Need information for Cavern Diving in Northern Florida

[sytech]

I recently spent 2 weeks in the Mexican Yucatan diving in the Cenotes there and inasmuch as I am now a permanent resident of Florida (Key Largo) I have plans to drive North to the Alachua County region to go Cavern diving.

Was wondering if April is still too cool weatherwise to go up there even though the water temp. in the Caverns holds at about 72 degrees year round.

I had Ginnie Springs in mind but would be open to any other suggestions of course and recommendations for local motels for the week I'd be there.

I'd also love to hear about any comparisons between the Caverns in the Yucatan and the ones in North Florida.

Thanks in advance for any information that you can provide.

Sy

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

I recently spent 2 weeks in the Mexican Yucatan diving in the Cenotes there and inasmuch as I am now a permanent resident of Florida (Key Largo) I have plans to drive North to the Alachua County region to go Cavern diving.

Was wondering if April is still too cool weatherwise to go up there even though the water temp. in the Caverns holds at about 72 degrees year round.

I had Ginnie Springs in mind but would be open to any other suggestions of course and recommendations for local motels for the week I'd be there.

I'd also love to hear about any comparisons between the Caverns in the Yucatan and the ones in North Florida.

Thanks in advance for any information that you can provide.

Sy

Winter time is cave season. Summertime sucks for drysuits but we still do it. Currently everything is blown out but Ginnie so that should make your list quite short. Florida caves have always been underwater so don't expect any phenomenal formations that you may expect in areas where the cave was previously dry.

Currently Ginnie is open. The Ear is tannic, the Eye is probably still fine. Cost of admission is ~$32 for everyone certified below full cave.

Hope that helps.

 

[PfcAJ]

I think manatee is open. Good cavern diving at catfish. Jug hole too

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

I think manatee is open. Good cavern diving at catfish

Very true, it rarely goes under. I guess I don't dive there enough. Last time I swam it I ended up stacking rocks behind me when we got to Sue. I hope to scooter it next trip

 

[JesperS]

Question: Are you cavern or cave certified? If not, your options will be limited.

I believe Ginne, Blue Grotto, Devil's Den, and Paradise may be your only options as an OW diver.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

Those are the big three. For OW divers to the best of my knowledge.

 

[sytech]

I have NACD Cavern Cert.

 

[PfcAJ]

You've got some options.

Manatee, Jug, Blue Grotto, Blue Springs (Orange city), Devil's Den, Ginnie (Eye, Ear maybe, Ginnie Spring), Paradise. Depending on what the rivers do Peacock/Orange Grove might clear up. If you're feelin froggy, a drive to Marianna might be worthwhile, too.

Not a cavern but WeekiWachee is a neat OW dive. I'm not sure of the current requirements to dive there. I seem to recall something about needing to be with a class, but that might have changed.

 

[skippy31]

Jug is a very nice cavern if you do not mind the walk.

Mat.

 

[Instructor_Tom]

With a Cavern cert your really restricted. As has already been stated most of the actual cave sites are blown out. The Santa Fe river has a flood watch up through Sat at 2PM and the last time i was up at Ginnie a couple of weeks ago the EAR was only reachable from within the cave system. The marker buoy was about 2 feet under water and impossible to find from within the water. This does still leave the ballroom and a dive into the eye, but with the ear shutdown, cave divers will be using the eye to enter and exit the cave system, making it crowed in the eye.

As a cavern diver i would highly recommend doing blue grotto. Its a full cavern diver to the bottom as you will always be able to detect the light zone for exit. We use it for training open water divers and some technical dive preparation.

Devils den is a cool dive but pretty small and the stairs to get in and out coupled with the midget entryway kind of keeps this site off my desirable dive site list.

If you come further south to weeki wachee there is hospital hole which can be reached from rogers park. They rent boats at rogers park and if the weather stays cool your probably going to find some manatees that want to hold hands. Hospital drops to a 139' and you loose the light once you pass the sulfur cloud at about 60'.

Further south to hudson fl, you find hudson grotto right next to scuba west. The tannic water keeps the viz down to about 10' and the site drops to 110' with guidelines on the bottom. There is about 20' of silt on the bottom, so watch your finning when near the bottom. They also have a guide line at 20' with all sorts of interesting things in the wall at 20'.

Hope this is of interest.

T.


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