SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
Salvaging my weekend, DogHouseDiver offered a ride out to the Wakulla County Dive Club meeting in Florida this past Saturday. Hell, we might even get some diving in on Sunday! How could I pass this up? All I had to do was bring a sleeping bag to claim a spot on the hotel floor and pay for some cheap grub and whatever gas I plan on breathing.
DHD picked me up with me at 7AM and we loaded up his trailer without too much time and headed East into Pensacola. We picked up another one of his dive buddies, Benji, and then started back off on the interstate. A quick stop at Vortex to fill up with Nitrox(which included empting our tanks at the fill station, apparently scaring the bajesus out of everyone in the shop) allowed me a bit of time to meet up with some of the Vortoberfest V crowd. I found NetDoc almost immediately and Tom Smedley about to head in for a dive. Aucade and Clanmom were gearing up, or down, so I got to say hello to them as well. At the campsite I found the Snep's campsite as point of Saturday morning revival as a crowd gathered around some breakfast that smelled quite good. I declined the food, as I knew there wasn't enough for my dive buddies. Denise and the AAs were there, Docc, and wjefferis were here as well. I guess I missed everyone else who had left for there dive destinations for the day.
Our next stop was at a gas station in Quincy, to grab some food before meeting up with BGillespie, cwick, and theawesomefish to tour some of the Leon Sinks. We were somewhat concerned about the food, but the crowds waiting for grub made us feel a bit better. We met some interesting people here. One friendly guy offered to share his table with us and we found out he was an elevator builder with "three head of children". He seemed to know everyone there and one of his co-workers, who "doesn't work much" was heard to be holding a lawn mower race at Billy's. This is great stuff! I could've sat there and listened to this stuff for hours.
Back on the road, we were on one of our last stretches when one of Florida's finest delayed us for just a little longer. The officer was cool though, also a local diver, and DHD managed to come away with just one ticket from a plethera could-be violations. The officer also directed us to a short-cut that I will definately use in the future. Finally, we met up with the rest of our divers and parked at the club access to the sinks. After a quick shower in bug repellant, we headed into the woods. I don't think any of us expected it, but the Leon Sinks were clear!?! Had we had known, we would have left earlier, made less stops, and gotten some good dives in. That being said, had our little group been that optimistic, the sinks would have surely been tannic. The sinksholes looked really very appealing though, but our hike through the woods was soon cut short by thunder and rains. We were soaked by the time we made it back to the cars.
After a quick stop at Wakulla Dive Center, we hit up the WCDC meeting. Don Kearns had a presentation on the evolution of cave diving that went over very well. This was Don's second appearance at the WCDC meetings and as before, he came with all sorts of oldschool gear and books for us to look over. It was a great presentation to proceed the normal business. Afterwards, we had a party of 9 hit up El Jalisco, which is an area favorite. The food was great and everyone seemed to have a good time. If there was any downside, it would have been that the "Tequilla" guy wasn't around to grind on the back of BGillespie. DogHouseDiver, Benji and I headed back to Marianna for the night since we'd be diving Jackson Blue on Sunday. I was out like a light pretty much right away.
Up at 7AM and out the door early enough to hit up McDonald's for some quick breakfast, we made it to Cave Adventurers around 8AM and were seemingly the first to arrive. After signing in to dive Jackson Blue, and a few other small purchases, we hit up the Mill Pond's headspring. There were a few other divers already onsite, but no where near enough to make a difference. The morning was cool, clear, and lacked the crazy humidity we had just a few days before. It was GREAT outside.
We geared up and hit the water for a cavern dive. Visibility was endless and the water felt great. We spent time poking in and out of different little crevices just looking around. Flow was low, but noticable, and it was still quite easy to go from the shallower cavern opening and down the dropoff to the main cavern area. The breakdown in the main cavern portion provided us with lots to play around in. DHD made quick work of the primary with his new reel. He left it in place for the rest of the dives of the day. I may have poked down the chimney for a minute, making my max depth of 90' for a total dive time of 38 minutes.
