Cave Diving Trip Report - Feb 5

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jviehe

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
3,109
Reaction score
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Location
Tallahassee, FL
# of dives
500 - 999
millpond206%20009.jpg


A few buddies and I rented a Pontoon Boat from Cave Adventures in Marianna and headed to a couple of cave systems on the Mill Pond last weekend. First we hit Hole in the Wall, which is just that, a hole int he cliff. The cavern is about 20ft deep, then turns into a 4ft high restriction which then opens up into a 40ft deep pit. After heading down that, you are at 80ft,about 200ft back, and can choose to go upstream or downstream. We chose upstream, but the visibility quickly dropped to 5ft , so we turned after 100ft, and tried downstream with our remaining air. Visibility was better there, but as one of our buddies was on double 80s, and I was using tables for bottom time, our dive was limited. We only did 100ft that way. BAck on the boat, we suffered through the freezing wind, and hurridely got out of our wetsuits.

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Next we topped off our tanks, and then headed up the pond to twin caves, so named because two entrances lead into the cavern. We put back on our now frozen wetsuits, and headed in. Like hole in the wall, Twin Caves is a shallow entrance weith lots of silt, which makes it hard to get in without messing up visibility. But the cavern stays clear. After tying into the mainline, we head down a short pit to 45ft, and then into the Subway, which is essentialy a 1000ft straight tunnel about 15ft high and 10ft wide. After 20 mins of that you hit a T in the line which heads down into a fissure or straight to eventually loop back up the fissure. That was a good turn point, so we headed out. Luckily it had warmed up, so changing wasnt as bad. All in all it was a great day of diving.

millpond206%20018.jpg


I took a bunch of land pics which can be found here - http://northfloridadiver.net/media/pics/millpond206/millpond206.htm

And more info on the millpond can be found here - http://northfloridadiver.net/sites/jb.htm
 
Chris [Waterdawg] and I joined them to share the boat. We went a bit farther on both dives; making the better choice from the start in Hole and we went downstream rather than upstream. About 30 minutes, 1300 feet or so before turning and coming back wilst scoping out some of the side passages along the way. A little time on o2 in the cavern zone and all was well for the second dive. 84 minutes, 85 max depth.

We jumped in at twin, dropped our bottles on the rock just before the mainline and headed to the T. Dropped a marker on the T in case we decided to do the circuit and dropped down to the deeper section. The vis in the subway was pretty good but still a little mucked by the damn catfish, however the vis down in the lower section was crystal. I saw a nice looking passageway to the right, pulled out a spool and signalled to chris, he said sure, and we headed down that passageway until the line ended. We came back, pulled the spool and decided to head back. Chilled in the cavern for a bit & came on out. 82 minutes, 104 max depth.

While loading up the cars to head home I ran into JamieZ who was down for a vacation from NY. Caught up with him via Edd on monday and made plans to get together. Went out yesterday and did another couple dives, the circuit in twin and then downstream hole for 1200 feet or so.

A nice couple days of diving!

BTW: Jim and Jamie did Hole and Twin on Monday also. They found Gerry's lost knife and gave it to Edd.
 
Here were our profiles from this dive. Spec and Waterdawg were their own team. Myself and two buddies this theses dives.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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