SB (extended) weekend

[OneBrightGator]

Day 1, Saturday.

Met up with Andy (H2Andy) at Rennakers for some cavern diving at Peacock. Headed over to Orange Grove and Andy took me on a little tour of the large cavern through some good reel work, even though the two don't get along (the reel takes behind his back, it's awful). I got to see some stuff I haven't seen and poke around. Then we headed up to swim back to the mainline, I got my spool tied off and turned around to see Andy sidemounting his tank (not on purpose), that's when he called the dive, oddly enough. Our dive was 32 min. long with a max depth of 106 ft.

Second dive was at P1, we decided not to run a reel because there were 8 cave divers in ahead of us. We swam in and dropped down the throat, but I didn't make all the way to the bottom because of ear problems, luckily Andy is a great buddy and noticed and came back to check on me. After that we swam over to the mainline and watched some HIDs come out of the darkness and pass us. Then back down the throat (I almost made it this time) then we called the dive on thirds. This dive was 25 min. long at 70 ft.

Third dive was a P3, which neither of us had done before. We got some good advice to run the line on the ceiling, which was an interesting method, to say the least. We turned around shortly inside the cavern and hung out at 15 ft. outside watching the fish and a couple turtles for 10 min. or so. This dive was 17 min. long at 32 ft.

Andy was a great buddy and very attentive, his signaling was top notch, another SBer I'm looking forward to diving with again.

Ben

 

[OneBrightGator]

Day 2, Monday.

Met up with Ken (DeepSeaWolf) at Manatee. First off, I was half an hour late, but when I got there... no Ken in sight, he did pull up about 15 minutes later but when he got out, black full-length duster and combat boots I wondered just what I had gotten myself into...

First dive was in Catfish Hotel Sink. We were the first ones in for the day and the viz was superb so we just piddled around watching the fish and poking around. Our dive was 53 minutes at 57 ft.

Our second dive was delayed a few minutes by two manatees in the head spring, a nice addition. Then we slid into the water and dropped down next to the outflow and found a brown watersnake hunting, we watched it for a little while, then moved on, until Ken grabbed me a pointed back. I looked just in time to see the snake swimming up towards the shallows with a small catfish in his mouth, COOL, so we followed it up and were watching it when Ken noticed another snake hidden under the algae that was as thick as my arm and probably 5 feet long, VERY COOL. After that we drifted in the shallow area until we had to call the dive because of park time limits at 32 min. at 29 ft.

These were the best dives I've done at Manatee between the great viz, the snakes and a good buddy, Ken was always right there when I looked for him and gave clear signals, also another SBer I look forward to diving with again.

Ben

 

[H2Andy]

hey, OBG, you're STILL not getting my peanut butter sandwich next time, so
you can stop now

i should say that it was a blast diving with you. you are an awesome diver and i
learned just from watching you.

thus far, i've only gone diving with people at my level or slightly better or worse, but not by much. diving with you was the first time i've buddied with a cave pro, and
like i said, just watching you was a learning experience.

actually, all the people i've gone diving with through scubaboard (the usual suspects include Deepseawolf, Gibbon, Smokeair, Scubafool and a few others), i would dive with
again in a heartbeat.

maybe it's a scubaboard thing.

 

[simbrooks]

Second dive was at P1, we decided not to run a reel because there were 8 cave divers in ahead of us.

As always, not really knowing much about all this, is this common practice even if the cave divers are in and probably deco diving (in for a while longer than you if you are no-deco diving)? Were they in one group or several groups, how many lines were running altogether?

Just wondering (again dont know how far in you went from the entrance) IF (big if) they had come back (due to unforeseen problems earlier than you expected - like the one group that went past you?) early whether you would have had a way to find your way out (or was this a cavern dive and therefore not as tough to find your way out as you should be able to see the exit?)? Another point, were there so many lines that running one would have proved a problem? Again i am slowly trying to get the hang of these types of things and will probably line up my cavern training later this year - just let the other info and diving practice sink in first!!

Onto the BBQ trip, look forward to seeing you both there and maybe getting wet with you all as well sometime over the weekend - surely you wont always be out of the daylight or ballroom etc???? I have dove with scubafool, nice guy, also metaldetector and reefguy, all very good divers. I think it has something to do with the thirst to improve your diving that makes you find this site and so you are probably going to strive to be a better diver from reading here and that shows in your diving in the real world - not cyber diving!

 

[OneBrightGator]

Andy, forget the PB&J, just get an extra BLT for me next time! Thanks for the compliments, just doing what I love.

Ben

 

[OneBrightGator]

Simon,

Typically cave dives would be longer then our dives if for no other reason then they had doubles and we were in singles.

There was at least two groups, more likely three.

