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.