Webmaster note: This message was post in the rec.scuba newsgroup in early 1997. It is kind of nice to hear of the memorable dives that others have. While a dive may be mundane and boring for you at times, try to remember the excitement you felt when you first started. From: "David Veenstra (CCJ)" Newsgroups: rec.scuba Subject: Re: Most memorable dive Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 19:43:31 -0500 On Tue, 18 Feb 1997, John Roberts wrote: > I'd like to invite you to share a brief description of > your >> most memorable dive <<. Keep it short and nifty!! Well, it may not be much to you caving enthusiasts, but one of my most memorable dives was in 1984 to a site called Blue Sink - Pinellas County (St. Petersburg, FL) so named in an early 80's edition of Ned DeLoach's dive guidebook. The book said it was behind a nursery in an orange grove. When we got there it was a subdivision about 3/4 of the way to completion. We found the hole surrounded by houses. It was itself on the back edge of an odd-shaped lot abutting a railroad track. A guy in his front yard said swimming was discouraged but added that if we parked in his driveway, no one would say anything. The pool was half-moon shaped, about 75 feet across. At the time there was a rope swing and a little metal swim platform with a ladder for the swinger/swimmers to climb out from. We entered off the platform into still, gin-clear water. We descended slowly as the walls of the sink drew away from us in the wine-bottle shaped formation of a classic sink hole, wet or dry. We found the expected mound, formed by eons of things falling into the hole and piling up (similar to sand piling in an hour-glass) at 110 feet. Along with all the trash you would expect a suburban hole to have (batteries, shoes, beer cans, shopping carts) was an unexpected treasure, a 1966 (or so) Ford Mustang, no license plate, resting upside down. It was in the silt up to its running boards, or I would have tried to get a VIN number or at least see in the windows, but no luck there. Our planned bottom time was limited so we didn't disturb anything. There were some small fish at depth but otherwise no life in the hole. There were a couple of small tunnels in the near-vertical walls but we didn't do anything but look. The visibility was superb and all to soon our bottom time expired and up we went. A nice safety stop and out, and then we left. I went back a few years later, and some guy had bought the lot and built a house. Imagine having your own private sink-hole!! He said his insurance wouldn't allow any diving, too bad. It was a great dive, and apparently never to be repeated. Sorry my post wasn't brief, but what a dive it was! David Veenstra PADI Instructor