Spectre
Contributor
Warning:quite long, and whipped up due to the incessent proding for the trip report 
Just about a year ago, A friend at my dive club asked what sort of diving was I interested in. At one point in the conversation he inquired if I was interested in cave diving. My answer was a resounding NO!
Well, a year later; many things have changed Including that comment. I found myself on my way to Luraville Florida last Thursday to take a cavern class in the middle of cave country. So much for not being interested in cave diving!
I arrived at the Dive Outpost just after 6 on Thursday evening. I got the rundown of the procedures of the shop and everything, and headed off to my room to get situated and get my equipment all put together. I sat down and finished watching the movie from the plane, and proceeded to dig around the video shelves for something related to the local cave diving. I managed to find myself a tape of some diving in the local area and settled in to watch. It was entertaining, but about 12:30 I decided to turn it off and get some sleep.
Around 1:15 AM William [my instructor] and his girlfriend Joan showed up. We chatted a bit and I mentioned the tape. I was sort of joking about it and mentioned there was some fruitcake on there singing and talking and otherwise doing things that fruitcakes do After a bit of chuckling I was informed That fruitcake is your instructor! Well that set the precedence for the whole weekend; one of jokes and humorous insults! We ended up watching most of the video again, and finally fell asleep pretty late.
Friday we got up, and started working on gear modifications. At this point the jabs gained in frequency, seeing as my instructor was a heavy DIR proponent and has grand aspirations to become a GUE instructor. By the end of the weekend I was referring to him as Pope GI IV the next DIR messiah.
We played with the gear for a long time, little changes here and there to try, as well as fixing a few of the problems I was having [like the frozen elbow nut in my BC inflator]. Joan finally stepped in and made us get out and actually dive!
So we headed over to Royal Springs for my open water skills dives. We started by reel and spool drills on land, going over primary and secondary tie-offs, no-vis procedures and signals, and line following. It was cool to see the changes in time between following a line [2 minutes], following a line with your eyes closed [4 minutes], and leading a buddy in no-vis when other divers have run lines across your line [6 minutes]. It really struck home the importance of being extremely safe with your air supply and your dive planning.
When we first arrived at Royal we learned from some other divers that there was a fatality over at Orange Grove. Not knowing the area I didnt think much of the site, but it definitely added a little to my nervousness!
We finally got a chance to get in the water. First dive was just getting used to the equipment modifications, show-me drills, and fining techniques. I had let William take the bungee cord off my DiveRite wing, and that change really hit home that my wing is too big for singles diving Every little twitch blew my trim out of whack, and without the weight belt that Im used to in the cold New England waters, I kept ending up tipping forward! A smaller wing and heavier fins would have made a huge difference. Fining techniques went as expected good frog kick, good helicopter turns ok modified flutter [I hadnt tried it before] and non-existent backwards kick [I knew that]. William seems to enjoy running S-drills, and he gets downright giddy if he notices a problem with your gear! We ran an s-drill, I put my reg back in my mouth, and immediately he was signaling out of air again. I went to hand off my reg and it got stuck behind my neck! After a split second of panic, which I thankfully managed to contain and remember to grab my alternate, I fished out the tangle. The rest of the weekend I was extremely aware of making sure my primary doesnt fall under my secondary hose!
Second dive was underwater line drills. By this time it was night, which made the ability to open my eyes and cheat non-existent! However in actuality I really enjoyed those drills I found that following a line with my eyes closed was the best buoyancy control I had the whole weekend! I did keep forgetting to put my hand up in front of me to feel for obstructions, and I was reminded of that with an elbow to the forehead. The elbow caused me to immediately get my arm in front of me, and six inches to the left and I would have reaped revenge for the elbow as I caught him right in the knee.
We headed back to the Outpost for some more classwork and some dinner. Wendy had arrived when we got there and we all chatted a bit before we headed off to the classroom while Wendy and Joan graciously cooked us all up some pizzas. We finished up the night with a few more gear modifications. I also considered putting my bungee back on, and William wasnt happy but was ok with it, however I later decided to give it another try and didnt bother.
