RimGreaper
Guest
Ok. First of all, I'm not cave or cavern certified. So I'm gonna take a hit for this, I'm certain.
But before you do, please keep in mind this was at Vortex, before the stop sign, well before the grate. That being said, it probably wasnt the best idea anyway.
So there i was, we entered the cave at the back of the cavern and began our ingress. The whole point of the "mission" was to see the stop sign, and come back. For those of you unfamiliar with the place, Vortex is a spring with a cavern entrance around 55 ft cave entrance in the back of the cavern at around 70ft (from what i remember). The cave turns 90 degrees from the entrance and runs down to a room (about 15 feet high from what i've read) with a bottom of 120' . There is a locked grate in that room that leads to the underground water system with penenrations to 150 feet depth (not linear). From what i hear you need sidemounts to do that. But i digress.
There is the typical Grim Reaper, Prevent your own death, nothing in this cave worth dying for, sign at the cave entrance and a stop sign (a real road sign) at about 95' depth. Rope lighting runs from the cave entrance to the sign and i think a permanant cave line runs beyond that to the room.
We had no guideline, 3 lights between us (instead of 3 lights per diver), and had no idea what the rule of thirds was. More than strokery, indeed. We were on air, and well within the limits of that gas, so we did SOMETHING right.
The cave, up to the stop sign, is wide enough for 2 divers to penetrate side-by-side, but not very tall, crawling room, maybe. But we were neutrally bouyant and doing fine. We approached the sign, i found out later and stopped. In the light of the rope lighting i became aware my mask was foggy. Very foggy. I couldn't see the sign, i could barely see my buddy. I could make out the ropelighting though. My buddy was shaking his light around and pointing. I looked and saw nothing.
Then my buddy motioned for us to exit. We followed the rope lights back to the entrance and exited the cave. Following a safety stop, we surfaced and exited the water. During our surface interval, my buddy asked if i had seen the sign. Thats what he had been pointing at. Nope.
I knew well how to clear my mask. I was comfortable doing it. Why hadn't I?
After some thought, I believe I might have been narced. At 95ft, thats about 2 martinis, as Martini's Law goes. I've heard that cold water (or cooler water) narcosis isnt the warm euphoric feeling as usually described, but more of a feeling of dread (or can be). But i remember the situation, so i'm not sure.
Lessons learned:
1> Had this been somewhere other than Vortex, we could well be dead. No guideline+Silt out = Lost as hell = out of gas.
2> If you have a problem, even a minor one, notify your buddy. Had I done that, i might have fixed the problem before exiting.
3>Narcosis (if thats what it was) increases with task loading.
Not real serious here, but it could have been.
RimGreaper
But before you do, please keep in mind this was at Vortex, before the stop sign, well before the grate. That being said, it probably wasnt the best idea anyway.
So there i was, we entered the cave at the back of the cavern and began our ingress. The whole point of the "mission" was to see the stop sign, and come back. For those of you unfamiliar with the place, Vortex is a spring with a cavern entrance around 55 ft cave entrance in the back of the cavern at around 70ft (from what i remember). The cave turns 90 degrees from the entrance and runs down to a room (about 15 feet high from what i've read) with a bottom of 120' . There is a locked grate in that room that leads to the underground water system with penenrations to 150 feet depth (not linear). From what i hear you need sidemounts to do that. But i digress.
There is the typical Grim Reaper, Prevent your own death, nothing in this cave worth dying for, sign at the cave entrance and a stop sign (a real road sign) at about 95' depth. Rope lighting runs from the cave entrance to the sign and i think a permanant cave line runs beyond that to the room.
We had no guideline, 3 lights between us (instead of 3 lights per diver), and had no idea what the rule of thirds was. More than strokery, indeed. We were on air, and well within the limits of that gas, so we did SOMETHING right.
The cave, up to the stop sign, is wide enough for 2 divers to penetrate side-by-side, but not very tall, crawling room, maybe. But we were neutrally bouyant and doing fine. We approached the sign, i found out later and stopped. In the light of the rope lighting i became aware my mask was foggy. Very foggy. I couldn't see the sign, i could barely see my buddy. I could make out the ropelighting though. My buddy was shaking his light around and pointing. I looked and saw nothing.
Then my buddy motioned for us to exit. We followed the rope lights back to the entrance and exited the cave. Following a safety stop, we surfaced and exited the water. During our surface interval, my buddy asked if i had seen the sign. Thats what he had been pointing at. Nope.
I knew well how to clear my mask. I was comfortable doing it. Why hadn't I?
After some thought, I believe I might have been narced. At 95ft, thats about 2 martinis, as Martini's Law goes. I've heard that cold water (or cooler water) narcosis isnt the warm euphoric feeling as usually described, but more of a feeling of dread (or can be). But i remember the situation, so i'm not sure.
Lessons learned:
1> Had this been somewhere other than Vortex, we could well be dead. No guideline+Silt out = Lost as hell = out of gas.
2> If you have a problem, even a minor one, notify your buddy. Had I done that, i might have fixed the problem before exiting.
3>Narcosis (if thats what it was) increases with task loading.
Not real serious here, but it could have been.
RimGreaper
