September through November 2010 Dive Reports

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SuPrBuGmAn

Contributor
Messages
12,436
Reaction score
297
Location
Tallahassee, FL
# of dives
500 - 999
Started a new job, and moved to a new state, while still getting some(not as much) diving in - although haven't made the time to do any reports... So now I'm backed up, and I'm just going to abreviate a bunch of reports.

9-18-10

Hole in the Wall

I made this dive with Brian H on the weekend of his birthday. Had a great day with him and the Brinkerhoff's out on the Mill Pond. We dove off one of Edd's pontoon boats and headed downstream. Brian led the dive and set the primary. Vis was 40-50' feet and we dove as two teams of two(B and K made up team 2), so we had plenty of light to illuminate the large passages in HITW. We turned around the 1200 mark and had a max depth of 85' for a dive time of 79 minutes.


Twin Cave 2:18 later

We made this dive without dropping O2 tanks, at my advice(lets consider the source here). I've done the dive we were about to put into play, but it was with 32% and not our second dive of the day... I should have taken that into account :p We headed down the subway and dropped down the deep section at the second fissure crack, from there, I ran a line to a close jump and we headed towards the Terminal Room. We nearly made it too, but turned at the duckunder before the room. Our reward for such an effort was a good 22 minutes of deco, w/o O2. I recieved many-a middlefinger for this excellent planning. Still a good dive back there... 103' max depth for a 104 minutes. 50-100' vis depending on where you were.

9-25-10

Vortex Springs

Long story short, dude supposedly got lost in Vortex awhile back. His body was never found and the family wanted to try an ROV to get video further into the cave. It took better than a dozen of us diving in teams to get the tether run through the cave to get the video we managed to get. The ROV never got close to running where cave divers had been previously. I dove with Spectre. Max depth of 149' for a dive lasting 62 minutes.

9-26-10

A Mill Pond Cave

Ben M and I jumped on his boat and headed out to one of the lesser hit Mill Pond caves. We hopped in and Ben proceeded into the cave without much trouble. He popped his camera through as well. I followed with a slave strobe, pushing the slave through first, then one tank(this is a bottle off entrance). I've always gotten in with just a single bottle off, but not this time. I supermaned both tanks and still had to really grind, fight, and wiggle my way through the entrance. I made it. Unfortunately, but this time I had sand in every piece of gear I had... closed down some freeflows and got regs working again. My inflator was jammed open, so I disconnected the LP hose and inflated manually. Ben was having similar issues so we didn't get far before turning the dive. Max depth of 34' and the dive lasted 57 minutes... don't be fooled by the dive time, we made it about 50' into the cave.

A Mill Pond Cave 5:07 later

We hit up Cave Adventures for some fills, grabbed lunch, and BS'd too much for our own good. It took just as much effort as last time for me to get in on the second dive. My inflator jammed again, but everything else was still working, so I just inflated orally. We zipped out past the 2nd T before we started getting into some lower sections and I turned the dive. Its some great cave, very very rarely traveled so crazy untouched. On the way back, we checked out the alternative line at the first T for just a little ways before I turned us again. Max depth of 36' for a dive lasting 55 minutes. Atleast we got some diving in this time around.

9-24-10

Morrison Springs

I killed the Miss Jellyfish, for those that don't know - she's dead. The bottom dropped out on an exploratory trip that yeilded more problems than finds. I sold the motor and found a canoe in Crestview, FL to purchase. Going to Crestview already, might as well just keep going to Morrison for a night dive. DogHouseDiver met up with me and we headed over to Crestview, picked up the canoe, and then headed to Morrison. McCoy met up with us out there as well. It was a great night dive, with nobody else onsite. Hit a max depth of 85' for a dive lasting 55 minutes. Vis was 100'.

10-9-10

Cypress Springs

Vortoberfest! Enjoyed all the normal shinanigans involved with the event and even got some diving in too. TheAwesomeFish and I headed out from Culpepper on the maiden voyage of the Lady Salamander(my canoe) - Lady Sally for short. Cypress was, as usual, simply beautiful! We had a great dive out there and soaked up some sun before we got fed up with the growing traffic heading out to the spring. Had a max depth of 48' for a dive lasting 44 minutes. Vis was 200'.

10-10-10

Morrison Springs

Vortoberfest wound down and we(TheAwesomeFish) headed out for another dive at Morrison Springs. There was a wedding onsite, the groom threw the bride into the water and she lost her ring. They spent the rest of our time there looking for it. DogHouseDiver dove with us as as well. We had a great dive that ended up with clipping as much gear as possible onto TheAwesomeFish. Max depth of 88' for a dive lasting 55 minutes. 100' of vis.

10-31-10

Jackson Blue Springs

I moved to Tallahassee and didn't take my gear. I headed home the next weekend and grabbed my gear and TheAwesomeFish and DogHoseDiver and I did a fun little cavern dive at Jackson Blue. Had a max depth of 50' for a dive lasting 37 minutes. Awesome ran the primary and led the dive, she did great.