We got up early on Saturday. A little class work while we waited for fills and we headed off to Peacock for some diving. Wendy and Joan decided sleeping was far more enticing then serving as surface support!
We got to Orange Grove, did our site check, and started gearing up for my first cavern dive. The whole time the little voice in the back of my head was screaming Dude didnt that guy get killed here yesterday???. We did out all our plans and jumped in. The first thing I noticed was a canister light laying under the platform probably left over from getting the body out the day before Ok. Now Im a little nervous!
We did our in water checks, and headed under for S-drills, of which I failed miserably due to a complete brain-freeze with my buoyancy control. We talked about it, and I got it down the next time. We headed off for our tour of the cavern. Down to the left, then turned and along the back. We got to the tunnel leading into the cave and headed down there. The cavern to that point was your typical rocky slope but with rocks above your head as well. However the tunnel was truly beautiful, about 10 ft wide and 5 feet high, with clean limestone walls it basically looked like swimming in a coral tunnel. Up until this point I had noticed that the springs were extremely quiet. When in the tunnel however, the thudding of the air bubbles against the ceiling made the most interesting sound almost like a car passing overhead with the stereo too loud.
During the surface interval I had a little bit of a problem. We were debriefing when the o-ring blew on my backup second stage. After a second of looking at it, I reached up to turn off the air. My regulator was almost all the way unscrewed and the o-ring had blown because of that. The image of it happening 10 minutes previous when we were back at the sign for the cave entrance truly slammed into my head to make sure I make sure my regs are tight on their hoses during gear check!
Second dive was with me leading. Task loading was a bit much, but I survived all the little mistakes I made [tying the primary with branches above my head, silting when doing a helicopter turn, etc, etc, etc ]. This was when I learned that running a reel while carrying a light and making sure there isnt any slack in the line with a leaky mask is a bit of a challenge!
Wendy and Joan showed up while we were gearing down, and then they headed further into the park to check out Peacock proper. We finished gearing down and headed back to the outpost for more classroom, fills, and lunch.
After lunch we headed off to Peacock I. While we were coming back from site check we heard that Peacock III had exceptional visibility, so we changed plan and headed over to Peacock III for a sight check. Sure enough William thought it looked great and we decided to dive there. One of Williams buddies was there [Anthony] and Wendy hooked up with him for a dive as well. We headed in and around. Tied off to the left side of the cavern entrance and worked our way over to the right and tied off there. We then headed back to the left and down to the signpost, then turned and headed into the tunnel for a ways. I think William chose Peacock III specifically because I hadnt been paying close enough attention to silting when doing the drills and turns, and looking at the foot deep silt on the floor definitely ensured me to be cautious!
We turned and headed out. On the way I saw a cup sitting in the silt, and headed for it to clean it up. However after taking a closer look at how deep it was in the silt, I decided Id skip the cave conservation that time! As we headed out of the tunnel, I noticed Williams light was gone, and I turned around to see what was up. He had decided it was time to give me an entanglement drill and I had caught him right as he started to do a helicopter turn through the line. I told him to hold and preceeded to attempt to untangle the mess that he decided to create. Not that bad, except I kept grabbing his fin while trying to get the line out of his legs, and every time I did it completely threw off his trim and buoyancy! We finished that right as Anthony and Wendy were coming down and around the signpost. We dealt with getting by their line and headed on out. Upon reaching the surface and debriefing, I was informed [a little to my surprise] that I had passed and I was now a certified cavern diver!
