…. They are but hovels compared with the caverns I have seen here: immeasurable halls, filled with an everlasting music of water that tinkles into pools, as fair as Kheled-Zaram in the starlight……..
~ Gimli the Dwarf from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Two Towers
~ Gimli the Dwarf from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Two Towers
I am back…. Back where the rivers have funky names and the springs run warm and clear into the flowing rivers with sometimes unpronounceable Indian names.
The world is setting itself right again, the frosty Florida winter is gone, replaced by warm sunshine and cooling nights. And I am back, checking cow butts for a glimpse of the day to come.
I stop on my way at the Dive Outpost and spend some time chatting with everyone while Hobie makes himself at home. A dog in a dive shop, not an unusual concept. I am happy to meet Forrest whom I have heard so much about and he shows me his slideshow from Mexico, another thing to add to my bucket list, what a wonderful trip. I torture the workers a bit with questions and my flooded lights and like magic there are bright beams of light and we while away the time as I wait for my 10W bulb to arrive.
Unfortunately, I discover it will not happen til morning and Forrest graciously takes the handful of parts I call a light head and offer to reassemble and have a working light for me when I arrive back and I thank him immensely for his help.
I move on and arrive at the trailer where things are changing, there is a washer and dryer now, a new chair, and air conditioner. But the old familiars are still there too. The showerhead is 8 feet in the air and while someone has stolen the stars off the ceiling, the glue residue is still there and glows if only for a short while. I miss the old stars and the soft glow is somehow comforting.
I awake the next morning and head for Ginnie Springs and day one of my apprentice class. I am not solo for this portion, my classmate is Lee, a quiet soft spoken man and he is in for a ride with my frantic antics and non-stop chattering.
We gear up and hit the water for a shakedown dive. Apparently Lee and I are well matched, we begin with S-Drills that have an unusual look to them as we bounce off of each other simultaneously spinning and claiming OOA. Lesson one….. part of dive planning is deciding who goes first.
We enter through the eye and the flow is kicking….. I remember now, you fight your way in like Wal-Mart on black Friday and ride the flow out like the water flume at the amusement park. Jim has left a reel in and we check it to make sure it is still taut and move on the start of the gold line. I drop my deco bottle and we make our way up to the ceiling.
I begin to pull myself along and feel the rub on my fingertips. I know I am not using my full hand for every pull and will be sorry later but I am struggling to keep up with Speedy Gonzalez in his wetsuit and double 85’s. Each time I tell him to slowdown he does but not enough for these old bones. I am struggling a bit with buoyancy and am just feeling exceptionally light, I know I am not but I am struggling.
We make our way to the Hill 400 line and Jim places a jump reel in and we make our way down the passageway waiting to hit our turn pressure and head on out.
The trip back out is uneventful, I emerge from the tunnel and make the turn for home, the right turn this time…. Last time there I turned wrong, misreading the twisted arrow and not checking the reel clip. This is improvement. Improvement is good.
I still struggle with my trim as we exit and as Lee pulls the reel and as I sit ahead of him waiting, I am plastered in the eye, feeling waaaay too light and trying desperately to dump more air from my arm valve before being shot out like a circus performer from a cannon.
I did not get to sit on the deco log as I spend my hang time still fighting to remain below the water. We rise up and over the lip and head onto the steps and lunch.
I am soaking wet, inside of my drysuit and thoroughly upset with my bouncing buoyancy. I hate Pinnacle and my soaking wet underwear. I do hope they read this. They stink worse than my trim.
The sun is warm and lunch is relaxing and we enter the water again. Skills this dive and again we massacre the S-Drills before heading on down to the eye and flow like an open fire hydrant. We make our way again to the gold line and make our way along to the catacombs.
I am tying a jump reel in and leading our way through the catacombs and out to the gold line again. I am still struggling to remain trim but am not leaving a huge cloud of silt behind me as I feared I would. We continue on to the lips and here we turn the dive and return back through the low dark tunnel as it meanders along with narrow passageways and low wide rooms, the silty rise to a dead end and more tunnels and twisting and turning. I reel on in and upon reaching the gold line I………. remove my reel and clip it off to my left D-ring. Uneventful you say…… you must not remember my ability to foul 3 reels in one dive and having to have my jump reel cut from the gold line last time here. I am jubilant, unfortunately my bouncing up and down was not the result of me jumping for joy. I was still struggling light. I pick up my deco bottle and it helps to have the extra weight as I make my way through the eye and spend my hang on the limb just above the deco log.
My fins stick to my boots with the suction of Hoover vacuum and upon removing my dry suit I pour water from the sleeve before extracting my wet arm. Did I mention how I hate Pinnacle?
I have accepted the fact that I will be wet for the week I am here and hope tomorrow is better for me.