SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
Playing catchup again...
Madison Blue Springs 12-12-10
Its been a long time since I had been to Madison Blue Springs, too long considering its newly decreased proximity to where I live now. Mag3 was in town and was looking for a dive and had contacted me sometime in advance about buddying up. We'd be diving at the Intro Cave level and our basic plan was to enjoy a couple dives while gaining a bit of experience in the water. I gave a little tour of the grounds that included Martz Sink and we went to gearing up.
Visibility was in the 30-40' range and flow was down considerably for Madison. I ran a primary line all but 5' to the goldline(forgot they moved it to the front of the cavern) and we pushed against the flow and into the cave. I really missed Madison, it was great to be back. Creamy solid limestone and rippled sand floors along the beginning of the main passage were fun to dive through again. Eventually we turned and made our way out, leaving the reel in for a second dive. Had a max depth of 70' for 31 minutes.
The 1:11 surface interval was spent discussing some ways to improve on the dive as well as talking to some new and old friends. Jeano-beano even made an appearance and passed on a great lead for some local grub(Red Onion Cafe)! We hopped back in the water. Thauburn and ARY were also there and they were lighting the hell up out of the cave with better than a half-dozen high powered continuous light sources being used to get some dynamic photos in some of the passages. We swam right through their studio at one point, which was kinda neat. Got a little further this time around, with a max depth of 71' for 32 minutes.
We had some fun dives, I told myself I wouldn't go so long before getting to Madison again(I still haven't gone back though). Had a great lunch at the Red Onion Cafe afterwards, yummy burger and some hot chocolate to help warm me up(diving wet in the winter sucks).
Wakulla County Sinks 12-18-10
DogHouseDiver and MrMccoy came out for a little visit to Tallahassee and we decided to get a dive in at a line of shallow sinkholes in Wakulla County that had been consistantly clear for the past 2.5 months(or better, I dunno). We utilized an access point made possible by WCDC membership that shortened our hike to our divesite considerably(300' vs better than a mile).
We hopped in at the closest possible sinkhole and started heading upstream. This part of the cave is 50' or shallower and black. The walls and silt floor will just eat up your lights, but we made good progress against a noticable flow. We passed 5 sinkholes before turning, the fourth of which is one of my favorite cavern views. After that same sinkhole, the passage starts gradually dropping deeper, to the 100' range. It also turns pure white, gets very craggly, and then gets that powercave look with huge scalloped walls and paperthin formations. Its simply beautiful. I ran a jump for pfcAJ and LiteHedded(who were coming in a little after us and wanted to complete a circuit I had told them about). We continued on a few hundred more feet and hit a T, cookied and went left for about 100' before turning the dive and exitting the way we came. The exit was fairly uneventfull short of MrMccoy sticking his butt out into open air at one of the sinkholes due to a little floaty feet issue
Had a max depth of 102' for a dive lasting 86 minutes.
Leon County Sink 12-22-10
DogHouseDiver was enjoying a little vacation time and came out during the week for another dive, so we met up after I got out at work. Our destination was a sinkhole which the WCDC had arranged access to after doing a pretty extensive cleanup onsite. The depression leading to the water is pretty steep, making it a little uninviting.
We hopped in anyway. This is the only cave I know of in the panhandle with a 71F water source. Dunno why, but its friggin nice. We slid into the little hole that leads into a lowish bedding plane that will eventually open up to easily swam passage. We followed the main passage until it dead ends into a little room with some impassable feeders. The cave turns from very colorfull(yellows, browns, tans, blacks, and whites) chunky passage to a pure white passage as it goes from the 35' depths to about 60'. It really is a beautiful, shallow cave. Had a max depth of 58' with a dive time of 50 minutes.
We managed not to get robbed or killed by crackheads, score!
Madison Blue Springs 12-12-10
Its been a long time since I had been to Madison Blue Springs, too long considering its newly decreased proximity to where I live now. Mag3 was in town and was looking for a dive and had contacted me sometime in advance about buddying up. We'd be diving at the Intro Cave level and our basic plan was to enjoy a couple dives while gaining a bit of experience in the water. I gave a little tour of the grounds that included Martz Sink and we went to gearing up.
Visibility was in the 30-40' range and flow was down considerably for Madison. I ran a primary line all but 5' to the goldline(forgot they moved it to the front of the cavern) and we pushed against the flow and into the cave. I really missed Madison, it was great to be back. Creamy solid limestone and rippled sand floors along the beginning of the main passage were fun to dive through again. Eventually we turned and made our way out, leaving the reel in for a second dive. Had a max depth of 70' for 31 minutes.
The 1:11 surface interval was spent discussing some ways to improve on the dive as well as talking to some new and old friends. Jeano-beano even made an appearance and passed on a great lead for some local grub(Red Onion Cafe)! We hopped back in the water. Thauburn and ARY were also there and they were lighting the hell up out of the cave with better than a half-dozen high powered continuous light sources being used to get some dynamic photos in some of the passages. We swam right through their studio at one point, which was kinda neat. Got a little further this time around, with a max depth of 71' for 32 minutes.
We had some fun dives, I told myself I wouldn't go so long before getting to Madison again(I still haven't gone back though). Had a great lunch at the Red Onion Cafe afterwards, yummy burger and some hot chocolate to help warm me up(diving wet in the winter sucks).
Wakulla County Sinks 12-18-10
DogHouseDiver and MrMccoy came out for a little visit to Tallahassee and we decided to get a dive in at a line of shallow sinkholes in Wakulla County that had been consistantly clear for the past 2.5 months(or better, I dunno). We utilized an access point made possible by WCDC membership that shortened our hike to our divesite considerably(300' vs better than a mile).
We hopped in at the closest possible sinkhole and started heading upstream. This part of the cave is 50' or shallower and black. The walls and silt floor will just eat up your lights, but we made good progress against a noticable flow. We passed 5 sinkholes before turning, the fourth of which is one of my favorite cavern views. After that same sinkhole, the passage starts gradually dropping deeper, to the 100' range. It also turns pure white, gets very craggly, and then gets that powercave look with huge scalloped walls and paperthin formations. Its simply beautiful. I ran a jump for pfcAJ and LiteHedded(who were coming in a little after us and wanted to complete a circuit I had told them about). We continued on a few hundred more feet and hit a T, cookied and went left for about 100' before turning the dive and exitting the way we came. The exit was fairly uneventfull short of MrMccoy sticking his butt out into open air at one of the sinkholes due to a little floaty feet issue
Had a max depth of 102' for a dive lasting 86 minutes. Leon County Sink 12-22-10
DogHouseDiver was enjoying a little vacation time and came out during the week for another dive, so we met up after I got out at work. Our destination was a sinkhole which the WCDC had arranged access to after doing a pretty extensive cleanup onsite. The depression leading to the water is pretty steep, making it a little uninviting.
We hopped in anyway. This is the only cave I know of in the panhandle with a 71F water source. Dunno why, but its friggin nice. We slid into the little hole that leads into a lowish bedding plane that will eventually open up to easily swam passage. We followed the main passage until it dead ends into a little room with some impassable feeders. The cave turns from very colorfull(yellows, browns, tans, blacks, and whites) chunky passage to a pure white passage as it goes from the 35' depths to about 60'. It really is a beautiful, shallow cave. Had a max depth of 58' with a dive time of 50 minutes.
We managed not to get robbed or killed by crackheads, score!