After a surface interval, it was time for my first post-cert cavern dive. This time it was 4 of us; William, myself, Wendy and Anthony; in that order. We headed down and made the primary tie off on the left side of the entrance. I crashed a little into the silt, which cut the vis down some, but it wasnt bad. We headed in to the right to go check out the balcony area there. We set placements along the edge as we went, and when we got near the end of the cavern zone we hung out and checked out all the little passageways. I looked back and asked Wendy if she was OK. She looked back and asked Anthony if he was ok, and Anthony in turn headed for the ceiling with the line! I got Williams attention and decided to wait while Wendy went up to help with the entanglement. As Anthony headed for the ceiling, all the placements popped and William began reeling like crazy while I tried to help take up some of the slack.
Next thing we knew, vis was headed south and I could see Anthonys light, Wendys light, and Wendys fins headed out. I turned to William and he signaled surface and we headed out. We were removing the secondary placement when we lost Wendy and Anthony, so William tied off and left the reel and we headed out. William went into touch contact on the ascent, which gave me a little bit of chuckle since I could see about 2 feet of the line which isnt the worst vis a New England diver would have seen!
We got out to find Wendy and Anthony on the surface [phew!]. While William and Anthony heatedly debriefed the dive, I found myself staring off into the woods and taking note of an extremely disturbing sight. While everyone debriefed I found myself staring in fascination at the huge vultures sitting in the trees. They were a little restless, flying back and forth between each other, as if they were waiting to see if we were going to head back in, or if they should go wait at another cavern exit!
After the debriefing finished, I asked William if we should go back down for his reel. After he inquired if I felt ok with that, I handed him my reel and we headed down. We got to the primary tie-off, and found it was mostly off. I figured wed just place a new tie-off for my reel and follow down to his reel and retrieve it. I think William was a little spooked about the near loss of the primary tie-off, combined with the vis and my inexperience, and so he tied his line off to my reel and we headed to the surface for a little fishing [since he tied off to a stick when we were exiting]. Talk about excitement for my first post-cert dive!
To top it all off, Joan and William had truck problems on our way out. We dealt with that [with the help of another diver who had a can of Coke so we could clean some of the corrosion off the battery connectors] and headed back to the outpost for dinner. William, Joan, Anthony and Wendy headed off to get the truck fixed and get some KFC for some dinner while I took my test and filled out my dive log.
After dinner William and Anthony decided to head to Telford for a dive, and Joan and I decided to tag along to check out the site. A couple of the others from the Outpost showed up while they were gearing up. We watched them head in, go past the first sink, and the second sink. After they passed that first jump we headed back to the cars to leave but thats when the truck full o rednecks decided to show up! After quite a bit of entertainment, we decided we were going to stick around until William and Anthony got out [especially considering the fact that Joan overheard them looking at license plates and taking special note of the Georgia plate on Anthonys truck!]. So after about 40 minutes of watching rednecks try to run their truck into a tree, and stumble over trying to get the bottles from their woman, William and Anthony had completed their dive. We helped em get their stuff out and off, and we headed back to the Outpost.
We ended the night with William glued in front of my laptop watching the DIR III video [and he wouldnt even let me skip forward to the good part!]. After about an hour [right before the good part!] Joan made him turn it off and go to bed.
Sunday we were up early again; and headed off to Peacock I for a couple more dives. The first dive William led, and we headed over to the peanut tunnel, doused our lights, and watched as a couple divers headed off into the tunnel and around the bend. We then headed back to the secondary tie off, turned, and headed down to the pothole tunnel. I was a little uncomfortable descending down the crack to the tunnel, since the angle caused the water in my mask to make a nice coating across the view i.e. the whole descent was blurry! We hung out down at the entrance to pothole for a bit, turned and headed out. I had some trouble with the ascent, not really knowing if I was neutral or if my tank was bumped up against the wall and that was holding me. We got out just fine, but I wonder now if it would have been easier to turn sideways and descend and ascend horizontal instead guess Ill have to go back and try some other time!
