My Cave Diving blog... On my way to the Abe Davis Award.

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The Chairman

Chairman of the Board
Messages
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Location
Cave Country!
# of dives
I just don't log dives
Since I moved to the Keys, I don't get to play in the caves as much even though I finished full cave a couple of years ago. I thought that I would go ahead and start a blog about these dives, some of the issues I encountered and perhaps an insight or two. Right now, I'm at a dozen. I'm going to go back through my notes and fill in these dives as I can.

1:Twin Caves w/Rob Neto 10-28-13
2: Ginnie W/Jeano & Fred
3: Peacock W/mselenaous & Jahjah Warrior 11-29-13
4: Peacock W/mselenaous & Mark S. Jan2013
5. Little River W/Mark S. Jan2013
6: Ginnie W/Jeano & Fred Fall 2014
7: Peacock w Scuba Sam Fall 2014

04/05/2015

8: Peacock W/Imbodie to 3/4 up the Nicholson Tunnel

04/072015

9: Ginnie with Lamar, Jared & mselenaous to the Hill 400 jump. I was using borrowed tanks that were set up backwards to what I am used to. I fought the set up during the entire dive. It was fun hanging with Lamar and Jared but I didn't like fighting my gear on the dive.

04/12/2015

10: Ginnie First Solo Cave Dive to the Park Bench (Bone Line Jump)

04/14/2015

11: Ginnie W/Tmccar1 to the White Room. I'm impressed with Tom's SF2 sidemount rebreather. It's logically and nicely laid out and doesn't give me the feeling of being a Rube Goldberg creation. I really like the way the hoses are routed under the right arm. Seeing the White Room was a kick too. No jump indications, so you have to know when to tie off. 8 minutes of Deco.

04/15/2015

12: Ginnie W/ Tmccar1 to the Double Lines. I really, really enjoyed this dive. Tom tied in two jumps way in the back and the scenery was amazing. Almost to thirds when we turned it. Just as we hit Hill 400 on the way back, my port reg started bubbling. A quick check showed that the hose was backed off too much from the second stage. Turned off the tanks, unscrewed the reg completely and then re-attached. Turned on the gas and no more bubbles. Was glad that I never had to slow down to accomplish this. 15 minutes of Deco.
 
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4/26/2015

13: Orange Grove with Imbodie. 900ft on Gold line. This was the furthest back I've been in this system, and it got quite dramatic. Before the dive I mentioned to Tim that I wanted to eventually set up my sidemount with SPG transmitters. He was in no rush and suggested that I do it then. I didn't quite know how to do gas switches on the VTX, so it was a bit weird, but I'm figuring it out.

14: Little River with Imbodie. 700 ft on Gold line. River is up. so we set up on the sidewalk and swam over the rocks we usually struggle over. Kinda nice! The flow was not so bad and I never felt stressed. It was very crowded, so I didn't use my Scuba Cart and even exited with both tanks clipped in. WHAT WAS I THINKING??? That about killed me. I won't do that again! We had gassed up at Reneker's and as I wanted to take off the short hose SPGs, Imbodie suggested that I try button SPGs as back ups to the transmitters. I bought two and have to admit that they stream line everything nicely.


04/27/2015

15: Ginnie. Solo. Took the Bone line jump. Caveat: As I was approaching the end of the Bone Line Jump, I was surprised by a light coming in from my right. It was a diver on a Scooter, so I eased back out of the way. I must have surprised the scooter diver as he bumped into the ceiling. I covered my light so as to not confuse him. As he left, I realized that I was now on the Gold line heading out of the system. I back tracked, found the jump markers, found the end of the bone line where I was distracted and continued towards the exit on the Gold line. I hit the original .Bone Line jump before I hit thirds, so I simply exited. 2 minutes deco on oxygen and I stretched it to 5.

16: Ginnie. Solo. Took the Gold line all the way to 1600. This was a long, long swim. It's nice that there are fewer and fewer indications of struggles the further back I get. It's very pristine and often the only disturbance is the Gold line. I did find a double ender with a short black cord lying abandoned in the middle, Had 8 minutes of deco. Caveat, gas switching the Oceanic VTX is pretty routine now. I switch regs, lengthen the hose I'm breathing on and pull back the slack on the reg I just abandoned.
 
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so you're gonna post your logbook here in this thread?
 
That's my plan!

04/28/2015

Dive 17: Peacock 1 W/mselenaous. Took the Olsen Gold line 900 ft. Elena is limited to 6ths which was fine by me. Met the SF2 peeps, Horst, Tom, Uwe, Vera and Petra, in the parking lot. I think this was their last dive and we had dinner with them last night. My VTX went a bit wonky on me. It kept going to select gas mode and I thought it might be to the fact that I left the regs charged all night. That means the transmitters were on all night. I'll change batteries before the next dive. I do know that I don't like the button SPGs all that much.
 
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13: Peacock. Solo. Took the Bone line jump.

Just guessing, but you meant to say Ginnie, not Peacock, right?

Solo diving at Peacock would be sweet though....
 
Just guessing, but you meant to say Ginnie, not Peacock, right?

Solo diving at Peacock would be sweet though....
Thanks... changed to reflect reality. I agree that solo diving at peacock would be nice.
 
WOW... I thought you had TONS more dives. Was an honor and privilege to get to do those dives with you. Can't wait to start my own march towards some of the awards/commendations for safe dives.

Tim
 
Tim, he spent a lot of years diving as NAUI Cave1 before taking Full Cave....and he just doesn't log dives....until now.
 
If my failing memory serves me right, we did a dive together at Peacock in the fall when you were trying out a new Dive Rite sidemount rig, LTZ or something with a bunch of letters.

We did the Peanut line until we hit EOL. We did not discuss jumps during pre-dive discussions so turned the dive when the Peanut line ended.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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