SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
Jackson Blue 6-5-9
We got a relaxed start on Friday, leaving out around noon after finishing off some lasagna-ish stuff left over in cmufieldhockey's fridge. We loaded gear into GlenFWB's luxury liner(read as minivan with all the fixins) and made a quick stop at the bank before heading to Marianna. After teasing Glen a bit about '70s music, he reliquished the radio to us. The minivan has satelite radio, so we found the Lithium station(thanks to Ben M for introducing me to the best station ever!) and jammed out to the '90s for the rest of the trip. We made a not-so-quick stop at Cave Adventurers for some fills, which always turns into BS'n for way to long!
Eventually, we found ourselves at Jackson Blue, but on a bit of a time crunch for the dive. We grabbed our gear and brought it out to the water. I tossed a tank in, it free flowed, so I jumped in with my regular cloths(I pulled my cell phone and wallet out first) and managed to only lose 600psi. Not learning from my mistake, I tossed my second tank in and sheared the SPG hose off. Damnit! By this time, we're all geared up and making our final preperations. I tell cmufieldhockey and GlenFWB to go ahead and that I will meet them inside if I can replace the SPG quickly enough. Shagman's gotten out of diving and left us a bunch of his extra stuff, luckily there were a few 6" hoses left over that I was able to use. By the time I caught up with my buddies, they were on their way out already. Visibility looked stellar and I was happy to get atleast a little time in the water. I had a max depth of 93' for a divetime of 26 minutes. I already had two strikes against me, luckily the dive wasn't long enough for me to get a third strike!
We zipped back over to Edds and got fills for the next day of diving before hitting up the Executive Inn to unload some stuff. We hit up Dino's Pizza and Subs in Marianna. Its located where the original Old Mexico was located(downtown). They are open till 8PM Mon-Friday and have some AWESOME pizza. The family running the place were very accomodating and they even gave us a honking piece of lasagna to take with us(which we ate for breakfast). Friggin excellent! We watched Con Air before I passed out, Nicholas Cage is a horribly entertaining actor.
6-6-9 Wakulla County Sinks
Saturday came around early and we headed off to Wakulla for what we hoped would be a great set of dives in the Leon Sinks cave system. We met up with BGillespie, tflaris, rox@ucf and one of his buddies at Wakulla Diving Center at 10CST and headed over to a private landowner's property who allows us closer access to some great sinkholes along the Leon Sink Caves. GlenFWB and I took cmufieldhockey deep into the woods of Wakulla County, she seemed very close to thumbing the dive... Unfortunately, on arriving onsite, the sinks were very tannic and seemed to be carrying alot of particulate as well. We were SOL on diving here. We headed over to GR Sink and it didn't look great from the surface(but often clears under a funky surface layer), maybe doable but we didn't have the right mix for this dive. We did get to check out a very nice sized cottonmouth. We headed around the pigtrail to one of the other two sinks on this stretch of property and checked out FC sink, which is a sidemount crack that drops to 250' or so, very dangerous, and not in our league.
Finally, we headed over to another sink further south and while conditions on the surface looked a bit funky, it seemed doable. This is another sink that you can't really judge from the surface as conditions up top are NOT what you usually find on the bottom. GlenFWB opted to sit out this dive as it didn't really offer much for him and he'd be taking pictures and aiding as surface support. I buddied up with cmufieldhockey and tflaris for the dive. I'd be leading, as I've been here before and the lines heading into the cave can be quite confusing. We dropped some O2 bottles at 20' and descended down the line until we hit the correct cave line coming off our ascent/descent line. Visibility in the cave was the best I've seen it with less tannic intrusion than I've encountered yet. I didn't encounter the pocket of blue spring water midway through the turtle passage I had previously encountered, but since the visibility was overall better, it was a fair tradeoff. I used a double-ender to jump to the crystal room and we did the circuit and enjoyed how large the room is and all the formations found there. Once back at the mainline, we had enough gas to continue further into the turtle passage. I turned the dive at the next "T" and we headed out. It was a great dive and this sinkhole never ceases to be impressive. I had a max depth of 113' for a total dive time of 87 minutes, which included about 3 minutes of deco in OW on the ascent line. This was my best dive on this site yet.
