basin survey, connected sinks … and … the deluge

Today I accompanied while he completed the basin surveys for the landowner, and we ran line connecting the final two sinks. These basins are huge and very beautiful, and as simple as the dives were I found them very enjoyable. Man, it was a ton of bounce diving though… sheesh. When we were almost done, in a basin far from where we had began, I noticed that my light had run out. We clipped off our stages and scooters and removed our doubles to exit from where we were and walk back to the truck, stopping at a sink along the way where we had left a couple spent stages. Once we got to the truck and I got *out* of my suit (and made a note to IMMEDIATELY find out about a female pee valve *ugh*), we headed back to pick up our gear. Just as we were loading the truck, the heavens opened up and the downpour began. According to the weather, it was supposed to continue to rain in Tallahassee for the whole week. *sigh* At least it waited this long. At least we got all this other diving done first, because visibility would now certainly degrade. Next weekend I wouldn’t be diving anyway. Time to work on my anti-rain dance.
“San Isido, labrador, quite el agua y pone el sol.”
I guess it is time to use “The only link I will ever need to check for rain in the WKP“.

further exploration

Today’s dive plan was to proceed at full speed until we got to the reel that was clipped off at the end of the line. We went in on a double stage and picked up the bottle and scooters that we had left clipped at the line that goes off into the new tunnel to the left. My scooter seemed really slow on the way in, despite being turned all the way up and despite my bottles being clipped off in good position and despite being fully stretched out behind the scooter. It didn’t make any sense for it to be slower – I will have to try to figure this out later. We dropped the first stage at the newly named and properly identified “first stage drop” which was at the big rock on the floor shortly before the end of the line. Heading onward from the end of the line was very exciting. All of us were hoping that this tunnel would just go on and on, continuing big and continuing with a lot of flow for a really long ways. Several leads along the way gave options for alternate passages should this one not hold up to expectations. There was one in particular up and to the right that I really wanted to check out, even though it looked smaller and siltier. I maintained an even position between CW who had the reel and JR who was taking the survey, checking tie offs and watching the line for slack along the way, conscious that tie-offs in this place had a tendency to disappear from crumble, and not wanting the line to bury itself deep in the silt. Just beyond a duck under restriction heading downward my light failed. I just held there while I clipped off that light and deployed my other primary light, thankful that I had one to deploy since we were still on the way in. All I could think of was that the bulb had dislodged again. By the time that I had switched to the other light, JR had caught up with me. I told him about having switched my light and we moved on. Shortly past that I dropped my second stage bottle where I saw the other one on the line, then moved forward to wait for him to catch up the survey to there and drop his stage, then moving on. After a short ways on, we turned the dive. According to CW it was getting low and wide, and continuing on when we were almost at turn anyway would leave us exiting on the line in poor vis. Having buddies who are safe and conscientious is so key to cave diving safely. We turned and headed out, picking up but not switching to our dropped stage when we got to it to save time and for extra safety, since pressure on the bottle we were breathing was the same or greater than the one we had staged. Ahead of that a bit, I found myself stuck for a moment. I stopped to try to figure out what was caught, trying to not move much while figuring it out. Just as I realized that it was the second stage from one of my regulators on a stage bottle that had come free of the stowing rubber band, it came free for me and was restowed for me, courtesy of JR’s attentiveness as a buddy. I had done the same for him the day before, except that he had not become stuck when I saw it hanging and restowed it. I had gotten a friend request and message on MySpace some time ago from a guy with a chip on his shoulder who asked me “why I would restrict myself” to cave diving only with team members, implying that I was somehow missing out by doing so. People like him will never know what they are missing out on. Having a TEAM of divers that are all on the same page makes all the difference. We did extend the line by about 700 feet but it didn’t keep going in the same fashion after that. Hopefully that means that we missed the main cave and subsequent dives on some of the leads we found will continue on. That will have to wait for later, as tomorrow’s dives would be focused on completing the basin surveys needed for ‘s report for the landowner.

