Question for Indy

[mark]

When you guys do your river dives, is there a specific reason you swim against the current and drift back?  

[indyme2]

Good question, Mark. We dive into the current because we are fanning the silt and sand and want it to quickly wash away from us. If another diver is behind the first, he is screwed unless he moves over to one side or the other because his visibility is gone. At best, there is only a foot or two and usually less so adding silt makes it worse. We dive into the current because at the end of the dive we are tired. We can just surface and float back to the boat instead of trying to swim against the current to return. Many rivers we dive have a strong tidal influence. That means that the river actually changes direction of flow depending on the tides, twice a day. The early colonists had plantations far upstream on the Cooper River. They needed to travel with heavy wooden barges up and down the river. So, they let the outgoing current drive them toward Charleston and tie up and sit when the tide goes slack and then reverses the flow. Untie when it's outgoing again. Travel worked both ways using the tide. We have to dive around the tide. Outgoing tide means clearer water. Then it goes dead still before reversing direction. We will do the first dive about 30 minutes before dead tide so we have about a 45 minute "window" of good vis and not too strong current. Then run upstream as fast as we can to beat the incoming tide, and squeeze in another dive. BTW, when the river goes dead slack, there is zero visibility for a few minutes. We just lie on the bottom waiting for the current to start running again so we can see again. Exciting diving but not for tourist divers. Lol. Thanks for asking.

[mark]

I see now, thanks! I was thinking man it sure would make sense to get dropped off up river, drift down and meet the boat. I was reverting back to my days diving Radio Island in Moorehead City when we timed our dives to drift with the outgoing tide and drift back with the incoming.