Bobby
Contributor
Sorry I did not realize that I was signed in as Mel.
29-Apr-05 Dive on 4/29/2005 at 11:04 Dive : 153
Time Down : 11:04
Time Up : 12:17
Duration : 73
Max Depth : 216.81
Location : Cave Country
DiveSite : Hectagon
Buddy : Nick
Buddy :
Gas Details:
Name Time
Tri16/36 21
EAN30 30
EAN99 22
Dive Notes:
I had the best dive of my life on this last trip, oh my god it was just out of this world. I have been helping a few friends in a new found sink and putting a little line in here and there. We wanted to look in the deep section which is accessed by side mount only passage. The first day we went in and looked where we thought there would be going passage, Nick was leading and did not find anything going but I thought I had seen something along the way. When he started to reel back in I motioned for him to hand me the reel and I started to look in this slopping crack that was very silt filled. Down in the corner at around 200` I found a little hole. When we went into the hole it turned out to be going passage that turned back and forth similar to the catacombs in Ginnie springs, Devils Ear. We laid 200` feet of line, found a good tie off, and decided to turn the dive since we had used so much gas in the search. The next day we gassed up for a little deeper dive since the tunnel seemed to be going deeper as we went. We had 95`s side mounted and 32% for travel and first deco with 100% hung at 20`. This time we knew exactly where we were going and a more specific dive plan with hopes of the tunnel not closing out or turning back on its self. While on deco the day before Nick and I had found a squirrel skull that was in very good condition and had been in the water for a long time. It reminded us of how the tunnel turned back and forth like a squirrel playing and that sealed it we had the name of our new area of the cave.
John another friend of ours decided to join us on our second dive, he was diving back mount and planned to go to the merry go round room to run line around the entire room and look for new leads. This room is very large and very tall so it is very possible that there could be going passage from this room that has been missed in the past. When we first started diving this system we thought, because of the low flow and all the silt in the system that it would not be very big or go much. Logs and crap had to be pulled from the sink before diving could even begin. The main sink that we start the dive in is Hectagon with gypsy sink right next to it.
On my first trip to the system Nick had told me that no one had tried to enter through Gypsy so of course I had to check it out. I spent the next two hours pulling logs, leaves, and crap out of the sink in double 112 cubic ft. cylinders. By the time I finished I was wishing I had put on a single cylinder since I only made it to 23` and just into the cave system. I did not connect the sink to the system that day but felt that I was close. Nick and I then had a nice dive in Hectagon and spent most of our time cleaning up lines and putting in line arrows when needed. At the end of the dive we went to the down stream side, towards Gypsy sink and sure enough there was silt and debris in there so we knew I was close to making the connection. Later and much cleaning out of debris Nick made the connection which turned out to be an easy back mount second entrance from Gypsy.
Today`s dive though had promise of big possibilities and we could hardly contain our excitement as we geared up. The dive plan was for all three of us to swim the main line with John jumping off to go to the Merry Go Round room, Nick and I would go to the Little Restriction taking us to the Deep Section. John decided to see what the chances were to get through the Little Restriction back mount and continued with us. Nick was leading and the viz is zero after the first person enters, I already knew this from past dives and went to touch contact with the line as soon as we entered. It is not practical to be in touch contact through this area due to the twisting and turning that is needed to get through and in the middle you need to cross the line while not cracking your head on a big rock that sticks out. I have a good sized purple reminder on my temple that you need to be careful while negotiating this part of the system. As usual I popped out of the Little Restriction into the Big Room in the Deep Section to find Nick giving me an OK signal, I returned the signal and we were off. This time we dropped our travel gas where Hector had tied off the end of his line at the bottom of the deep section. This allowed us to pick up our travel at 180` and get off of our trimix earlier upon our return.
