Big accomplishment from the WKPP...

[amascuba]

This came across the quest list last night.

Greetings from Wakulla County...

The WKPP accomplished one of its long-term objectives today, when Jarrod Jablonski
and Casey McKinlay connected the Leon Sinks cave system to the Wakulla Springs
system.

Details will be posted in the coming days, but a few highlights of today's dive
include:

- 1,220ft of line layed
- connecting line tied in at 11,200ft
- bt=250min

As I write this (9pm), John Rose and David Rhea are at deco in the basin, following
their setup dive to 10,500. JJ and Casey are at deco in the 40ft trough just inside
the entrance restriction.

Basin viz is only a few inches right now, which is an impediment to shuttling large
amounts of gear past divers decompressing on the line. Now that they're on the log
at 20ft and spread out a bit we're made the most of the space, and have all the
scooters, breathers, and most of the bottles back on the surface.

A few more hours to go...

- Todd

 

[jeckyll]

Saw it on Gavin this morning ... Pretty impressive! It took a little while to get there

 

[headhunter]

Congratulations to the team!

Christian

 

[Thalassamania]

Truly, a spectacular achievement.

 

[true]

This weekend's dive resulted in the direct connection of a 6.8 mile continuous guideline between the Leon Sinks cave system and Wakulla Springs. It is the culmination of over 17 years of exploration by the WKPP, as well as other divers and dive teams stretching back almost 50 years. The ramifications on public policy regarding land and water conservation for that section of the Floridan Aquifer are staggering-- we finally have direct physical proof of the magnitude of the cave system that connects Wakulla Springs to the southern edge of metropolitan Tallahassee, over 30 miles away. It will literally rewrite the book on hydrogeology.

It was an honor to be a part of the team for this dive. Let's hope that it doesn't take another two decades to make the connection to Spring Creek and the Gulf of Mexico...

-anthony

 

[TSandM]

The magnitude of the planning and preparation that goes into these dives is just staggering. Let's hope the Florida government honors the effort by taking the water quality issues seriously.