Author: Sundial
Location: The Scuba Ranch, Tarrell Tx
Dive: 5 Shore
Dates: 24/05/2024-26/05/2025
Scouts: Cool Cuttlefish, Orca, Snapper, Pineapple, Hawksbill, Sea Nettle, Manta Ray
Adult Volunteers: Atolla
Dive Pros: Sgt.Major, The Splendid Toadfish, Queen Trigger
June 25
One annual trip the troop takes is a “Drive and Dive.” As a troop we go and drive to a lake in Texas and spend the weekend diving. This year our destination was The Scuba Ranch, located in Terrell Texas, east of Dallas. We arrived late at night and made sure to sleep before we woke up the next morning to go dive. Our first dive was an evaluation dive to get our bearings in a lake which none of us had dove in recently. Me and Cool Cuttlefish were buddies on this first dive. We had very little idea going into the dive about what we were going to find under the water, but with the map of the dive site we planned to see a large shark, a plane, and a group of boats. We descended on the closest public platform to our camp. The water was 80.6 degrees F at the surface and 75. 2 degrees F at the bottom, so in my 3MM Fourth Element wetsuit I felt nice and comfortable.
We had taken the compass heading for the large shark swim through and started navigating from the platform. We stayed at about 20 feet until we ran into an orange line in the middle of the water. Choosing a random way we started along a line until we found ourselves at a sailboat. At first, we figured it was part of the boat graveyard marked on the map, however, it was not marked on the map. From the boat we were able to see that if we followed the line the other way we would see the shark, so that is exactly what we did. We swam following the line until we made it to the shark. The shark was a very long cavern type structure under water with teeth coming down from the upper opening and fins attached to the back and sides. While we were not able to go inside with our current certifications we did explore the large outsides. From there we found a card that had the heading for the plane so we headed that way. While Cool Cuttlefish navigated I looked at the silt and vegetation at the bottom. As my light traveled across the bottom a bass followed my light weaving in and out all the way to the plane.
After exploring the cockpit of a 737 plane we traveled out in a new direction that we hoped would lead us back to the camp, but when we came up to see where we were, we were much farther out than expected. Trying to limit our surface swim we descended to 15 feet and began to swim back under the water, from there we completed the surface swim and came up and back to camp. Between dives we ate a lunch of sandwiches and Oreos. For the 2nd dive I was again buddies with Cool Cuttlefish. After lunch both of us were ready to get into the water and wanted to go see the spider which was located across the lake from our camp. We took a long surface swim to a marker buoy in the center of the lake. Before we descended we made sure to take a heading on the spider so we could navigate there, but once down there we noticed an unmarked line leading in a similar direction as our heading. We were prepared to navigate using a compass but neither wanted to risk missing it and figured that this line was close enough to the heading and might lead to the spider. The first line first led us to another boat which was fun to see and we looked around it, but soon found another line which we followed.
Again the line failed to lead us to the spider and instead went to a platform. We continued following lines and only finding platforms. On one platform we did find a card with the heading to the spider but had continued past it on lines hoping that eventually it would lead us to the spider. Unfortunately, after a long line of platforms, we ended up arriving at the end of the line tied off to a large rock. After the disappointment of coming upon the rock at the end of the long line we followed the line back to the platform with the heading tied off and navigated to the spider. The spider was not a normal spider, it was a robot spider. While it was not large it had long legs and a body made up of metal with 4 bright red eyes and one small tooth made of a screw. It was a very cute spider. From there we traveled underwater along the bottom navigating towards our camp. As we swam above vegetation, bass followed us. At one point there were 6 bass following us and it felt like I was taking pet bass for a walk. All the young fish were hiding in the grasses and at one point the visibility opened up to almost 15 feet which was a nice change from the murk of Lake Travis. From there we came up and made the now short surface swim to the camp.