Wendy was there by the time we got out, and Anthony had been running late, so she teamed up with us for the second dive. This time I was leading, with Wendy in second position and William taking up 3rd. We let her know that we were doing one more drill, lost diver; one that William prefers to save until after certification is complete. We set out towards the peanut tunnel. I had a little trouble with my secondary tie-off, and I asked William for a little help, he corrected it and we headed on. I kept trying to find a decent placement on the floor, but I didnt have much luck I glanced back and William had noticed and found a good one for me. We got to the entrance to Peanut, and I signaled Wendy to come up and give me a little light into the tunnel [since I had my measly pistol grip]. We turned and headed back to the secondary tie off. We checked our air and times, and headed out again. I got to a place that I thought had a decent tie off point, and I looked back to tell William that I wanted to run the drill now. He had the same thought and was already heading forward to tell me. He doused his light and Wendy and I started our search Out and back one way, out and back another way. As I returned William gestured to head a little farther into the tunnel and swam ahead. I found him with his light on a few feet away, pretending to fiddle with the fossils in the rock on the floor. I got his attention, gave him the universal dope slap, pointed to the line and told him to head out. We had a bit of a miscommunication a minute later, as he was asking turnaround, and I was concurring. I wasnt sure if he was asking if I wanted to turn around, or if he was asking if we should turn around [part of the drill I forgot to signal exit]. I said turn around, and we headed back to the secondary. I checked time and air, signaled exit, and we were done.
William, Joan and Wendy headed off around 3:00, and I hung out with the other divers at the Outpost for the evening. Got up the next morning, farted around for a while and finally bit the bullet and headed off to the airport for my flight home.
Overall it was an absolutely great time. I couldnt have asked for a better experience. William and I had quickly fell into an understanding of our personal beliefs, and when things seemed to get too serious we broke it up quickly by resorting to picking on each other! However in all seriousness, William was an incredible diver, an exceptional instructor, and by far the most careful and cautious diver I have ever had the pleasure of being in the water with. The evening after they left, I was at the campfire talking with Jill Heinrich [who had a Cavern/Intro to Cave course going on] and I had to inquire how she was able to handle 6 students. I cant imagine what the course would have been like, and how much less I probably would have gotten out of it, if there were other students to contend with for focus from the instructor.
Just about a year ago, A friend at my dive club asked what sort of diving was I interested in. At one point in the conversation he inquired if I was interested in cave diving. My answer was a resounding NO!
Well, a year later; many things have changed Including that comment. I found myself on my way to Luraville Florida last Thursday to take a cavern class in the middle of cave country. So much for not being interested in cave diving!
I arrived at the Dive Outpost just after 6 on Thursday evening. I got the rundown of the procedures of the shop and everything, and headed off to my room to get situated and get my equipment all put together. I sat down and finished watching the movie from the plane, and proceeded to dig around the video shelves for something related to the local cave diving. I managed to find myself a tape of some diving in the local area and settled in to watch. It was entertaining, but about 12:30 I decided to turn it off and get some sleep.
Around 1:15 AM William [my instructor] and his girlfriend Joan showed up. We chatted a bit and I mentioned the tape. I was sort of joking about it and mentioned there was some fruitcake on there singing and talking and otherwise doing things that fruitcakes do After a bit of chuckling I was informed That fruitcake is your instructor! Well that set the precedence for the whole weekend; one of jokes and humorous insults! We ended up watching most of the video again, and finally fell asleep pretty late.
Friday we got up, and started working on gear modifications. At this point the jabs gained in frequency, seeing as my instructor was a heavy DIR proponent and has grand aspirations to become a GUE instructor. By the end of the weekend I was referring to him as Pope GI IV the next DIR messiah.
We played with the gear for a long time, little changes here and there to try, as well as fixing a few of the problems I was having [like the frozen elbow nut in my BC inflator]. Joan finally stepped in and made us get out and actually dive!
So we headed over to Royal Springs for my open water skills dives. We started by reel and spool drills on land, going over primary and secondary tie-offs, no-vis procedures and signals, and line following. It was cool to see the changes in time between following a line [2 minutes], following a line with your eyes closed [4 minutes], and leading a buddy in no-vis when other divers have run lines across your line [6 minutes]. It really struck home the importance of being extremely safe with your air supply and your dive planning.
