After teaching the classroom and land line portion of a cavern class all day Saturday, I really needed to get in the water. Jen and I decided to take the Free Pass over to Hole in the Wall and do some more exploring of the upstream passage. We headed to the end of the line just past Alfords Room and slowly started to make our way back out checking out the walls and ceilings of the passage looking for any passages we may have missed during our previous dives there. We did find a passage that will warrant further exploration on another dive. We think we might even know where it comes out. We spent over an hour in the water and had a great time during this dive.
Sunday was spent doing cavern dives in Jackson Blue for the cavern course that started on Saturday. We spent over 3 hours in the water working on the various cavern diving skills. Fortunately, I had a great student, so it was a very pleasant day.
Monday started off the week exploring some caves new to me. I woke up at 4am in preparation for the 1 ½ hour drive to Wakulla County. I have been planning on diving this particular cave for some months now, but every time I plan on heading over that way we got several days of downpours. Being that this system is prone to being blown out by heavy rains, none of those dives ended up happening. I was beginning to think I wouldnt ever get a chance to dive it again. This time the weather was good to me. I made the necessary arrangements for access the evening before and headed over first thing Monday morning. I arrived at the site around 9am and walked over to the sink to check out conditions. They were as near perfect as one could hope for.
This system has both an upstream side and a downstream side. My plans were to dive the downstream side this morning. The upstream side was crystal clear with the bottom easily visible through 20 of water. The upstream side connects to another sink just across from the foot path from this sink.
The downstream side of the sink was covered with duck weed.
After hauling my side mount cylinders full of trimix I had blended on Saturday during classroom breaks, my stage bottle full of 30% Nitrox, my 50% bottle and my 100% bottle, I was ready to get in the water. I suited up and made my way back to the sink and my bottles. It felt really good to get in the water.
I geared up, dropped below the water and headed downstream. I easily found the line tied off on a branch just inside the overhang. This is a huge cave and it can be a bit deceiving, as the beginning of the line appears to still be in open water. I clipped off my 100% bottle and continued along the line swimming under a duck under (cant see the floor from here because its so far down) and slowly ascended along the line to about 80. I clipped off my 50% bottle and took the short jump to the line that goes straight down to about 120. I switched over to my side mount bottles at this point and continued down the line. At about 180 the line Ts with one side continuing down the slope and the other line heading slightly up and to the left. I went to straight. Shortly after the T, another line comes in from the left and up and follows the same path as the line I was on, only about 18 above it, until they both wrap around an outcropping from the wall. At this point I was about 210 deep and the lines Td off again. I decided I had gone far enough and turned the dive at this point. I also made a note to myself to come back here and explore the other lines I saw to see if they are even necessary or if they could be rerouted. Having 2 lines adjacent to each other isnt the best idea in a shallow cave, let alone at that depth. Back at 120, I switched back to my stage bottle and made a slow ascent up the line. I grabbed my 50% bottle, switching to it after going under the duck under and reaching 70. I finished off my dive doing 20 minutes of deco in the basin and watching a little kid swimming on the surface. Total dive time was 32 minutes with 33 minutes of decompression. After packing up my gear and paying my site access fee I headed over to another sink in Wakulla County to check out conditions for a possible dive the next day. It had started raining a little, but I was okay with that since I had already done my dive. The next sink was murky, but looked like it would be fine for a dive the next day.
Tuesday had me up at 4am again to head over to Wakulla County once again. I arrived at the second sink and was dismayed to find the rain the previous day had a negative effect on conditions. Today it was pea soup. Even though I have heard that conditions on the surface dont necessarily dictate what conditions 15 below are like, I wasnt feeling the dive. I called Mat/Suprbugman to ask him directions to another sink in Wakulla County. I headed over to this sink through a small dirt road cut out of the woods. My van has several new scratches on it. I found the sink with Mats excellent directions and headed down the steps placed there by the Wakulla County Dive Club several months earlier to check out conditions. (I forgot my camera the next 2 days and these were taken with my cell phone.)
The water was tannic but looked much better than the previous sink.
