I Am Coming Home

Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement - and we will make the goal.
- Robert Collier
Today was the final dive. I have spent the last nine days here in northern Florida engrossed in dive training. I took on quite a bit with this trip covering Cavern, Cave, Advanced Nitrox and Deco, and have passed all. I have had fun with my trip reports using humor to get through some of my less than stellar moments, and I did have fun, but I worked too.

Today we did our final dive, another guided dive. Again we were at Devils Ear and this time we were going to the Bone Room. Again I walked my deco bottle down the stairs and into the water before we made our way over the edge of the chimney and down to the cave entrance. The flow felt much stronger today. I guess the rain up north is making its way here through the aquifer. I pulled myself through and hid out of the flow while Jim tied in. I dropped my bottle behind the Grim Reaper sign and made my way up to the ceiling. I was leader again today.

You would think by now the tunnel would be familiar but I am still a tourist here. There are so many nooks and crannies and out croppings, I still haven’t seen everything. The walls change shape as you move along from room to room and tunnel to tunnel, moving up and down as the ceiling of rock rises and lowers above you. Each turn holds a new surprise. Sometimes it is tall and narrow and sometimes low and almond shaped. There are enormous rooms that you think will go on forever and slits in the rock you must pull yourself through. And then….. it is time to turn back.

Back at the end of the gold line I pick up my O2 bottle and am signaled to pull the reel. With the bottle and the current of water I still could use a little work on my buoyancy but I pull the reel without fouling it and we are on our way out to the chimney and up to the log.

We are joined on the log by a large river eel and he swims his way up and over the edge and into the river just ahead of me. I make my way back to the steps getting a few last pokes in and then I am out and I am done. I have passed all my courses and I’m on my way home. I am ready.

I researched my instructor, Jim Wyatt, and I am pleased with my choice and would recommend him without hesitation. He was thorough and well versed, not a hand holder and not a screamer. He readily conveyed information and he critiqued, not criticized.

That being said, I would like to thank everyone who offered me encouragement through all this. It was greatly appreciated. Really.

I wish everyone the Best of the Holiday Season, the Merriest Christmas and Cow Butts in your New Year.

The Deco Log

"Oxygen is addictive and deadly. Everyone who uses it will eventually die"
RW Hamilton, PhD 1991


Yesterday was a classroom day. Philosophy, physiology, rules, equations, charts …… total overload. After dinner, I sit and review and come up with the questions I should have asked in class. I work a little bit with some planning software and I read a little more. As a break, I try to put grommets in my dry suit pocket but they are apparently titanium lined or something as I have some nice deep holes in my block of wood, but not a one in the pocket.

I toss and turn in bed as I try to sort out the things I want to ask and imagine trying to drag my hiney through the Ear while dragging an additional O2 bottle. I have found my 1ml gloves and my still sore fingers hope they do the trick.

As I stare at the stars above…. I think ……. Where the hell did the roof go?!! …. And then I remember the glow in the dark plastic stars stuck to the ceiling. This is going to be a long night.

Morning comes and I sit with my cup of coffee and review the dive planning once more. I am about to purposely violate the NDL limits for the first time in my diving career.

We are back at Ginnie Springs as rain north of here has rendered most of the area springs undivable. The swift movement of the water here keeps the cave clear. I fumble with the O2 bottle, but some adjustment of the D-ring and moving my reels to my butt make midwater clipping off of the bottle go much more smoothly. I have moved my computer from my D-ring to my wrist and written out several contingency Deco schedules on my slate and I am trying out double 95’s. All new little tweaks for me.

I swim around a few minutes getting used to the tanks and poking a fish or two before we move on and now we are ready. This 40 cu ft tank seems to weight me like a rock and I am at the bottom of the chimney in no time. I will be second in line this dive and try to get my buoyancy with the bottle down as I wait for Jim to tie the reel in. It isn’t pretty but at least I am not dragging my way through the tunnel. I drop my deco bottle at the beginning of the gold line and we work our way up to the ceiling and pull ourselves into the cave. I am feeling disorganized. I want to check my tank pressure and in doing so I fall behind and fin to keep up instead of frog kick. My long hose is sticking at the back of my neck and I am in perpetual tug of war with it, my ears seem to be in need of clearing more often than usual and to do so I have to either let go of the wall or use the hand with my light, banging the light head off of my forehead more than once. I have to keep my light where the diver in front of me can see it and keep track of the light of the diver behind me. My suit is squeezed and tapping air in is not doing the trick. It seems to just move along my shoulders and out the exhaust valve. I am obviously out of trim and just when I think I will signal for the team to hold up, a corner is turned and I hold off until we are in a better area. These are just little annoyances, not life threatening or dive ending issues, nothing I cannot correct or handle. The right answer was to hold everyone up and get situated but I didn’t. Through the Lips and at the Keyhole I lose my trim while checking my gauges and kick up a bit of sand, not too bad but I shouldn’t have. We reach the 400 Hill and I signal that I want to turn the dive. I am not at my turn pressure but at the end of my comfort level and I would like to regroup and try again. We turn and head back.

