SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
I guess I watched an old weather report, but I thought Saturday was supposed to be sunny and hot(up to 80F), surely didn't seem that way that morning as I left for FL. Caught some sprinkles, and drove through lots of fog. I checked in at the Sheriff's Dept and made it to the park by 8AM, thirty minutes early(?!??). It was friggin windy out. The Mill Pond was choppy, sporting 1' seas! There was only one other vehicle onsite. Cwick came out shortly after, and we started gearing up. His tanks were down quite a bit despite having them filled after our dives several weeks ago, so he went up to Edd's to fill back up. The boil on the pond was larger than two weeks ago. After a quick fill, we started gearing up and getting ready for our dive. Dive_Aholic and his wife showed up shortly afterwards with a cavern class including Dark Eternal and Shagman from here on ScubaBoard. I'm suprised Shagman didn't get seasick out on the pond as choppy as it was after reading of his adventure a couple weeks ago on the Gulf - LOL! 
Kidding of course.
Cwick and I hit the water with the basic intention of just running right up the goldline. Flow has been up so we weren't expecting to get far on 1/6ths gas pressure. I ran a primary from OW and hooked it to the gold where cwick took the lead to set the pace. The flow seemed to me to be as strong as it was two weeks ago, maybe slightly stronger. We dropped down the chimney and cwick called the dive pretty quickly after getting a CO2 headache. The flow served as our transportation back to the cavern for our safety stop. Visibility seemed to be around 40-50' to me, more than enough for enjoyable dives. I hit 91' for a total time of 26 minutes. We left the primary in place for our second dive.
Took a little break to better assess the flow and were in the water 27 minutes after our first dive. With the primary already set, and cwick again in the lead to set a pace, we made quicker work through the cavern and down the chimney. cwick noticably chose better areas of the cave to swim through in order to stay out of the full force of the flow and our pace was slower so there was no over exertion this time around. We made it to the 2nd breakdown before the dive was called on 1/6ths, and again we drifted back out. Once we came up the chimney, I signalled for cwick to take the lead(so I could reel the primary in) and he misunderstood me, broke out a spool, and set off down the opposite side of the cavern until his line was all deployed. At that point we turned and he spooled back up. Made for a nice little excursion to get a bit more bottom time out of the dive - easily made up for the previous short dive! Hit 94' with a total dive time of 51 minutes. On surfacing a water snake swam between us and scared the ever living bajesus out of me.
I could have reached out and grabbed the thing. It wasn't a moccassin, but I didn't know that as it seemingly swam right at me.
I hung out for a bit and then decided to take off to check out a few of the local boat launches. Apparently there's an subterrainian cave in the area that acts as a home to giant red eyed monsters. I want to check it out and need a launching point. :14:
Kidding of course.
Cwick and I hit the water with the basic intention of just running right up the goldline. Flow has been up so we weren't expecting to get far on 1/6ths gas pressure. I ran a primary from OW and hooked it to the gold where cwick took the lead to set the pace. The flow seemed to me to be as strong as it was two weeks ago, maybe slightly stronger. We dropped down the chimney and cwick called the dive pretty quickly after getting a CO2 headache. The flow served as our transportation back to the cavern for our safety stop. Visibility seemed to be around 40-50' to me, more than enough for enjoyable dives. I hit 91' for a total time of 26 minutes. We left the primary in place for our second dive.
Took a little break to better assess the flow and were in the water 27 minutes after our first dive. With the primary already set, and cwick again in the lead to set a pace, we made quicker work through the cavern and down the chimney. cwick noticably chose better areas of the cave to swim through in order to stay out of the full force of the flow and our pace was slower so there was no over exertion this time around. We made it to the 2nd breakdown before the dive was called on 1/6ths, and again we drifted back out. Once we came up the chimney, I signalled for cwick to take the lead(so I could reel the primary in) and he misunderstood me, broke out a spool, and set off down the opposite side of the cavern until his line was all deployed. At that point we turned and he spooled back up. Made for a nice little excursion to get a bit more bottom time out of the dive - easily made up for the previous short dive! Hit 94' with a total dive time of 51 minutes. On surfacing a water snake swam between us and scared the ever living bajesus out of me.
I could have reached out and grabbed the thing. It wasn't a moccassin, but I didn't know that as it seemingly swam right at me. I hung out for a bit and then decided to take off to check out a few of the local boat launches. Apparently there's an subterrainian cave in the area that acts as a home to giant red eyed monsters. I want to check it out and need a launching point. :14:
