A Dive in Three Acts: Lost, Found, Forgot the Drill
Made an early trip up to Ore-be-gone this morning. The weather couldn’t have been better — sunny, low 70s, no wind to speak of. Underwater conditions, on the other hand, were a bit of a wildcard. We’ve had nearly an inch of rain in Gilbert over the past few days, and we both figured the lake would be a mess — runoff, low vis, that kind of thing. But to our surprise, it wasn’t bad at all. Not crystal clear, but a far cry from the five-foot soup we expected.
Surface temps were in the upper 60s, with a predictable plunge to 40°F below the thermocline. Nothing we’re not used to, but always a bit of a jolt. We dropped in from the boat landing and made our way past the submerged helicopter, which is looking rough these days — rotor broken, collapsed forward. No idea what happened, but it’s seen better dives.
From there, we continued through the flooded forest. Below the thermocline, there was a strange suspended haze — one of those underwater layers that looks like fog or smoke. Reminded me of dry ice effects in a horror movie. Eerie but kind of beautiful.
A curious fog creeps through the lake. Heather suspects H₂S. I suspect something far less scientific and far more unsettling ~ HaHa.
I found a nice set of shears sitting in the silt — still in good shape — and handed them to Heather to show off the find. She gave a nod and promptly stashed them in her pocket. I briefly considered reclaiming them, but figured the story was better this way. Funny enough, I never mentioned it after the dive, so I think she still has them. Probably for the best. I’d only lose them again.
We hit the usual landmarks — including the sunken school bus. Heather swam through it while I circled around to the front and tried to frame a photo through the windshield. Took some fiddling with the lights and a fair amount of backscatter cursing, but I came away with a decent shot after some heavy-handed editing.
Class dismissed. Permanently. Heather glides through the underwater school bus like it’s just another Thursday.
After a bit more exploring in the trees, we decided to head for the exit at the Ore-be-gone beach. That meant swimming past Splashdown — the inflatable floating water park that looms about 50 feet overhead. It’s a chaotic maze of slides, trampolines, and tethered platforms. Not really my scene, but I can admit it looks kind of fun… from a distance.
Of course, towing the dive flag through that area brings some risk. The whole setup is anchored with thick cables connected to concrete blocks on the bottom, and Heather had snagged the flag on one of them on a previous dive. I spotted one anchor in time and took a wide detour — not interested in surfacing directly under a bouncing horde of screaming kids.
Once we cleared the amusement zone, we dropped down into the deeper section of the mine. Around 70 feet, I stopped to photograph some interesting sediment patterns. Got distracted adjusting strobes and lost track of Heather — totally my fault. Standard buddy protocol says look around for a couple of minutes, then surface if you don’t reconnect. Instead, I fired off a few strobe flashes in different directions, hoping she’d spot the light. It worked. A couple minutes later, she swam up out of the gloom, probably wondering what I’d gotten myself into this time.
No idea what this is. Spent five minutes lighting it like the Mona Lisa and accidentally lost Heather in the process.
Not exactly textbook behavior, but it worked.
A few dives ago, I suggested we start practicing one skill on each dive — something simple: mask clears, drysuit inflator disconnects, diluent flushes. Just to keep the muscle memory sharp. We agreed today would be diluent flushes… and then promptly forgot. Still, it was a solid dive. Nothing dramatic, nothing broken (besides the helicopter), and one mildly contested salvage item that now lives in Heather’s pocket.