Deep flooded mine again yesterday with John Eells as my buddy. I dropped two shot lines and both went down 200' or so. I used a depth finder (just on the dive platform) and it confirmed the depth at 177'. I hope next weekend to get out on the water with an inflatable to mark the mine shaft with a buoy using the depth finder. John and I dove under the platform to check out that area. We went down one of the eight steel cables descending from the pontoon platform on the NE corner to be specific. At 80' the dark particulate in the water dims the natural light rapidly, however, we did experience visibility of about 20' at the bottom, which kind of surprised me, as it had seemed lower on my two previous dives. Water temps are in the mid forties, from about 15' down. The lower platform has broken away from the cable supports, and is lying on the bottom. John noticed that the stone rises up from the platform basin to the east, somewhat shallower in depth. I made it to the sheer stone wall on the south side, and John used his wreck reel and ran a line from the steel cable loop end (which dangled some 10' from the bottom. After spending about 15 minutes at depth, we headed back up. Max depth we both reached was 168'. We both got some oil on our gloves and suits (very little for me) we think it came off of the steel cable we used as an upline. My DUI "Blue Heat" once again made the decompression pleasant and warm. This time I tried it at full blast, and indeed the heat is generous! Thank you Faith Ortins of DUI!
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