GUE Cave 2 Scuba Diving Report, Florida, 2005 Part 3 November 29, 2005
Posted by Andy Carroll in : CaveDiving , 2commentsWednesday
In the morning we headed off to Ginnie again for two dives. I did the reel and we went down the ear. The dive plan was to try and prove a circuit today, doing 4 jumps to end up back on the main line and then to do the second dive down the mainline to find our jump spool from the previous dive and then exit that way. I had a busy dive as some other team had already run a reel in an inventive way and I had to look for an alternative route, which turned out to be better anyway and Tyler even said �excellent� at the debrief which was quite surprising as he isn’t usually so loose with his compliments. We had already had ‘top notch’ which I was still recovering from . We dropped the deco bottles at the secondary tie off and I tied in to the mainline. Along the gallery, through the lips, keyhole and cornflakes to the tabletop jump, which I set and then signalled to my teammates to follow. Scott set the next jump followed by Don and then I set the final jump before thumbing the dive, according to the plan. Mission accomplished, we headed back, with only a few light failures along the way, Tyler testing how well we reordered the team according to the resources left.
The second dive and I was third with Don second and Scott first. We didn�t need to place a reel and so we made quick progress through the cave until finding my spool. The two guys just swam along it but I signalled a hold and confirmed that we were indeed OK to exit this way and pull our spools out as we were leaving the mainline. All fine and we headed out. Again we had failures on the way out in the form of light problems but nothing really major. We pulled all the spools, found the mainline and exited to do our deco.
Second out-of-town scuba diver this month dies in Broward November 29, 2005
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Accidents , add a commentFrom Miami;
A 64-year-old Virginia man out diving with friends died on Monday after he started having trouble breathing in the water, officials said.
His is the second death of an out-of-town diver in Broward County this month. A New Hampshire man was found dead in scuba gear in the waters off Fort Lauderdale two weeks ago.
GUE Cave 2 Scuba Diving Report, Florida, 2005 Part 2 November 28, 2005
Posted by Andy Carroll in : CaveDiving , 1 comment so farIntroduction
After spending a week visiting Mickey Mouse and many other Orlando attractions, Elena and I headed up to High Springs so I could take my scuba diving cave 2 class with Tyler. My teammates for the course were Scott, who I had completed my Cave 1 with in November 04, and also Don, who had taken Cave 1 a few years ago, before there was a DIRF course. Elena, SWMBO, had organised some horse riding lessons and a couple of nature trek things to keep her from getting bored, and so I was all set. For those who want to go on a cave course and have non cave diving partners, this was a great idea and Elena really enjoyed herself, which can only mean more cave scubadiving trips for me Florida really does have a lot to offer if you need to ‘balance’ our dive-life and family-life
Sunday
With some trepidation I turned up at the newly refurbished EE store on Sunday morning to be met by Tyler, Scott, and Don. During the night Elena and I had awoken to a lot of fizzing and hissing as my HID battery pack had decided to explode whilst being charged! I found out that you should not use a convertor for the US sockets as it screws up the charging. It cost $570 for me to find that out! After getting our twinsets filled and analysed as well as oxygen deco bottle we went through some initial academics before heading off to Ginnie for the swim test and the first scubadive.
The swim test was easy and I did that in 7 minutes or so. I successfully managed to dodge running the reel for the first dive and Scott volunteered, with Don second and me third. I had been a little nervous as I hadn�t scuba dived a cave since November but as soon as I was in the water and heading down the ear everything came back and it was as if I had not had the break. Ginnie was as beautiful as ever, with limitless viz and comfortable 21 degC water. Our task was to put in the primary tieoff, followed by the secondary and drop our O2 bottles (which were hipclipped at this point). We were then to head off up the main line until we reached thirds. We hipclipped the O2 bottles all week as we don’t take them very far in the cave, just enough to be out of the way of nosey swimmers. Ginnie is an excellent scubadive, the vis goes on for the full spread of the 18W HID and once you know the cave a little, the flow doesn�t beat you up so much. Anyway we headed along the main line and I forget how far we got but I think it was turned when my light mysteriously failed. I switched to backup and called the dive, and so we started heading back. It wasn�t too long before the others lights failed and we all returned on backup lights, picking up the O2 bottles and doing 5 minutes deco. Cave diving is totally different to the ocean. I still find it a little strange doing a deco stop sat on a log rather than in open water.
