Jackson Blue 4-19 & Vortex Springs 4-20-8 Dive Reports

First annual Spring Spring-Fest was this past weekend and there was much in terms of shinanigans and debauchery in the panhandle. Vortex was the planned to be basecamp for the get-together and I think the majority of ScubaBoarders arrived on Friday, including myself. Vortex offered a free night dive to any ScubaBoarder coming in on Friday night as a little bonus for our festivities. Several people took up the offer, but I did not, so someone else will have to tell the tale of that story. I did make it out there for dinner at Sally's though, always a big bonus, and there were about 20 other SB'ers hogging up the backroom. Made it to sleep around 2AM as it started drizzling, up again at 4AM to an ocean forming inside my tent as the skies unloaded some serious thunderstorm action. Slept in the back of the wagon for the rest of the night - LOL.

4-19-8

Saturday morning came too early, but after a RedBull and a few powdered donuts, I was on my way to Marianna. Also coming along were cmufieldhockey, jimdiverman, and willardj. After a quick check in at the Sheriff's Dept, we hit up the park and were the second team onsite(packetsniffer and his buddy were there already).

Jackson Blue Springs

This was willardj's first time onsite, so I volunteered to buddy up with him for some Intro level dives. jimdiverman and cmufieldhockey buddied up and tailed us during the first dive as well. Plan was simple, gear up, I'd lead and run the primary and demonstrate some of the better areas to either avoid flow or put us in a position with better handholds for a bit of pull-n-gliding. We'd be going straight up the mainline. I set a pace which was OK'd by willardj and we headed in. Made a great, leisurely dive and enjoyed the cave with 80' visibility. Flow was pretty much the same as two weekends ago IMO. I pointed out a few jumps and we made it just over the 2nd breakdown(~790'p) where the signal to turn was given. We drifted back in with the flow, exitting can't be more relaxing! Had a max depth of 95' for a dive time of 43 minutes which included a safety stop. We left the reel in place for the next dive.

After about 1:16 worth of BS'n, we hit the water again for a second dive. This time willardj led the dive up the goldline. cmufieldhockey and jimdiverman dived again as well, but came up with thier own diveplan. We made it about 850'p where the turn signal was given and we again drifted back out the cave, enjoying everything as it went by. Hit a max depth of 95' for 40 min this time around, including the safety stop.

We all headed to Cave Adventurers for some fills. cmufieldhockey, jimdiverman, and I headed to Old Mexico for some lunch(they are serving alcohol again, by the way) while willardj got fills and headed back to Vortex to spend a dive in with his OW wife. We talked a bit to some of ther divers(including several other cave diving SB'ers) at Edds on return, then grabbed our tanks and headed back to the park. We were back in the water 3:16 after our second dive, so we had a nice long SI. We dove as a three person team this time around, with cmufieldhockey leading, jim in the second spot, and I followed in third. cmu ran the primary and we headed to the downstream doublelines and headed upstream the jump. We got back on the goldline via jump and headed upstream a short ways before jumping off to the left to check out another passage I had not done before. It ended up bisecting a line that runs parrallel the goldline on the left and ends just behind chickenhead rock. Once we jumped back to the gold we headed upstream and turned at the beginning of the 2nd breakdown(750'p). All jumps were pulled on exit from the goldline. We did a min deep stop at the top of the chimney and my deco obligation cleaned out by the time I was in the cavern. Spent 7 minutes waiting for cmu's computer to clear in the cavern, making for a total dive time of 73 minutes with a max depth of 94'. Awesome dive, always is when I get to see a little more passage I hadn't seen before We topped off with air to dilute our mix for diving at Vortex later on and headed back to basecamp(Vortex). Didn't make it back in time for a cavern dive at Vortex, sorry Brett!

Spring-SpringFest was in full swing by the time we had gotten there and I immediately grabbed the cooler and headed to the grill to cook up some sausages(Farm Fresh, Robertsdale Original - oh yeah!). Shane at Vortex really threw down for our little ScubaBoard event and there was a BBQ trailer and a proffessional karaoke setup. Crazy night Atleast my tent was dry again.



