Dive no.: 11
Date: Aug 19 2007Location: Ponce De Leon FLDive site: Morrison SpringsWeather Condition: Sunny, hotWater Condition: Crystal clear, and refreshingly cold
Visibility: 10-15 feetWater Temp: 68 degEntered the water at: 8:56am
Max Depth: 40 ftBottom Time: 28 min

----
Remarks:

We met up again with the Scubaholics dive club early in the morning.

Visibility was just amazing! The springs in this park remain a cool 68 degrees year round, so we all donned our wetsuits.

This dive site is a very popular proving ground for new divers. Class was in session, but several other divers were just here to play.

The big attraction here for hardcore divers is the underwater cave. For open water divers, the most we get to see of the cave is a few feet inside the entrance.

As long as we can see the outside, we`re ok.

There`s not much in the way of amenities (just a stinky outhouse and plenty of trees to squat behind)...which is a good thing, because amenities tend to attract crowds. So aside from a few locals, scuba divers pretty much have the place to themselves.


Other than a few Blue Gill, we didn`t see much aquatic life here. Inside the cave there are some eel, but I didn`t get to see any because I had a minor buoyancy problem while trying to get to the bottom of the cave, during which I stirred up so much muck that the visibility got so bad we all had to retreat.

.....Oops.






Early in the day, the steam is still rising off the water




The water is very pretty here.




Divers approaching the sunken dive platform en masse


What a view! This platform is where divers convene prior to heading to the cave. It`s also where dive classes practice skills, such as the fin pivot (adjusting your buoyancy), and mask retrieval.




Mike chasing divers around with his underwater camera


Hula hoops

Dawn and Teresa suspended these hoops so that we can practice our buoyancy skills.




Ben and other divers heading to the cave


A diver straddling the big tree over the mouth of the cave


Daniel hovering over the mouth of the cave, getting a picture. This picture...


The cave (about 55 ft deep at the entrance)

You can see one of the scuba tanks down there.




[font style="font-family:[