2/21/10 @ 11:30 AM
Amistad Lake, Scuba Cove
Weather: @ 70 (f), sunny with 20-25 knot winds
Water: 52-54 (f)
Viz: 8’
Max depth: 80’

I met Randall, a fellow member of San Antonio Scuba Divers, for a dive before heading off to work. We planned on doing a boat dive at Castle Canyon; however, we opted to change to the alternate site due to high winds.

After the delay we drove to Scuba Cove and geared up. The dive profile was planned to drop down on the "Treasure Chest", swim on a heading of 270 to the first boat, then drop to 70’ and follow the contour on roughly the same heading to locate the second boat which was to be sitting at 60’ at bow and 80’ at stern. The turn around point was planned for either when we reached the second boat or 1800 psi, whichever came first.

After gearing up we slipped into the water and surface swam to the marker buoy set on the "Treasure Chest" by Robert of Del Rio Dive Club. We checked our bearing and began the decent. Nice slow decent onto the "Treasure Chest" and began swimming towards first boat. We arrived at the stern of the first boat on target and stopped to review the boat before continueing down to 70’.

We dropped to around 74’ and followed the contour towards the cliff and located the second boat as planned. I had not seen this boat since my OW checkout dives (water level was lower then) in July 2008 and was excited to see Randall’s navigation planned worked exactly as planned. We explored the boat for a little while then began our return trip.

The return had been planned to slowly ascend and conduct our safety stop while swimming back to the exit point. We began our descent by following the bottom up to 40’, 30’, then 20’. At one point we stopped for a little while at 20’ and hovered to finish the safety stop. I was able to set perfect bouyancy at 20’ and closed my eyes for a little bit. I felt like I was about to fall asleep and decided I need to keep moving before I did. That’s what happens when you’re diving with 4 hours of sleep.

We finished the safety stop and ascended right at the exit point. It was a great dive and had me thinking about calling in sick to work so we could get a second dive in.

Great dive and I couldn’t have asked for a better buddy.

Stay safe, stay wet.