Taking what we can during Covid-19 and diving locally

Looking back, I was incredibly fortunate to get that solo trip to Cozumel in before the March COVID-19 shutdowns began. As the virus progressed and eventually began to recede in Chicago, we still held out hope that we'd be able to travel again by August. But as the virus began to surge in the sunbelt states in late June, we had to accept that we probably weren't getting on a plane again anytime this year.

So, my wife and I blocked our schedules on a Monday in mid-July and drove down to Haigh Quarry in Kankakee, Illinois. It's about an hour and a half south of where we live in Chicago. We hadn't been to the quarry in several years, since our son's certification dives. I'd been keeping an eye on their website to check water temperatures. The surface looked great, upper 70s, but it dropped quickly as you went deeper. Finally, in the first week of July, we saw that 20 feet deep had risen to 69 degrees. 

We packed everything up, including some new hoods and gloves to keep warm, and a cooler full of food and drinks, and drove down early one Monday morning. Weather was beautiful and the quarry was practically empty. I only counted 7 other divers there. They did a great job with safety, masks, distancing, etc. in the shop and tank fill area. 

Once we were kitted up, we walked into the entry area to get situated. 

The water was perfect. Almost Caribbean-level warm (high-70s). We'd planned to dive down about 40 feet to where there's a large truck (great for photos), but as we passed 25-30 feet, the thermocline for the  quarry at that time, the water quickly dropped below 60 degrees. Too cold for our standard wetsuits. So, we changed our plan and did about a 50 minute dive all the way around the smaller end of the quarry staying between 20-25 feet. Because it was early, the visibility was actually quite good - about 20-25 feet. All in all, a pleasant dive.

After, we came up, we took off our wetsuits and hung out at a picnic table with our gear and had lunch from he cooler we brought. I carry our tanks back up to the shop to swap out, and we hung out for a bit in the sun. 

For our second dive, we knew we were going to have to stay between 15-25 feet, so we mapped out a path of a few of the "attractions" around the edges of the wall in shallower water. But by this time, it was early afternoon and the visibility had dropped. The miscellaneous sediment kicked up by a couple of the students getting certified combined with natural algae in the water blooming in the sunlight. Visibility had dropped to about 15 feet, except for the shallowest spots. Yes, I know a lot of hardcore divers who'd tell me they dream of 15 feet. But we're admittedly VERY spoiled primarily-Caribbean divers who are used to 75+ feet of visibility (150+ in some cases in Cozumel). After about 45 minutes we'd both began to get a bit chilled, and the visibility was limiting what we'd realistically be able to see, so we called it and ended our dive.

Not our dream diving, by any stretch. BUT, in this current moment in the world, we were very thankful for the fact that we have this facility so close to home. And I'm keeping an eye on those water temperatures when it's above 60 degrees at 40 feet. It'll get there sometime in August and we'll pack up and head down for another day of diving. Hopefully, we'll be able to talk our son into joining us.