This was the moment of truth as we headed off on the line we had laid the day before, what would the system do? Would it turn back on its self and put us right back into the big room or would it squeeze off quickly leaving us with far too much line still on our reels? At our tie off we had two choices one to the right and one to the left. From the day before I had thought the tunnel to the right held the most promise though the side mount restriction was tight I had that feeling that it would go. This time Nick was in the lead and when he tied of his explorer reel he felt the tunnel to the left was the way to go, so off to the left it was. The first two hundred feet the tunnel meandered back and forth and seemed to be going well then it took a hard turn to the left and seemed to be going back to the back room, just as I figured we would have to be hitting the big room with only about 230` of line laid it took a hard right and kept going. At this point I had to remind myself to be calm and keep my breathing and heart rate down, this was just so exciting it would be easy to suck down my gas resulting in an early turn of the dive. We were running line off at a good clip and this tunnel just kept going with all kinds of turns and twists, 300` then 350` then 400` and we were gradually getting deeper along the way. Just as we put out 500` of line we popped out of the Squirrel tunnel into a very large room with crystal clear blue water. Nick and I both hung there in awe of how beautiful the room is; finally Nick broke the trance with a big wohoo through his regulator which I returned. A couple of high fives and we were back to work. Nick tied off the reel as I cleaned up the line a bit, then we set off to lay line around the room. This room is big with very pretty white limestone and very tall. Once we made our way around the room and had lined it we set off to look for leads, me taking the deep side and Nick taking the shallow. I found two possible tight side mount or no mount leads but they did not feel like the main section. Nick found another possible lead a little shallower but it was time to think about getting back. We took a rough estimate of the room which is about 75` by 60` across and 50` tall. The flow is almost non existent with very light fluffy silt not unlike the type that builds up in Eagles Nest. With how blue and clear the water is, I could clearly see Nick all the way across the room, and the fact that the room is not even a third filled with silt we are confident that there is more going passage. Both of us were a few hundred psi from thirds but at this depth we had racked up a decent amount of deco and would be cutting it close with the deco gas that we had for this dive. We decided to turn the dive and head back. On the way back there were a couple of other possible leads that might go from the squirrel tunnel and I took a minute to look closer at the lead I thought would have going passage now on our left as we exited. I still think it will go and could possibly be the main passage, but that will have to wait for another day. When we hit our 50` deco stop John came down to check on us and we all exchanged another round of high fives along with wohoo`s shouted through our regulators. This deco time was one of the sweetest I have ever had while I spent the time replaying the dive in my head. We had just laid 700` of new line in over 200` of water and it seems that the system is still going. Max depth in the Tear Drop room was 216`, we don`t have minimum yet since Nick did not go all the way to the top his shallowest was 184` with a lot of room above him. Total dive time for me was 72 minutes with Nick having his extra 13 minutes from his HE (he needs to get a VR3) at least he did not stay with me on my deep stops this time or it would have been a lot more time for him in the water.
29-Apr-05 Dive on 4/29/2005 at 11:04 Dive : 153
Time Down : 11:04
Time Up : 12:17
Duration : 73
Max Depth : 216.81
Location : Cave Country
DiveSite : Hectagon
Buddy : Nick
Buddy :
Gas Details:
Name Time
Tri16/36 21
EAN30 30
EAN99 22
Dive Notes:
I had the best dive of my life on this last trip, oh my god it was just out of this world. I have been helping a few friends in a new found sink and putting a little line in here and there. We wanted to look in the deep section which is accessed by side mount only passage. The first day we went in and looked where we thought there would be going passage, Nick was leading and did not find anything going but I thought I had seen something along the way. When he started to reel back in I motioned for him to hand me the reel and I started to look in this slopping crack that was very silt filled. Down in the corner at around 200` I found a little hole. When we went into the hole it turned out to be going passage that turned back and forth similar to the catacombs in Ginnie springs, Devils Ear. We laid 200` feet of line, found a good tie off, and decided to turn the dive since we had used so much gas in the search. The next day we gassed up for a little deeper dive since the tunnel seemed to be going deeper as we went. We had 95`s side mounted and 32% for travel and first deco with 100% hung at 20`. This time we knew exactly where we were going and a more specific dive plan with hopes of the tunnel not closing out or turning back on its self. While on deco the day before Nick and I had found a squirrel skull that was in very good condition and had been in the water for a long time. It reminded us of how the tunnel turned back and forth like a squirrel playing and that sealed it we had the name of our new area of the cave.
John another friend of ours decided to join us on our second dive, he was diving back mount and planned to go to the merry go round room to run line around the entire room and look for new leads. This room is very large and very tall so it is very possible that there could be going passage from this room that has been missed in the past. When we first started diving this system we thought, because of the low flow and all the silt in the system that it would not be very big or go much. Logs and crap had to be pulled from the sink before diving could even begin. The main sink that we start the dive in is Hectagon with gypsy sink right next to it.
