SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
Sunday morning came, very different from Saturday morning's torrent, with a chill in the air, blue skies, and a sun shining brightly. We loaded up DogHouseDiver's little Prius and the the trailer he towed behind it(LOL) with different bits of dive gear and even the Miss Jellyfish.
Heading east, we noticed how high the waterlevels were along the rivers we passed in both Alabama and Florida. Some of the waters were extremely close to the bridges we travelled across, waters are continuing to raise and aren't likely to crest until Tuesday or Wednesday. I would expect pretty much any springs/caves off the western panhandle rivers and creeks to be flooded out unless the waters have been impeded by dams(Merrits Mill Pond) or floodgates and pumps(Vortex), etc. We're gonna have some of the highest waterlevels in years already, with more rain being forecast early this week to exasperate water levels even higher.
After reaching the Mill Pond, we setup the boat at Day Loop and DHD commensed attempting to set up his Knighthawk for a set of AL80 doubles. The plan was to get use out of the doubles before breaking them down to use as singles. Unfortunately, the bolts in the doubles, which were meant to be used with a standard BP/W setup, were too short to work in the larger bolt encasement found on the rec-gear he was going to try using. The answer? I'd run the boat over to Cave Adventures and he'd meet me there by land so he could buy a Nomad and set it up for a few dives out on the pond. Edd sized him up and went to modifying the out of box Nomad to his usual specs. We'd be using the rig for its first dive to get some use out of the doubles first.
ShangriLa
All said and done, we bolted the doubles to the Nomad, loaded up the rest of DogHouseDiver's gear and headed off to ShangriLa. There was a pontoon boat at Hole in the Wall and the divers there claimed excellent visibility(incase anyone wanted an update). We were the only divers at ShangriLa, as usual. Its truly the most photogenic cave in the area and extremely non-typical of Florida terrain with shear limestone ridge dropping into the springfed pond with a cave entrance peaking from underneath.
Visibility was crystal clear and we geared up on a shelf ontop the cavern entrance. DHD's rig was all out of adjustment so it took a little while for him to get his bearings on it and get his trim worked out. We swam around a bit and explored the vertical fissure in the floor adjascent from the main cavern entrance. Along the wall where we were gearing up, were several small springing vents and solution tubes, one of which I explored a bit the previous week to a short distance. By the end of this dive, I actually connected it to the cavern, entering the solution tube and exitting through the main cavern - FUN! The cavern itself was clear and the sun shining in the entrance was picture perfect as usual. I checked out briefly the solution tubes zipping up and out from the main cavern and even hopped into the cave for a dozen feet or so before crawling back out. As always, ShangriLa was alot of fun. I had a max depth of 26' for a total dive time of 33 minutes. A couple paddled into the basin on a kayak as we were finishing our dive up.
Twin Caves
Leaving our last site, we had hoped to drop into Indian Washtub to check it out for a couple minutes. Unfortunately, an island of hydrilla sat ontop the depression revealing only one ledge visible from open water. We opted to skip it and just headed to Twin Caves to get a peak at the two entrances for a bit and drain the remaining gas from DHD's doubles. The OW features at Twin are made up of one entrance dropping down and away big enough to traverse cleanly in backmounted doubles if you're carefull. If not, the bottom made up of decaying duckweed and other vegatation will let you know as it will cloud out your exit. The other entrance into Twin is much smaller, and even a carefull sidemount diver will stir up the bottom slightly moving through it. Aside from those features, and a handfull of vents around, you'll have to be content with looking at rows of hydrilla and eelgrass. The good news is that these areas are favorites for a variety of fish, amphibian, and even crustacean
We didn't stay long, I zipped into the cavern for a bit(which was full of bream) and got a max depth of 22' and our total divetime was around 10 minutes. My primary light wouldn't fire. DHD turned the immediate area into a jacuzzi as he dumped his remaining gas.
We zipped over to Edd's, split his doubles, and rigged them up to use as sidemount tanks. To negate the bouyancy swing of AL80s, we threaded weights into the cambands around each tank. My primary has blown its third bulb. Edd is sending it into Dive Rite, there's no reason for it to be on its 4th bulb and 2nd battery in such a short period of time. He offered me the use of a 14w lighthead, but I declined as I wasn't doing any cave diving for our last dive.
Jackson Blue
We made it to Jackson Blue in the afternoon, and there wasn't anyone else onsite. The pond was glassy by this point and clearer than in the morning(a bit milky earlier from runoff after several days of very heavy storms). There was a slight boil over the cavern to Jackson Blue but the flow was definately less of a hinderance compared to the last time I was onsite. Some people have all the luck. DogHouseDiver trimmed out great on his first dive in his Nomad, I wish I could say the same. We zipped around the basin and swam under the dive platform. I spotted a snapping turtle, and chased it around a bit since Shagman wasn't around to do it on his own. Lots of bream and bass were around and there were even some crawfish here and there. I put DHD to work on a reel and gave him a few pointers. I did make a run into the cavern to check on conditions, which were about 50'(we heard much worse reports from that morning) and ever so slightly milky. Its about time for me to get back over there for some diving Flow is down, so this is probably a great time to see some new cave! I had a max depth of 41' for a total dive time of 49 minutes. The sun was setting as we got back in the Miss Jellyfish to head back to Day Loop.
We headed to Edds to pay off some fills and BS'd a bit, its impossible to leave without him sharing a hillarious story or two. Then we hit up San Marco's(? I can't remember if thats right) for some great Mexican food on the way out of Marianna. The food hit the spot. We talked about cave diving and DHD's cavern class coming up in April, he'll be able to explore the caverns along the Mill Pond before too long and he got a little tour of some of northside divesites already. Got back late, and I had no trouble getting to sleep after the long day of diving!
