Kirk and I are diving our first Cave dive without an instructor. We are using borrowed Al80 back doubles as we have all this week.
We enter Aerolito for a planned max time of 90 minutes or turn pressure. We do our equipment matching and then S-Drill. It's time for penetration. The plan is to follow the main line as far as possible.
We tie off and Kirk helps to maintain a low line with tie offs up to the mainline. We hit the mainline and take depth, time and pressure triples at every marked jump along the line. We have visited the first two sets of arrows more than once. As we pass the second set we observe tons of spiny starfish and several urchins. Along the line we pass some bristle worms and a millipede of sorts. We hit one area And I stumble on an eel trying to escape us.
We pass a couple of rock piles and then start into something more interesting. I start to see some waterfall formations with brown iron like color and spilieforms jutting from the ledges. This reminds me very much of Lake Travis as the ledges jutt out of the walls. Black silt covers any ledge.
In the next room rock layers extend up at an angle. We start to approach some Stalagtites and Stalagmites scattered about. Some lying on the floor as they have clearly fallen with the ceiling. We start to see some clams and as we proceed to 30 ft.
I pass my light along the line and it disappears. Numerous other jumps some marks, some not appear to the left and right. Then we notice the line drops into a black lava type coral rock. It's sharp and completely different than the rest of the cave so far. The passage is tight for a period and then begins to open up. we start to see very light colored rock. To the left and right are shallow low overhead bedding areas of lighter silt. The consistency I more like putty that sticks to your hands. We are at 60 ft.
Thing get very whitish yellow and to the left we see another room that is bedded with this white sulfur like silt as in the room before us. Larger forms appear as we enter a much tighter area. The floor drops and we are in a deep and tall crevasse. We eventually reach a nice size room of almost all white. As we pass the line changed from red to yellow. I do a double take to make sure we didn't miss a T. It's like a Christmas snow. What a gift for us. We are only a couple of hundred PSI from turn pressure now. I notice a T approaching that travels either left or straight up. I recognize this as the other side of the passage from yesterday. I know the passage will be very tight and difficult to manuever. The room allows us to make an easy turn as we originally planned two dives today. I ask Kirk and we decide to turn.
On the way back we take our time again. I am filming the experience with the GoPro. We find clams swimming. One swims up and under a ledge lodging itself in a protected area. Suddenly a 2 foot fish appears to greet us. We find the eel again and it burys itself in a hiding place much like all the millions of tiny spiny starfish. One of these starfish on the way in has a large body and is white with black spots.
We hit the primary spool way too quickly. It's a safety stop and then hit the surface with huge grins. Layne and Gordon are in the water and I take care not to spoil the pleasure of what awaits them.
It's a 78 minute dive with a max depth of 61 feet and average of 33. I can't wait to come back.
We enter Aerolito for a planned max time of 90 minutes or turn pressure. We do our equipment matching and then S-Drill. It's time for penetration. The plan is to follow the main line as far as possible.
We tie off and Kirk helps to maintain a low line with tie offs up to the mainline. We hit the mainline and take depth, time and pressure triples at every marked jump along the line. We have visited the first two sets of arrows more than once. As we pass the second set we observe tons of spiny starfish and several urchins. Along the line we pass some bristle worms and a millipede of sorts. We hit one area And I stumble on an eel trying to escape us.
We pass a couple of rock piles and then start into something more interesting. I start to see some waterfall formations with brown iron like color and spilieforms jutting from the ledges. This reminds me very much of Lake Travis as the ledges jutt out of the walls. Black silt covers any ledge.
In the next room rock layers extend up at an angle. We start to approach some Stalagtites and Stalagmites scattered about. Some lying on the floor as they have clearly fallen with the ceiling. We start to see some clams and as we proceed to 30 ft.
I pass my light along the line and it disappears. Numerous other jumps some marks, some not appear to the left and right. Then we notice the line drops into a black lava type coral rock. It's sharp and completely different than the rest of the cave so far. The passage is tight for a period and then begins to open up. we start to see very light colored rock. To the left and right are shallow low overhead bedding areas of lighter silt. The consistency I more like putty that sticks to your hands. We are at 60 ft.
Thing get very whitish yellow and to the left we see another room that is bedded with this white sulfur like silt as in the room before us. Larger forms appear as we enter a much tighter area. The floor drops and we are in a deep and tall crevasse. We eventually reach a nice size room of almost all white. As we pass the line changed from red to yellow. I do a double take to make sure we didn't miss a T. It's like a Christmas snow. What a gift for us. We are only a couple of hundred PSI from turn pressure now. I notice a T approaching that travels either left or straight up. I recognize this as the other side of the passage from yesterday. I know the passage will be very tight and difficult to manuever. The room allows us to make an easy turn as we originally planned two dives today. I ask Kirk and we decide to turn.
On the way back we take our time again. I am filming the experience with the GoPro. We find clams swimming. One swims up and under a ledge lodging itself in a protected area. Suddenly a 2 foot fish appears to greet us. We find the eel again and it burys itself in a hiding place much like all the millions of tiny spiny starfish. One of these starfish on the way in has a large body and is white with black spots.
We hit the primary spool way too quickly. It's a safety stop and then hit the surface with huge grins. Layne and Gordon are in the water and I take care not to spoil the pleasure of what awaits them.
It's a 78 minute dive with a max depth of 61 feet and average of 33. I can't wait to come back.
