Bad News From Santa Rosa Blue Hole

[DandyDon]

Does anyone know the water temp on the bottom there?

Lows 60s F, top to bottom with the constant flow there. I wear neoprene gloves but have dived with thinner at times.

 

[KevinNM]

62 or so. I normally dive it without gloves, but with a decent hood. Spent 50 minutes there today, no biggie, though my hands and arms were cold I was fine and able to do a valve drill at the end.

No idea on line, I looked at the cave entrance today and they laid a chain-link fence barrier weighted down with a lot of rocks under the snorkel, so it would require a lot of work for someone to get in there now, nobody is going to sneak in.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Let's think about this. If you're the diver who's supposed to stay outside the restriction and wait for your buddy to come out, why then would you go in before your buddy came back out? I know my answer to that question. What's yours?

 

[reddiver970]

d

 

[Steve_C]

The missing question to my mind is why did Thompson die? Perhaps there is something missing in my reading of the story in that Young went to the surface and then they went back down and found Thompson but it sounds like Young found him on the way back up and Thompson was in a side tunnel and already dead. They were on rebreathers which would if things were normal mean he was still with air. So either equipment or people failure or both? There is more than one answer to chilly's question. Shear panic is one but an equipment issue resulting in bad mix is another.

 

[BDSC]

Shear panic is one but an equipment issue resulting in bad mix is another.

And if I remember right from the previous posts, his rebreather was left in the cave so I'm not sure if anyone can ever be sure it was a problem with his equipment although that seems likely to me.

 

[Jared0425]

If he panicked, I would assume his ccr could not withstand the demand and he started to tox out.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Before any of that, why would you as the buddy that's supposed to wait, instead go in? Panic wouldn't make you go in and certainly not someone of Shane's experience. So, what would make you go in, if your task on the dive plan was to wait?

 

[Jack Hammer]

Misunderstandings happen at all levels.

 

[Hetland]

So, what would make you go in, if your task on the dive plan was to wait?

Equipment malfunction I couldn't solve on my own.
Altered mental state.