Well, with the rain we've been getting in the SE, the rivers have been rising. I've been trying to hit the Chipola River caves lately, but that's now being put on hold for a few weeks. The Chipola crested at over 21'! For those of you that don't know, the Chipola has been sitting at about 6' for the past several months. 19' is flood stage. Here's a chart.
So last week I headed over to Hole in the Wall for the first time in a few months and today I headed to Twin for the first time in 7 months.
Hole in the Wall is actually still looking pretty good. Hole usually turns in the winter. What this means is the visibility cuts down and the water temperature drops into the 50s. This usually happens in October and stays that way until May. For some reason, it's not happening that way this year. Last week I did a dive in the upstream side. First, the open water area around the entrance was amazingly clear. This is one of the few times I've been able to see the cavern entrance from the surface. Usually there's so much stuff on the surface you can't see anything. The water in the Mill Pond was noticeable cold, and the warm 68 degree water in the cavern opening was welcome. Visibility in the first 600' and below 70' depth was about 10'. Above 70' it opened up to about 20'. Once we passed the 600' marker visibility started to open up and we ended up having about 50-60' for the rest of the dive. Hole in the Wall is a very beautiful cave with a lot of variation in the passage. The main line ends about 1300' back, but the "main" passage goes off to the right on a T'd in white line. The reason it's not gold line there is because it's not exactly a passage for the inexperienced diver. We stayed on the gold line for this dive and explored a jump just beyond the T before heading back long before we ever reached our turn pressures. Max depth was 84'. Run time was just over an hour with a short deco at the end.
Today I headed over to Twin to check out some passages I haven't been in before. I was told visibility in the first 500-600' wasn't too good, but I actually had a hazy 40' of visibility, which isn't bad for the Subway since the walls are only 10-20' apart. I headed back to the T and dropped down the fissure to the deeper area of Twin. The visibility here opened up to greater than 60' and the haze was gone. I continued to the opposing arrows (the gold line comes back to itself through another fissure) and jumped to the right to the big room tunnel. After swimming a couple hundred feet or so in a wide low room I came to a sand hill that drops down on the other side under a duck under. Just past this duck under is the big room, a tall fissure that rises up several dozen feet. This room is pretty amazing. It's just not something you expect to see after swimming through the Subway and the passage from the main line to get there. I definitely want to go spend some more time in this room. Max depth was 104'. Run time was just over an hour with a very short deco.
Both dives were great and worth repeating. In fact, I'm heading back to Hole in the Wall tomorrow!
So last week I headed over to Hole in the Wall for the first time in a few months and today I headed to Twin for the first time in 7 months.
Hole in the Wall is actually still looking pretty good. Hole usually turns in the winter. What this means is the visibility cuts down and the water temperature drops into the 50s. This usually happens in October and stays that way until May. For some reason, it's not happening that way this year. Last week I did a dive in the upstream side. First, the open water area around the entrance was amazingly clear. This is one of the few times I've been able to see the cavern entrance from the surface. Usually there's so much stuff on the surface you can't see anything. The water in the Mill Pond was noticeable cold, and the warm 68 degree water in the cavern opening was welcome. Visibility in the first 600' and below 70' depth was about 10'. Above 70' it opened up to about 20'. Once we passed the 600' marker visibility started to open up and we ended up having about 50-60' for the rest of the dive. Hole in the Wall is a very beautiful cave with a lot of variation in the passage. The main line ends about 1300' back, but the "main" passage goes off to the right on a T'd in white line. The reason it's not gold line there is because it's not exactly a passage for the inexperienced diver. We stayed on the gold line for this dive and explored a jump just beyond the T before heading back long before we ever reached our turn pressures. Max depth was 84'. Run time was just over an hour with a short deco at the end.
Today I headed over to Twin to check out some passages I haven't been in before. I was told visibility in the first 500-600' wasn't too good, but I actually had a hazy 40' of visibility, which isn't bad for the Subway since the walls are only 10-20' apart. I headed back to the T and dropped down the fissure to the deeper area of Twin. The visibility here opened up to greater than 60' and the haze was gone. I continued to the opposing arrows (the gold line comes back to itself through another fissure) and jumped to the right to the big room tunnel. After swimming a couple hundred feet or so in a wide low room I came to a sand hill that drops down on the other side under a duck under. Just past this duck under is the big room, a tall fissure that rises up several dozen feet. This room is pretty amazing. It's just not something you expect to see after swimming through the Subway and the passage from the main line to get there. I definitely want to go spend some more time in this room. Max depth was 104'. Run time was just over an hour with a very short deco.
Both dives were great and worth repeating. In fact, I'm heading back to Hole in the Wall tomorrow!
