SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
Some last minute packing as well as taping my window up, sent me out the door around 6:30AM. Saw the sun rise over I-10 and it was quite photoworthy over Pensacola Bay, no time to stop at the overlook gas station for a photo though. The ride to Marianna was uneventfull, but annoying thanks to my 'sorta' new exhaust leak... kinda makes my brain rattle. I was about 5 minutes late to Cave Adventurers, Glen was sure to call at 9AM sharp to remind me of the planned(my plan at that) meet time - LOL. Glen had rented a boat to celebrate getting back in the water for some Intro Cave dives after passing his Intro class several weeks ago. Apparently Maine didn't have much too offer him as far as caves went. I was the last to show of our five person group. Aside from Glen and myself, Kevin Carlisle, Denisegg, and Jmaddox would also be on the boat with us. After some tanks were filled and lots of BS'n around the diveshop, we managed to get everything into the 4wheeler and down to the boats.
I always get stuck behind the wheel of the party barge. I managed not to hit anything this time around, but I still hate driving that thing... like navigating a refrigerator with one paddle. As we passed Hole in the Wall, we saw one of the other pontoon boats tied up to the dock, a well as a jon boat, so we continued on to Twin Caves. We did zip over to Indian Washtub to take a look from above for a second.
Twin Caves
The other pontoon boat was at JB, and the dock at Twin was empty, so we pulled up and tied off. A cormorant was floating beak up in the water near the dock, which was kinda gross, but it wasn't stinking yet. Thank God. The wind, and slight current, eventually carried it down the pond though. It was friggin cold! The wind was brisk and the sun was in and out. It was nearing 11AM by the time we got in the water and I'm not sure we got out of the lower 50sF. We were diving as two teams, following each other. Once underwater, we headed over to the entrances to find them fairly clogged up with hydrilla. I could see into the tighter entrance and signalled the team to hold and dropped in to push the hydrilla back, at the main entrance, from the inside. When I re-emerged, I could see GlenFWB and JMaddox and Denisegg's fins sticking out of a plume of silt pouring out from the smaller entrance. Kevin had missed my hold signal and had followed me into the cavern. I zipped back in and told him to hold in the back, then came back out to show everyone else that I had cleared the main entrance. Then I tied off Glen's reel and ran it to the goldline(which is within arms reach from OW anyway). By this time the entrance was a blown so I signaled Kevin to exit. We tried again and I got Denise in, but the visibility was too low for anyone to see there way below the keyhole at the main entrance - LOL. We thumbed the dive again and all surfaced for a quick chat to let the silt clear. A few minutes later the entrance was clear and we all zipped in without any issues whatsoever, leaving the cavern clear this time around. I lead the dive and dropped down the first chimney with the goldline and we headed slowly into the cave. The first few hundred feet had about 20' of milky visibility, but at the top of the cave and the further we headed back, the water turned bluer and cleaner, as good as 60', maybe better. We headed in around 600'p before the dive was turned and we made an uneventfull exit. All in all, my bottom time was around 50 minutes, with a max depth of 58'. Fun little dive.
The SI was spent as much as possible in the sun, it was colder outside(especially with the wind), than in the water. We headed off to Hole in the Wall at a leisurely pace. The Mill Pond is an awesome place to spend the day.
Hole in the Wall
There was still a pontoon boat at Hole, so we pulled along the opposite side of the platform and tied off the front of the boat. I pulled my suit back up, tossed some tanks in the water and hopped in to escape the cold outside temps. Glen broke out the camera for this dive and he tossed jmaddox and me some slave strobes to carry along with us. We'd be using this dive to try out some photography stuff that had been cranking around in Glen's head for awhile. Kevin ran the primary down to the upstream line and I took the lead from there. We'd goto the saddle and take some pictures around that room, there's some interesting formations and a nice big room, so the 5 of us wouldn't be bouncing around too much. Unfortunately, the visibility was pretty dang crappy. IMO, it looked like someone had mucked it up artificially, moreso than a natural occurance. I would say it was as low as 10' in some places, but cleared to 40' the further back and shallower you got(in some of the higher rooms). We did knock several dozen pictures out before the dive was turned and we made the short journey back to the chimney to ascend to the cavern area. At the begining of the chimney, Denisegg signaled that she was out of air(infact, she was just running low). Apparently she had a regulator malfunction that ended up dumping her gas, she had 500psi at the end of the dive. Her primary also failed, so she was sucking on my longhose singlefile into the restriction with a little handheld backup light in her hand. She was freezing since her drysuit wasn't zipped completely, bringing on the flood. Her LP inflator hose didn't like the quick disconnect on her inflator, so it kept disconnecting, making it difficult for her to maintain bouyancy as well. All these problems, and the woman didn't freak out a bit! Pretty awesome considering the circumstances. I had a max depth of 84' for a dive lasting 36 minutes.
The sun was setting as we were swinging into Edd's boat dock. Most everyone was calling it a night, but Glen and I had hoped to grab a couple more sets of tanks to get a third dive in at Hole in the Wall. Unfortunately, a measly little thread got the best of Glen and crippled him for the night. In all seriousness, he pulled his back tieing off the boat and it didn't seem pleasant. So we packed all his gear into the 4wheeler and got everything back up to the shop. Seemed like a pretty busy weekend at Cave Adventurers, all the boats were rented out and lots of people were in and out of the shop including Jim C, Sludge, and OFG. I got to talking away and everyone started bugging out. Eventually, I pulled away, packed my junk up and Kevin C, Denise, and I hit up Old Mexico for some excellent grub - as always. We talked it up for a bit before heading out. The ride back home was uneventfull, but it got me itching for some more diving. I'll be back in Wakulla Co this weekend, hoping to log one or two more once I'm done helping the WCDC on a workday.