Jackson Blue Springs :27 later

After the cavern dive, DogHouseDiver and I hopped back into the cave to get an Intro to Cave dive in - his first since completing Intro class. DHD ran the primary and led the dive, we made a quick pace to the second breakdown before the dive was turned and we drifted back out. Hit a max depth of 96' for a dive time 37 minutes. Vis was 60-80' BTW.

11-4-10

Wakulla County Sinks

Cwick and I headed a little south after work and paid up with a landowner before gearing up and heading into the water. We're diving in a stretch of sinks that stretches from Leon County all the way to Wakulla Spring and south towards the Gulf. We hopped in at the nearest available sink, clipped tanks on, and headed upstream. We quickly made our way past three more obvious karst windows and two more offset windows hidden by a little extra cave passage. There's a T that I assumed both ends went towards different sinks, we chose to go right and head towards a larger, closer sink. A few hundred feet later, we turned and headed out. Great dive with a max depth of 106' for a dive lasting 77 minutes. The air was cold when we surfaced, but it was a short 20 minute ride home. Thursday afternoon dives are awesome. Vis was 40-50'.

11-6-10

Wakulla County Sink

DogHouseDiver and MrMcCoy headed out the following weekend as conditions were still excellent. We walked our gear out to Promise Sink and hopped in the water to head upstream. Our three man team made easy progress past 7 seperate karst windows before we turned to enjoy the flow at our backs on the way out. Its hard to get used to seeing all these beautiful, unique cavern zones through relatively shorts stretches of cave. McCoy and I peeped downstream about 100' of penetration, just to the top of a pit. Had a max depth of 101' for a dive lasting 114 minutes.

11-7-10

Wakulla County Sink

Keeping the same team as the day before, the three of us headed to a sink further south in Wakulla County. Visibility never got any better than 15-20', which is pretty typical. We found none of the clear, springwater pockets we hoped for... No biggy though, still a good dive and everyone's bouyancy was pretty spot on, which is great since this cave is fairly unforgiving to those with less than good bouyancy. Hit a max depth of 73' for a dive lasting 43 minutes.

11-13-10

Wakulla County Sinks

Ben M and I headed out to the stretch of sinks near the Wakulla/Leon county lines that the WCDC has gained closer access to than the public access areas. We hopped in at the closest sink possible with a plan of taking the opposite side of the T a few hundred feet upstream of several karst windows. Judging from a map I have, this line would lead us to another sink further west, but in reality, it led us back under the passage we had already visited and to some pits that ran up to the main passage, or further downstream and to a duckunder which also ran us to the mainline. The passage was pretty awesome, a few big rooms, more scallopped Wakulla power cave type stuff - friggin awesome. While it wasn't the passage we were looking for, it was a great dive and led to finding an awesome circuit I didn't know existed. We had a max depth of 102' for 122 minutes. Vis was better than 60'.

11-26-10

Wakulla County Sink

Friday after Thanksgiving, TheAwesomeFish and I headed out to the same stretch of sinks I had been diving on the last few occassions. We chose to dive in a sink thats only about 50' from the next sink upstream. This made it possible for us to traverse from one sink to another within the cavern zone, something of a rarity. The second sink has an underwater limestone arch running through it, its very cool. We had a couple OW divers get in before us and they mucked the vis up a bit, otherwise it was a good dive. Had a max depth of 46' for 40 minutes.

11-28-10

Wakulla County Sinks

JMaddox was in town for the Thanksgiving holidays and had some time off on Sunday, so we decided to hit up the same stretch of Leon Sinks(in Wakulla County) that I had been hitting. Conditions had been great and there's no telling how long it'll last, so we're enjoying it while we can. Vis was still great and we put in at the closest sink to our private land access. We headed upstream past several karst windows until the cave turned from black, light eating cave to white scalloped power cave. We found the duck under that was the downstream end of the circuit I had dived on an earlier occassion and ran a jump line to it(we'd need it later), then continued upstream on the mainline. Took a right at the T and headed to the large sink upstream. The lines just under this offset sink are a real mess, I hope to clean them up shortly. We ascended into a very large sink basin with sheer walls and the remnants of an old platform used for OW diving in the past. After surfacing for a bit and chatting it up, we headed back downstream. This time we took the opposite side of the T on the exit to complete the circuit downstream, picking up my reel on exit, meeting the mainline. We drifted back enjoying daylight at the various cavern zones on exit. Had a max depth of 106' for a dive lasting 95 minutes. I had a measly minute of deco time on backgas before our ascent to the surface. It was an excellent dive, we saw a tremendous amount of cave, truly a dive worth repeating.






...and that catches me up with November and past... December tomorrow, maybe less abreviated too.
 
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Awesome report Mat! Thanks for sharing buddy. I'll be glad when you settle in and get back to your full color slide presentations :wink:
Bless,
Kenny P.
 
Nice write up Mat!
 
Matt - Thanks for posting. Congrats on the new job and the move to FL. Was great to meet you the other night.
 
Sam - good meeting you the other day too.
 
Thanks for the write up Mat!
I always forget to post reports..........next time I will post one :D
 
Glad everyone enjoys them, I'll try to keep up with them a bit better
 
Great reports as always Mat.
 
Pictures.... where are the pictures???
:)
Maybe Santa will bring that housing this year, eh?
Rick
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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