I am sure I did not look like I was struggling to the rest of the team, just a bit off on my buoyancy and some improper finning. It always feels worse to you when it happens. The return trip went more smoothly with the current carrying us and at the Lips I am stopped and signaled…. “Where is the line?” My nemesis drill. Even when I find the line I always have something else going on. Black out mask on and I feel for my reel…. Which has been moved to behind me. I little fumbling to find the reel I want and I now have to find a good rock to tie off to. I remember I have to go up a bit to keep from getting bogged down between the rocks and I feel for the direction of the current as I then know that here, the gold line is to my right and along the wall. I set off doing sweeps for the errant line and as I am about to pull out line for my third sweep I feel the gold line, grabbing on and checking for the thickness, making sure I haven’t doubled back on myself again. I tie off my reel and am rewarded with my own mask back. Now I have to just reel in my line and stow it without fouling and I am done.

We are back at the start of the gold line and I pick up my deco bottle and clip off, trying to anticipate the rush of water as I squeeze through the Ear and out into the chimney. The weight of the bottle helps keep me in place and I pull myself onto the log. I have not earned any deco time this dive and sit for my 3 minute safety stop at least glad the gloves worked out. My hands feel good for a change.

After lunch we plan out Dive Two and drop back in the water. I am leading this time and if we reach the Hill 400 tunnel we will tour it. We drop down the chimney and through the Ear, drop our deco bottles at the Grim Reaper sign at the beginning of the gold line and make our way up to the ceiling. I pull along watching for lights behind me and we are soon at the Lips, past the Keyhole, this time leaving it clear, and on we move. The tunnels change shape as we move along, some high and narrow, some hour glass shaped and others like a candy kiss with low ledges. The rocks change shape and amass above or below me as the tunnels change. My light slowly sweeps across and up and down taking it all in as I pull myself along. At the Hill 400 jump we move to the line and continue on our way. It is strange following a white line now but I see the familiar markings for distance and direction and begin to look about. Pieces of rock jut out into the tunnel making pulling along easy in most spots and my light plays along the rock formations, lighting up the white of the limestone and the contrasting black of other areas as the movement of the water cuts its way through.

I have reached my turn pressure and signal the team to turn. As we move back through the tunnel, Jim stops to point out fossils in the hard rock walls that have been uncovered by the springs flow. Several pieces of what looks to be turtle shell and other shells and a small sand dollar perfectly intact. A little farther along he stops and moves me to the side showing me a huge sand dollar embedded in the rock, the size possibly larger than my hand. It looks like you could pick it up off the ledge, the detail is so perfectly preserved.

We move on back through the wending tunnels and passages, the rooms and finally the Lips. No more drills here, just enjoying the scenery.

At the beginning of the line I pick up my bottle and clip it off and wait for Jim to pick up the reel and we make our way back to the tie in and our exit at the slit of rock we call the Devils Ear. I make my way up to the Deco Log, and now I see why it is aptly named. I switch over my gas to the deco bottle and settle into a half nap, half watch the pretty bubbles as I wait for my computer to count down my stop. If I straddle the log and jam my head under the branch I don’t even have to hang on, I just remain perched in place biding my time. Sweet.

I am done and ready to make my way up and to the stairs out and as I make my way, I notice the river water is a bit hazy compared to past days. Nowhere near Jersey hazy, but enough to give me a tinge of home sick.

Dive #204. A success. Play that number…

Peacock One

The water is your friend. You don’t have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move. ~ Aleksandr Popov
I am in the midst of cattle and dairy farm country, passing by throngs of cows at every curve, and today …. again ….. I saw cow butts …… life is good.

While it is still a bit nippy here, the skies have cleared and we are able to move on to another cave system. Today we are diving Peacock I. At Peacock State Park there are several sinks, which over the course of time, divers have been able to link together through their tunnels. Orange Grove Sink is one and Challenge another. And three others, Peacock I, II, and III. Some time ago, the cave entrance at Peacock II collapsed and the area is no longer divable. Peacock III is an advanced cave with tight restrictions and a silty bottom.

