cmufieldhockey8
Contributor
After 3 days of working a weeks worth of hours and a week's worth of homework I packed the Focus and met up with Mikiedfd on Thanksgiving in Marianna for some cave diving. Mike had made the drive from Chicago the day before but was ready to go. Dweyant joined up with us and we all did a nice easy relaxed dive up the mainline and cruised back. After recalculating 6ths we went back in but the dive was cut short when Mike's supposedly cycled and charged battery took a poop on him and Mike exited on a backup. After some chatting, fills, and another light we were back in. We had a good pace this time and made it somewhere past the 2nd breakdown before we turned and came back. Our fourth dive was uber slow and relaxed. These dives were 31, 24, 49, and 39 minutes respectively.
We got fills again and Edd and Stacy invited us inside to a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey was perfect! We then planned to scooter across the mill pond and get a dive or 2 in at Twin. I've swam to twin several times and although its a little ways, it is no big deal. Why not scooter to twin and cut the travel time in half?! Well it was a good idea but I had not seen the recent conditions of the mill pond i.e. HYDRILLA!!!! Omg that crap was everywhere. Plus it was dark outside so it was difficult to see where the hydrilla was. Well basically we became swamp monsters when we had to push through the hydrilla. My recent loss of a small fin had me using my medium fins which were nearly too big. Add that to the drag of a scooter in my hand and the fact that the nomad was not designed for surface swimming... and well it was too darn hard!! Even the entire area around the dock and cave was covered in hydrilla and somehow Mike found the cave. The viz in the millpond was yucky and the cavern was pretty bad, but once we got into the cave it was excellent. We did a slow leisurely 64 min dive to the end of the subway tunnel and back, then continued the horrendous treck back ot the boat launch. By now my primary light had died and we weaved back and forth on the scooteraround the hydrilla with my little backup. I was able to avoid the hydrilla a little better this time and we made it back to the mucky boat launch dirty and tired. We packed Mike's truck, left my car at Cave Adventurers and pressed on to meet with the rest of the gang in Luraville.
We got to Luraville at 2 am and somehow I made it up with the group at 6:30. Mike opted for some rest. After breakfast and fills we went over to Peacock Springs State Park. I lead the dive with Ernest and then Diverdeva, Mos11b and Brian entered the water 15 minutes after E and I did. Waterhole is sooooo beautiful. It's winds around, goes up and down, gets small, opens up etc etc. It is by far my most favorite passage in Peacock. I took a left at the peanut line, a right at the crossover, and a right at the pothole line which took us all the way to the cavern of P1. E and I slowed it down to a coast on the pothole line and I became so relaxed that I closed my eyes a few times. There were quite a few cave crawfish. The other 3 caught up to us by the time we hit the cavern which was clear for the first time ever for me. Boy it is beautiful when it doesn't look like pea soup!
B gearing up.
E gearing up.
A gearing up.
Feeling much rested then I was, Mike met up with us and after fills, Ernest and Brian put out the fire of a electronic smoker gone wild on the porch of the trailer next to ours. We got all geared up to go swim up the Suwannee to Telford but a series of equipment failures had the dive called for everybody. We got an early dinner and went over to our buddy John Orlowski's house to shoot the crap with him for the evening. His son was quite entertaining and I ended up feeding his son's week old goat. Cute little bugger.
Somebody decided this would be a good pose of mos11b, the goat and me.
Of course the inevitable occurred.
Saturday was Little River day, and after the challenge of getting all the tanks down there, Ernest Brian Aletheia and I were on our way with scooters and stages (well I don't have a scooter so I got to be dragged along.) We scootered a bit and swam a bit and we passed Mike and Dave on the way back. I was doing alright with the reel till I got to my o2 bottle which was on the line I was pulling, and well lets just say I'm not that great at picking up extra bottles in sidemount with a reel in my hand yet. By the time I got it on I had been kicked around by the flow, got air in my feet and flipped upside down, then my fin and boot nearly came off because my boot was unzipped, and I ended up jamming the reel. Smoooooth!
By the time I got my o2 situated and reel reeled up, I realized my computer had gotten stuck on 22 feet and 63 minutes. Great, my computer took a poop on me. I went on tables and ended up with 21 min of deco. Oh well. However all that time on 02 brought back a nauseous feeling I've gotten before on 02 even though I was in just 13 feet of water. It remained on the surface for a while and came back when I exerted myself so we decided I was done for the day. Mike and Dave did a second dive and surfaced to a crowd of locals who wouldn't quite get out of my pictures. They were celebrity cave divers to those locals!
Me, E, and A.
Dave and Mike
B
A
E
Me resting after the reel battle.
Dave and Mike exiting before a crowd.
The group ended up being done too for the day but we did some sight seeing at some local caves, Dave was presented with a special family heirloom, and we spent another evening at the Orlowski residence.
Don't even ask.
We parted out ways with Mike Sunday morning as he had to go back to Chicago, and our planned dive at Madison changed to JB because of the lightning. Mos11b and I did a very slow and easy dive at JB just past the chimney and lollygagged throughout the dive looking into every hole and crack we could see, pointing out interesting fossils and we even saw some weird bug the size of a grain of rice.