When we first arrived at Royal we learned from some other divers that there was a fatality over at Orange Grove. Not knowing the area I didnt think much of the site, but it definitely added a little to my nervousness!
We finally got a chance to get in the water. First dive was just getting used to the equipment modifications, show-me drills, and fining techniques. I had let William take the bungee cord off my DiveRite wing, and that change really hit home that my wing is too big for singles diving Every little twitch blew my trim out of whack, and without the weight belt that Im used to in the cold New England waters, I kept ending up tipping forward! A smaller wing and heavier fins would have made a huge difference. Fining techniques went as expected good frog kick, good helicopter turns ok modified flutter [I hadnt tried it before] and non-existent backwards kick [I knew that]. William seems to enjoy running S-drills, and he gets downright giddy if he notices a problem with your gear! We ran an s-drill, I put my reg back in my mouth, and immediately he was signaling out of air again. I went to hand off my reg and it got stuck behind my neck! After a split second of panic, which I thankfully managed to contain and remember to grab my alternate, I fished out the tangle. The rest of the weekend I was extremely aware of making sure my primary doesnt fall under my secondary hose!
Second dive was underwater line drills. By this time it was night, which made the ability to open my eyes and cheat non-existent! However in actuality I really enjoyed those drills I found that following a line with my eyes closed was the best buoyancy control I had the whole weekend! I did keep forgetting to put my hand up in front of me to feel for obstructions, and I was reminded of that with an elbow to the forehead. The elbow caused me to immediately get my arm in front of me, and six inches to the left and I would have reaped revenge for the elbow as I caught him right in the knee.
We headed back to the Outpost for some more classwork and some dinner. Wendy had arrived when we got there and we all chatted a bit before we headed off to the classroom while Wendy and Joan graciously cooked us all up some pizzas. We finished up the night with a few more gear modifications. I also considered putting my bungee back on, and William wasnt happy but was ok with it, however I later decided to give it another try and didnt bother.
We got up early on Saturday. A little class work while we waited for fills and we headed off to Peacock for some diving. Wendy and Joan decided sleeping was far more enticing then serving as surface support!
We got to Orange Grove, did our site check, and started gearing up for my first cavern dive. The whole time the little voice in the back of my head was screaming Dude didnt that guy get killed here yesterday???. We did out all our plans and jumped in. The first thing I noticed was a canister light laying under the platform probably left over from getting the body out the day before Ok. Now Im a little nervous!
We did our in water checks, and headed under for S-drills, of which I failed miserably due to a complete brain-freeze with my buoyancy control. We talked about it, and I got it down the next time. We headed off for our tour of the cavern. Down to the left, then turned and along the back. We got to the tunnel leading into the cave and headed down there. The cavern to that point was your typical rocky slope but with rocks above your head as well. However the tunnel was truly beautiful, about 10 ft wide and 5 feet high, with clean limestone walls it basically looked like swimming in a coral tunnel. Up until this point I had noticed that the springs were extremely quiet. When in the tunnel however, the thudding of the air bubbles against the ceiling made the most interesting sound almost like a car passing overhead with the stereo too loud.
During the surface interval I had a little bit of a problem. We were debriefing when the o-ring blew on my backup second stage. After a second of looking at it, I reached up to turn off the air. My regulator was almost all the way unscrewed and the o-ring had blown because of that. The image of it happening 10 minutes previous when we were back at the sign for the cave entrance truly slammed into my head to make sure I make sure my regs are tight on their hoses during gear check!
Second dive was with me leading. Task loading was a bit much, but I survived all the little mistakes I made [tying the primary with branches above my head, silting when doing a helicopter turn, etc, etc, etc ]. This was when I learned that running a reel while carrying a light and making sure there isnt any slack in the line with a leaky mask is a bit of a challenge!