yeah! found THE cave

Maaaaaan !!!!! Today was FREAKING AMAZING 🙂 ok, so we went in with 4 stages, plus the O2, scooters and 2 tow scooters… The idea was to _find_ the real cave – where the flow was higher and the cave was bigger and went on. We dropped the O2 and headed in, with me on the line and a diver on each wall, searching for the way on. Once a lead was spotted, we clipped off the tow scooters and the extra bottles and ran a line to check it out. It was a smaller passage, with a lot of silt on the bottom and silt on the ceiling and walls. It was small enough that, even without touching anything and just having the prop-wash of the scooter, the silt became *ridiculous* immediately. I could see the cone following behind the person in front of me, the black silt ghost stirred up from prop wash and particulate from the ceiling heading towards me ominously. I got on the line, which was right there anyway, in preparation for zero vis. did I say zero vis? I meant ZERO VIS!!! I continued forward in the diminished visibility until it got so bad that I thought my light had failed. I could see absolutely nothing – not my gauges, not my light (which would have otherwise been very bright)… nothing. I stopped and waited for a moment to see if it would pass but it only got worse. I stayed still, according to plan. After waiting a bit and seeing no improvement at all, I began to ease backwards, realizing that there would be no surveying going on in this scenario, and also realizing that would be heading back towards me soon and I should make way slowly. I eased backwards, an inch at a time, until I got to JR – only identified by his hand on the line that I was following. He took the signal and also inched backwards and I then held his place and continued to wait for a short bit, then also proceeded backwards. We all had PLENTY of gas and knew what to do. It was no cause for alarm – just follow the plan. I made it back to the tie off right at the entrance to the rabbit hole tunnel of no vis while maintaining tension on the line that had become slightly slack, then confirmed that JR was on the main line at the bottles and scooters and all was OK. Shortly after made it back to the tie off and we got back on the main line, dropping the stage and continuing in with 3 – looking again for the way on. A ways up we found a new lead off to the left and again dropped the tow scooters, switching to a full stage early so we would have full power to check this out. This was AMAZINGLY COOL. The cave was huge bore tunnel, with considerable flow. It was ON. We were all stoked! I was laughing in my regulator – this had more than redeemed the aborted rabbit hole tunnel excursion in blindness. Man, I knew we were all wishing we had brought that other stage too. Oh well – this ROCKED!!! As the person in the middle, I had to keep everyone together, so I had to hold back from pressing on full speed ahead, even though I badly wanted to rush and see what was around the next corner. Eventually we got to turn pressure and clipped off the reel. It all worked out really well because now we are totally set up for tomorrow’s dive. There are tow scooters, a full stage each, and a half empty reel in the cave waiting for us in the morning. THIS, MY FRIENDS, IS WHAT CAVE DIVING IS ALL ABOUT. what an awesome day 🙂

ticks

ok, daucus_carota had posted something today (it was filtered, sorry everyone else) that promped me to comment with this, but I was gonna post it anyway so I had to put it on my journal too – it was too funny to not record…

today, after the dive when we were leaving, geodynamo told me to be sure to check for ticks before we left (we were in the woods.)

I was like “I have never found a tick on me.”

He then told me he had picked two off before he put on his suit and said “ya hang out with me long enough, you’ll have some ticks, girl.”

whaaaaaat? I busted out laughing 🙂 too funny.

anyway, this morning I caught up on some much needed gear maintenence. today’s diving consisted of some basin surveys and connecting two sinks – all went very well. It was so cool when we got out because, just when I was remarking that we should have brought a hand truck to help carry the gear back to the vehicle, the landowner showed up with his riding lawn mover and a cart on the back to help us bring the gear back to the VEHICLE (I had accidentally written “car” on first pass – but was unmercifully corrected.) Too cool – again, “Diving Disneyland.” Way awesome and great timing – overall, a really laid back and easy day.

my cat told me to hide under the bed

I just was looking through some old emails and found this, so decided to post it. I think now that I am ranting semi-publicly it applies slightly less, but the essence is still a part of me.

—– insert pasted text —–
This should really be sent to a lot of people right now, since most anyone close to me at all has recently wondered where I am or what is going on…

I really don’t feel like writing this, or much even bothering to think about it, but I have come to realize that not doing so, or continuing to not do so, creates confusion and misplaced emotional hardship for others. Unfortunately I also realize that my efforts at explaining myself will be almost unanimously misunderstood or ignored, thereby rendering my reluctant effort and laborious task-at-hand utterly futile from conception. Henceforth, I continue mostly in my own interest, guiding my focus toward verbal definition of the self-actualization I implore.

…sleep tugs at my eyelids and at the top of my consciousness with increasing resistance, yet wearily I plod on…

My cat has taught me to retreat when unwell and so I do. Please do not be confused, disappointed or offended by my conspicuous absence or impolite silence. I assure you that it is nothing personal whatsoever. This is my method of coping. I am in my own little world and it’s a mess in here.

Misery loves company – this is common knowledge. I prefer to not let my misery win anymore – let the misery suffer alone where it will die of starvation. This has been an evolution in my personality. I used to be quite the opposite. I prefer positive attention now or none at all. That which does not kill me makes me stronger and I’m not gonna get any stronger letting someone else lift my weights.

I have to sleep and I don’t think I said what I meant to say here, but unfortunately I am so extremely tired that I can’t explain this any further at the moment. I guess the bottom line of what I wanted to say here is – don’t be sad and don’t take it personally that you don’t hear from me more than you do. When I retreat into myself it is usually a sign that I am stressed about something. I don’t like to talk about things that bother me since I realize that the only person who can or will make anything better in my life anymore is me – talking about problems, worries, or depression only spreads it to others and wastes valuable time that could be spent solving the puzzle. Life, and my cat, has taught me that the best thing to do when something is wrong is to go hide under the bed if at all possible and come back out when I feel better.