I wanted to try a different o2 bottle and see exactly what depth I get the nausea so I spent a few more minutes in the basin after the dive figuring that out (11 feet!) Either I was a head case and imagined it or I'll be adjusting my mixes from now on. The Sunday post-dive meal was at the usual, Sonny's, in Marianna and brought to a close another wonderful and fun Thanksgiving weekend. Thanks guys!
Bull riding!!!
We got fills again and Edd and Stacy invited us inside to a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey was perfect! We then planned to scooter across the mill pond and get a dive or 2 in at Twin. I've swam to twin several times and although its a little ways, it is no big deal. Why not scooter to twin and cut the travel time in half?! Well it was a good idea but I had not seen the recent conditions of the mill pond i.e. HYDRILLA!!!! Omg that crap was everywhere. Plus it was dark outside so it was difficult to see where the hydrilla was. Well basically we became swamp monsters when we had to push through the hydrilla. My recent loss of a small fin had me using my medium fins which were nearly too big. Add that to the drag of a scooter in my hand and the fact that the nomad was not designed for surface swimming... and well it was too darn hard!! Even the entire area around the dock and cave was covered in hydrilla and somehow Mike found the cave. The viz in the millpond was yucky and the cavern was pretty bad, but once we got into the cave it was excellent. We did a slow leisurely 64 min dive to the end of the subway tunnel and back, then continued the horrendous treck back ot the boat launch. By now my primary light had died and we weaved back and forth on the scooteraround the hydrilla with my little backup. I was able to avoid the hydrilla a little better this time and we made it back to the mucky boat launch dirty and tired. We packed Mike's truck, left my car at Cave Adventurers and pressed on to meet with the rest of the gang in Luraville.
We got to Luraville at 2 am and somehow I made it up with the group at 6:30. Mike opted for some rest. After breakfast and fills we went over to Peacock Springs State Park. I lead the dive with Ernest and then Diverdeva, Mos11b and Brian entered the water 15 minutes after E and I did. Waterhole is sooooo beautiful. It's winds around, goes up and down, gets small, opens up etc etc. It is by far my most favorite passage in Peacock. I took a left at the peanut line, a right at the crossover, and a right at the pothole line which took us all the way to the cavern of P1. E and I slowed it down to a coast on the pothole line and I became so relaxed that I closed my eyes a few times. There were quite a few cave crawfish. The other 3 caught up to us by the time we hit the cavern which was clear for the first time ever for me. Boy it is beautiful when it doesn't look like pea soup!
B gearing up.
E gearing up.
A gearing up.
Feeling much rested then I was, Mike met up with us and after fills, Ernest and Brian put out the fire of a electronic smoker gone wild on the porch of the trailer next to ours. We got all geared up to go swim up the Suwannee to Telford but a series of equipment failures had the dive called for everybody. We got an early dinner and went over to our buddy John Orlowski's house to shoot the crap with him for the evening. His son was quite entertaining and I ended up feeding his son's week old goat. Cute little bugger.
Somebody decided this would be a good pose of mos11b, the goat and me.
Of course the inevitable occurred.
Saturday was Little River day, and after the challenge of getting all the tanks down there, Ernest Brian Aletheia and I were on our way with scooters and stages (well I don't have a scooter so I got to be dragged along.) We scootered a bit and swam a bit and we passed Mike and Dave on the way back. I was doing alright with the reel till I got to my o2 bottle which was on the line I was pulling, and well lets just say I'm not that great at picking up extra bottles in sidemount with a reel in my hand yet. By the time I got it on I had been kicked around by the flow, got air in my feet and flipped upside down, then my fin and boot nearly came off because my boot was unzipped, and I ended up jamming the reel. Smoooooth!
By the time I got my o2 situated and reel reeled up, I realized my computer had gotten stuck on 22 feet and 63 minutes. Great, my computer took a poop on me. I went on tables and ended up with 21 min of deco. Oh well. However all that time on 02 brought back a nauseous feeling I've gotten before on 02 even though I was in just 13 feet of water. It remained on the surface for a while and came back when I exerted myself so we decided I was done for the day. Mike and Dave did a second dive and surfaced to a crowd of locals who wouldn't quite get out of my pictures. They were celebrity cave divers to those locals!
Me, E, and A.
Dave and Mike
B
A
E
Me resting after the reel battle.
Dave and Mike exiting before a crowd.
The group ended up being done too for the day but we did some sight seeing at some local caves, Dave was presented with a special family heirloom, and we spent another evening at the Orlowski residence.
Don't even ask.
We parted out ways with Mike Sunday morning as he had to go back to Chicago, and our planned dive at Madison changed to JB because of the lightning. Mos11b and I did a very slow and easy dive at JB just past the chimney and lollygagged throughout the dive looking into every hole and crack we could see, pointing out interesting fossils and we even saw some weird bug the size of a grain of rice.
I wanted to try a different o2 bottle and see exactly what depth I get the nausea so I spent a few more minutes in the basin after the dive figuring that out (11 feet!) Either I was a head case and imagined it or I'll be adjusting my mixes from now on. The Sunday post-dive meal was at the usual, Sonny's, in Marianna and brought to a close another wonderful and fun Thanksgiving weekend. Thanks guys!
Bull riding!!!
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