Mill Pond Dive Reports 6-26 thru 6-28-9

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

SuPrBuGmAn

Contributor
Messages
12,436
Reaction score
297
Location
Tallahassee, FL
# of dives
500 - 999
Jackson Blue 6-26-9

Morning came at a relatively normal time, very late for a dive trip start, and I got up off the sofa and helped myself to half of what was left of cmufieldhockey's stash of Frosted Flakes. She woke up and started gathering the rest of her gear from out of her bedroom and we were ready to load up when GlenFWB showed up around 8AM. After piling tanks and gear into his luxury minivan(things got buttons for everything!), we headed off to the caves. We made a quick stop at Vortex, so I could take advantage of some air fill cards I had bought the weekend before and we chatted with Eduardo for a bit. It was a bit crowded, but not too bad. I guess it was still a bit early, and of course, it was Friday. We hit Edd's up for a few more fills and to sign in for Jackson Blue. The park was full, despite being a Friday, but there wasn't too many diver's so we didn't care much.

We picked up a forth at Cave Adventurers. Glen's fellow student joined up with us so that he and Glen could dive together a few times before class. Dive Aholic would be putting them through the gauntlet on Saturday and Sunday for their Intro to Cave class and the "get acquainted" dives were almost surely a good thing so they both could have a better idea what to expect from each other. You can follow there shinanigans at this thread - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/deep-dixie-divers/291646-glenfwb-cave-diver.html . This freed cmufieldhockey and I up to do our own thing, which allowed us to explore a little new cave - which is always fun!

Cmufieldhockey ran the primary and I took the lead at the goldline. We made quick work of the cavern and glided down the chimney in a slow freefall against the flow(which seemed slightly down from my last visit). Once in the main trunk of cave, I tied into the gold and jumped off to the Squirrel Passage, where we zipped through and even blew a short area of it out(nowhere near as bad as we've done in the past - LOL). We followed the line all the way until it ended at Chickenhead and instead of jumping back to the gold, we jumped to another jump in the same area that shot up into a fissure crack. After a few semi-restrictive fissures the line ends in a neat little room. Backing down, I pulled my jump back to the end of the Squirrel Passage and Stasia took the lead and we made a temp-jump to the goldline and headed upstream. We went to the 2nd breakdown and looked at the jump beginning there before I turned the dive. On the way back, I pulled my first jump back to the gold before heading up the chimney and leaving the primary in place for our next dive. Had a few minutes of deco during a 68 minute dive with a max depth of 97'. Visibility was the typical 80-100'.

We were back in the water 1:11 after our first dive, with the remenants of our gas from the first dive, which would allow us a short second. This time, cmufieldhockey led the entire dive, and jumped off to the Beanie Room line. Once at the end, she tried to superman a tank through the restriction up top to connect through to the cavern. I thought she had it, but she was snagged up somewhere and ended up backing down. I knew if she couldn't squeeze through with LP85s, I wouldn't be doing it with LP95s, so we turned the dive and headed back. The exit was uneventfull, aside from a few issues with the reel jamming up, and I had no deco obligation. Hit a max depth of 93 minutes for a dive lasting 57 minutes.

We dropped our tanks off at Cave Adventurers since we were meeting in the morning there anyway and headed back to the hotel to shower up and grab some food. We hit up Dino's again and I ordered the lasagna, friggin excellent! That place rocks, just wish it was open during the weekends.

Jackson Blue 6-27-9

After the hotel's continental breakfast, we headed back to Edd's and met up with Glen's dive buddy as well as Dive Aholic. Mrs Dive Aholic came along as well and would be buddying up with one of Rob's former students(who officially got nicknamed Pennywise later that day). We beat the crowds to the park and were some of the first onsite, including divers.

Since the flow was down a bit, cmufieldhockey and I decided to make a run up the mainline and possiby further, depending on how the gas goes. I ran my primary and led the dive and we made quick progress throughout the cavern and cave until we hit the bottom of the second breakdown. At this point, the cave is low and the flow is bottlenecked, so we started a slow pull-n-glide from that point. Once I cookied the first "T", we hung left and the flow continued until we reached the higher, more open parts of that passage. By that point, progress was easy, but once we reached the 2nd "T" we decided to just head back(on the other line to complete the circuit). The ride back was quick and relaxing, just zipping along with the flow. I had a max depth of 98' for a dive lasting 81 minutes with minimal deco. I left the primary in place for our second dive.

JB848.jpg


By the stairs is cmufieldhockey as well as Dive Aholic, Glen, and Nair(Glen's buddy). Underwater is Jen and Pennywise, exitting from the cave itself. We ate sandwiches for lunch and ate cookies and filled up on water, gatorade, etc. Glen's wife if awesome, she makes sure we gorge ourselves during these trips.

We were back in, nearly an hour and a half later, to do another short dive off the remaining gas in our tanks. Cmu led the dive and jumped off to the Goodman Circuit, from the bottom of the chimney. Its one of my favorite jumps and we enjoyed running around the back of the cavern down the low passages there. Once the circuit portion of the jump was complete, I took the lead, jumped off from the line and up into a fissure crack jump along the bend. It was a bit narrower than I wanted to deal with considering our starting pressures, so I turned the dive quickly and blew the vis out too :) The exit was uneventfull(great, since I had some clearing issues on descent) and I had no deco for a dive lasting 51 minutes with a max depth of 92'.

The class ended up making a third dive, which Jen, cmu, and I sat out on and just played around in the water a bit. cmu's croc's walked off without her. We headed back over to Edd's again and dumped the tanks off until morning. We hit up the hotel, got cleaned up, and went out in search of Old Mexico. Their A/C was down and they had to close down for a few hours. We headed elsewhere, trying the Icehouse, but they were closed as well. Third times a charm? We headed to San Marco, which was closer to the hotel anyway, and had a great meal.