I’ll talk to you soon. Forgive my intermittent absence. I am under the bed. meow.
—– end pasted text —–

Q.E.D.

sunday’s dive – extend end of line and check tannic tunnel

After riding out to the end of the line, where had left the reel clipped off, we laid an additional about (?)550-600 feet of line, eventually turning the dive at a place where it was obvious that the tunnel we were in was getting small from ceiling to floor and flow was reduced. We did not want to use backgas at all and were fully aware that the ride out might be in extremely reduced visibility. This turned out to be the case to some degree, though visibility was not nearly as bad as some we had experienced other times. The towed scooter came in handy as well, for me, once we got to where we had dropped it. I much appreciated hitching a ride to that point, when the passage was large enough for towing safely. Some adjustments to the balance of my scooter will have to be made so that towing it will cause less drag – it is too nose down right now.

After returning to the entrance we proceeded with the little reel, which had about 400 ft. of line on it, off to the left into a dark water tunnel. This cave was amazing. We got into this tannic water and the cave looked like we were looking at it through the glass of a beer bottle. We connected to another sink after about 280 feet of line, surfaced and tied off to a tree, then headed back through the dark maze of debris into the beer bottle tunnel and back to our O2 where we took about 10-15 minutes to ascend.

I need to do more rear deltoids in the gym… riding his scooter reminded me how much they are useful in scootering, as his batteries were sitting in the scooter differently than mine, requiring much more torque to steer. That was slightly exhausting, and reminded me of a very physiologically stressful dive in Manatee when I had Trey’s Magnum scooter; I think it was the ‘Tripple This’ scooter, which was torqued similarly. That was one of my first really long cave dives, and was I think my first ever towing a scooter and riding a Magnum – I am pretty sure it was a triple stage but will have to check to be certain. It was a great experience and I am glad I did it, but as I remember boy did it suck while I was doing it.

I think that is part of what I like about cave diving though – when it sucks out of difficulty in the absence of additional risk it becomes a mental game of self discipline to get through what is otherwise unnatural and uncomfortable, offering as a reward a huge sense of accomplishment accompanied by an ethereal and profound experience un-discoverable anywhere else. Luckily I already have gone through sufficient trial by fire in the past to make most minor inconveniences only that. To go through something tough and have it really suck, it would have to be tougher than what I have already gone though. That would take a bunch of new variables, none of which are currently defined for me.

If I screwed up any of this, , feel free to correct me. My brain is in parent-land as I write.

saturday dive

After a brief stop over at Cheryl sink to pick up a set of doubles I just bought from a team member, we headed over to Natural Bridge where we were diving. Cheryl was looking very clear – excellent conditions for the re-lining that the team was going to do today.

Today’s dive missions for us were to resurvey one passage and to repair line and retrieve a scooter on another. All went very well, as could be expected when diving with buddies of this caliber. According to geodynamo visibility had improved considerably since last weekend’s dives.

On the way out after retrieving the scooter, my light failed. I had been maintaining a position very close to the line, due to the limited visibility and potential for instant silt-out, so when my light failed an immediate and swift swoop found my hand firmly on the line. The other two team members were just behind, but the limited visibility offered only the circle of their lights and no useful illumination from them. By the time I had deployed a backup light they had joined me and we proceeded to scooter out of the cave, with me leading the way and JR holding on to one of my fins. I barely noticed him there. Mission accomplished, scooter retrieved, and a calm and cool exit on a cue light left me wanting to dive again when we got out of the water. That would have to wait until tomorrow. I can’t get enough of this!

mental connection across distance

While driving down to Tallahassee I had a spell during which I was feeling really bad, without being able to determine why. It was trying to pull me into depression. But, this time as I started to head down that path, I became aware of it. I realized at once that it was not I who was unwell. I didn’t understand what I was feeling, but I knew immediately that someone dear to me was the one suffering. After one unsuccessful attempt at discovering the source I determined it. My best friend sent me a reply to my text asking how he was doing by telling me that he was sick and would call me. I told him not to worry about it if he wasn’t feeling well and that we would talk later. After those texts were exchanged my mood was alleviated. My interpretation was that it was a calling to me to pay attention for a moment. I believe that it may have helped him to hear from me at that moment, but I wouldn’t find out until later when he would feel better and we would be able to talk.

I really don’t care if some people deny existence of this sort of connection.
For them, I suppose, it doesn’t exist.
For me it always has.

Cave Exploration Diving Update Posted

I can’t stop smiling 🙂 I am so glad they got the dive updates up. check it out – read about the dives, view some images and read a local newspaper article – I am in the Exploration Update and I think at least one of the photos – this is what I have been doing lately.

Updated links: