After being away most of the summer, we're back and diving again. We recently purchased a jon boat and we've been exploring the Chipola River, as well as heading out to the Mill Pond caves more. This day I headed out to Hole in the Wall for a couple of dives with a diver I met through one of the other boards. We took the downstream passage first and headed back to just past 1600'. Visibility was about 30-40' throughout the entire dive with a haziness that made it difficult to see the walls in some of the larger rooms. Water temperature was 68 degrees. We turned the dive at about 33 minutes and made it back to our deco bottles at 68 minutes into the dive.
We headed over to Cave Adventurers to top off our tanks and take a little bit of a surface interval. Almost 2 hours later, we headed back into the water to check out the upstream passage. Visibility here was about 15-20'. The farther back into the cave we went, the more the visibility opened up. At about 1200' back we actually had about 50-60' of visibility. Water temperature in this passage was 67 degrees. We turned the dive about 31 minutes in and made it back to our deco bottles at 65 minutes.
It looks like Hole in the Wall may be starting to turn early this year. Usually conditions don't start getting this way until late October. There may only be a couple more weeks of diving for Hole in the Wall...unless you're willing to bear 10' of visibility and water temperature in the high 50s!
We had a great time, and this was the new boat's maiden dive trip! It held 2 people with full gear and deco bottles just fine. I think a 3rd diver would probably be the limit, though, and that's with no stage bottles, etc. Looking forward to hitting some more of the water accessible only caves soon!
We headed over to Cave Adventurers to top off our tanks and take a little bit of a surface interval. Almost 2 hours later, we headed back into the water to check out the upstream passage. Visibility here was about 15-20'. The farther back into the cave we went, the more the visibility opened up. At about 1200' back we actually had about 50-60' of visibility. Water temperature in this passage was 67 degrees. We turned the dive about 31 minutes in and made it back to our deco bottles at 65 minutes.
It looks like Hole in the Wall may be starting to turn early this year. Usually conditions don't start getting this way until late October. There may only be a couple more weeks of diving for Hole in the Wall...unless you're willing to bear 10' of visibility and water temperature in the high 50s!
We had a great time, and this was the new boat's maiden dive trip! It held 2 people with full gear and deco bottles just fine. I think a 3rd diver would probably be the limit, though, and that's with no stage bottles, etc. Looking forward to hitting some more of the water accessible only caves soon!