I always get stuck behind the wheel of the party barge. I managed not to hit anything this time around, but I still hate driving that thing... like navigating a refrigerator with one paddle. As we passed Hole in the Wall, we saw one of the other pontoon boats tied up to the dock, a well as a jon boat, so we continued on to Twin Caves. We did zip over to Indian Washtub to take a look from above for a second.
Twin Caves
The other pontoon boat was at JB, and the dock at Twin was empty, so we pulled up and tied off. A cormorant was floating beak up in the water near the dock, which was kinda gross, but it wasn't stinking yet. Thank God. The wind, and slight current, eventually carried it down the pond though. It was friggin cold! The wind was brisk and the sun was in and out. It was nearing 11AM by the time we got in the water and I'm not sure we got out of the lower 50sF. We were diving as two teams, following each other. Once underwater, we headed over to the entrances to find them fairly clogged up with hydrilla. I could see into the tighter entrance and signalled the team to hold and dropped in to push the hydrilla back, at the main entrance, from the inside. When I re-emerged, I could see GlenFWB and JMaddox and Denisegg's fins sticking out of a plume of silt pouring out from the smaller entrance. Kevin had missed my hold signal and had followed me into the cavern. I zipped back in and told him to hold in the back, then came back out to show everyone else that I had cleared the main entrance. Then I tied off Glen's reel and ran it to the goldline(which is within arms reach from OW anyway). By this time the entrance was a blown so I signaled Kevin to exit. We tried again and I got Denise in, but the visibility was too low for anyone to see there way below the keyhole at the main entrance - LOL. We thumbed the dive again and all surfaced for a quick chat to let the silt clear. A few minutes later the entrance was clear and we all zipped in without any issues whatsoever, leaving the cavern clear this time around. I lead the dive and dropped down the first chimney with the goldline and we headed slowly into the cave. The first few hundred feet had about 20' of milky visibility, but at the top of the cave and the further we headed back, the water turned bluer and cleaner, as good as 60', maybe better. We headed in around 600'p before the dive was turned and we made an uneventfull exit. All in all, my bottom time was around 50 minutes, with a max depth of 58'. Fun little dive.
The SI was spent as much as possible in the sun, it was colder outside(especially with the wind), than in the water. We headed off to Hole in the Wall at a leisurely pace. The Mill Pond is an awesome place to spend the day.
Hole in the Wall
There was still a pontoon boat at Hole, so we pulled along the opposite side of the platform and tied off the front of the boat. I pulled my suit back up, tossed some tanks in the water and hopped in to escape the cold outside temps. Glen broke out the camera for this dive and he tossed jmaddox and me some slave strobes to carry along with us. We'd be using this dive to try out some photography stuff that had been cranking around in Glen's head for awhile. Kevin ran the primary down to the upstream line and I took the lead from there. We'd goto the saddle and take some pictures around that room, there's some interesting formations and a nice big room, so the 5 of us wouldn't be bouncing around too much. Unfortunately, the visibility was pretty dang crappy. IMO, it looked like someone had mucked it up artificially, moreso than a natural occurance. I would say it was as low as 10' in some places, but cleared to 40' the further back and shallower you got(in some of the higher rooms). We did knock several dozen pictures out before the dive was turned and we made the short journey back to the chimney to ascend to the cavern area. At the begining of the chimney, Denisegg signaled that she was out of air(infact, she was just running low). Apparently she had a regulator malfunction that ended up dumping her gas, she had 500psi at the end of the dive. Her primary also failed, so she was sucking on my longhose singlefile into the restriction with a little handheld backup light in her hand. She was freezing since her drysuit wasn't zipped completely, bringing on the flood. Her LP inflator hose didn't like the quick disconnect on her inflator, so it kept disconnecting, making it difficult for her to maintain bouyancy as well. All these problems, and the woman didn't freak out a bit! Pretty awesome considering the circumstances. I had a max depth of 84' for a dive lasting 36 minutes.
The sun was setting as we were swinging into Edd's boat dock. Most everyone was calling it a night, but Glen and I had hoped to grab a couple more sets of tanks to get a third dive in at Hole in the Wall. Unfortunately, a measly little thread got the best of Glen and crippled him for the night. In all seriousness, he pulled his back tieing off the boat and it didn't seem pleasant. So we packed all his gear into the 4wheeler and got everything back up to the shop. Seemed like a pretty busy weekend at Cave Adventurers, all the boats were rented out and lots of people were in and out of the shop including Jim C, Sludge, and OFG. I got to talking away and everyone started bugging out. Eventually, I pulled away, packed my junk up and Kevin C, Denise, and I hit up Old Mexico for some excellent grub - as always. We talked it up for a bit before heading out. The ride back home was uneventfull, but it got me itching for some more diving. I'll be back in Wakulla Co this weekend, hoping to log one or two more once I'm done helping the WCDC on a workday.