Peacock I is our destination today. Another guided dive, a level above my training, at 1/3 gas supply instead of 1/6. This cave is a no flow cave. The spring water does not rush out and through these tunnels like a raging river and as such it has its own set of difficulties. In a large portion of these caves, the lack of moving water has allowed a thick layer of fine silky silt to cover the cave floor, and the walls are a crumbly porous rock that breaks at the touch. There is a looong low restriction of hard limestone in the center that most divers pull themselves through along the floor. I …. Am special. Lucky me will be allowed to swim through this restriction without touching the floor or ceiling. I am guessing that this dive is a test for me, especially after my rocky if not inconsistent performances so far, to see if I can handle my buoyancy and not silt out my environment. With no flow, in a silt out, this cave is not forgiving and I need to prove this Jersey diver can do this.

You walk down a wooden boardwalk path to a set of steps and climb down to a narrow ladder leading into the water. Here, you put on your fins and drop below the steps to the cave entrance. There are two gold lines in this cave and I am to follow the one to the left and the renowned, Peanut Tunnel.

My S- Drill goes more smoothly than it has all week, a marked improvement. I collect my buoyancy as I cannot touch the floor for any reason and the walls are very fragile. I will lead this dive and a three man team of myself, Jim my instructor and Marc, the assistant instructor into the cave.

Staying as close to the ceiling as I dare in a large open tunnel with a rock and silt bottom we move along and onto the restriction which I need to navigate without touching anything and still following the line, not getting tangled in the line and keeping awareness of the rest of my team behind me. No guys, I am not nervous. Jeesh….. I am not just a poker ….. I am THE poker. I touch everything!!!! Don’t they know that!

This restriction goes on forever, I want to blast out of there with a few good fin kicks but know I cannot. And so I creep along, looking about every now and then, and not touching anything. It is killing me.

We finally come out in a tunnel that is much smaller than the ones we have previously been in but still roomy enough to move about. The rock walls are carved out in varying formations and indentations and the lights play across the blackness, reflecting off of the white rock walls. There are twists and turns and the gold line moves from one side of the tunnel to the other as it winds its way deeper into the earth.

Crawling across the silty bottom, I occasionally spot small troglobites, mostly crayfish. Troglobites are albino looking cave dwelling animals that have adapted to no light and have no pigmentation or eyesight and often no eyes due to living their lives in total darkness. I remember the silt and know there will be no poking here and move along. I am watching my gauges and keep thinking, good lord we are going a long way, when I get the signal from behind we are turning around.

As the team turns, I am now the last man in line and am now thinking I have to keep up and not loose the line cause there is no one behind me to get me back on target…..and if I silt this place up ….. I could be here a very long time……

We wind our way back along the tunnels and inch our way through the restriction without touching …… lord knows I wish I was not so special and could pull myself along, I am getting a bit tired here.

At a rock outcropping near the tunnel entrance I am handed the blackout mask and another lost line drill is in progress. I have brought a reel and a spool with me today. Spools are so much harder to foul. Although you can do other things to them ….. like drop them ….. please don’t let me ….. please.

I set my buoyancy a little heavy and search for a rock to tie on to. Having been spun in a circle I have no idea where the line is and with no flow I have nothing to acclimate myself to except rocks. My first tie off does not hold and I find another rock and begin to make my sweep. Nothing and I move a bit more, and a bit more and ….. and….. I find a line! As I am tying my spool off to it I feel it again. Something is not right. It is too thin …. It is… hmmm… I think it is my own line. I have gotten tangled and doubled back on myself. I untie to restart my search.

My mask is handed back to me and we are calling it a day. I am not far from the line, but I do appreciate Jim not allowing me to get frustrated here. I realized my mistake and there will be other dives to practice this more. And this dive…… this dive was great.

On the way out I am to pull the reel another dive team had left behind and asked us to retrieve. With no flow, I had no trouble with my buoyancy, and more importantly….. I did not foul the reel.

We exited into the clear sunlit pool of water after 78 minutes of dive time. We had gone about 1500 feet into the system when the dive was called. It was simply time to get back for us. All this time and distance and we never went deeper than 52 feet. And me, I did good. Real good. I did not touch a thing….. well not until we exited. There was one little fish, give a girl a break!

Passed Basic Cave!!

"We can see what's on the dark side of the moon or what's on Mars, but you can't see what's in the back of a cave unless you go there..." - Sheck Exley

How true is this? I don’t know. I saw the cave, not the back of it, but far enough. And I saw cow butts! Let me begin.

Cow Butts…… this morning on the way to the springs I saw nothing but cow butts. Today will be good.

I covered my fingers in band aids and set up my gear. It was a bit brisk this morning. 43F as I loaded up This morning was better. I knew it would be, and I felt better. I had coffee, plenty of coffee, and Hello Kitty band aids. Life was good.

We entered the water to complete our proficiency for Basic Cave. Again we were at Ginnie Springs and diving the Devils System. Yesterdays weather had stirred things up a bit elsewhere and we happily dove the site here again.

