Got up early, with both of us commenting on how sore we were... head to toe I can't think of many parts that haven't taken some beating during the last week. I've got a line burn on the inside of my right index finger... it started with blind line drills at the beginning of the week and has only gotten worse. It doesn't help that the first five days we were in Cenote Aerolita, which has tons of life growing everywhere, especially on the line (Im certain I thoroughly cleaned the line of all the stinging stuff growing there.
German mentioned that Tom Iliffe of Texas A&M said he thought Cenote Aerolita to be the most biologically diverse cave in the world. Wow. I've not seen too many caves, but that one had tons of living stuff everywhere; radically different types all over the place... there's only one way to see it of course which is one reason why we are training in the first place.
Today, graduation day, we skipped the mainland where all the known caves are which we can return to visit anytime on our own and opted instead for yet another of Germans secret Cozumel caves. Once again we suited up on the side of the road, this time for an even longer hike through the jungle, with absolutely no trail at all. It was well worth the hike, and I've never been so happy to finally see a small dark brown watery hole in the ground.
As yesterday, we rested awhile in the water, checked our equipment, and then dropped down in the murky water to the crystal clear cavern below. Once on the line, we did our S-drill, and then moved on to multiple Ts and several jumps. This was a really dark cave, meaning that even the white limestone was covered with dark stain or silt. The passages went from large open rooms to small minor restrictions
Note: yes were tired, and its not easy to describe how amazingly beautiful and radically different each passage is in writing
so Ill limit my comments to things I can describe in words. We were like astronauts in almost every way
totally dependent on our life support systems, weightless, floating into the void, sometimes small cracks, other times vast rooms where even our high powered canister lights could not penetrate the other side. Speleothems, i.e. Stalactites, stalagmites, and a whole bunch of other wild formations only a geologist could name were everywhere. Pardon the caps, but I can only describe it as AWESOME in the truest, goose bumps sense of the word.
We proceeded further into the cave and turned the dive before reaching thirds, as German had more drills in store for us before we finished. We returned to the exit, then again back into the cave for another lights out, touch contact, then out of air while blind exit across several Ts from the cave. We made some minor mistakes, i.e. hand & long hose placement in formation while maintaining line and touch contact, but all considered, we made it out ok and this is why we must continue to drill and practice, practice, practice.
Upon surfacing, some instructor critique, and rest, German gave us the grip and bestowed upon us his blessing as Full Cave Divers!
Ill withhold his final words of wisdom, as they are to be earned, and while very short, they would probably violate Scubaboards TOS
It has been six years since I began diving, and my OW DM first turned me onto the sport when over lunch I asked where he loved to dive. Florida he said. Really, I asked, is the water really blue off shore in Florida? Not sure he said
I dive underground.
A long chain of events, including years of training, a host of excellent instructors, and finding the right cave diving partner, has allowed me to finally get my learners permit to go explore the final frontier. Safe diving to all who venture there! -Zn