Hole in the Wall 6-28-9

After another continental breakfast, we hit up Edd's and picked up our tanks. The class was taking a pontoon boat out to finish up their remaining skills at Twin and then Hole in the Wall caves. Jen and Pennywise would be riding along with them filling the boat. Luckily for cmufieldhockey and I, Dive Aholic let us steal his personal boat, the "Free Pass" and use it for the day. He just recently put a new motor on it, and that little jonboat is screaming now! Its weird piloting a boat that can actually make some speed, I'm too used to the Miss Jellyfish and driving Edd's pontoon boats everywhere.

Since the class was heading to Twin, we decided to hit up Hole in the Wall.

HITW864.jpg


Once geared up, cmufieldhockey came to realization that she didn't have a battery in her primary light canister. D'Oh. I left her to watch the gear and sped back off to Edd's, and to the spare key Glen had hid away, to grab the canister light and zip back over. By the time I came back, sunrays were peaking through the trees and lighting up the cavern zone in Hole, with the water being so clear, it looked awesome. The photo doesn't do justice the sights we saw that sunday morning, ah well.

HITW877.jpg


I ran the primary and cmufieldhockey stowed away our O2 bottles in the cavern. We dropped down the chimney there and I tied into the upstream passage. Visibility was 40' at worst, and ever so slightly milky. By the time we were 800' in, visibility was 60' or better. Its always a great suprise to see Hole in the Wall on days with good visibility, it really gives you a perspective on just how big all the rooms are in the upstream passage. We took the century tunnel and headed in, shivering at the temperature drop(64F at some points). Visibility here seemed pristine, but with the smaller tunnel size, its difficult to judge just how good it was. We took a left at the "T" and headed in another 200'p before turning the dive. The exit was uneventfull, but it sure felt good getting back into 68F water in the main passage. At around 400' from the exit, Ben M and Jim Clark gave us a wave as they scootered by on there way upstream. I had a max depth of 103' for a dive time of 99 minutes with only about 10 minutes of deco. Easily one of my best dives at Hole in the Wall.

We headed back to Edd's to fill our tanks and eat some more sandwiches, oh and give Glen hell for killing Rob, yet again. :D A little over two and a half hours later, we'd be back in the water at Twin Caves.

Twin Caves 6-28-9

There was a pontoon boat at Twin, but it was on the opposite side of the better side for parking, so we scooted the "Free Pass" in for the better parking spot. While we geared up, two divers emerged from the cave to join there OW friend(who was on the boat). That left the cave wide open for us and Stasia led the way in. Visibilty was pretty good, easily 50' or better, with a bit of particulate, which was to be expected after the class came through as well as the team that had just exitted the cave. By 1000'p, the visibility was pretty much the extent of our lights. We passed over the first fissure(not including the jump) and took the second fissure to the deep section. At the deep section, I took the lead and pulled a spool out to make the jump over from the double arrows to the line running towards the Terminal Room. We noted a few jumps along the way, and I cookied the "T" on the silt mound before ducking under a low section that opens up to a really great, BIG room thats totally different from the size and shape of passage up to that point in the cave. We headed to the next "T" at the top of the room and turned at that point. On the way out, we took the opposite line at the double arrows and ascended back into the Subway Tunnel via the first fissure to complete the goldline circuit. The exit was slow, but relaxing, and I had minimal deco in the cavern(on backgas this time) for a total divetime of 86 minutes with a max depth of 103'. Great dive!

We BS'd over at Edd's a bit more, talked a bunch of crap, like always and settled up on the bills. After some scurrying around in Marianna, we ended up eating an early dinner at Popeye's, which is one of my favorites :) The ride back was spent, as usual, talking cave diving. Glen was excited about finally being able to see past the cavern zones in some of the sites he's been to, so be certain that we'll be hitting up some good sites soon. By the time I finally got home, I was exhausted, but it was a great trip and I'm very much looking forward to the next adventure!
 
Last edited:
Excellant report bugman as usual. We are planning to go up there in a month or so . Is it normally crowded at Jackson Blue during the week? I am really looking forward to it after seeing all your pics
K
 
If you get there early, its not so bad. Its not the diver's that makes the crowds, just the swimmers. Once you're in the cave, its all good.

Dunno if you've heard, but they are not doing the check-ins at the Sheriff's Dept anymore, check in at Cave Adventures now.
 
It is amazing how the Mill Pond can have so many different types of dives in one area. Twin, Hole in the Wall, and Jackson Blue are all so different...add Gator in to the mix and it gets even more diverse. The only thing I regret about last weekend is that we didn't get to go by Shang-ra-La....still one of my favorite places to dive.

It really is weird how Hole in the Wall has that temperature drop. It dropped so much that I checked my computer to see what it said the temperature was at that point. We made it to 1000p in Hole...it had some really cool rock formations. And....I sure did want to go down the fissure crack in Twin.

Our dives were great....glad you had some good ones too. Although, I think we had more fun on our dives with Rob keeping us amused....never a dull moment with him around!
 
Great report, Mat, as usual! Jen and I had a great time this past weekend. It's always nice when you have a couple of great students!
 
Oh man, Rob is being nice....I feel a lost diver drill about to happen. Hey Mat, did I tell you how Rob was nice enough to point out the famous Hole in the Wall salamander...pretty cool....until I realized he was just making sure that me and my dive partner got a little distance between us.:D

Great report, Mat, as usual! Jen and I had a great time this past weekend. It's always nice when you have a couple of great students!
 
Just read the report- awesome! I love reading a recap of a fantastic weekend.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

Back
Top Bottom