Theawesomefish and PerroneFord met up with us during the SI and started gearing up while DHD and Benji headed to Edd's to get some quick fills. After a two and a half hour surface interval, Perrone and I did a quick reacclimation dive while DHD and Fish did a cavern dive. I'd eventually shadow the cavern divers a bit without my lights, which always puts a devious little smile on my face. I had a max depth of 40' with a dive lasting 32 minutes.
On surfacing this time around, rotor60driver was hauling tanks down to the water. I asked if he wouldn't mind a buddy and he obliged. We figured out one of the few places in the first 1000'p that he hadn't been to before and set about a quick little dive plan that included a section he had already been in that gets to be a bit of silty fun then off to the line he hadn't seen. We used DHD's primary and cookied it, so he'd know if we were still using his line if it was still in place after they finish up there next cavern dive. I led the dive to our first jump where rotor60driver placed the line and took the lead through the Squirrel passage. He took the fissure side and I took the low side and we squirmed our way through to Chickenhead Rock. Its a fun little passage with an appropriate name. The next part of our dive took us to the Goodman Circuit, where I spooled into and led through to a vertical fissurecrack on one of the turns that shoots straight up. I actually looked up at the wrong fissure at one point, but continued on after not finding the line I was expecting. Eventually, I found the jump I was looking for and tied in with a spool. We squirmed straight up past a few easy restrictions, where I was apparently just raining down silt on poor ole 60driver - LOL. Atleast he knows where to find it next time so he can have a look at it without having to follow my silty butt through it. I eventually hit a tighter restriction that was enough for me to not want to mess with. We turned the dive and wormed back into the Goodman circuit, continued forward to make the loop and came back out into the main passage where I thumbed the dive. I had all of a single minute of deco on 100% and did a few extra for the hellovit before surfacing after a 66 minute dive with a max depth of 95'. Great dive, lots of fun, and all in the first 600'p of cave, gotta love it!
By the time we finished up, hunger was starting to come into play. So we geared down and packed up, settled up with Edd and headed off to Popeye's to grab some food. I got exactly what I wanted, in a timely fashion, and it was great. Unfortunately, everyone behind me didn't get the same service. Still, it was a great way to end a weekend with a little grub with friends, talking diving. We'll have a cavern dive in the planning before long, probably something like Morrison or Cypress towards the end of the month. Met a few new buddies, got to dive with buddies I hadn't been in the water with in quite some time, and got to see some awesome dive sites yet again. I really like my weekends!
DHD picked me up with me at 7AM and we loaded up his trailer without too much time and headed East into Pensacola. We picked up another one of his dive buddies, Benji, and then started back off on the interstate. A quick stop at Vortex to fill up with Nitrox(which included empting our tanks at the fill station, apparently scaring the bajesus out of everyone in the shop) allowed me a bit of time to meet up with some of the Vortoberfest V crowd. I found NetDoc almost immediately and Tom Smedley about to head in for a dive. Aucade and Clanmom were gearing up, or down, so I got to say hello to them as well. At the campsite I found the Snep's campsite as point of Saturday morning revival as a crowd gathered around some breakfast that smelled quite good. I declined the food, as I knew there wasn't enough for my dive buddies. Denise and the AAs were there, Docc, and wjefferis were here as well. I guess I missed everyone else who had left for there dive destinations for the day.
Our next stop was at a gas station in Quincy, to grab some food before meeting up with BGillespie, cwick, and theawesomefish to tour some of the Leon Sinks. We were somewhat concerned about the food, but the crowds waiting for grub made us feel a bit better. We met some interesting people here. One friendly guy offered to share his table with us and we found out he was an elevator builder with "three head of children". He seemed to know everyone there and one of his co-workers, who "doesn't work much" was heard to be holding a lawn mower race at Billy's. This is great stuff! I could've sat there and listened to this stuff for hours.
Back on the road, we were on one of our last stretches when one of Florida's finest delayed us for just a little longer. The officer was cool though, also a local diver, and DHD managed to come away with just one ticket from a plethera could-be violations. The officer also directed us to a short-cut that I will definately use in the future. Finally, we met up with the rest of our divers and parked at the club access to the sinks. After a quick shower in bug repellant, we headed into the woods. I don't think any of us expected it, but the Leon Sinks were clear!?! Had we had known, we would have left earlier, made less stops, and gotten some good dives in. That being said, had our little group been that optimistic, the sinks would have surely been tannic. The sinksholes looked really very appealing though, but our hike through the woods was soon cut short by thunder and rains. We were soaked by the time we made it back to the cars.