We climbed down the stairs and into the water and began our S-Drills surrounded by small curious fish from the river. I am still a little shakey when restowing my long hose, not quite maintaining my buoyancy, but much better than previous dives, we wont even begin to compare anything from yesterday. I felt so good….. I poked a fish.

Our first dive was in the Devils Eye. We planned our dive and dropped over the edge to the sandy bottom before the eye shaped slit in the rock that is the caves entrance. I led this dive and heading into such total darkness with just the narrow beam of light from my flashlight was a bit eerie. The tunnel has ups and downs and twists and turns and it is necessary to pull yourself along the rocks to make headway against the flow. By the time we reached the main cave and the gold line all but one of my band aids were gone. There are now a slew of Hello Kitty band aids plastered along the ceiling of the tunnel for future cavers to muse at and retrieve as they come across them. Sorry guys.

Once reaching the gold line we check our reel left in from the day before and head on up to the ceiling to get out of the flow and make our way on back. Teamwork is our objective on the way in. Awareness… body, buddy and light. We make it back to the Lips and turn the dive. Although we are concentrating on each other, we are able to relax more this dive and enjoy the cave. There are catfish swimming below us, their whiskers visible from afar in the crystal clear waters, and a never ending line of Mother Natures art in limestone all around.

Coming back to the end of the gold line I retrieve the reel and begin to reel up the line. I can feel all eyes on me waiting for the foul and it doesn’t happen! The flow pushing me from behind has its way with me and I am constantly adjusting myself as I reel in more and more of the line as I move up through the tunnel. Doug is just ahead of me freeing the line from its placements as we make our way along. We work as a team. Squeezing ourselves out of the Eye and onto the sandy bottom of the river hole we hover doing our safety stop before heading up and into the river where those curious little fish are again waiting. As I make my way back to the stairs I chase after and pull a tail or two. I feel good. It wasn’t picture perfect, but I feel good. The fine tuning in the flow will come with practice, but the rest was good .

Dive two was in the Ear. Down the narrow chimney, pulling along the rocks, we make our way down against the springs flow. Doug is leading this time and as I pull myself along the rocks to make my way through the long narrow slit that is the Ear, I have a few minutes of doubt that I can make it. The power of the water is tremendous and my fingers are uncovered and a bit raw. With a few good pulls I am through and hide out of the worst of the flow as Doug ties the reel in. Primary tie in, secondary tie in and then at the gold line and we are on our way. Once more up to the high ceiling, the rocks forming a limestone picture of cathedral shapes as we move along. Coming up to the large side tunnel, Doug once again heads down and I signal him. He catches himself and comes back to follow the line. That’s twice….I think he should carry my tanks for this one…..but alas I know it is only a dream…. and we move forward.

We continue on past the Lips and make our turnaround at the Keyhole. We are signaled for a lost buddy light and then an OOA drill. Doug donates to me and we take a bit of time getting aligned for the trip back but are on our way when both of our primary lights go out. My first thought is that the cover light signal and OOA signal meant a lights out exit while air sharing. I acclimate myself to the flow and make sweeps eventually finding the line. Doug in the meantime has not seen any of the signals and turns on his secondary light as we fin along. We have accomplished two separate drills in one without even trying and are given the signal to break off and continue on. I later asked the instructor if I should have offered HIM my regulator when he gave me the signal as I really have no way of knowing if he is requesting a surprise drill or really out of air …… hmmmmm …… made for some interesting discussion at lunch.

Doug now pulled the line out as we exited with the same issues of the flow beating up his buoyancy, but managing admirably none the less. After collecting the reel from the primary tie in we dumped all the air we could and shot through the Ear and did our best to slowly make our way up the chimney to the Deco Log and our safety stop. The log is kinda cool to sit on. You can lean back and watch your bubbles rush to the surface and into the sunlit river water. Trying to make bubble patterns and rings makes the time move along. FYI…. I cant do bubble rings…. I think that whole thing is just a myth…..

As we clear the rim of the chimney and head on in I again play tag with the curious little fish….. although they are catching on and keeping their distance a little bit better now.

We have pulled our act together and have passed Basic Cave. And this last Dive……it was actually two milestones for me ….. My official passing of Basic Cave AND my 200th dive.
If diving with a Full Cave Instructor, you may dive one level above your training if the instructor feels you are able. After lunch, we are rewarded with such a dive. Basic cave only allows us to dive 1/6 of our gas, thus limiting how far into the system we can get. We have already reached about as far as someone can go on 1/6’s by hitting the Park Bench and now we are going to see what is beyond that.

I have now covered all my achy little fingers with duct tape and before we ever reach the river more than half have fallen off, leaving a little silver breadcrumb trail behind me. I gotta come up with a better way.

