The following is a brief narrative on the dive, I received by E Mail, I'm sure there will be a lot more to follow;
"Just in case someone out there might be interested, here's a quick
update on this weekend's WKPP activities at Wakulla Springs. I'm sure
Casey and Mark Messersmith will have a full narrative once they've
had a few hours of sleep, but I've seen several notes today from
people interested in finding out how it went.
The weekend's dive was extremely rewarding. A crack team of support
divers began placing deco bottles on Friday afternoon so that the
breather teams could get an early start Saturday. Conditions were
similar to two weeks ago-- perhaps a bit more blue to the water, but
still murky with ~75' of vis in the basin. We started off at 6am
Saturday with approximately 25 in-water and surface support. The
extended range set-up team took off at 7am for another 7-to-7 dive.
JJ and Casey were over the ledge and into the cave just before 9am.
From 10am on, support divers took turns pulling shifts that put most
of them in the water for five to seven hours. I'll leave it to Mark's
report to give all the thanks, but I'll say that from this pesky
photographer's perspective I've never seen a more cohesive and
professional show by the team. It started with the surface managers
Hunter and Sonya, and extended through the friendly new surface
support. Fantastic job all around. I finally got a chance to talk to
JJ and Casey in the habitat at 1am Sunday morning, and I've never
seen either of them so amped up after such an extended dive--
especially with 5 more hours of deco to go. Here is Casey's outline
of the result:
Jarrod and Casey's Profile - 260ft for 410 minutes w/ 14 hours of
decompression. In at 9am Sat
and out at 6am Sunday. 5 scooters and 5 drive bottles.
Results - Q-Tunnel discovered off P-Tunnel at 17,000ft. 3,000ft of line
added for a total distance around 20,000ft. Monster sized cave
heading S-SW
towards Spring Creek and the Gulf of Mexico - 60ft floor to ceiling
and 75ft
wide in spots.
---
It has been a _long_ time since the team ran a 24 hour dive. Everyone
should be proud of the effort that went in to making it a success.
Get some sleep now that we have Q-Tunnel to map..."
