really the name), a HUGE rocking chair hidden in the trees, and by a bunch of fresh fruit stands. By 1:40, I finally saw the one and only sign for Devil's Fork State Park and made a right turn towards Lake Jocassee.

Around 2pm, I had all of my gear from The Scuba Shop trailer and the awesome employees wearing their blue staff shirts. It was a little bit of chaos as there were divers all over, some students, some just on charters and out to play, and then all of the staff members. Around 3, I was on the boat listening to the debriefing and talking to this guy named Fischer (originally from New York but was now living in Richmond) and getting a little nervous for my 1st dive of the day. After a 20 minute ride across the lake on one of the scuba pontoon boats, we pulled up to 'The Junct' and laid anchor. A bunch of people jumped off and headed off on their dives from all three of the dive boats while a woman named Jean gave us (the Advanced students) a debriefing about navigation, what we were supposed to do, and how to practice. Finally, we all made our giant strides into the water and practiced navigating on our own at the surface. After about 10 or 15 minutes, Fischer and I were supposed to go down below together (but without any supervision) and practice around 35 feet down. We had a little trouble getting down as I was underweighted, Fischer's ears wouldn't clear, and we were both a little nervous as the greeny muck made it hard to see. We finally made it, but I only did my circle before we had to go back to the surface.

We got back onboard and I finished my navigation with another guy in a different spot at about 12 feet where the Vis was a little better. My dive was over before I knew it and I was still a little nervous. Everyone else eventually came up but we didn't get back to shore until around 7pm. I went and set up my tent at my campsite and ate the roast beef sandwich I had bought earlier that day. Around 8:30pm, we all met back up and I switched out my tank and we headed back down to the boat to go do the night dive. It was just getting dark as we made our way across the lake and by the time we got back towards the Junct, it was pretty dark. I was really nervous by then, but I jumped in the water with the dive light and prepared to descend into the darkness.

After a little more difficulty getting down, I finally let the air out of my BC and just sank towards the bottom around 40 feet where the others were waiting. It was like sitting in a dark room where you know that there are walls but you can't see them. The only thing you can see if just a small beam of light in front of you and only when you point it a certain way. To make matters worse, I was a little imbalanced so I kept sinking more on my right side, I was sucking down air, and my mask fogged up. At one point, we ended up getting a little shallower and I looked up to see someone above me. Thinking that it was my dive group going towards the surface, I ascended to find one of the members of my dive group and another guy. Apparently, our groups had collided and we had all gotten mixed up in the darkness. The rest of my group finally made it to the surface and the other Advanced students and I went back to the boat and watched as the Night Diver specialists had to descend and ascend in the darkness without their dive light. Now that would have been freaky...not knowing which way is up or down or left or right. But as I was standing on the boat, talking to the other divers, I looked up to see the stars shining brightly overhead. It was a fun experience but a little too intense for how nervous I already was.

We got back to shore around 11pm and I made my way to my tent and passed out for the night. I woke up around 8am but drifted on and off until around 11am when it started getting a little too warm in my tent. I got dressed and went down to a gas station back near Hwy 11 to get something to drink and eat. I wrote a little in my journal and took a few pictures and befriended a squirrel before packing up my tent and heading back over to the parking lot around 2pm. After hauling down gear and making our way across the lake, we were out on The Junct again and getting ready for the deep dive. I was so nervous that I sucked down my full tank of air on that dive and I got really cold as we hit a strong thermocline around 60 feet down. Apparently, we made it to 88 feet and I started noticing the onset of nitrogen narcosis. I started having tunnel vision, it took a little longer to process how much air I still had in my tank, and I made weird hand signals to the dive instructor because I couldn't think straight. Luckily, we headed back up to the boat although I was starting to feel more comfortable in the water. After a surface interval, we went back down to dive the actual Junct, an old boat part of the Charleston Fire emergency rescue that had a mailbox near the bow. On top of the mailbox, I smiled as I saw inscribed were the words "PJ was here" which also happened to be the name of my aunt that passed last December. The wreck was my favorite part and I loved cruising along around it, looking at the sides and down into the hull. It was over too quick and we headed back up. After about ten minutes, we all moved to a little shallower water and played with an inflate bag that is part of Search and Recovery. It was starting to get choppy by then though so we quickly did that on the surface and down on the bottom before heading back to the boat.

Earlier that day, I had thought about taking my camera to get some good pictures of me in my dive gear and of the others, but my own common sense talked me out of it. Camera + boat just do not mix. I was really glad that I hadn't because after we got back on the boat and I was smiling from ear to ear since I was now a certified Advanced OW diver, the wind picked up, waves started crashing against the boat, and it started raining like mad. Although there was a pretty rainbow, the weather turned so ugly that we couldn't make it back across the lake. The waves crashed over the bow, soaking all of us again and every single thing on the boat, and rocking us side to side. We ended up having to turn into the waves and just wait it out. A couple of the other boats had to come rescue us since we shortly ran out of gas after that and the storm was just a little tricky. Finally, we all made it back to shore, hauled our gear back up, checking out, and said goodbyes. I headed back on the road around 8pm and I made it back into Columbia (after a little bit of high speed interstate driving) around 10:40pm. To stay awake, I jammed out to Panic At the Disco and reminisced as Casey Casum played the Top 40 countdown. After I got some caffeine in me last night, it was pretty easy to stay awake but I was so tired. I came home and passed out, smiling that I had become an Advanced diver but too sleepy to stay awake. And today was just as eventful as my car went to the mechanic and I got the "squeaky" noise fixed so it's all better now 😊. Now it's night again and I only have 3 more days here in Columbia before I head off to my next adventure. I can hardly wait!!

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Photos

Pumpkintown
See the pumpkin?!?

Comments

[April]

wow
Wow Bugg! I am so proud of you! That lake looks beautiful and the mailbox on the bow gave me the chills. Congratulations, you are an "Advanced Diver"!