Heading east, we noticed how high the waterlevels were along the rivers we passed in both Alabama and Florida. Some of the waters were extremely close to the bridges we travelled across, waters are continuing to raise and aren't likely to crest until Tuesday or Wednesday. I would expect pretty much any springs/caves off the western panhandle rivers and creeks to be flooded out unless the waters have been impeded by dams(Merrits Mill Pond) or floodgates and pumps(Vortex), etc. We're gonna have some of the highest waterlevels in years already, with more rain being forecast early this week to exasperate water levels even higher.
After reaching the Mill Pond, we setup the boat at Day Loop and DHD commensed attempting to set up his Knighthawk for a set of AL80 doubles. The plan was to get use out of the doubles before breaking them down to use as singles. Unfortunately, the bolts in the doubles, which were meant to be used with a standard BP/W setup, were too short to work in the larger bolt encasement found on the rec-gear he was going to try using. The answer? I'd run the boat over to Cave Adventures and he'd meet me there by land so he could buy a Nomad and set it up for a few dives out on the pond. Edd sized him up and went to modifying the out of box Nomad to his usual specs. We'd be using the rig for its first dive to get some use out of the doubles first.
ShangriLa
All said and done, we bolted the doubles to the Nomad, loaded up the rest of DogHouseDiver's gear and headed off to ShangriLa. There was a pontoon boat at Hole in the Wall and the divers there claimed excellent visibility(incase anyone wanted an update). We were the only divers at ShangriLa, as usual. Its truly the most photogenic cave in the area and extremely non-typical of Florida terrain with shear limestone ridge dropping into the springfed pond with a cave entrance peaking from underneath.
Visibility was crystal clear and we geared up on a shelf ontop the cavern entrance. DHD's rig was all out of adjustment so it took a little while for him to get his bearings on it and get his trim worked out. We swam around a bit and explored the vertical fissure in the floor adjascent from the main cavern entrance. Along the wall where we were gearing up, were several small springing vents and solution tubes, one of which I explored a bit the previous week to a short distance. By the end of this dive, I actually connected it to the cavern, entering the solution tube and exitting through the main cavern - FUN! The cavern itself was clear and the sun shining in the entrance was picture perfect as usual. I checked out briefly the solution tubes zipping up and out from the main cavern and even hopped into the cave for a dozen feet or so before crawling back out. As always, ShangriLa was alot of fun. I had a max depth of 26' for a total dive time of 33 minutes. A couple paddled into the basin on a kayak as we were finishing our dive up.
Twin Caves
Leaving our last site, we had hoped to drop into Indian Washtub to check it out for a couple minutes. Unfortunately, an island of hydrilla sat ontop the depression revealing only one ledge visible from open water. We opted to skip it and just headed to Twin Caves to get a peak at the two entrances for a bit and drain the remaining gas from DHD's doubles. The OW features at Twin are made up of one entrance dropping down and away big enough to traverse cleanly in backmounted doubles if you're carefull. If not, the bottom made up of decaying duckweed and other vegatation will let you know as it will cloud out your exit. The other entrance into Twin is much smaller, and even a carefull sidemount diver will stir up the bottom slightly moving through it. Aside from those features, and a handfull of vents around, you'll have to be content with looking at rows of hydrilla and eelgrass. The good news is that these areas are favorites for a variety of fish, amphibian, and even crustacean
We didn't stay long, I zipped into the cavern for a bit(which was full of bream) and got a max depth of 22' and our total divetime was around 10 minutes. My primary light wouldn't fire. DHD turned the immediate area into a jacuzzi as he dumped his remaining gas. We zipped over to Edd's, split his doubles, and rigged them up to use as sidemount tanks. To negate the bouyancy swing of AL80s, we threaded weights into the cambands around each tank. My primary has blown its third bulb. Edd is sending it into Dive Rite, there's no reason for it to be on its 4th bulb and 2nd battery in such a short period of time. He offered me the use of a 14w lighthead, but I declined as I wasn't doing any cave diving for our last dive.
Jackson Blue
We made it to Jackson Blue in the afternoon, and there wasn't anyone else onsite. The pond was glassy by this point and clearer than in the morning(a bit milky earlier from runoff after several days of very heavy storms). There was a slight boil over the cavern to Jackson Blue but the flow was definately less of a hinderance compared to the last time I was onsite. Some people have all the luck. DogHouseDiver trimmed out great on his first dive in his Nomad, I wish I could say the same. We zipped around the basin and swam under the dive platform. I spotted a snapping turtle, and chased it around a bit since Shagman wasn't around to do it on his own. Lots of bream and bass were around and there were even some crawfish here and there. I put DHD to work on a reel and gave him a few pointers. I did make a run into the cavern to check on conditions, which were about 50'(we heard much worse reports from that morning) and ever so slightly milky. Its about time for me to get back over there for some diving
Flow is down, so this is probably a great time to see some new cave! I had a max depth of 41' for a total dive time of 49 minutes. The sun was setting as we got back in the Miss Jellyfish to head back to Day Loop.
We headed to Edds to pay off some fills and BS'd a bit, its impossible to leave without him sharing a hillarious story or two. Then we hit up San Marco's(? I can't remember if thats right) for some great Mexican food on the way out of Marianna. The food hit the spot. We talked about cave diving and DHD's cavern class coming up in April, he'll be able to explore the caverns along the Mill Pond before too long and he got a little tour of some of northside divesites already. Got back late, and I had no trouble getting to sleep after the long day of diving!
