Bull Shoals House Boat Trip
October 21st 2006 - Trip Report

This was one incredible trip. Three days on a houseboat with your fellow divers. I've heard about this trip from several people, and was excited to make this year's trip.

After a slight mechanical difficulty with boat, we got underway. The first site we got to dive was called Spanish Wrecks. It was a shallow dive (about 30-35') and visibility was about 10' unless you stirred up the bottom. This was a good "warm-up" dive.

After a surface interval and a relocation of the boat, we dove the Bermuda Triangle. Of course, we had to find it first, and we learned that the lake was about 10' low at the time of the trip. On the way back to the boat, we found the Bermuda Triangle. Back on the boat, dinner was waiting for us.

Saturday was kicked off by a dive to the Keyhole, which was rumored to have been found by Mark Swink the year before. After a nice long dive, we found the Keyhole just before we turned back towards the boat. The second dive was at the Iowa Farm, and if you see meet at a club barbeque, ask me about the pig. It's a story you truly do not want to miss. The last dive on Saturday was Shear Terror. It was a good wall dive, unfortunately, the skies had turned overcast and light was at a premium. The visibility was better below 50 feet, but there wasn't enough light at the time to justify going that deep. I'd love to repeat this dive again when the sun is shining.  We beached the boat for the night, and enjoyed an excellent steak dinner.  One of the best things about this trip was all of the wonderful food.  Saturday night was completed by a campfire on the beach and a movie back on the boat.

Sunday morning was cold and windy, however, we enjoyed a fantastic hot breakfast cooked by Greig.  Although the weather hadn’t warmed up much, we got two dives in before heading back to the dock. The first dive was at Frost Wall and Pirate Longboat. Although we did not find the longboat or the pirates (haha) this was a very nice dive with very good visibility. If you enjoy swimming through an underwater forest (I certainly do), then this dive is for you. This is also on my repeat list, and I'm determined to find the longboat next year. The last dive of the trip was by far the best. We dove in the cove near the Keyhole and enjoyed 20 foot visibility throughout the dive. It was just a relaxing dive, and everybody had fallen into a groove and was able to relax and enjoy diving with each other.  We also started to see some good sized bass, along with some mighty fine lures that have snagged underwater.  The highlight was surfacing at the boat and not having to surface swim. Kudos to the leader of that dive, he really had his stuff together on that one. :)

As I said before, this was a fantastic trip. I'm definitely game for going next year. While we were waiting for tank fills, we toured one of the larger "couples" boats. Wow! is all I have to say. This boat had it all. If it's an option next year, I'd jump at the chance to get on that couples boat.

I hope to see lots of you guys on the trip next year.

Kent Poyser