I just returned home from a great extended "weekend" of cave diving.
Day one (28 Dec). The dive plan was for two dives at Peacock, the first in the Olsen tunnel, the second to the peanut line. The first dive's second mission--test the "new" (read new to me, purchased as an inexpensive backup) drysuit I just purchased. The weather was beautiful, and gearing up in the crowded parking lot provided a chance to meet some new cave diving friends and catch up with "old" friends. The Olsen dive was a nice leisurely swim, with fair visibility (about 30') for most of the dive. During the exit, we encountered a bit of a "traffic jam" as there was another team exiting from a jump and a third team entering the system. The team exiting the jump proceeded first, then we followed. It was a nice change to see multiple teams practicing proper cave etiquette. The end of the dive found that the new suit was a damp-suit not a drysuit. However, closer inspection in the parking lot found the culprit seam....and some aquaseal is in the suit's future. While preparing for the second dive, Lamar Hires had a couple of wonderful tips regarding gear placement for my Intro dive buddy. One of his tips has already made a significant difference. Dive two saw a nice swim up the peanut line to about 1000' of penetration. It's almost as much fun to watch someone else see a section of cave for the first time as it is to do so yourself. The visibility in Peanut was much better 40'+ for the majority of the dive. Heading back out through the breakdown room provided another of those "meet and greet" opportunities, as we past two teams totaling six other divers. I'm just glad we didn't meet up in the chute--that would have been a little snug! My buddy's first question was "what was all that noise in the chute when we were leaving?" I laughed a bit. I had forgotten how weird it can be to hear the sound of exhaust bubbles in some areas. I remembered the first time I experienced how "loud" it could be in an underwater cave! Second best thing about dive two--Gamble managed to fix my leaking exhaust valve in my primary drysuit even though he "didn't do anything". Finally, a dry dive in a drysuit--who knew it was possible?
Day two (29 Dec) started off by driving to Ginnie in the pouring rain, and I was going "back to school". This was day one of Normoxic Trimix, with Johnny Richards as my instructor. Quick introductions and paperwork turned into classroom time over the shop at Ginnie. Fortunately, I'm one of those people that actually enjoy math--so the "on paper" part of Trimix was actually fun (please don't throw things). As we finished the last of the lecture, the clouds began to part and the sun peeked through the clouds. As we drove to the packed Devil's parking lot, the last few drops of rain moved away and I was able to set up gear in the cool dry air. As is typical, had a chance to meet some other cave divers and share in some laughs while setting up gear. Poor Johnny had to wait for an eternity for me (one of those slow-moving sidemount divers), but finally we were ready to go. Now, it's been a while since I was at Ginnie (since August)--and the flow seems to be up.... We entered through the Devil's Ear, and found two other teams ahead entering the system, and a third entering through the Eye. The floor of the gallery looked like a used aluminum cylinder sale! I don't think there was a foot of space available on the section of gold line perpendicular to the gallery, and many more cylinders were dropped along the first 30' of the gallery floor. And in this, I had the privilege of performing cylinder drop and pickup drills (in a blacked-out mask), and without a mask--and in the flow. What a humbling experience. I no longer felt like a full cave diver with 100+ dives, but like an Intro student on the first day of class. There's no fun quite like fighting the flow of the gallery (at floor level) and using the braille method of tank selection while trying to maintain buoyancy. My SAC rate for the skill dive(s) was horrible, and simulated deco stops on the log in the ear, buddy breathing, was the icing on the cake for a rough day. Although, I must admit I preferred the blackout mask drills since I couldn't tell who was swimming by laughing at the guy groping across the floor! Post dive provided more fun with friends, and at this point I need to say THANK YOU to the person that found my second stage. (yep, lost a second stage of one of my stage/deco bottles during a training dive). Thankfully I didn't have to explain to my wife why I needed to buy another regulator....
