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GUE Cave 2 Scuba Diving report, Florida, 2005 Part 1 November 26, 2005

Posted by Andy Carroll in : CaveDiving , trackback

Crawling 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.

Scuba Diving Ginnie Springs 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.

From here until the restriction called the lips is called the gallery, and we stay high and try and keep out of the flow pulling from rock to rock trying to keep our breathing rate down and keep an eye on our stage gas pressure. The gallery has many ‘alcoves’ and different rock formations. It is quite an incredible sight for those new to cave diving (me). We arrive at the lips after another OK, ensuring everyone has enough stage gas to get through the lips and then through the keyhole and then the cornflakes which follow straight after. This is quite a tight section and so the flow increases. Pulling and gliding is essential, there is little chance of being able to fin against this current. Everyone had enough gas and so we headed through the lips, pulling for a couple of metres until I feel my feet on the ceiling and then doing a funny looking action of pulling with my hands and �walking on the ceiling� to spend as little energy as possible getting through. I am pretty good at getting through the lips and the other guys are a bit slower, so I didn�t have to work very hard. With the near limitless viz and HID lights it is sometimes easy to get in front too much and not realise, but its also important not to get to close to the guy in front where you could get kicked or otherwise �harrass� them. I take note and slow down, staying high through the keyhole and then through the cornflakes before reaching the tabletop jump. Soon after the jump, Don hit drop pressure on his stage and we all dropped, clipping the bottles to the mainline. Switching to backgas we now had nearly full thirds to carry on the dive and we headed up towards the hill400 line. Don placed his marker and set the jump, before signalling OK and Scott and I got back into position. We then explored the Hill 400 line for aways, almost getting to the top of the hill before Scott eventually called the dive at about 40 mins or so.

Heading back it wasn�t long before we started having problems. As I was at the back my main light failed first. Its not hard to notice when a 18w HID goes out behind you and so the guys immediately stopped and waited the few seconds it took for the backup to come out. Shortly after that the other guys lights went out followed by backup light deployment. I then ran out of gas! I went to Don and he deployed pretty quickly and we stopped for a few seconds to sort out the routing and to move me to the front, and Scott to the back. We still had a little way to go before we reached the stage bottles and now backup lights started failing! By the time we reached the stage bottles we had one backup light between all three of us! My stage bottle was reached last and so I had to wait for Don to clip his on before I could pick mine up and I clipped the top clip to my harness. Not bothered with the bottom clip just yet I deployed my stage and could give Don his longhose back. He tidied up before deploying his stage and then Scott followed shortly afterwards. We still had to remain in touch contact with the line as we headed into the cornflakes and then, as the last backup light failed, we all had to be in touch contact through the cornflakes, keyhole and the lips before being spat out into the gallery. The flow’s a bit easier to handle here and we steadily made our way up to the gallery in pitch blackness, touch contact with the line and each other, before reaching the reel, at which time Tyler gave us a backup light between us to exit out of the eye! After a careful ascent through the eye and a short 3 minute stop at 9 mtrs we finally reached our deco bottles and then completed the deco successfully with 15 minutes on O2 and a total dive time of about 110 minutes. Just another dive in the GUE Cave 2 course.

There is a map of Ginnie here
GUE Cave 2 Scuba Diving report, Florida, 2005 Part 1