After checking the area for gators, I unloaded my cylinders and placed them at the bottom of the steps. This system is supposedly a little shallower than the system I was in yesterday, so I was diving Nitrox in my side mount bottles and Trimix in my stage bottle this time. I suited up and got in the water, geared up, tied the end of my primary to the bottom step, and slowly made my way down the side of the wall. Mats excellent directions to the line helped me find it rather quickly tied off to a branch exactly where he said it would be. I tied off my primary to the line and followed it down to a T at about 120. One line went down and the other went straight out at about an even depth. I switched to my stage full of trimix and headed down until I reached the end of the line and the bottom of the cave at 139. At this point there were several lines going off the line I had followed. I followed the first 2 only to find they ended about 10 away from where they started. Visibility in this cave was a tannic 10. I took the last two lines going off this tie off (they were parallel to each other) and found another cluster of lines. I checked out a couple of them to find the same situation as earlier. I then took the last line and swam about 70 or so to find my first marker at the first T! I had just completed a circuit in a room!!! I turned around to retrieve my markers and make my way out of the cave. I reached the first T, switched back to my side mount bottles and continued up to my reel. At this point, I had only been on the dive for about 23 minutes, so I grabbed my primary and did a circuit of the walls of the cave just below the ceiling. I didnt see any possible leads and headed back to grab my deco bottle and head back up to the steps. One thing I can say about this cave is reg switches werent my favorite thing to do. The tannic water did not taste very good! But apparently, the locals don't care because they swim here.
Wednesday started a little late. The 4am wake ups were a bit much for me. Wednesday afternoon I headed over to another sink, this one in Bay County, to check out a cave I had heard about from Mat. I drove off the paved road onto a dirt road and after about 25 minutes of several turns I arrived at the sink. I was pretty sure it was going to be difficult to find my way out of here and back onto the pavement! There were swimmers at the sink already so I was pretty confident there werent any gators around. Yeah, this is a big concern at some of these springs! I checked out the sink hole and the water was slightly green, but looked okay to dive.
Mat had also told me that visibility clears up to about 30-40 below 15. I hauled my tanks over to the edge of the sink, suited up, and got in the water. After gearing up, I tied off my primary reel to a tree root in the water and made my way along the bottom of the sink,. At about 12 I felt 69 degree water and saw several tree trunks that had fallen into the sink. I followed the wall along until I found the entrance to the cave. I placed a secondary tie-off and headed for the hole. This isnt the smallest entrance Ive been in, but it did require a bottle off maneuver. I tried to wiggle my way in, but had to back out to adjust my bungeed reg (it was free flowing from the raging flow) and to purge all the air from my wing to I could fit in the entrance! I wiggled my way in, fighting the flow and the top of the entrance. I finally got in far enough to anchor myself against the wall with my feet only to find the beginning of the line flapping in the flow freely. Later I found out Mat had somehow knocked it off during his last dive there but wasnt about to go back in against the flow to fix it. No problem. This cave isnt frequented very much anyway. I fixed the tie-off and tied off my primary to the line. I pulled myself against the flow and came to the end of the line about 100 in. Mat had told me about this line break. I pulled my jump spool out and tied it off to the broken end. I then attempted to swim past the duck under. No such luck. I tried again and just kept getting blown back by the flow. I got negative and grabbed the sand on the floor and clawed my way past it. Fortunately, the bottom composition of this cave is all large, gritty sand and doing this in no way affects the aesthetic value of the cave. I couldnt see any signs of my clawing on my way out. I found the other end of the line and spent about 10 minutes fighting the flow while tying my line to the broken end. I cut my line and left the break repaired. I continued pulling my way along the cave to find the line ended again. I looked around and found another line on the opposite wall! I pulled out another jump spool and crossed the passage. I continued along the passage