Our plan is for 1/3’s and we are dropping down into the Ear. Doug leads again and we are on our way. We reach the tie in and make our way up to the ceiling and pull ourselves along. Past the Catacombs Tunnel that has been Dougs navigational nemesis and he is right on target up and over it and moving along the line. On to the Lips and drop some gas as we crawl our way through this low but wide restriction and tap in some air and we are past the Keyhole and moving back. We make it all the way back to the Hill 400 Line before our turn. The places we have reached and things we have seen were not goals nor intentional. We actually had no idea where we in the system were until after we surfaced and asked. We saw some amazing sites and like tourists looked all around. Our shorter dives showing us something new each time we made them, just as this longer one. There are some amazing things just past the little fishes playing in the grass on the sandy river bottom.

My confidence has been restored. I am not perfect but I can do this…..and I will get better. I needed that…..that extra day…….that extra confidence…… tomorrow ……. tomorrow I start Advanced Nitrox and Decompression …… in a cave ……. Peacock One I believe if the weather holds……. Wish me luck.

Cows and the Apocalypse

Whatever happened to that cow was an Udder Disaster!

If you see a herd of cows spread out then you know it is going to be a nice day. If the cows are clustering together you know something is up. Here’s something that man has never noticed before - but thanks to Google Earth - now knows: cows tend to face in the north-south direction of the Earth’s magnetic field and tend to point north. And finally, their back side. The little rhyme for this is: "A cow with their tail to the west makes weather the best; a cow with their tail to the east makes weather the least". Despite all this I have my own opinion on how cows face…… Mark knows it….. and today….. on the way to Ginnie Springs……..all the cows were facing the road. This is not good. It’s like an apocalypse…… it is not good.

I was late. How I missed the alarm doesn’t matter but I was just barely going to make it. We were diving the Devil System again, and not Peacock because of the threatening thunderstorms, and the rain, and the tornado warnings…… the apocalypse……

We gear up in the rain and I am distracted, without a doubt, can’t decide whether to take my tanks under the pavilion or just assemble them in the rain and so I put them together with no wing. And I gear up and slip into my harness and I have captured my crotch strap under my plate and again I reassemble. All of the duct tape have wrapped around my fingers has fallen off 3 or 4 times and I have abandoned all hope for using it. And so we hike down to the water and down the stairs and I step off into 12 feet of water with my fins in my hand and float around like a big old pool toy while I pull my fins on, instead of gracefully stepping into them on the last step. I then do an S-Drill with the instructor and just stick my long hose in his hand instead of offering it in a manner an out of air diver would appreciate. The entire time my mask has not stopped fogging. Not good. Not drowning on this dive becomes a goal for me, I have to concentrate.

Today we are going into the caves via Devils Eye. The Eye lies just off of the steps and you drop over the edge into a large hole and down to a short wide hole in the rock wall. From here you pull yourself down and over the limestone rocks through a winding passage until you reach the gold line of the cave. I was supposed to run the reel in but due to my auspicious start it was thought better that I just follow this dive. And follow I did.

With some minor bumping and my nerves a bit on edge we made our way back into the cave. Light awareness was the task for Doug and I needed to pull things together. We moved rather quickly and not sure if it was me or just the leader on a fast pace, I struggled to keep up. I feel a bit better when I catch Doug heading down a side passage and off the line and signal him to stop. I guess I am not all bad. Doug does a lost line drill this time and I rest out of the flow as I wait for him to finish. Back out and to the bottom of the hole ….. we do a 3 minute stop and head up.

Dive #2 will involve some skills for me, Lost Buddy to be exact. Back in we go and back into the cave. I relax just a little and notice small black fish swimming along the cave floor. This is the first time I have seen any fish inside the actual cave…..out of ALL 4 TIMES no less. I know poking them is not an option and I continue on my way hoping not to chew up my little fingers too much in the process. On the way back out I am signaled “Where is my buddy?” and begin my drill. Stop, think, cover my light, mark the line, search, tie in a safety reel and search the side passage. Decent job I am thinking as I try to untie my reel….and try……and try…. and it is now thoroughly fouled and I pull out my knife and before I cut it from the line the instructor steps in and does it for me. Probably a good thing because if I had cut the gold line…. Well my day was just going that way…. You know….

Out we go and as I hover at my 15 foot stop I see my computer going berserk….. the mix was not properly set I have sent it into a hissy fit of unfathomable magnitudes. And I hear water sloshing in my boots. Time for a lunch break.

My computer has locked me out, I lost the little ball from the end of my reel and I have 2 inches of water in my suit. Quitting has never looked so good.

