I had a three-day weekend and wanted to get two dives in. There was a cleanup dive planned for Sunday, but I had Friday morning free, so I scheduled to go on the charter with Indian Point Dive Center. Friday’s weather was a little rough with a possibility of it being worse so that got delayed till Saturday morning, which made my later schedule sort of tight, but I did mention I was getting obsessed with being in the water. Indian Point is a small village in Table Rock Lake, and our plan was to first head to a wreck called The General. After that, while we were taking some surface time, we decided to check out the Enchanted Forest.
The Mascot
I arrived at the shop about 15 minutes before 8:30 AM and was promptly greeted by a very friendly dog (named Emmy, as I later learned). She promptly dropped a tennis ball at my feet. I later learned that her expectation was that someone would throw it into the lake so she could swim out to retrieve it and come back up on the dock. She is about as perfect of a dock/boat dog as you could get.
Preparation
After filling out the liability waiver, we took our gear onto the boat and started getting ready. They use a pontoon with room for four divers on each charter (along with the guide, Dave). It was a nice setup, with brackets for two tanks for each diver with cubbies below to stow gear and a bench in front. You could prep your gear, get into the BCD, and then just stand up ready to get into the water. Dave gave a very thorough safety briefing, including location of fire extinguishers, first aid and oxygen, the radio in case someone needed to call for help (with brief instructions on usage), and the cooler filled with water bottles. He also explained that all of our entries would be big step entries from one of the sides of the boat with an exit using the ladder (stairs really) at the back of the boat.
Dive 1, The General
This first dive of the day was a stretch for me. My previous deepest dive was 49 feet. Dave explained that this would be a little bit deeper than I was used to and that he and John would stay close and keep a good check on my air (which Dave did, quite thoroughly). The deeper you go, the faster your rate of air consumption because you need more to fill your lungs at the higher pressure at deeper depths. You might use, for example, three times as much air per breath at a given depth than you do on the surface. If the lake level wasn’t down a bit this year, this would have been too deep for me to tackle at this point.
There was a buoy just below the surface with a line down to a guideline that led to the wreck. We dropped along that line and then followed the guide to the General, which is a double decker barge. Visibility was not great, but we all had lights, which helped quite a bit. If I had to put a number on it, I’d say you could see over 10 feet, but only if you had the lights on. Otherwise, it was dark enough to really limit things.
The wreck was incredible. I really want to go back since I didn’t have as much time down there as I’d have liked. Dave was right that my air consumption was much faster. Part of it was the depth, and part of it was on me, not being relaxed enough. I had to surface a little bit earlier than the rest, but only really a minute or two. I came up about 50 feet from the boat and swam to it on the surface, arriving just as the rest of them came up.
There used to be a second wreck in the area, the Zebulon Pike. That one has been pulled up and there’s no information on whether it’ll be returned to the water for divers to explore again.
This was my first dive with a new bit of gear. I got an apeman A100 action camera. You might ask why. The answer – a couple of decent reviews and it was $52 new. I couldn’t buy a used GoPro for that low of a price. I’m still learning to use it. The photos and video on this dive were not great, but that’s all on me.
Dive 2, The Enchanted Forest
The Enchanted Forest is a spot on the lake where there was a forest before the valley was flooded. The trees are leafless, covered with kelp and other lake debris, and host a population of fish. It’s alongside a bluff so it’s sort of like a wall dive if you stay close to the shore and quite deep at some points.
I wanted a more leisurely dive this time, so John accompanied me, and we dropped down and stayed mostly between forty and fifty feet the entire time just enjoying the fish, the view of the trees, and the water. There’s no photo or video because I drained the battery of my camera on the first dive not realizing it wasn’t fully charged.
If you’re into fish watching (which I am) this was a great spot to dive. We saw a variety and they do sometimes tend to interact with divers, which is pretty cool. You can tell my thoughts on the day based on the smile in this photo Dave took of the group.
