Blue Hole questions

[fire_diver]

Well, since I FINALLY got some bottom time at the BH, a few things came to mind. First off, is there any story behind the watch/medallion/snow globe that reside on a rock at about 40ft? They look like they were there for a purpose, and thought someone here might know.

Anyone know what the bones are from? I couldn't help notice them during my first dive. On my last dive, a rib bone seemed to have dissapeared. I did find a fork and 2 hotel key-cards under the ledge. I placed them on one of the rocks. On a later dive they had been moved to the bouy anchor with the other bones.

What is underneath the "floor" of BH? I noticed water coming out from under a large rock, away from the vent. Kinda gave the impression that there is a large void underneath the "bottom"

Lastly, I thought that BH had a max depth of 81ft. I recorded 85 at the grate. How much silt did the state divers remove? They sure left alot of it down there!

FD

 

[Jasonmh]

I don't know if there is a story behind some of the stuff, but there is alot of stuff down there sometimes. Did you see the golf balls and the cow skull?
Yeah, I think the bottom is at about 86 now, I know there is a lot of silt left, but the did remove quite a bit. You can imagine how much was there before
Were you out there this weekend?

 

[DandyDon]

The bottom of the grate depends on how high the spill is set. I logged 84 ft this weekend. The spill was all the way up I think...

The things laying around are just things divers put in there to look at, take pics of, etc. There is more of the volcanic vent below the floor/grate, but the grate is there to keep curious divers out and more likely alive. There is talk of allowing certified cavers down there, but I doubt it.

Stella's compressor was running well this weekend, but no Stella Saturday. She had a guy who was supposed to watch the shop, but he was very hard to find late afternoon. We grabbed some tanks and weights at 4pm, but could not take them back or pay until the next day.

Nice to see that the goldfish, carp, and one Koi are all looking good. Only saw one crawdad - dead. Guess we need to restock. Who has crawfish...??

Got some pics, including a used tractor place in Tucumcari on the way home Here

 

[fire_diver]

LOL thanks for the pics!!!

I thought that might have been you, but I didnt want to seem like an idiot. I was the first diver at BH Sat morning. Then saw you guys again at Perch. Was the vis still bad at the plane? The week before, the vis disapeared at the thermal in Perch.

Sorry I didn't ask if that was you. Looks like you guys had a good class and some good instructors. I was listening to the class on using the reel while I was packing to leave Perch.

Maybe we'll meet again.

FD

 

[DandyDon]

LOL thanks for the pics!!!

I thought that might have been you, but I didnt want to seem like an idiot. I was the first diver at BH Sat morning. Then saw you guys again at Perch. Was the vis still bad at the plane? The week before, the vis disapeared at the thermal in Perch.

Sorry I didn't ask if that was you. Looks like you guys had a good class and some good instructors. I was listening to the class on using the reel while I was packing to leave Perch.

Maybe we'll meet again.

FD

Nah, I wasn't with the Lubbock LDS class. We did visit with them some as they are friends, and I did seek help with my camera from them as they sold it to me, but the three of us parked up close were just diving. The lady in our trio is a new SB member from El Paso, and had more cookie & cherries than we could eat, altho they were great. You should have come over. Divers are friendly folks; even if hadn't been me, you'd still met someone nice.

Hmm, you might have thought we were with the Amarillo group next to us? I just chatted with them a bit, about Scuba Training Center there selling and moving. And taking pics of the pretty blond lady.

Our trio didn't do Perch. Heard if was like 10 ft viz.

 

[fire_diver]

No, I thought you were with the Lubbock class. Were you there just after 8:00 Sat. morning? That's when the Lubbock class started arriving.

Yeah, Perch was bad. There was MAYBE 10' vis at the surface. At the thermal is drop to about 1-2. I tried finding the car, but ran into the bottom several times because I couldn't see, and it was DARK! So I spent my entire time at the plane.

That Sat, I didn't even dive Perch. I walked to the end of the pier, looked down and said "yep, the vis still sucks." Then I spotted cash laying on the bottom next to dock. So I grabbed my mask and free-dove under the dock to collect the bills that someone was kind enough to leave behind. Then I paid back the scuba-gods for thier kindness by cleaning up the trash on the bottom around the dock.

FD

 

[knotical]

What is underneath the "floor" of BH?

There is an extensive cave system under Blue Hole, carved out of the sedimentary rock eons ago by dissolution.
Two cave divers lost their lives there in 1976, after which the first grate was installed.

 

[DandyDon]

Someone here said there is a cavern under the front parking lot. New Mexico is riddled in caves, old volcanic throats and tubes, dissolved by water, etc.

 

[WarrenZ]

It is my understanding from talking with a guy who used to be on the state police dive team that when they went down to recover the diver's body who was stuck in the cave they were well over 100' and the first diver who went in to find the body couldn’t recover the body because at that depth his mind was clogged with narcosis and got freaked out when he could not shine his light and make out any of the walls of the chamber he was in.

Also the city of Santa Rosa dumped enough rock into the bottom of blue hole to bring it’s depth up to about 80' from its about 100' natural depth to reduce the potential for diver injury. This had the added effect of forcing the water to find different places to come out of pushing out large rocks from the walls. I believe it was also said that it is one of the most geologically unstable places in the US that diving is allowed.

 

[RonFrank]

Some interesting comments here. I've heard a lot of things. This trip I'll make a point of talking to Stella about the history, and see what she has to say.

Some things I've heard over the years.

* There is a Cavern under the bottom of BH, and if the bottom caves in, it will become over 300feet deep.

* The cavern systems run into Carlsbad caverns.

* The Cavern systems run all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

I don't know if these are rumors, fact, or what.