Again, ditto on Kvalves post, I'll add the following from my perspective...
Planning and then executing the first half of this circuit dive was very informative, exciting and fun... especially when German threw in the missing diver part, and here's my take on that:
German gave the "hold" command signal to which I responded, and passed on to John. He chose a very unique spot to do his disappearing act... a narrow passage with sharp edges everywhere; very little space on the sides (inches in places), but deep cracks everywhere leading off to who knows where. The shelves of rock sticking out were piled with silt 6-10 inches high, something we definitely did NOT want to stir up.
I watched as German dropped into several cracks, checking out ??? then he went out of sight around the bend... so we waited... time passes and a lot goes through your head as you hang there motionless, weightless, in this crazy crack underground, wondering what the instructor is doing, when John signals my attention and that he's approaching his (and my) third of gas used (German knows how to set up a challenge
). I wasn't too concerned about German, who has the SAC rate of a fish.
Anyways, we slowly moved forward to find space to further communicate via slate... we had looked forward, side to side, down, but not up... German had rounded the corner out of sight, turned off his lights, and came back in a passage above us where he could watch the little drama he'd created from above through a hole in the ceiling... where John and I failed to look for him (his one critique).
We moved forward a bit more and I saw German hiding around some out cropping rock with lights out... I gave him a big wave and we resumed on down the line. Shortly after I turned the dive as John and I approached thirds, marked the line with a cookie and headed back w/out incident.
In review, German was pleased with what his saw from his hiding spot above... we maintained composure, communication, and proper trim and stationary buoyancy in a really tight and hazardous spot with out disturbing the silt which could so easily black us out. We did begin a search and found him... had we reached our third sooner, I'm confident John and I would have appropriately called the dive and left a backup light lit on the line attached to a slate indicating we had left... German has drilled this into our head, and while it might seem difficult to some, these are the lessons that could sometime save our life.
The caves are amazing and I won't even try and describe their awesomeness in writing.
More to come as we complete the circuit tomorrow
Planning and then executing the first half of this circuit dive was very informative, exciting and fun... especially when German threw in the missing diver part, and here's my take on that:
German gave the "hold" command signal to which I responded, and passed on to John. He chose a very unique spot to do his disappearing act... a narrow passage with sharp edges everywhere; very little space on the sides (inches in places), but deep cracks everywhere leading off to who knows where. The shelves of rock sticking out were piled with silt 6-10 inches high, something we definitely did NOT want to stir up.
I watched as German dropped into several cracks, checking out ??? then he went out of sight around the bend... so we waited... time passes and a lot goes through your head as you hang there motionless, weightless, in this crazy crack underground, wondering what the instructor is doing, when John signals my attention and that he's approaching his (and my) third of gas used (German knows how to set up a challenge
). I wasn't too concerned about German, who has the SAC rate of a fish. Anyways, we slowly moved forward to find space to further communicate via slate... we had looked forward, side to side, down, but not up... German had rounded the corner out of sight, turned off his lights, and came back in a passage above us where he could watch the little drama he'd created from above through a hole in the ceiling... where John and I failed to look for him (his one critique).
We moved forward a bit more and I saw German hiding around some out cropping rock with lights out... I gave him a big wave and we resumed on down the line. Shortly after I turned the dive as John and I approached thirds, marked the line with a cookie and headed back w/out incident.
In review, German was pleased with what his saw from his hiding spot above... we maintained composure, communication, and proper trim and stationary buoyancy in a really tight and hazardous spot with out disturbing the silt which could so easily black us out. We did begin a search and found him... had we reached our third sooner, I'm confident John and I would have appropriately called the dive and left a backup light lit on the line attached to a slate indicating we had left... German has drilled this into our head, and while it might seem difficult to some, these are the lessons that could sometime save our life.
The caves are amazing and I won't even try and describe their awesomeness in writing.
More to come as we complete the circuit tomorrow
