wjefferis
Contributor
I made the drive out to the Mill Pond this morning (12-17-09) to meet up with GlenFWB to dive Jackson Blue and possibly Shangri-la. During my drive over there I crossed over the Choctawhatchee River and to say it was flooded would be an understatement. The river was over its banks at least a football field length on each side. I would have to guess that Morrison Spring will be blown out for a very long time 
. I would also think that Cypress has a good chance of being jacked-up right now as well :shocked2:.
Glen and I were the first ones on site and we made quick work of getting in the water. While we were suiting up, Edd Sorenson, Robert Neto, and another diver showed up and began getting ready for a scooter trip of JB. Glen has his camera and decided to try to get a picture of the scooter team going by so the first part of our dive I ran my primary to the gold line and then we headed out to the end of the cavern zone and waited. Soon enough the team came whizzing by us on their scooters, it looked really cool and also looked like a lot of fun :cool3:. With that done we got down to doing what we planned for the dive. Glen wanted to show me the left side of the cavern in Jackson Blue. We made a circuit so that we would have a continuous guideline to open water. We left my reel in place and then Glen ran his reel from the beginning of the gold line over to the left part of the cavern and then back over to the right to the gold line at the end of the cavern zone. This was really cool and I enjoyed this part of the dive. I haven’t downloaded my dive computer yet, but we ended with about an hour dive.
We did an hour surface interval and then jumped back in. For the second dive we decided to go left first and follow it back to the right at the end of the cavern zone. Glen then pulled his reel and we went back the way we came from and untied from the gold line up in the front part of the cavern. We both had plenty of gas left so we played around in the right side of the cavern until we hit 1/6ths and I turned the dive and pulled my reel. Once back on the surface we decided that since Glen was still recovering from a recent injury that we shouldn’t push it and dive Shangri-la and called it a day. That was fine with me; I had a great time diving with Glen and as a bonus started feeling a lot more confident in my side mount set-up. It was good to be able to get feedback on how I was doing as far as my trim, buoyancy, and running my reel from Glen, as well as getting some pointers from Robert back at Edd’s after the dive. I look forward to getting back out there again sometime soon. I also look forward to seeing some of Glen’s pictures on this thread (hint, hint) :uwphotographer:.
Edit: I also noticed a slight increase in the flow at JB. It still isn't that bad and is only really noticably harder to kick against in the first main room up to where it restricts a bit. once you drop down into the main cavern section it isn't as bad, but still up from a few weeks ago.
. I would also think that Cypress has a good chance of being jacked-up right now as well :shocked2:.Glen and I were the first ones on site and we made quick work of getting in the water. While we were suiting up, Edd Sorenson, Robert Neto, and another diver showed up and began getting ready for a scooter trip of JB. Glen has his camera and decided to try to get a picture of the scooter team going by so the first part of our dive I ran my primary to the gold line and then we headed out to the end of the cavern zone and waited. Soon enough the team came whizzing by us on their scooters, it looked really cool and also looked like a lot of fun :cool3:. With that done we got down to doing what we planned for the dive. Glen wanted to show me the left side of the cavern in Jackson Blue. We made a circuit so that we would have a continuous guideline to open water. We left my reel in place and then Glen ran his reel from the beginning of the gold line over to the left part of the cavern and then back over to the right to the gold line at the end of the cavern zone. This was really cool and I enjoyed this part of the dive. I haven’t downloaded my dive computer yet, but we ended with about an hour dive.
We did an hour surface interval and then jumped back in. For the second dive we decided to go left first and follow it back to the right at the end of the cavern zone. Glen then pulled his reel and we went back the way we came from and untied from the gold line up in the front part of the cavern. We both had plenty of gas left so we played around in the right side of the cavern until we hit 1/6ths and I turned the dive and pulled my reel. Once back on the surface we decided that since Glen was still recovering from a recent injury that we shouldn’t push it and dive Shangri-la and called it a day. That was fine with me; I had a great time diving with Glen and as a bonus started feeling a lot more confident in my side mount set-up. It was good to be able to get feedback on how I was doing as far as my trim, buoyancy, and running my reel from Glen, as well as getting some pointers from Robert back at Edd’s after the dive. I look forward to getting back out there again sometime soon. I also look forward to seeing some of Glen’s pictures on this thread (hint, hint) :uwphotographer:.
Edit: I also noticed a slight increase in the flow at JB. It still isn't that bad and is only really noticably harder to kick against in the first main room up to where it restricts a bit. once you drop down into the main cavern section it isn't as bad, but still up from a few weeks ago.
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