Taking off the grate to explore the Blue Hole

[Tjack]

Thanks for the photo updates Grumpy and Bubba, exciting stuff. Last I spoke with Stella she was concerned about the stability of the floor of the Blue Hole. From the views of the cavern entrance it does look somewhat unstable, does cave training address this?

 

[boulderjohn]

Thanks for the photo updates Grumpy and Bubba, exciting stuff. Last I spoke with Stella she was concerned about the stability of the floor of the Blue Hole. From the views of the cavern entrance it does look somewhat unstable, does cave training address this?

I am not sure what you mean by the stability of the floor. Is the concern that it is also the ceiling of some room far below and may cave in on top of it?

If so, that is always a possibility in cave diving. It is, however, a very rare event to happen during a dive. I have only heard of one incident in which it caused a problem---see Parker Turner.

 

[Tjack]

I am not sure what you mean by the stability of the floor. Is the concern that it is also the ceiling of some room far below and may cave in on top of it?

Yes that's what Stella suggested.

If so, that is always a possibility in cave diving. It is, however, a very rare event to happen during a dive. I have only heard of one incident in which it caused a problem---see Parker Turner.

With the removal of the grate and dredging activities in the past it seems the entrance to the Blue Hole cave might have been destabilized. I would hope this is a major consideration when entering a cave system which has not been explored in a long time. Might want a pry bar down there.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

I didn't get a chance yet to dive, but i'll video the state of the grate at some point this weekend. So far it's CLEAR!!!
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Did you get a chance to dive and see if they put the pipe back or left it off?

 

[BigBubbaJ]

I dove it today. Heading back to Colorado and ill post pix and vids tonight or tomorrow.

 

[toddthecat]

I dove it today. Heading back to Colorado and ill post pix and vids tonight or tomorrow.

 

[BigBubbaJ]

I have some video i'm putting together now... but here's some pix.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

I have some video i'm putting together now... but here's some pix.

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Thanks. Looks like new grate is much improved (less ugly) and nice vis. You picked a grate weekend for diving (pun intended).

 

[Curt Bowen]

We removed the pipe and managed to quadrupole the size of the entrance into the lower chambers. After the snorkel was removed we only had a hole no bigger than 18 inches square. After pulling the old grate out and removing many large boulders and silt from the vent we did manage to increase the size to about 3 feet x 18 inches. I did notice an increase in flow once it was cleared. Brett Hemphill managed to gain access to the first chamber but only by removing all his gear including harness and fins and squeezing in feet first with a single no mount steel cylinder. Once in this chamber we had hoped that he could squeeze below another boulder and into the lower chambers. After gaining access and letting the silt clear he was faced with another extreme restriction of no more than 14 inches. After 6 days of excavating what we could our team ran out of time and under the request of the City of Santa Rosa Mayor we placed a new grate over the new cave entrance and loaded it up with heavy rocks and the old tomb stone.

Here is a fun video of Brett riding the new grate from the surface and dropping it right on the exact location we wanted it in 18 seconds. I followed as quick as I could with a camera...

https://vimeo.com/74664048

Phase two is currently in planning for 2014.

Attached is the night light painting I completed during the project.

 

[BigBubbaJ]

Thanks for posting that video. Stella was telling me how cool it was and I wasn't disappointed.

Fun project.