More to come in a second...

4-20-8 Vortex Springs

Morning came a bit later on Sunday, I was certainly slower up and it seemed like everyone else was as bit slow as well. Flightlead and his wife made up some breakfast for anyone stewing around the campsite - friggin awesome. Eventually we decided it was time to probably try to get in the water to beat the masses. Our pokeyness prevailed, and by the time we had finished talking, checking in at the office, and fishing up the key to the gate inside the cave, the basin was filled with divers and visibility dropped significantly(expectedly with that many divers, mostly classes). Sorry about being so slow going jimdiverman.

It would be cmufieldhockey leading, with willardj hanging as second, and me pulling the third position on this dive. We entered the water(a bit late because I forgot the key at my car, D'Oh!) and weaved in and out the OW dive teams. The visibility in the basin was around 10' and we headed into the cavern with a bit of improvement, than into the cave where visibility cleared to around 100'ish. cmufieldhockey ran a jump from the sign to the mainline beyond the gate after I opened it up. We were also using the dredge pipe as a continuous guideline. As I cross behind the gate, I see a team of divers in OW gear heading towards the gate and I close it on them. We take it easy and make it past the 2nd restriction(fissure) and turn at the small room before the 3rd restriction. Another leisurely dive on the way out with a max depth of 116' for a total time of 49 minutes. Had like 1 min deco obligation and continued on O2 until everyone else's computers cleared. Visibility in the basin was still kinda crummy with all the traffic.

willardj's wife made us a delicious lunch of burgers and hotdogs We BS'd quite a bit and packed up camp. By the time everyone else but Kraken, YAF, Rick Murchison(and a SSI XR class), cmufieldhockey and I had left, we had been out the water for just over 5 hours. Aside from Rick's class, the basin was empty and visibility in OW was up to 70'ish. Vortex got clear incredibly fast. Faster than I've seen it clear in quite awhile, the flow is up and its noticable in more ways than one! cmufieldhockey and I made our last dive with cmu laying a primary, then I took the lead, gaping from the line by the sign to the permanant line on the otherside of the gate(which cmu opened). We headed into the third restriction and pushed through around 50-60' until there was a small room which gave us plenty of room to turn in cleanly. According to Eduardo, while tight, the third restriction is completely backmountable now if your read the cave. We drifted on the way out, pulling the gap and cmu pulled the primary. I spent 4 min to complete deco and remained on O2 until cmu's deco had cleared. We swam around the basin at 15' checking everything out, you could see from one end to the other. Nobody else was in the water. Hit 117' for 56 minutes total dive time. Awesome dive to end a great weekend.

Hit up Hooters on the way home, got my stamp for Crestview Crashed hard when I got home, didn't even unpack, it was about 11PM and I was exhausted. It was great having everyone together and Vortex really threw down for making our little ScubaBoard event memorable.

Sounds like a great weekend of diving, Mat! Unfortunately, I was at work all weekend. But nothing but diving planned for this weekend!!! I will have to do the Vortex Cave sometime soon. I've only been in the basin and back to the grate so far. One of these days I'll get some tanks drained down enough to do the dive.

Dive-aholic:

Sounds like a great weekend of diving, Mat! Unfortunately, I was at work all weekend. But nothing but diving planned for this weekend!!! I will have to do the Vortex Cave sometime soon. I've only been in the basin and back to the grate so far. One of these days I'll get some tanks drained down enough to do the dive.

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Depending on how far you want to go back, one full dive at Jackson Blue and then a top off with air will be enough to see alot of the Vortex stuff. We were diving 30% and could have gone to the end of the 3rd restriction. 27-28% would probably be ideal to go to the bottom of the room behind the 3rd restriction. May want trimix(or air I guess) to go further, which can lead to 150-160' of depth. Its actually kinda nice cave behind the grate, where the masses haven't destroyed everything and the ropelights end.

I'm dry this weekend Looking forward to more diving the first weekend of May though

I want to get back a little farther, so just waiting since I'll have to pump some helium in (don't think I want to be back there with air).

And we miss each other again. I'll be up north 1st weekend of May.