Wendy and Joan showed up while we were gearing down, and then they headed further into the park to check out Peacock proper. We finished gearing down and headed back to the outpost for more classroom, fills, and lunch.
After lunch we headed off to Peacock I. While we were coming back from site check we heard that Peacock III had exceptional visibility, so we changed plan and headed over to Peacock III for a sight check. Sure enough William thought it looked great and we decided to dive there. One of Williams buddies was there [Anthony] and Wendy hooked up with him for a dive as well. We headed in and around. Tied off to the left side of the cavern entrance and worked our way over to the right and tied off there. We then headed back to the left and down to the signpost, then turned and headed into the tunnel for a ways. I think William chose Peacock III specifically because I hadnt been paying close enough attention to silting when doing the drills and turns, and looking at the foot deep silt on the floor definitely ensured me to be cautious!
We turned and headed out. On the way I saw a cup sitting in the silt, and headed for it to clean it up. However after taking a closer look at how deep it was in the silt, I decided Id skip the cave conservation that time! As we headed out of the tunnel, I noticed Williams light was gone, and I turned around to see what was up. He had decided it was time to give me an entanglement drill and I had caught him right as he started to do a helicopter turn through the line. I told him to hold and preceeded to attempt to untangle the mess that he decided to create. Not that bad, except I kept grabbing his fin while trying to get the line out of his legs, and every time I did it completely threw off his trim and buoyancy! We finished that right as Anthony and Wendy were coming down and around the signpost. We dealt with getting by their line and headed on out. Upon reaching the surface and debriefing, I was informed [a little to my surprise] that I had passed and I was now a certified cavern diver!
After a surface interval, it was time for my first post-cert cavern dive. This time it was 4 of us; William, myself, Wendy and Anthony; in that order. We headed down and made the primary tie off on the left side of the entrance. I crashed a little into the silt, which cut the vis down some, but it wasnt bad. We headed in to the right to go check out the balcony area there. We set placements along the edge as we went, and when we got near the end of the cavern zone we hung out and checked out all the little passageways. I looked back and asked Wendy if she was OK. She looked back and asked Anthony if he was ok, and Anthony in turn headed for the ceiling with the line! I got Williams attention and decided to wait while Wendy went up to help with the entanglement. As Anthony headed for the ceiling, all the placements popped and William began reeling like crazy while I tried to help take up some of the slack.
Next thing we knew, vis was headed south and I could see Anthonys light, Wendys light, and Wendys fins headed out. I turned to William and he signaled surface and we headed out. We were removing the secondary placement when we lost Wendy and Anthony, so William tied off and left the reel and we headed out. William went into touch contact on the ascent, which gave me a little bit of chuckle since I could see about 2 feet of the line which isnt the worst vis a New England diver would have seen!
We got out to find Wendy and Anthony on the surface [phew!]. While William and Anthony heatedly debriefed the dive, I found myself staring off into the woods and taking note of an extremely disturbing sight. While everyone debriefed I found myself staring in fascination at the huge vultures sitting in the trees. They were a little restless, flying back and forth between each other, as if they were waiting to see if we were going to head back in, or if they should go wait at another cavern exit!
After the debriefing finished, I asked William if we should go back down for his reel. After he inquired if I felt ok with that, I handed him my reel and we headed down. We got to the primary tie-off, and found it was mostly off. I figured wed just place a new tie-off for my reel and follow down to his reel and retrieve it. I think William was a little spooked about the near loss of the primary tie-off, combined with the vis and my inexperience, and so he tied his line off to my reel and we headed to the surface for a little fishing [since he tied off to a stick when we were exiting]. Talk about excitement for my first post-cert dive!
To top it all off, Joan and William had truck problems on our way out. We dealt with that [with the help of another diver who had a can of Coke so we could clean some of the corrosion off the battery connectors] and headed back to the outpost for dinner. William, Joan, Anthony and Wendy headed off to get the truck fixed and get some KFC for some dinner while I took my test and filled out my dive log.