I drive back to the trailer with my car heater going full blast, get dry clothes, and a spare little ball thingy, and my spare computer, and my spare mask, a box of band aids for my fingers and I drive back. I am not ready to just jump right in and the team goes on ahead and does a dive while I fix my gear and take some steadying breaths. I know if I don’t gear up and go down to the water they will finish the day without me and I will just give in, but I take my time and get it all together and march down the stairs and sit on the bottom step and put on my fins and contemplate those damned cows as I wait for the rest of the group to surface.

Back down to the Ear we go and pull ourselves along the rocks and through the tunnel and into the cave. We get back to the Lips and I am called on for a Lost Line Drill. Blackout mask on and I am turned around and let go. I find a rock and unclip my safety reel and begin to wrap line when…… the reel fouls. I fumble with it for what seems forever and with the blacked out mask can not find anything. I secure it and clip it off and take off my second reel. The flow is having its way with me and I straddle the rock to stay in one place and pull out some line and wrap it on up. Pull out about 5 feet of line and set out to do a sweep and find the line. Feeling for the direction of flow and acclimating myself to where the line should be I continue but I am not having luck and am afraid that the tie off has come undone. I continue and stop several more times to be sure I have the flow right, head up to find new rock and finally…… after what seemed an eternity ……… I grasp the line. My mask is given back and I am signaled to reel in my line and lead out. I reel in ….. oh maybe a foot ….. and proceed to foul this reel also. I have had it. I wrap the line around the reel and tie it up like a present and head out.

Coming up and out of the hole and into the river water I spy a small turtle swimming along the bottom. I haven’t poked anything all day and my AAD kicks in and I chase after my speedy little friend. My dive buddy, Doug, thinks I have lost my mind and my bearings and tries to drag me back. I acquiesce and head on for the steps and out. It has been a long day. 121 apocalyptic minutes under water.

I have completed all the skills for Basic Cave in spite of myself, but am not happy with my performance today. Not my reel untying for sure, and I am a bit unconfident on my lost line skills after that fiasco. My instructor claims to have never had a student foul 3 reels in one day like that. I am special. Our team awareness could use some work too and Doug and I will extend the course one more day to work on our weak points.

Beware the cows is all I can say…… they foretell the apocalypse. For me ….. tomorrow has to be better.

Basic Cave Day 1

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree,

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

Basic Cave, Day One. Tom has left and it is just Doug and I to do Basic Cave, differentiated from Intro to Cave by the use of doubles.

I am on time, if not a bit early this morning, and enjoying a cup of coffee as we meet once more in front of the Ballroom stairs. But this time I am wearing the pink wristband of a Basic Cave Diver.

We have now shortened the cord, temporarily, on my can light as my arm is too short, and shortened the cord on my bungee necklace so my safe second is not in line with my dry suit valve. I am short ad my shoulders are not wide enough to keep all the gear from bunching in front of me, very frustrating. Sunny and Scubafi, how do you guys do it? Anyway….

We use the cavern of Ginnies Ballroom for more line work, more practicing air shares and not drowning in the process, some blackout air share exits and generally spend the morning in practice for the CAVES! The last drill was to go in and pull the reel. We turn and enter the cavern and my light goes out….. turn on my second light, signal my buddy and turn the dive….. good job ….. good drill…… except…… the instructor didn’t turn off my light…… Jeesh …… real life primary failure……and it still taint lighting… jeesh!!! I am not the only one with equipment problems as Doug has ripped his neckseal and pulled his rear dump off of his wing so far….. I hear it happens…..all the time ….

Except for one other small incident (OK I will spill….. you should not poke fish while waiting for Jim [the instructor No less…jeesh] to make the primary tie in, I spun upside down and my boots filled with air and I floated to the surface tucked in a ball trying to right myself BUT I gave the OK on the tie in the entire time)…..except for that incident we did exceptionally well and were deemed ready for a real cave dive. Devils Ear to be exact.

Our first dive there was to be a fun tour of the cave before doing some work. We parked about a mile away this time. Maybe not a mile but we had to pass by a perfectly good cave, Little Devil, to get there. And those stairs again….what is with all the stairs….. but once again we were in the unbelievably clear water.

My midget sized tanks are the ones everyone else sets their gas plan by as they are the smallest, and Jim feels we will make it to the Lips on this dive. In the river you can see some branches tangled and sticking out from the water…..and in front of them is a boil of water from a spring. Swimming out to this spot you dump all the air from your wing and dry suit and drop over the edge into a hole with the flow of water coming at you from the bottom. Pulling yourself along the rock wall you make your way down to the cave entrance and sneak behind a rock and out of the flow as the reel is tied in. While the secondary tie in is made you get your buoyancy set. I have been warned…..there is no touching the bottom here or the dive is ruined for everyone….not just us …. but everyone. I set myself as the tie in to the gold line is made and look around.