Day Three (30 Dec) was a return to lovely Wes Skiles Peacock Springs State Park--this time for my first dive into Lower Orange Grove (or as some people call it Lower, Lower Orange Grove). The dive plan called for us to enter the cave and turn left to start the circuit--and if we hit our turn time or thirds before completion to mark the spot with a cookie--setting up for dive two. Our entrance into the cave was delayed by another team, and then delayed further by an important realization. The entrance to the cave is quite small, and requires some contortion efforts. With a person of my "caliber" this required backing out at one point, turning 180 degrees, and re-entering. A following equipment issue (not mine this time, thankfully) meant an early call of the dive--just at the start of the gold line. As we exited, we determined that our 50% deco mix wasn't needed--so we left it in place for dive two. After picking up our O2 bottles, I had the fun of deploying a lift bag (something I've only done a couple of times in the last decade)--and completing deco clipped to a spool attached to the bag....at least there wasn't flow carrying me down the slough! Dive two went according to plan. We entered into the cave (I now knew which way to zig then zag to make the entry fairly smooth), tied into the gold line, and headed down. From 168' back up towards the circuit, the climb back to 130' looked like scaling a small mountain. This area of cave is beautiful, with black goethite covering many of the rocks--and the amphipods looked like snow flurries. We began by making a left turn at the circuit. While swimming along, numerous crayfish were crawling along the floor, walls and ceiling. I even saw a very small crayfish (about 1cm) swim past my mask. While it was beautiful to see such pristine cave, I also had to constantly monitor dive time and a very small gas supply (LP-85's don't last long at this depth). About 1/3 of the way around the circuit, the line was completely buried in the thick black silt, the ceiling was getting closer to the bottom--and we were 2 minutes from turn time. I decided to call the dive. No need to have a zero viz exit and excessive deco--the cave would be there for another dive (one I'm already looking forward to). The rest of the dive went according to plan, and the deco stops didn't seem that long, as my head was still filled with the wonderful images of the beautiful new cave that had just been shown to me.
Day Four (31 Dec). New Year's Eve at Eagle's Nest! I know that we usually don't have "goal oriented cave dives"--but I have had some personal goals. After finishing my full cave this spring, my personal goals were to complete my first 100 dives and dive Eagle's Nest within a year. I was amazed at how quickly the 100 dives came, and was thrilled when my wife suggested that I take my Trimix training as a Christmas present. A trip to the Nest was approaching--a dive I've wanted to do since I first started cave diving. The morning was cool, and the sun rose over a mostly clear sky. The weather looked to be perfect. I met with Johnny in Crystal River and we began the trek to Eagle's Nest. We arrived to find we were the only ones there. We verified gas mixtures, prepared gear, placed our deco cylinders on the line at the stairs (and my s/m bottles), and reviewed the dive plan. Our max depth would be 200', max run time 20 minutes. The plan was to drop O2 at the deco log, descend through the chimney, and drop our next set of deco cylinders at the top of the mound and head upstream--until we maxed out depth, time, or hit turn pressure. We descended quickly into the blackness. Even with 40'-50' visibility my 12w Light Monkey LED couldn't reach the walls. The ballroom is immense! The top of the mound approached fast, and we quickly clipped cylinders to the line, confirmed turn time, and headed upstream. The low, wide mouth of the tunnel beckoned--and I felt obliged to heed the call. Fortunately the visibility was clear--and I could stay near the ceiling and keep the gold line it sight. All too quickly, I found my primary dive computer reading 199' and the cave was continuing to descend. Time to turn around. The good news, there was some extra gas for sight-seeing on the way out. Returning to the ballroom I found my eyes had adjusted to the darkness. Johnny motioned for me to cover my light--this yielded a beautiful sight of sunlight streaming down through the openings in the ceiling. As I uncovered my light, I could start to see the walls of the room. We picked up our deco gas, and started upwards towards the light. As we ascended--and swam closer to the ceiling we moved closer to the walls. Not only is this cave huge, but the rock is beautiful, with big gentle scalloping curves. The ceiling is such a light color that our lights seemed to bounce off the surface like a mirror. At 80' I could turn off my light as there was so much light coming from the chimney above. As we started up through the narrow passage, we began the first of our decompression stops. Did they really go by that quick? It wasn't until 30' that I felt like I was sitting for a deco obligation. At the 20' and 10' stops, the warm sunlight was such a stark contrast to the darkness below--and the small surface pond felt so insignificant compared to what lie below. Our decompression over, we headed out of the water.