After exiting the water we both switched tanks and logged the dive. We waited for more people to surface before assuming we would be buddied together on this next dive. In the end we were right to not assume. Once everyone had gotten up word spread that one of the adult volunteers had lost a brand new Kraken light while on the dive. So, Sgt.Major took Cool Cuttlefish as a buddy to help search for the missing dive light. That left me without a dive buddy so I buddied with Atolla with the goal of getting back to the spider. We geared up and went down in the middle of the lake onto a boat and followed the line that me and cool cuttlefish had followed until we reached the heading. We followed the heading but must have missed it because as we continued we came upon what was not the spider but a deep hole in the lake's surface. Knowing that there were silos for the deep diver specialty and we were not permitted to go in, neither of us tried to proceed any deeper. Instead we tried to plot a course back but only succeeded in getting ourselves even more lost. We surfaced to try to reorient and surface swam to a buoy marking an attraction before we descended to finish the dive. We viewed a few more ships until we had to end the dive and realized we had just made a large circle.
After surfacing, we began to clean up the site and get ready to head out. When the splendid Toadfish came up after going with her group to see the spider she came up to me, “What were you talking about that spider, it was so tiny.” While I had said the spider was awesome, I had never mentioned it being large, I had said it was a robot spider which looked super cool. So, while we ended the day with a dive going in circles we spent a beautiful day in water with the perfect temperature and 10-15 feet of visibility.
June 26
We got out to the dive site the next day at about 8:30 and began to set up. By now divers were buddying up based really on what they wanted to see for the dive so me and Cool Cuttlefish buddied up again to see if we could find the spider again, just this time we were accompanied by a second buddy group of Atolla and their dad. Because many of the younger scouts were working on their Advanced Open Water Certification, they were doing their Navigation training dive. This meant that me and Cool Cuttlefish were tasked with setting the line that the divers would navigate along. We travelled towards where we were going to descend but instead set the line under water. We resurfaced and swam the rest of the way to the descent point. We tried to descend onto the American cossack plane but instead had gone down on the wrong buoy and were back in the 737 cockpit. Despite it not being the American Cossack we explored and started heading towards the boats in the middle of the lake where we would follow the line to the heading for the spider. Cool Cuttlefish navigated the team of 4 we had created and was able to help us find the spider, despite the much lower visibility caused by the rain we had gotten the night before. From there we worked to get back to the entry point travelling above the vegetation and viewing the fish. We finally surfaced once we got too high on the shore and surface swam back to the camp.
After switching tanks and meeting with the other groups we decided the plan and teams on the last dive of the trip. The plan was me, Atolla, and her dad would be buddies and Cool Cuttlefish and Queen Triggerfish would be buddies and we would travel together to descend on the American Cossack and then go to see the spider but this of course did not go to plan. Instead of descending on the American Cossack we descended on the American 737, again because we had not selected the correct buoy. Unfortunately, I had clicked on the wrong setting on my dive computer so before we were even able to descend we had to resurface so that I could change from Apnea to Dive.
From there we descended again and followed different lines just to explore. Not descending on the American Cossack had ruined the dive plan so it had turned into a mindless game of following the line. But as our team of 3 traveled and reached the end of a line connected to a boat we realized that in the few seconds between when we couldn't see the end of the line and when we could we had lost Atolla. We searched for 1 minute, making sure to cover our lights to try and see Atolla but with no luck. We surfaced and began to look around and wait for them to surface as well. We looked for bubbles but after at least a full 2 minutes both of us were getting worried. I had started to surface swim to go call for help because we were not in yelling range but then Atolla Finally Surfaced. She had run into the other buddy team and while Cool Cuttlefish understood the situation Queen Trigger had not understood. Once we all knew there was no danger and everyone was safe we all laughed at the fact that Atolla had gotten herself lost while following a line!
Because we were already on the surface we figured that we could try descending on one more buoy and see if we finally got lucky and it would be the American Cossack. And this time we finally got lucky and descended on the American Cossack on our last dive! This was definitely one of the coolest things to see underwater, it was suspended mid-water and you could swim around the wings and see the cockpit and even the wheels on the bottom. We explored before we finally found one of the lines and followed it to one of the main boats that I had actually been to many times. From there we found the shark and sailboat and re-explore those attractions before heading back to the surface and completing our final dive of the trip.
Overall, this was a really fun and exciting trip that allowed us to explore a new place that is not Lake Travis which we spend plenty of time at already. Overall, my favorite things to see were definitely the spider and the American Cossack. Additionally, what is not an attraction but I found very fun to see was all the bass just following the divers around! They were so cute and this was the only place I have ever seen this type of behaviour from fish. It was a beautiful and fun place to dive and I enjoyed the beautiful weather and water temperature.
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