On my first trip to the system Nick had told me that no one had tried to enter through Gypsy so of course I had to check it out. I spent the next two hours pulling logs, leaves, and crap out of the sink in double 112 cubic ft. cylinders. By the time I finished I was wishing I had put on a single cylinder since I only made it to 23` and just into the cave system. I did not connect the sink to the system that day but felt that I was close. Nick and I then had a nice dive in Hectagon and spent most of our time cleaning up lines and putting in line arrows when needed. At the end of the dive we went to the down stream side, towards Gypsy sink and sure enough there was silt and debris in there so we knew I was close to making the connection. Later and much cleaning out of debris Nick made the connection which turned out to be an easy back mount second entrance from Gypsy.
Today`s dive though had promise of big possibilities and we could hardly contain our excitement as we geared up. The dive plan was for all three of us to swim the main line with John jumping off to go to the Merry Go Round room, Nick and I would go to the Little Restriction taking us to the Deep Section. John decided to see what the chances were to get through the Little Restriction back mount and continued with us. Nick was leading and the viz is zero after the first person enters, I already knew this from past dives and went to touch contact with the line as soon as we entered. It is not practical to be in touch contact through this area due to the twisting and turning that is needed to get through and in the middle you need to cross the line while not cracking your head on a big rock that sticks out. I have a good sized purple reminder on my temple that you need to be careful while negotiating this part of the system. As usual I popped out of the Little Restriction into the Big Room in the Deep Section to find Nick giving me an OK signal, I returned the signal and we were off. This time we dropped our travel gas where Hector had tied off the end of his line at the bottom of the deep section. This allowed us to pick up our travel at 180` and get off of our trimix earlier upon our return.
This was the moment of truth as we headed off on the line we had laid the day before, what would the system do? Would it turn back on its self and put us right back into the big room or would it squeeze off quickly leaving us with far too much line still on our reels? At our tie off we had two choices one to the right and one to the left. From the day before I had thought the tunnel to the right held the most promise though the side mount restriction was tight I had that feeling that it would go. This time Nick was in the lead and when he tied of his explorer reel he felt the tunnel to the left was the way to go, so off to the left it was. The first two hundred feet the tunnel meandered back and forth and seemed to be going well then it took a hard turn to the left and seemed to be going back to the back room, just as I figured we would have to be hitting the big room with only about 230` of line laid it took a hard right and kept going. At this point I had to remind myself to be calm and keep my breathing and heart rate down, this was just so exciting it would be easy to suck down my gas resulting in an early turn of the dive. We were running line off at a good clip and this tunnel just kept going with all kinds of turns and twists, 300` then 350` then 400` and we were gradually getting deeper along the way. Just as we put out 500` of line we popped out of the Squirrel tunnel into a very large room with crystal clear blue water. Nick and I both hung there in awe of how beautiful the room is; finally Nick broke the trance with a big wohoo through his regulator which I returned. A couple of high fives and we were back to work. Nick tied off the reel as I cleaned up the line a bit, then we set off to lay line around the room. This room is big with very pretty white limestone and very tall. Once we made our way around the room and had lined it we set off to look for leads, me taking the deep side and Nick taking the shallow. I found two possible tight side mount or no mount leads but they did not feel like the main section. Nick found another possible lead a little shallower but it was time to think about getting back. We took a rough estimate of the room which is about 75` by 60` across and 50` tall. The flow is almost non existent with very light fluffy silt not unlike the type that builds up in Eagles Nest. With how blue and clear the water is, I could clearly see Nick all the way across the room, and the fact that the room is not even a third filled with silt we are confident that there is more going passage. Both of us were a few hundred psi from thirds but at this depth we had racked up a decent amount of deco and would be cutting it close with the deco gas that we had for this dive. We decided to turn the dive and head back. On the way back there were a couple of other possible leads that might go from the squirrel tunnel and I took a minute to look closer at the lead I thought would have going passage now on our left as we exited. I still think it will go and could possibly be the main passage, but that will have to wait for another day. When we hit our 50` deco stop John came down to check on us and we all exchanged another round of high fives along with wohoo`s shouted through our regulators. This deco time was one of the sweetest I have ever had while I spent the time replaying the dive in my head. We had just laid 700` of new line in over 200` of water and it seems that the system is still going. Max depth in the Tear Drop room was 216`, we don`t have minimum yet since Nick did not go all the way to the top his shallowest was 184` with a lot of room above him. Total dive time for me was 72 minutes with Nick having his extra 13 minutes from his HE (he needs to get a VR3) at least he did not stay with me on my deep stops this time or it would have been a lot more time for him in the water.