As we had started the first dive, another team of divers (on rebreather) had just arrived at the site. At our exit, they were still busy with preparations. We had a chance for a short chat--and then each team returned to the business at hand--our team changing out cylinders and preparing for dive two. During this time, a number of family members of the two recent fatalities at the Nest arrived with flowers. While we allowed them some personal space, we also had opportunity to speak with some of them. They had a number of questions, and seemed to be quite shocked when we explained to them how very little time two cylinders of breathing gas lasted at 200' or more of depth--and how it was possible for air to be toxic at depth. They finished their visit by placing some flowers into the water--and the other dive team offered to take a couple into the cave for them. The family seemed to experience some relief and closure from the visit. During our lunch break, there were also a number of other visitors to the site--none of them divers. These were people who had read about the incident on Christmas and were in the area and wanted to see what was there. This was an opportunity to be an ambassador for our sport/hobby/passion. It was a way to explain both to the family of the deceased and to others that cave diving can be done safely--with the proper training and experience. Please be aware that there will likely be many more visitors to the surface at the Nest if you go to dive.
Between all of the people coming and going, we sat down to a lovely picnic lunch my wife prepared for us. It was peaceful to sit and listen to the birds on a beautiful sunny Florida day. As we discussed the first dive, we began to confirm the plan for dive two. The plan was to once again drop deco cylinders but then head into the downstream tunnel. Once again, turn around was depth, time, or pressure--whichever came first. As we dropped through the chimney, I saw the rebreather team on ascent. I was glad to see their stop was below the chimney--so we were able to enter the ballroom and then move out of their way. This momentarily slowed the descent, but only by a minute. We moved down the debris cone and towards the downstream passage. I was surprised at the small size of the entrance. As the passage descended and enlarged, I once again realized that this dive wouldn't proceed too far before we hit the "floor" for the dive. I kept a careful eye on gas pressure, and the glowing depth reading of my Shearwater computers--and watched the arrows as we proceeded into the cave. Just past the 300' arrow, I ducked under a small dip in the ceiling--and the computer was showing 199'! As I reached to dump a bit of gas from my wing--I couldn't find the pull! Had it fallen off? I searched and found that it had become caught in a strap. My only guess is that in the depth as things compressed and shifted--it had become wedged. I managed to free the dump--which had taken almost a minute. The helium seemed to take care of the narcosis--but it was obviously still a factor with the amount of thought and effort required to remedy a very simple issue. I decided that with this realization it was time to call the dive--even with 1 minute of run time and plenty of gas left--there's always next trip! So we began the swim back to the mound, and the slow ascent. On the way out Johnny showed me the entrance to another passage higher in the wall--and my head is still reeling with the thought of another dive--and exploring this area. The decompression stops also passed quickly, and as we reached the 30' stop we caught up with the team on rebreather. It's amazing the difference in deco times between their max. depth and ours! We moved up to 20' as they remained at 30'. As we moved on to the 10' stop they followed to 20'. I wondered if they were as entertained as I was by the fish looking curiously at the stationary divers. All to quickly the dive was at an end. The end of 2013, and the start of a new chapter in my cave diving adventures! New training has opened new doors--and I'm excited about the possibilities!
A big thanks to my wife for a wonderful present. Thank you to Johnny Richards, a great instructor--and dive buddy.
Thank you friends for letting me share my wonderful journey, and Happy New Year and safe diving for 2014!