P1 is unique because the mainline is run all the way out to OW and it appeared that a goldline was running down the throat also, so neither team ran a line through the cavern (that I saw). Our plan was to drop down and check things out, if there was a line Andy wouldn't run one, there was, so he didn't.

The lines appeared to be permanent, even if they weren't, we would see them coming (since we were on their line) and be able to take appropriate action.

This was a cavern dive (even though I saw that look in Andy's eyes) with plenty of sunlight, not good enough to disregard proper training though.

Running a line would have been easy, the amount and placement of the lines was NOTHING compared to some days at Ginnie.

As far as Ginnie goes I plan to be around in some way or another, I will either be caving or doing some checkout dives, but I will have time for some ballroom dives and food.

I know you will, but please get the neseccary experience and training before trying any diving like this, people have and will continue to die without it.

Ben

 

[Gibbon]

y'know, it's posts like this that make me not want a day job.

Nice everyone.

 

[jviehe]

Yep, those are the new mainlines at P1. They are just about in OW, so you dont have to run a reel. The gap at pothole is a T now as well, so no gap spool neccesary. Running a reel is usually done but there are certain place where cavers dont run it, such as Devils Ear where the flow is a *****, and Peacock where the lines have been brought out. The rule is to never use anyone elses line though, unless they are aware of it, and you use special procedure so no one gets left behind.

 

[fgray1]

Yep, those are the new mainlines at P1. They are just about in OW, so you dont have to run a reel.!!!!!!!!!!!




You always run a line no matter how close to open water the Gold line ends.
You tie outside then just inside then to the gold line. You say well it's right there. I say what if something happens and it's dark by the time your ready to exit and there is no ligtht what so ever from the outside. Rare Yes, But why not run the line anyway. If it's there and you don't need it FINE. But if you do and it's not there.
Well anyway if you bends the basic rules your asking for trouble.
Fred

 

[simbrooks]

But i take it you dont run a line over the permenant line, because the permenant is anchored in at various locations and wouldnt be removed. Obviously i havent dove at Peacock yet as not cavern - aiming there one day.

Interesting thought though, we were at Paradise last weekend doing the deep dive of our AOW and some buoyancy stuff up shallow around the little platform for the end of the first and a second dive. I dont know who had been in there, but it was like someone had blended the silt up real good. Like 10ft viz at best as we were going down. I had a pretty good handle on the place from a previous dive there (where i could still see the exit from the sign and the end of the permenant line at ~93ft), this time we couldnt see our way out, but kept the line in sight. Our instructor (GDI - who i think is also in the cave rescue squad) is fully versed in cave stuff, and i felt confident enough to find the line again with my buddy on our own in that limited size cavern without heading into the silty areas, although we didnt stray very far from it just to be sure.

Well anyway, the point was that there were two others in there (i think Fred had dove with Ed or Bill before at Manatee during his cavern "checkout" dives?) who had just gone through their cavern training with GDI (also frgay's cavern and intro to cave instructor) and they hadnt been to Paradise before, so while we did a bubble check and such around the platform before going over to the line and into the cavern proper, these two guys tied off, they hadnt seen the line on the way down i guess. So we sat there for about 6 mins while they checked each other out and tied off and searched for the line - we ended up signalling to our instructor that we thought we should be going down sometime soon rather than "wasting" time/gas up in the shallows and so off we all went and they followed us (having not found the permenant line so far in their searches) and tied off to the main line - all good practice i am sure, but they were searching on the wrong side of the cinder cone like mound. Bubble checked again at the end of the main large cavern ~65ft before moving on down to the sign. There we sat around the sign checking for narcosis and such. Looked up and saw no entrance (although we should have been able to on a better day) as the silt was so thick! Its a shame that my GF couldnt see the cavern from below in the same way i did with Walter when i went there before. Anyway, we went back up, deep stop ~45ft, and hung around a little before taking plenty of time (about 25 mins of the 45 mins dive) around the platform again. So anyway, was that lead in line a wise idea, again i am sure it was good practice, but it didnt accomplish much apart from practice. As many of you know of that cavern, the permenant line pretty much does extend up to the OW, so it would be hard to not find your way out from that end of the line.

We did our second dive around the platform swimming thru hoops and the like for buoyancy training. Fun, but occasionally frustrating! Particularly as i could barely fit through the smaller hoops on dry land without gear on due to my shoulder width and chest size. GDI just about squeezed through in doubles. BTW we were also diving with HP120's and on 34%(HP100's and 31% for my GF - also our nitrox dives for that cert), just in case you were wondering - and i am still thinking of getting the E7-120's and 100's in a few months when they become available - 0# needed in freshwater with SS BP even at 250psi in about 2ft water!!! I think that Becky also had the same thing with the 100 at the end of the dives too.