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May was a busy month for me. Jen graduated nursing school, my sister got married, and we went on a cruise to the Bahamas for my mother's birthday. Although we didn't go anywhere in June, it seemed like almost as busy a month. This meant diving was at a minimum for me. I actually went about 3 weeks without getting in the water!
Well, I made up for it the last 5 days. I was supposed to begin a new open water class on Thursday with a couple of students, but they ended up cancelling on me Wednesday afternoon. I wasn't too happy about the cancellation, but I was able to make up for it by doing a couple of days of guided cave dives instead! I met the diver at Cave Adventurers Thursday morning, went through introductions, loaded up one of Edd's boats, and headed over to Jackson Blue for our first dive. We did a short dive around the Horseshoe Circuit, coming back to the mainline and heading over to the 1st breakdown when he called it on air. We headed back, taking the Horseshoe Circuit back around and doing a nice effortless drift out of the cave. Visibility was a good as usual with the flow slightly down from where it's been. After a quick lunch during air fills, we headed over to Hole in the Wall to do a dive Upstream. We made it to Alford's Room where the dive was turned and a nice easy swim back was made. Water temperature went from 66-68 degrees, depending on depth, and visibility was about 30-40'. Friday had us back at Edd's to load up the boat and head back over to Hole in the Wall for a swim downstream. We did a short 1000' penetration in a steady 68 degree water with visibility no more than 30' throughout the passage. After lunch we headed over to Twin to dive the mainline circuit. Lately, Twin has been having some of the best conditions I've seen. Visibility was as far as our lights would penetrate. This ended 4 dives, each lasting almost an hour, over 2 days.
Then came Monday's dive. This dive was without clients or students. Just me and Jen going for a cave dive. We headed over to Hole in the Wall with a plan to explore the upstream section. We have both been up and down the upstream section quite a few times, but we haven't really stopped to look around and explore the nooks and side passages. We headed in and stopped in each room. While one of us stayed by the mainline, the other would swim around the room, from side to side and top to bottom, looking for other passages and different features. We spent about an hour doing this and made it back to 800' before turning the dive. I noted a couple of areas that deserve more attention on a future dive. We also plan to return and explore the last 500' of the mainline passage in the same way. Eventually, we'll be heading downstream to do this. This was a fun dive and a really great way to end 5 days of diving. 10 dives later and almost 10 hours underwater...I definitely made up for some lost time. I also have another 7 dives planned for the end of this week, a couple of them in sites new to us...
Rob Neto
My website - Chipola Divers - Recreational, Technical, & Cave Diving Instruction & Mentorship
If you think it's okay to dive in a cavern or cave without the appropriate training, watch the videos on this web page: Diving the Freshwater Springs. If you still think it's okay, please make sure to donate money to the IUCRR...
Semper Fi, Cameron David Smith, my son, my hero. 11/9/1989 - 11/13/2010
"If you are unwilling to defend your right to your own lives, then you are merely like mice trying to argue with owls. You think their ways are wrong. They think you are dinner." -- Terry Goodkind in "Naked Empire"
When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not our friend.
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