This cave is enormous. The ceilings rocket skyward and rock walls form a myriad of designs as they make their way into a blackness you don’t ever see on the surface. There is no ambient light from the surface and the cave exit is not illuminated in a bright blue glow as the Ballroom is. Your light plays off of the surfaces and you shine your light around taking in all the shapes and textures around you. The flow is strong and you pull yourself along the walls from one handhold to another to make forward progress.

We begin the cave near the ceiling, in the least of the flow and monitoring the gold line below. Smaller tunnels shoot off into the darkness and before you know it we are at the Lips. The Lips is a restriction resting about mid height in the cave. You dump your air and pull yourself along the floor and through this short wide hole in the cave, appearing into a new tunnel. We are good on air, Doug and I, and we swim past the Keyhole and are at the Park Bench when Doug calls the dive. We turn and make our way with the flow at our backs pushing us along. We have gone over 300 feet into this tunnel and have not finned once and will not before exiting. The flow carries us to the exit and at the tie ins, we scramble to drop all the air from our wings once more before being shot out the exit of the cave with the flow of water.

Again handholding on the walls of this chimney shaped hole in the river, we make our way up, this time trying to keep from being shot to the surface on a stream from below. At about 17 ft in this narrow hole sits a log, permanently lodged horizontally into the walls, the infamous ‘Deco Log”. Here we grab on and straddle to keep ourselves steady while doing our safety stop. And from there we make our way up and over the lip and back into the clear shallow waters of the river floating on the surface for ten or twenty minutes just talking and going over the plan for the next dive. The newbies are tying in and leading this dive and something is happening on the way out. Don’t get lost.

We make our way down again and Doug ties in while I crowd him, a common inexperienced caver mistake….paying attention Brandon? We move along in the cave once more admiring the scenery and then I have reached my turn pressure and we reverse our trail. I have adjusted my buoyancy admirably and have not touched a floor or ceiling and am riding the flow back in what I consider to be an ideal distance above the line when Jim grabs my fin tip. OK I realign my fins, I must be coming close to stuff, then he grabs my leg and points up……Ohhhh…. I should be higher and up I move without contacting wall or ceiling. Good job Cheryl! At this point Jim grabs my inflator and launches me up, plastering me against the ceiling and motions me to cover my light. I am now wedged in an indentation in the ceiling and in complete darkness except for the light bulb going off in my head…..Lost Buddy Drill….I am the lost buddy, Doh!

It is really really dark with your light covered…..really dark….and time stands still…… I wonder if I am running out of air and sneak a peek….. no….. plenty of air…… I wonder if my buddy notices I am gone yet cause I haven’t seen his light for a while…… hmmmm…..or Jims….. then I see the halo of light as my buddy comes back looking for me and ties off to check the side tunnel……hey I’m up here!!! .....remember me from yesterday….. the spider on the ceiling chick…… look up!!!!!.......Ahh, finally……

With the drill over, we make our way back to the tie in, collecting the reel in the wrong buddy team order……Brandon……hint hint….. and make our way back to the log and then on up and over the rim and into the river. Here the fish are playing in among the river grasses and Oh yeah, you know I did, like poking fish in a barrel. And finally the stairs….. and then the Bataan March back to our trucks.

105 minutes under the water and we done good. They couldn’t believe we made it all the way to the Park Bench our first dive in Devils Ear, we are good on gas….. even me with those itty bitty HP tanks they can’t get good cave fills into….. and we didn’t bounce and bang our way along, or silt anything, or get shot out through the eye like a pea from a shooter….. we sat on “THE Log”…. woo hoo! Now Peacock tomorrow……..

I just have to stop and get duct tape to cover my fingers which are getting a raw and cut up look to them….. that pull and glide stuff is deadly to the digits……

So You Want To Be A Cave Diver

So you want to be a cave diver? No? Me either. So what am I doing here? Long story.

I arrived in High Springs Florida on a chilly Sunday evening and proceeded to get lost. Nothing new for me, wreck reels are my friend. I am looking for my home away from home for the next week. Casa de trailer in the middle of nowhere. Smack in the middle of a couple of acres of nowhere. This will be an adventure.

I am suffering, but that is how it is in Florida. I knew that.

Day One is spent in the classroom. Me, Doug from Colorado and Tom from Oregon. Oregon is the only other state, besides New Jersey, that doesn’t pump gas. Tom and I enlightened the others.

Then we were enlightened with the rules of cavern and cave diving, formulas for SAC rate, tank volume, PSI, disproportionate tank sizes, MOD and other stuff. Calculators were pumping out answers left and right. Line arrows, cookies, navigation, cave and cavern sizes styles, parts and pieces. Let’s just say, the cookies aren’t chocolate chip.