until I came to a T. At this point, I was pretty close to my turn pressure and felt the first signs of a CO2 headache from all the work against the flow coming on. I turned the dive and headed back to my jump spool. It took my about 5 minutes to gather up the spool since I had to keep swimming back to my tie-off point against the flow while spooling up my line. I finally got that done and let the flow carry me out to my primary. I grabbed the primary, unclipped my left bottle and shot out through the restriction. I didnt have a deco obligation but decided to breathe off my O2 tank for about 5 minutes since I had worked so hard during this dive and had done deep dives the previous two days. As I came to the surface I heard voices and saw a new group of swimmers walking around the edge of the sink. The first question they asked was if I had found the bottom. They told me rumor has it the sink is bottomless because no one has ever found the bottom here. I told them the bottom is only about 40 down. :
I packed up my gear, turned on my GPS and it told me I could get back to pavement much quicker through a different route. I started heading that way. Heres one of the sites I saw one the way:
After driving for about 10 minutes and watching my GPS reroute itself a few times I decided to turn around and try to find my way out the original way I came. During this last 10 minutes I had gone around a turn that was filled in with sand. Apparently, rain run off washes down along this area and someone had the brilliant idea of filling it in with sand instead of dirt! I had made it through okay coming into it. This wasnt so much the case heading the other direction. My van got stuck!!! I tried digging the rear tires out to no avail. I even pulled all of my tanks out of the back to get about 500 lbs of steel and aluminum off the back. I called Jen and asked her to either borrow Edds truck (Cave Adventurers) or have him head over to get me out. He has a 4x4 Dodge with rather large tires that could easily pull the van out. While Edd and Jen were driving out to get me unstuck, I continued to dig the sand out from around the rear of the van. I had gotten in pretty deep and was center high. Fortunately, I keep my boat paddles in the van all the time and had something to dig with. My phone soon rang (thankfully I still had service out there) and I tried to give Edd and Jen directions to my location. They finally made it to me shortly after I was finished digging. Edds first question to me was whether I was cave diving or dry caving. I was that dirty! We hooked up the tow strap and after about 15 minutes of pulling and sand flying all over my van, I was unstuck! We quickly loaded up the tanks and tried to find our way out before it got too dark. We got lucky!
Ill definitely be going back to this cave, but next time Ill stay on the decent dirt roads and avoid the sand trap. I pity the next person to drive through that corner! It was a very good week of diving. Im hoping to get back to this last cave this week and will definitely be going back to Mondays cave in the middle of the month.
Sunday was spent doing cavern dives in Jackson Blue for the cavern course that started on Saturday. We spent over 3 hours in the water working on the various cavern diving skills. Fortunately, I had a great student, so it was a very pleasant day.
Monday started off the week exploring some caves new to me. I woke up at 4am in preparation for the 1 ½ hour drive to Wakulla County. I have been planning on diving this particular cave for some months now, but every time I plan on heading over that way we got several days of downpours. Being that this system is prone to being blown out by heavy rains, none of those dives ended up happening. I was beginning to think I wouldnt ever get a chance to dive it again. This time the weather was good to me. I made the necessary arrangements for access the evening before and headed over first thing Monday morning. I arrived at the site around 9am and walked over to the sink to check out conditions. They were as near perfect as one could hope for.
This system has both an upstream side and a downstream side. My plans were to dive the downstream side this morning. The upstream side was crystal clear with the bottom easily visible through 20 of water. The upstream side connects to another sink just across from the foot path from this sink.
The downstream side of the sink was covered with duck weed.
After hauling my side mount cylinders full of trimix I had blended on Saturday during classroom breaks, my stage bottle full of 30% Nitrox, my 50% bottle and my 100% bottle, I was ready to get in the water. I suited up and made my way back to the sink and my bottles. It felt really good to get in the water.
