Within Intro standards?

[Jason B]

Interesting. We were heavily discouraged in Cave 1 from going far from the mainline. The idea was that staying on the mainline (or the jump lines in side passages) concentrates the damage from the bubbles in one area. Look, but don't swim there, was the message.

Hey Lynne, in Ginnie, through the Gallery, the main line is now back on the floor. Does that mean you will stay on the line and swim into the flow (building CO2 and burning through your gas) or will you venture off the line and move up to the ceiling (be a thinking diver and all) to progress into the cave?

 

[TSandM]

Oh, I'll go to the ceiling, but my bubbles will be going about where they would go if I followed the line on the floor, no?

I think this really is a Florida/Mexico distinction to a large degree. Florida caves, at least from what I've seen myself and in video, tend to be well-defined tunnels and lack delicate decorations. Mexican caves tend to be big, broad, irregular spaces where you could easily wander quite a bit back and forth, but the ceilings tend to be decorated with very fragile formations. In Mexico, you don't want to get very far off the line because you may not find it easily again, but you also damage the ceiling.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Oh, I'll go to the ceiling, but my bubbles will be going about where they would go if I followed the line on the floor, no?

Yes, in Devil's, the bubbles only go one place...right out the Ear!!!

I don't think the flow allows the bubbles to ever reach the ceiling!

 

[Scubastud16]

Yes, in Devil's, the bubbles only go one place...right out the Ear!!!

I don't think the flow allows the bubbles to ever reach the ceiling!

Seriously....I did my first dive in the Ear this weekend....talk about a humbling experience.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I think this really is a Florida/Mexico distinction to a large degree. Florida caves, at least from what I've seen myself and in video, tend to be well-defined tunnels and lack delicate decorations. Mexican caves tend to be big, broad, irregular spaces where you could easily wander quite a bit back and forth, but the ceilings tend to be decorated with very fragile formations. In Mexico, you don't want to get very far off the line because you may not find it easily again, but you also damage the ceiling.

I'm finding some of the less dived stuff in FL that has alot of darker material(geothite?) on the walls and ceilings, which will percolate down from bubbles as traveled. In alot of these caves, the passage is fairly straight forward and easily seen from end to end. Lately, I've been diving some much larger passages though that its often hard to see more than one side of the cave, much less two or three, or all four sides fo the passage, even in good visibility. It'd be very easy to lose the line here and not find your way back. The bottom is silty and you can actually follow a path of downed materials laying underneath the explorer lines. They aren't stalagtites, but they are formations regardless. This will happen even under the mainline as these passages just arent' traveled enough have a cleared section up-top yet.

 

[karstdvr]

darker material(geothite?) on the walls and ceilings, which will percolate down from bubbles as traveled..

More likely not goethite.
Looks at http://www.nsscds.org/PreventCaveDamagelo.pdf for this mineral compound