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Scuba Diving Expert warns Wal-Mart site may harm caves November 27, 2005
Posted by Andy Carroll in : CaveDiving, Conservation , add a commentALACHUA - The cattle didn’t know what to make of Cindy Butler as she roamed on their pasture Friday listening to headphones attached to a gray disc.
Butler followed the sound of an electronic hum as it grew in intensity, leading her to the edge of a 80-foot-wide depression in the ground.
The headphones were picking up the sound from a magnetic device carried by cave scuba divers nearly 200 feet below the surface. Butler will present the findings to Wal-Mart as it moves forward with plans to build a store on the 31-acre property on U.S. 441 near Interstate 75.
“I don’t have an issue with them building on here - as long as they don’t build on the cave,” she said.
Butler is a certified cave-scubadiving guide who leads expeditions into the nearby Mill Creek Sink. Mill Creek feeds into the sink, its waters being carried through a series of underground caves that eventually lead six miles away to Hornsby Spring.
She said the fragile cave system could be damaged by Wal-Mart - especially a fissure in the rock below the proposed store. Scuba divers brought the magnetic device to the fissure, so Butler could document its location above ground.
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GUE Cave 2 Scuba Diving report, Florida, 2005 Part 1 November 26, 2005
Posted by Andy Carroll in : CaveDiving , add a commentCrawling through Devils Eye in Ginnie Springs is usually a little tight with the twin 104�s (16 Ltrs) anyway, but with an additional AL40 deco bottle and an AL80 Stage bottle it is �interesting� to say the least. The plan for this dive was for Scott to run the reel to the main line, with Don second and me third. Ensure everyone is OK, and then head on through the cave to the Hill 400 jump. Head up that line as far as we could go before reaching our turn pressure and calling the dive. Don was setting the jump, and so I had little to do other than watch that everything was going to plan Our expected bottom time would be around 90 minutes at an average depth of 24-27 mtrs on 30/30 with O2 for deco.
Scott put in the primary, and had a look around for a place to tie his secondary. Its important this, as we will be placing our deco bottles at the secondary tieoff and so its better to be out of the flow as much as possible and have enough room for three people to pick up their deco bottles on the way out without getting in the way of each other. He found a secondary and dropped his deco bottle, closely followed by Don and I. We then headed down further into the cave, pulling our way down to the main line which was about 15 -20 mtrs away and down to about 20 mtrs deep. This is hard to imagine, as you need to virtually crawl along the floor, maybe running a reel, with the light in your hand, clearing ears, and putting gas in suit etc. as well as check that your buddies are with you. Scott tied in to the main line and signalled an OK. I checked my stage and had plenty of gas. I then squirted a bunch of gas into my wing and floated up to the ceiling where there is less flow.
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World Record Attempt by Maldives Scuba Divers November 25, 2005
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Trivia , 1 comment so farThe Maldives Tourism Promotion Board and Dhiraagu Maldives are planning to attempt to break the world record for the number of scuba divers diving one site at the same time. Talk about diver soup!
After the tsunami on Boxing day last year it is great to see the diving industry bounce back. The diving industry is extremely important to the Maldives economy.
From The MTPB website:
Maldives Tourism Promotion Board together with Dhiraagu Maldives is to attempt a new world record for greatest number of scuba divers simultaneously diving on a single site.
The targeted number of divers for this attempt is 1000 inclusive of locals and tourists and the tentative location and time has been set for Sunlight Thila on February 25th, 2006 at 11:00hrs.
Current world record for the greatest number of people scuba diving simultaneously at the same location is 722, held by Koh Tao Underwater festival, Thailand in Feb 2005.
Scuba Diving is one of the major products that attract tourists to the Maldives and as such this event has been incorporated as part of worldwide promotional activities for 2006. Maldives Tourism Promotion Board and Dhiraagu anticipate increased international exposure through this event.
This idea of establishing a world record that is very relevant to the Maldives is been initiated by Dhiraagu, and they are receiving extensive support from the scuba diving community and tourism sector in the Maldives.