I geared up, dropped below the water and headed downstream. I easily found the line tied off on a branch just inside the overhang. This is a huge cave and it can be a bit deceiving, as the beginning of the line appears to still be in open water. I clipped off my 100% bottle and continued along the line swimming under a duck under (cant see the floor from here because its so far down) and slowly ascended along the line to about 80. I clipped off my 50% bottle and took the short jump to the line that goes straight down to about 120. I switched over to my side mount bottles at this point and continued down the line. At about 180 the line Ts with one side continuing down the slope and the other line heading slightly up and to the left. I went to straight. Shortly after the T, another line comes in from the left and up and follows the same path as the line I was on, only about 18 above it, until they both wrap around an outcropping from the wall. At this point I was about 210 deep and the lines Td off again. I decided I had gone far enough and turned the dive at this point. I also made a note to myself to come back here and explore the other lines I saw to see if they are even necessary or if they could be rerouted. Having 2 lines adjacent to each other isnt the best idea in a shallow cave, let alone at that depth. Back at 120, I switched back to my stage bottle and made a slow ascent up the line. I grabbed my 50% bottle, switching to it after going under the duck under and reaching 70. I finished off my dive doing 20 minutes of deco in the basin and watching a little kid swimming on the surface. Total dive time was 32 minutes with 33 minutes of decompression. After packing up my gear and paying my site access fee I headed over to another sink in Wakulla County to check out conditions for a possible dive the next day. It had started raining a little, but I was okay with that since I had already done my dive. The next sink was murky, but looked like it would be fine for a dive the next day.
Tuesday had me up at 4am again to head over to Wakulla County once again. I arrived at the second sink and was dismayed to find the rain the previous day had a negative effect on conditions. Today it was pea soup. Even though I have heard that conditions on the surface dont necessarily dictate what conditions 15 below are like, I wasnt feeling the dive. I called Mat/Suprbugman to ask him directions to another sink in Wakulla County. I headed over to this sink through a small dirt road cut out of the woods. My van has several new scratches on it. I found the sink with Mats excellent directions and headed down the steps placed there by the Wakulla County Dive Club several months earlier to check out conditions. (I forgot my camera the next 2 days and these were taken with my cell phone.)
The water was tannic but looked much better than the previous sink.
After checking the area for gators, I unloaded my cylinders and placed them at the bottom of the steps. This system is supposedly a little shallower than the system I was in yesterday, so I was diving Nitrox in my side mount bottles and Trimix in my stage bottle this time. I suited up and got in the water, geared up, tied the end of my primary to the bottom step, and slowly made my way down the side of the wall. Mats excellent directions to the line helped me find it rather quickly tied off to a branch exactly where he said it would be. I tied off my primary to the line and followed it down to a T at about 120. One line went down and the other went straight out at about an even depth. I switched to my stage full of trimix and headed down until I reached the end of the line and the bottom of the cave at 139. At this point there were several lines going off the line I had followed. I followed the first 2 only to find they ended about 10 away from where they started. Visibility in this cave was a tannic 10. I took the last two lines going off this tie off (they were parallel to each other) and found another cluster of lines. I checked out a couple of them to find the same situation as earlier. I then took the last line and swam about 70 or so to find my first marker at the first T! I had just completed a circuit in a room!!! I turned around to retrieve my markers and make my way out of the cave. I reached the first T, switched back to my side mount bottles and continued up to my reel. At this point, I had only been on the dive for about 23 minutes, so I grabbed my primary and did a circuit of the walls of the cave just below the ceiling. I didnt see any possible leads and headed back to grab my deco bottle and head back up to the steps. One thing I can say about this cave is reg switches werent my favorite thing to do. The tannic water did not taste very good! But apparently, the locals don't care because they swim here.
Wednesday started a little late. The 4am wake ups were a bit much for me. Wednesday afternoon I headed over to another sink, this one in Bay County, to check out a cave I had heard about from Mat. I drove off the paved road onto a dirt road and after about 25 minutes of several turns I arrived at the sink. I was pretty sure it was going to be difficult to find my way out of here and back onto the pavement! There were swimmers at the sink already so I was pretty confident there werent any gators around. Yeah, this is a big concern at some of these springs! I checked out the sink hole and the water was slightly green, but looked okay to dive.
