SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
12-6-8 Jackson Blue Springs
I met up with GlenFWB Saturday morning just West of the AL/FL line and we loaded his truck up on a CHILLY morning. The ride went quickly and it seemed like we would have some mostly sunny skies out for our day at the head of the Mill Pond. By the time we checked in with the Sheriff's Dept and hit up Jackson Blue, the sun had us feeling quite good, likely in the upper 50sF. The park was fairly crowded, with about a dozen vehicles and lots of divers coming in and out of the water.
We ran into several people we knew and ended up gaining a 3rd diver for our first dive(cavern). Glen, Joel and I hit the water with me running the reel(I volunteered since it had actually been a little while since I had run a primary) to the goldline. We started at the back of visible daylight and worked our way slowly towards the entrance, taking alot of time to look at different nooks and crannies in the cavern and the millions of fossils plastered throughout the cave. There was alot of traffic coming in and out and its kinda fun to watch different teams moving by(in or out). Some of the teams included rotor60driver and his buddy; chickdiver, benthic, and stick(?); Jim Clark and buddies; Brock and buddies, ect. I eventually got a little chilled(we weren't moving much) and called the dive, making for a 68 minute dive with a max depth of 55'. I used a borrowed HID since I had blown my 2nd HID bulb(ugh!)
We spent nearly 3 hours between dives to hold a Wakulla County Dive Club meeting as well as feast on some club provided grub from Sonny's BBQ. Once the food was put up, the park cleared out a tad as people scattered away in search of TVs and a ballgame. Glen and I hit the water again for another cavern dive. Pretty much more of the same, just a little less traffic in the caves this time around. Glen ran the line and we just poked around for a 47 minute dive. We were out in time for a great sunset across the pond.
Good times were had and we visited over at Edds for a bit while getting our tanks filled. Then off to Tallahassee for some wings at Hooters and a Christmas parade traffic jam. Wakulla has a new Best Western that I've stayed at twice now, its nice, clean, doesn't stink, and has a decent breakfast.
12-7-8 Wakulla County Sink
Saturday was chilly, Sunday was CHILLIER with a cold damp wetsuit. GlenFWB and I met up with BGillespie at Wakulla Diving Center(Gregg Stanton). Ben got a fill and we chatted with Gregg for a while, then we bummed a ladder off him and set out for some nearby woods down a series of pigtrails leading to a green duckweed filled mudhole in the ground. We had a couple brief dives there earlier this year, but couldn't really get a feel of the system. The surface(under the duckweed) seemed in much better condition than our previous foray into the muck. Glen and I ran a line down the depression from the surface, then down the entrance and made a primary tie off on the first branch I came across ontop the debri cone, then we sloped down the cone and started circling. Eventually I tied the primary off to an existing cave line and we turned the dive and started our ascent. Looking up brought an eerie orange glow from the sun shining through both duckweed and slightly tannic water. Visibility was around 20'. I hit a max depth of 56' for a dive lasting 20 minutes. Once on the surface, BGillespie helped GlenFWB out of the water, then Ben jumped in to join me on a cave dive.
I had a 16 minute surface interval sitting in the water just waiting on the exchange of team members. We planned a conservative dive, no deco, Bens MOD was 111' so we were limited in depth(I was diving 26%), and planned to keep the dive somewhat short. We had no idea how short it'd be though, we zipped down the primary(we left it in place from the first dive) and hit the cave line, followed it through the tree it runs through and followed it down a sloping bottom, then it hit a wall and headed straight down. I levelled off at 108', with the line tying off 5-8' below me, then following the bottom, sloping down even further. I pulled my wetnotes and scribbled "Come back with diff mix and better info". Ben OK'd, then thumbed, and we were on the surface 18 minutes after descending, including a 3 minute safety stop - LOL. It was short and sweet, but atleast we know where the cave line is... I penetrated maybe 60' past my previous cave dive onsite, for a grand total of maybe 100-150' penetration(LOL). Fun though! We toured the property a bit looking at a few other sinks onsite.
We dumped off the ladder at Greggs and talked a bit more, then took a little trip around town looking at a few other sinks.
By this time we were starved, so we hit up El Jalisco's for some awesome grub, which is totally customary for a cave diving trip, especially in Wakulla County! The ride home was quick, just talked cave diving and I was back home before long. It was another awesome trip and the comradery among divers just makes it that much better. Looking forward to this weekend
More caves in store!