The other team had already exitted and between Glen and the other team, getting all our gear back up to the vehicles(the sink is at the bottom of a depression) was quick and easy! We headed over to Wakulla Springs afterwards to look at the big spring there, it was a mad house of swimmers and the spring was pushing tannic water. We hit up the Wakulla County Dive Club meeting afterwards and listened to Larry Green speak as well as the rest of the normal club meeting stuff. It was good and we had a few hotdogs to top off the sandwiches we ate earlier. Our original plan was to dive in Wakulla on Saturday and Sunday, but since conditions at most of the sinks weren't exactly great, we headed back to Marianna Saturday nigth to dive at JB on Sunday. We ended up at the Quality Inn, which was a notch or six better than our typical digs. Gone in 60 Seconds was on and we got more Nick Cage baby!
6-7-9 Jackson Blue
We got a relatively late start on Sunday morning and ate breakfast at the hotel. I filled up on frosted flakes, toast, and juice. Then we headed over to Edds to get more fills and headed back over to JB. Since it was Sunday, the crowds haven't arrived yet and we had the park to ourselves(this is the bible belt, things don't rock and roll until after church).
GlenFWB ran the reel and I took the lead on the first dive to show him where to travel and stay out of the flow. Glen's got his next classes coming up soon so cmufieldhockey and I were taking notes on where he could use some improvements. It was a fun dive and I had a max depth of 95' for a total time of 37 minutes. We spent our 1:22 surface interval swapping tanks and cmufieldhockey helped Glen with his kicks. I used Glen's LP108s and he used my LP95s for the second dive. This time Glen led the dive and I followed him and cmufieldhockey around with the camera snapping off pictures. I had a total dive time of 43 minutes with a max depth of 94'.
We finished up the day with some sandwiches before heading home. It was a great weekend of diving and despite most of the Wakulla stuff being blown out, we all had a great time! The trip home was quick and we even stopped by PensacolaNewbie's place to pick up some tanks and got to see some pics of some great looking red snapper that he hooked earlier in the weekend. Between his pics and the reports on SB, seems like everyone had a great weekend of diving!
We got a relaxed start on Friday, leaving out around noon after finishing off some lasagna-ish stuff left over in cmufieldhockey's fridge. We loaded gear into GlenFWB's luxury liner(read as minivan with all the fixins) and made a quick stop at the bank before heading to Marianna. After teasing Glen a bit about '70s music, he reliquished the radio to us. The minivan has satelite radio, so we found the Lithium station(thanks to Ben M for introducing me to the best station ever!) and jammed out to the '90s for the rest of the trip. We made a not-so-quick stop at Cave Adventurers for some fills, which always turns into BS'n for way to long!
Eventually, we found ourselves at Jackson Blue, but on a bit of a time crunch for the dive. We grabbed our gear and brought it out to the water. I tossed a tank in, it free flowed, so I jumped in with my regular cloths(I pulled my cell phone and wallet out first) and managed to only lose 600psi. Not learning from my mistake, I tossed my second tank in and sheared the SPG hose off. Damnit! By this time, we're all geared up and making our final preperations. I tell cmufieldhockey and GlenFWB to go ahead and that I will meet them inside if I can replace the SPG quickly enough. Shagman's gotten out of diving and left us a bunch of his extra stuff, luckily there were a few 6" hoses left over that I was able to use. By the time I caught up with my buddies, they were on their way out already. Visibility looked stellar and I was happy to get atleast a little time in the water. I had a max depth of 93' for a divetime of 26 minutes. I already had two strikes against me, luckily the dive wasn't long enough for me to get a third strike!
We zipped back over to Edds and got fills for the next day of diving before hitting up the Executive Inn to unload some stuff. We hit up Dino's Pizza and Subs in Marianna. Its located where the original Old Mexico was located(downtown). They are open till 8PM Mon-Friday and have some AWESOME pizza. The family running the place were very accomodating and they even gave us a honking piece of lasagna to take with us(which we ate for breakfast). Friggin excellent! We watched Con Air before I passed out, Nicholas Cage is a horribly entertaining actor.