Mat had also told me that visibility clears up to about 30-40 below 15. I hauled my tanks over to the edge of the sink, suited up, and got in the water. After gearing up, I tied off my primary reel to a tree root in the water and made my way along the bottom of the sink,. At about 12 I felt 69 degree water and saw several tree trunks that had fallen into the sink. I followed the wall along until I found the entrance to the cave. I placed a secondary tie-off and headed for the hole. This isnt the smallest entrance Ive been in, but it did require a bottle off maneuver. I tried to wiggle my way in, but had to back out to adjust my bungeed reg (it was free flowing from the raging flow) and to purge all the air from my wing to I could fit in the entrance! I wiggled my way in, fighting the flow and the top of the entrance. I finally got in far enough to anchor myself against the wall with my feet only to find the beginning of the line flapping in the flow freely. Later I found out Mat had somehow knocked it off during his last dive there but wasnt about to go back in against the flow to fix it. No problem. This cave isnt frequented very much anyway. I fixed the tie-off and tied off my primary to the line. I pulled myself against the flow and came to the end of the line about 100 in. Mat had told me about this line break. I pulled my jump spool out and tied it off to the broken end. I then attempted to swim past the duck under. No such luck. I tried again and just kept getting blown back by the flow. I got negative and grabbed the sand on the floor and clawed my way past it. Fortunately, the bottom composition of this cave is all large, gritty sand and doing this in no way affects the aesthetic value of the cave. I couldnt see any signs of my clawing on my way out. I found the other end of the line and spent about 10 minutes fighting the flow while tying my line to the broken end. I cut my line and left the break repaired. I continued pulling my way along the cave to find the line ended again. I looked around and found another line on the opposite wall! I pulled out another jump spool and crossed the passage. I continued along the passage until I came to a T. At this point, I was pretty close to my turn pressure and felt the first signs of a CO2 headache from all the work against the flow coming on. I turned the dive and headed back to my jump spool. It took my about 5 minutes to gather up the spool since I had to keep swimming back to my tie-off point against the flow while spooling up my line. I finally got that done and let the flow carry me out to my primary. I grabbed the primary, unclipped my left bottle and shot out through the restriction. I didnt have a deco obligation but decided to breathe off my O2 tank for about 5 minutes since I had worked so hard during this dive and had done deep dives the previous two days. As I came to the surface I heard voices and saw a new group of swimmers walking around the edge of the sink. The first question they asked was if I had found the bottom. They told me rumor has it the sink is bottomless because no one has ever found the bottom here. I told them the bottom is only about 40 down. :
I packed up my gear, turned on my GPS and it told me I could get back to pavement much quicker through a different route. I started heading that way. Heres one of the sites I saw one the way:
After driving for about 10 minutes and watching my GPS reroute itself a few times I decided to turn around and try to find my way out the original way I came. During this last 10 minutes I had gone around a turn that was filled in with sand. Apparently, rain run off washes down along this area and someone had the brilliant idea of filling it in with sand instead of dirt! I had made it through okay coming into it. This wasnt so much the case heading the other direction. My van got stuck!!! I tried digging the rear tires out to no avail. I even pulled all of my tanks out of the back to get about 500 lbs of steel and aluminum off the back. I called Jen and asked her to either borrow Edds truck (Cave Adventurers) or have him head over to get me out. He has a 4x4 Dodge with rather large tires that could easily pull the van out. While Edd and Jen were driving out to get me unstuck, I continued to dig the sand out from around the rear of the van. I had gotten in pretty deep and was center high. Fortunately, I keep my boat paddles in the van all the time and had something to dig with. My phone soon rang (thankfully I still had service out there) and I tried to give Edd and Jen directions to my location. They finally made it to me shortly after I was finished digging. Edds first question to me was whether I was cave diving or dry caving. I was that dirty! We hooked up the tow strap and after about 15 minutes of pulling and sand flying all over my van, I was unstuck! We quickly loaded up the tanks and tried to find our way out before it got too dark. We got lucky!
Ill definitely be going back to this cave, but next time Ill stay on the decent dirt roads and avoid the sand trap. I pity the next person to drive through that corner! It was a very good week of diving. Im hoping to get back to this last cave this week and will definitely be going back to Mondays cave in the middle of the month.