I met up with GlenFWB Saturday morning just West of the AL/FL line and we loaded his truck up on a CHILLY morning. The ride went quickly and it seemed like we would have some mostly sunny skies out for our day at the head of the Mill Pond. By the time we checked in with the Sheriff's Dept and hit up Jackson Blue, the sun had us feeling quite good, likely in the upper 50sF. The park was fairly crowded, with about a dozen vehicles and lots of divers coming in and out of the water.
We ran into several people we knew and ended up gaining a 3rd diver for our first dive(cavern). Glen, Joel and I hit the water with me running the reel(I volunteered since it had actually been a little while since I had run a primary) to the goldline. We started at the back of visible daylight and worked our way slowly towards the entrance, taking alot of time to look at different nooks and crannies in the cavern and the millions of fossils plastered throughout the cave. There was alot of traffic coming in and out and its kinda fun to watch different teams moving by(in or out). Some of the teams included rotor60driver and his buddy; chickdiver, benthic, and stick(?); Jim Clark and buddies; Brock and buddies, ect. I eventually got a little chilled(we weren't moving much) and called the dive, making for a 68 minute dive with a max depth of 55'. I used a borrowed HID since I had blown my 2nd HID bulb(ugh!)
We spent nearly 3 hours between dives to hold a Wakulla County Dive Club meeting as well as feast on some club provided grub from Sonny's BBQ. Once the food was put up, the park cleared out a tad as people scattered away in search of TVs and a ballgame. Glen and I hit the water again for another cavern dive. Pretty much more of the same, just a little less traffic in the caves this time around. Glen ran the line and we just poked around for a 47 minute dive. We were out in time for a great sunset across the pond.
Good times were had and we visited over at Edds for a bit while getting our tanks filled. Then off to Tallahassee for some wings at Hooters and a Christmas parade traffic jam. Wakulla has a new Best Western that I've stayed at twice now, its nice, clean, doesn't stink, and has a decent breakfast.
12-7-8 Wakulla County Sink
Saturday was chilly, Sunday was CHILLIER with a cold damp wetsuit. GlenFWB and I met up with BGillespie at Wakulla Diving Center(Gregg Stanton). Ben got a fill and we chatted with Gregg for a while, then we bummed a ladder off him and set out for some nearby woods down a series of pigtrails leading to a green duckweed filled mudhole in the ground. We had a couple brief dives there earlier this year, but couldn't really get a feel of the system. The surface(under the duckweed) seemed in much better condition than our previous foray into the muck. Glen and I ran a line down the depression from the surface, then down the entrance and made a primary tie off on the first branch I came across ontop the debri cone, then we sloped down the cone and started circling. Eventually I tied the primary off to an existing cave line and we turned the dive and started our ascent. Looking up brought an eerie orange glow from the sun shining through both duckweed and slightly tannic water. Visibility was around 20'. I hit a max depth of 56' for a dive lasting 20 minutes. Once on the surface, BGillespie helped GlenFWB out of the water, then Ben jumped in to join me on a cave dive.
I had a 16 minute surface interval sitting in the water just waiting on the exchange of team members. We planned a conservative dive, no deco, Bens MOD was 111' so we were limited in depth(I was diving 26%), and planned to keep the dive somewhat short. We had no idea how short it'd be though, we zipped down the primary(we left it in place from the first dive) and hit the cave line, followed it through the tree it runs through and followed it down a sloping bottom, then it hit a wall and headed straight down. I levelled off at 108', with the line tying off 5-8' below me, then following the bottom, sloping down even further. I pulled my wetnotes and scribbled "Come back with diff mix and better info". Ben OK'd, then thumbed, and we were on the surface 18 minutes after descending, including a 3 minute safety stop - LOL. It was short and sweet, but atleast we know where the cave line is... I penetrated maybe 60' past my previous cave dive onsite, for a grand total of maybe 100-150' penetration(LOL). Fun though! We toured the property a bit looking at a few other sinks onsite.
We dumped off the ladder at Greggs and talked a bit more, then took a little trip around town looking at a few other sinks.
By this time we were starved, so we hit up El Jalisco's for some awesome grub, which is totally customary for a cave diving trip, especially in Wakulla County! The ride home was quick, just talked cave diving and I was back home before long. It was another awesome trip and the comradery among divers just makes it that much better. Looking forward to this weekend
More caves in store!