Then out to run line drills among the trees. Tie in, following the line, reading the markers along the line and gripping the line tightly in the case of lost visibility are among these items.
And finally …….equipment set up. I truly believe that we reinvented the wheel with that one. Apparently wreck diving and cave diving are somewhat different. No compass, gear strap, fin holder, goody bag, jon line, mondo knife, shark puppet, strobe or weight pockets.

And apparently I have a strange drysuit also. Since I have no D ring inside my bellows pocket, I can’t secure anything there so it all must go on my harness. Five line arrows, four cookies, 3 flashlights, two regulators, one Z knife and a partridge in a pear tree.

This took a full day. But now…….Look out caverns here I come.

9 AM at Ginnie Springs is not early……unless you are directionally challenged…..arriving but 7 minutes late I am immediately befriended and assisted by Kathy of the Ginnie Springs staff. She is from Brooklyn and she knows her stuff. I love her…….

Gearing up and walking over to the stairs, I am on my way. The stairs…..hmmmmmm……I think there were about a dozen going down and I am positive there were 100 or more coming back up but that is another story.
Stepping into the clear warm water I put on my fins and stepped off of the rocks into the pool at the mouth of the cavern. 72 F and 100 feet of visibility. I can do this……..kinda.

You know all that hovering I did while Frnak had all the fun? Well apparently cavern water is different or something because I couldn’t hover worth crap. I bounced along like a ping pong ball and swore my rear dump valve was glued shut. I followed lines, shared air, did S drills and blackout line drills while bouncing off of and touching every rock, leaf, fish, piece of sand and diver in the water. I can donate my long hose…..while wearing a blackout mask…..while holding the line……and swimming completely upside down. Unfortunately that is not quite how the drill goes.

It does not get any better when I enter the cavern. I am like a bottom crawler and spider on the ceiling alternately, all the way to the grate at the back of the cavern. I am bumped to get off the bottom more times than I can count and have my hand permanently wrapped around my rear dump valve. Before today, I had never used my rear dump valve. Today I am “one with it”. There are 5 Rules of Cave Diving and I violated every one of them….with a vengeance. Very frustrating and time for a break. I only have to climb about 100 steps to end this[picture of stairs]…..and I do.

I dive double HP100’s and apparently my wing is too big for my tanks…..not lift wise but widthwise. Like batwings or a really cool cape, it flares out beyond my tanks and lovingly wraps itself around it in all directions, making use of my rear dump valve and fine tuning my buoyancy harder to manage than Rubik’s Cube. This is not so noticeable when ocean diving, but an absolute affront to the senses here.

After much speculation and adjustments I end up borrowing a Rec Wing and head back down to the water. If things don’t get better here, I am sure my instructor will be a candidate for detox, and I am sure that twitch will go away when I do………

Back down the stairs and into the water. While waiting for everyone to get organized I try out this new piece of equipment. Deflate and sink…check…..tap a little air and don’t imitate a pogo stick ….. check ….. pull the rear dump and empty wing …… check ….. hmmmmm …. this could work.

The right equipment makes all the difference in the world. Cost of a borrowed wing…. Eternal gratefulness….. not bouncing off of the floor and ceiling in the Ballroom at Ginnie….. priceless. I wasn’t perfect, but the difference was phenominal. Now my only problems were running a reel, air share, no viz exit, no viz exit while air sharing. More than enough. Other than a small issue of tangling can light cords and hoses while donating (not mine), and almost having to be rescued while trying to find my bungeed backup reg after donating (mine) we did quite well. Only took 184 minutes of dive time but we did good, good enough to earn a fun dive in the cavern AND our Cavern Certification.

Dropping down into the clear water, beneath a rock ledge in about 15 feet of water is a short wide opening , and here you enter. Not far inside the rocks drop off and you head over and down to about 45 feet, and the floor of the Ballroom at Ginnie Springs. What is in a cavern you ask? Well, dark for one. As you play your light around you, the white walls of the cavern come to life reflecting the light and formations of rocks rise up from the floor and smaller cutouts etch themselves into the walls. The bottom is coarse sand and at the far back is a grate. The flow here is quite strong and moving against it is difficult. The grate blocks access to a cave that is dangerous in nature with high flow, poor visibility and a silty bottom. Turning back to exit you spot small fish swimming about (oh yeah…..they be poked) and as you rise back up the rock wall you see the cavern entrance illuminated with the sunlight streaming through the water of the river just outside. Hmmmm. Maybe I do want to do this.

Basic cave starts tomorrow. 9AM. Have to be on time. I will run a reel.