After dinner William and Anthony decided to head to Telford for a dive, and Joan and I decided to tag along to check out the site. A couple of the others from the Outpost showed up while they were gearing up. We watched them head in, go past the first sink, and the second sink. After they passed that first jump we headed back to the cars to leave but thats when the truck full o rednecks decided to show up! After quite a bit of entertainment, we decided we were going to stick around until William and Anthony got out [especially considering the fact that Joan overheard them looking at license plates and taking special note of the Georgia plate on Anthonys truck!]. So after about 40 minutes of watching rednecks try to run their truck into a tree, and stumble over trying to get the bottles from their woman, William and Anthony had completed their dive. We helped em get their stuff out and off, and we headed back to the Outpost.
We ended the night with William glued in front of my laptop watching the DIR III video [and he wouldnt even let me skip forward to the good part!]. After about an hour [right before the good part!] Joan made him turn it off and go to bed.
Sunday we were up early again; and headed off to Peacock I for a couple more dives. The first dive William led, and we headed over to the peanut tunnel, doused our lights, and watched as a couple divers headed off into the tunnel and around the bend. We then headed back to the secondary tie off, turned, and headed down to the pothole tunnel. I was a little uncomfortable descending down the crack to the tunnel, since the angle caused the water in my mask to make a nice coating across the view i.e. the whole descent was blurry! We hung out down at the entrance to pothole for a bit, turned and headed out. I had some trouble with the ascent, not really knowing if I was neutral or if my tank was bumped up against the wall and that was holding me. We got out just fine, but I wonder now if it would have been easier to turn sideways and descend and ascend horizontal instead guess Ill have to go back and try some other time!
Wendy was there by the time we got out, and Anthony had been running late, so she teamed up with us for the second dive. This time I was leading, with Wendy in second position and William taking up 3rd. We let her know that we were doing one more drill, lost diver; one that William prefers to save until after certification is complete. We set out towards the peanut tunnel. I had a little trouble with my secondary tie-off, and I asked William for a little help, he corrected it and we headed on. I kept trying to find a decent placement on the floor, but I didnt have much luck I glanced back and William had noticed and found a good one for me. We got to the entrance to Peanut, and I signaled Wendy to come up and give me a little light into the tunnel [since I had my measly pistol grip]. We turned and headed back to the secondary tie off. We checked our air and times, and headed out again. I got to a place that I thought had a decent tie off point, and I looked back to tell William that I wanted to run the drill now. He had the same thought and was already heading forward to tell me. He doused his light and Wendy and I started our search Out and back one way, out and back another way. As I returned William gestured to head a little farther into the tunnel and swam ahead. I found him with his light on a few feet away, pretending to fiddle with the fossils in the rock on the floor. I got his attention, gave him the universal dope slap, pointed to the line and told him to head out. We had a bit of a miscommunication a minute later, as he was asking turnaround, and I was concurring. I wasnt sure if he was asking if I wanted to turn around, or if he was asking if we should turn around [part of the drill I forgot to signal exit]. I said turn around, and we headed back to the secondary. I checked time and air, signaled exit, and we were done.
William, Joan and Wendy headed off around 3:00, and I hung out with the other divers at the Outpost for the evening. Got up the next morning, farted around for a while and finally bit the bullet and headed off to the airport for my flight home.
Overall it was an absolutely great time. I couldnt have asked for a better experience. William and I had quickly fell into an understanding of our personal beliefs, and when things seemed to get too serious we broke it up quickly by resorting to picking on each other! However in all seriousness, William was an incredible diver, an exceptional instructor, and by far the most careful and cautious diver I have ever had the pleasure of being in the water with. The evening after they left, I was at the campfire talking with Jill Heinrich [who had a Cavern/Intro to Cave course going on] and I had to inquire how she was able to handle 6 students. I cant imagine what the course would have been like, and how much less I probably would have gotten out of it, if there were other students to contend with for focus from the instructor.
