We paddled out into the middle of the lake in our rental boat. The boat was an old rowboat, but despite that, it did the trick. Reaching the center of the lake, we dropped the anchor, watching the line pay out. When it stopped, I tied it off; making sure the boat wasn't going anywhere. I turned back to you and nodded that we were ready. We started to re-check the gear, especially the tanks. This was going to be our first dive with these tanks, steel 120's. Not to mention, it was to be our first dive in this particular lake. I heard about it from another diving friend of mine, and so, decided to try it.
Once the gear was ready we got dressed in our βshortieβ wet suits. (Did I mention the water was warm?) Joking with my wife about a story I had read the night before about a couple of divers having sex underwater, I watched as my wife peeled out of her T-Shirt and shorts revealing her body to me. Her breasts, while not the largest I had seen, were a natural C-cup. Even though my wife was thirty-five, her breasts didnβt sag, standing firm and proud on her chest, held tightly by her bikini top. (I think she buys her tops a size small just to make her chest look bigger.)
Letting my eyes wander appreciatively over the rest of her five-foot-six, firmly-muscled body, I watched as her short strawberry blond hair glistened in the sun. She pulled on her wet suit, (filling it out nicely I might add), and I marveled at our still being together. In this age of βthrow awayβ marriages, we were still in love and lust with each other, even after being married for ten years. Maybe it was her cheerful personality, her slight exhibitionist streak, or her willingness to try just about anything that kept us happy. I donβt know, but whatever it was, it worked for us.
Once we were ready, we looked at each other, sat on the transom of the boat, and back-rolled off, one after the other. Once I hit the water, I let myself sink to about ten feet, then moved away from the boat to give my wife room to get into the water. When I was clear of the drop area, I turned around. First hearing the muffled sound of a splash, then seeing the large cloud of bubbles in the water, I knew my wife had joined me in Neptune's Realm. She soon came gliding out of the bubbles to hover there beside me in the 85Β° water.
The water at this shallow depth was slightly murky, with about 20-foot visibility. I had been promised by my friend that once we hit 30 feet, it would clear up. Watching my wife, I waited until she signaled that she was okay. Then I pointed downward. Popping some of the air out of our Buoyancy Compensators, we started slowly gliding down into the depths.
As we approached the 30-foot mark, I noticed the water seemed a little more murky below me, as if I was flying into a bank of thin clouds. Passing through this, I was in some of the clearest water I had ever seen. The visibility was incredible, at least 100 feet. Not only that, but because of the shape and design of the lake's bottom, the light had actually increased, and it was warm, like a bathtub. Looking at my gauges, I saw the water temperature had risen to 90Β°. Oh, did I forget to mention this was a thermal lake? Sorry.
Nearing the bottom, at 50 feet, my wife and I slowly popped air back into our B.C.s' until we stopped completely, about five feet off the sandy bottom. Looking to my right, I could clearly see the anchor for the boat. Swimming over to it, to check on how it was holding, I turned away from my wife. Not a problem, as she was doing well, and the water was so clear.
After inspecting the anchor, I turned and started swimming back to my wife, casually looking around me as I went. There was more plant life than I had expected, with huge schools of fish. This was definitely not a dead lake.
Reaching my wife, she mimed wiping sweat off her brow. She was right, it was warm down here. No wonder so few people dove here. You could cook yourself.
Suddenly, my wife got my attention. She motioned for me to head for the bottom. I thought, O.K. why not? When we were both kneeling on the sand, she motioned for me to grab her B.C. Doing this, I watched as she first undid the straps, then slid out of her B.C. Reaching down, she removed her fins, and clipped them to one of the D-Rings on her B.C. Next, she removed her weight belt and set it on the sand, while holding onto the B.C. with the other hand. Once she removed the weight belt, she was slightly buoyant, and didn't want to make an ascent to the surface.
Reaching up to her throat, she grabbed the long zipper that held her wet suit closed and pulled it down. Struggling slightly, she removed her wet suit and rolled it up. She strapped her weight belt around it to hold it on the bottom of the lake. Once she removed the wet suit, she was as close to neutral buoyancy as you could get.