After a quick stop at Wakulla Dive Center, we hit up the WCDC meeting. Don Kearns had a presentation on the evolution of cave diving that went over very well. This was Don's second appearance at the WCDC meetings and as before, he came with all sorts of oldschool gear and books for us to look over. It was a great presentation to proceed the normal business. Afterwards, we had a party of 9 hit up El Jalisco, which is an area favorite. The food was great and everyone seemed to have a good time. If there was any downside, it would have been that the "Tequilla" guy wasn't around to grind on the back of BGillespie. DogHouseDiver, Benji and I headed back to Marianna for the night since we'd be diving Jackson Blue on Sunday. I was out like a light pretty much right away.
Up at 7AM and out the door early enough to hit up McDonald's for some quick breakfast, we made it to Cave Adventurers around 8AM and were seemingly the first to arrive. After signing in to dive Jackson Blue, and a few other small purchases, we hit up the Mill Pond's headspring. There were a few other divers already onsite, but no where near enough to make a difference. The morning was cool, clear, and lacked the crazy humidity we had just a few days before. It was GREAT outside.
We geared up and hit the water for a cavern dive. Visibility was endless and the water felt great. We spent time poking in and out of different little crevices just looking around. Flow was low, but noticable, and it was still quite easy to go from the shallower cavern opening and down the dropoff to the main cavern area. The breakdown in the main cavern portion provided us with lots to play around in. DHD made quick work of the primary with his new reel. He left it in place for the rest of the dives of the day. I may have poked down the chimney for a minute, making my max depth of 90' for a total dive time of 38 minutes.
Theawesomefish and PerroneFord met up with us during the SI and started gearing up while DHD and Benji headed to Edd's to get some quick fills. After a two and a half hour surface interval, Perrone and I did a quick reacclimation dive while DHD and Fish did a cavern dive. I'd eventually shadow the cavern divers a bit without my lights, which always puts a devious little smile on my face. I had a max depth of 40' with a dive lasting 32 minutes.
On surfacing this time around, rotor60driver was hauling tanks down to the water. I asked if he wouldn't mind a buddy and he obliged. We figured out one of the few places in the first 1000'p that he hadn't been to before and set about a quick little dive plan that included a section he had already been in that gets to be a bit of silty fun then off to the line he hadn't seen. We used DHD's primary and cookied it, so he'd know if we were still using his line if it was still in place after they finish up there next cavern dive. I led the dive to our first jump where rotor60driver placed the line and took the lead through the Squirrel passage. He took the fissure side and I took the low side and we squirmed our way through to Chickenhead Rock. Its a fun little passage with an appropriate name. The next part of our dive took us to the Goodman Circuit, where I spooled into and led through to a vertical fissurecrack on one of the turns that shoots straight up. I actually looked up at the wrong fissure at one point, but continued on after not finding the line I was expecting. Eventually, I found the jump I was looking for and tied in with a spool. We squirmed straight up past a few easy restrictions, where I was apparently just raining down silt on poor ole 60driver - LOL. Atleast he knows where to find it next time so he can have a look at it without having to follow my silty butt through it. I eventually hit a tighter restriction that was enough for me to not want to mess with. We turned the dive and wormed back into the Goodman circuit, continued forward to make the loop and came back out into the main passage where I thumbed the dive. I had all of a single minute of deco on 100% and did a few extra for the hellovit before surfacing after a 66 minute dive with a max depth of 95'. Great dive, lots of fun, and all in the first 600'p of cave, gotta love it!
By the time we finished up, hunger was starting to come into play. So we geared down and packed up, settled up with Edd and headed off to Popeye's to grab some food. I got exactly what I wanted, in a timely fashion, and it was great. Unfortunately, everyone behind me didn't get the same service. Still, it was a great way to end a weekend with a little grub with friends, talking diving. We'll have a cavern dive in the planning before long, probably something like Morrison or Cypress towards the end of the month. Met a few new buddies, got to dive with buddies I hadn't been in the water with in quite some time, and got to see some awesome dive sites yet again. I really like my weekends!