6-6-9 Wakulla County Sinks
Saturday came around early and we headed off to Wakulla for what we hoped would be a great set of dives in the Leon Sinks cave system. We met up with BGillespie, tflaris, rox@ucf and one of his buddies at Wakulla Diving Center at 10CST and headed over to a private landowner's property who allows us closer access to some great sinkholes along the Leon Sink Caves. GlenFWB and I took cmufieldhockey deep into the woods of Wakulla County, she seemed very close to thumbing the dive... Unfortunately, on arriving onsite, the sinks were very tannic and seemed to be carrying alot of particulate as well. We were SOL on diving here. We headed over to GR Sink and it didn't look great from the surface(but often clears under a funky surface layer), maybe doable but we didn't have the right mix for this dive. We did get to check out a very nice sized cottonmouth. We headed around the pigtrail to one of the other two sinks on this stretch of property and checked out FC sink, which is a sidemount crack that drops to 250' or so, very dangerous, and not in our league.
Finally, we headed over to another sink further south and while conditions on the surface looked a bit funky, it seemed doable. This is another sink that you can't really judge from the surface as conditions up top are NOT what you usually find on the bottom. GlenFWB opted to sit out this dive as it didn't really offer much for him and he'd be taking pictures and aiding as surface support. I buddied up with cmufieldhockey and tflaris for the dive. I'd be leading, as I've been here before and the lines heading into the cave can be quite confusing. We dropped some O2 bottles at 20' and descended down the line until we hit the correct cave line coming off our ascent/descent line. Visibility in the cave was the best I've seen it with less tannic intrusion than I've encountered yet. I didn't encounter the pocket of blue spring water midway through the turtle passage I had previously encountered, but since the visibility was overall better, it was a fair tradeoff. I used a double-ender to jump to the crystal room and we did the circuit and enjoyed how large the room is and all the formations found there. Once back at the mainline, we had enough gas to continue further into the turtle passage. I turned the dive at the next "T" and we headed out. It was a great dive and this sinkhole never ceases to be impressive. I had a max depth of 113' for a total dive time of 87 minutes, which included about 3 minutes of deco in OW on the ascent line. This was my best dive on this site yet.
The other team had already exitted and between Glen and the other team, getting all our gear back up to the vehicles(the sink is at the bottom of a depression) was quick and easy! We headed over to Wakulla Springs afterwards to look at the big spring there, it was a mad house of swimmers and the spring was pushing tannic water. We hit up the Wakulla County Dive Club meeting afterwards and listened to Larry Green speak as well as the rest of the normal club meeting stuff. It was good and we had a few hotdogs to top off the sandwiches we ate earlier. Our original plan was to dive in Wakulla on Saturday and Sunday, but since conditions at most of the sinks weren't exactly great, we headed back to Marianna Saturday nigth to dive at JB on Sunday. We ended up at the Quality Inn, which was a notch or six better than our typical digs. Gone in 60 Seconds was on and we got more Nick Cage baby!
6-7-9 Jackson Blue
We got a relatively late start on Sunday morning and ate breakfast at the hotel. I filled up on frosted flakes, toast, and juice. Then we headed over to Edds to get more fills and headed back over to JB. Since it was Sunday, the crowds haven't arrived yet and we had the park to ourselves(this is the bible belt, things don't rock and roll until after church).
GlenFWB ran the reel and I took the lead on the first dive to show him where to travel and stay out of the flow. Glen's got his next classes coming up soon so cmufieldhockey and I were taking notes on where he could use some improvements. It was a fun dive and I had a max depth of 95' for a total time of 37 minutes. We spent our 1:22 surface interval swapping tanks and cmufieldhockey helped Glen with his kicks. I used Glen's LP108s and he used my LP95s for the second dive. This time Glen led the dive and I followed him and cmufieldhockey around with the camera snapping off pictures. I had a total dive time of 43 minutes with a max depth of 94'.
We finished up the day with some sandwiches before heading home. It was a great weekend of diving and despite most of the Wakulla stuff being blown out, we all had a great time! The trip home was quick and we even stopped by PensacolaNewbie's place to pick up some tanks and got to see some pics of some great looking red snapper that he hooked earlier in the weekend. Between his pics and the reports on SB, seems like everyone had a great weekend of diving!
