scububa
06-13-2010, 08:56 PM
Dove Mine La Motte with b1gcountry and fleep.
Tom picked me up at the house and Dave met us at the quarry.
They have rerouted the road (path) to the dive shed. Instead of coming in mid-field and having a shallow grade descent, they have tried to block it off (fallen trees) and direct you down at the far end of the field. Tom used this route, Dave left his car in the field. Getting in was not so bad. Getting out with 2-wheel drive p/u loaded with 3 sets of gear was possible but not easy. Even a hint of rain and you might not make it out. Unless they rework that 'ramp' some more, it's going to be a 4wd kind of thing. They are doing some major construction for a new zip line in the quarry, so they might be doing some more grading. It seems to be worked 'some' since the last time I was in the area.
Nice hot day (91 deg 80% humidity). Water levels are towards the high side, but not flood high. We did two dives, both from the basic entrance.
Dive 1 - around to the quarry circuit and back
Tom and Dave are diving intro level and gas planned accordingly. I dove a stage for the first dive with the plan to stay on it and save my 85s for a second dive. (Tom and Dave were diving much larger tanks.) I dropped an O2 bottle at the entrance just as a safety and to have O2 at hand. (We didn't use it.) Tom led, Dave second and I brought up the trail. Tom had Dave drop cookies at the Ts, where we took two lefts. Dive was turned at the ascent area on the quarry side. I led out. From my perspective, a nice dive. My mask was a major fogging event and I dove most of it with water in the mask to clear it.
It was my first dive with the Predator computer. Nice to read in the water, nothing real sexy on a shallow, non deco dive. Getting use to where to wear it and all. The strap slipping was not a problem as I had been reading about. I think they went to new buckles that take a depress action to 'un-cam'. The buckles are not easy to snap on with one hand. The routine appears to be
1) click buckles, un-cam and get max slack
2) slip over hand onto arm and pull straps to snug
3) unsnap buckles with finger/thumb to remove
(REPEAT AS NECESSARY)
Dive 2 - Head out toward elevator
Not exactly sure we can get there on intro gas plans, but decide on that as basic direction. Short map sketch (steve2881's) review and we think we have a Left, Right plan. Dave leads, I take mid and Tom trails. (Plan adjusted as I seem to have the puniest light.) I am ready to drop cookie as mid man like dive one, but Dave continues this role, so I stow mine. My mask treatment during the SI has done the trick. Vis is much different :-) We made three Ts. And we took the main hall road and went down the tracks until Dave turned on gas plan. We spent some time exploring the 'cavern' on the return. I mainly played with the computer screens and determined my mounting was going to interfer with a valve shut down, so I need to find a better mount location.
The vis was highly variable. Going in it was pretty limited. Then we had pockets of great vis and areas of decent vis. One area of good vis mixed with smoky layers. Lowest was 5 footish, highest was 40 footish.
The temp at
max depth was 46 deg.
In the cavern about 60 deg
Surface pool about 78 deg.
We finished the day with a drysuit walking exploration of the Bat cave and air areas of the tunnels over a couple of land areas and back out another tunnel. Lots of bats in the big dome room area. We seemed to gradually be attracting their attention and they came back our way and I requested an exit operation.
Tom picked me up at the house and Dave met us at the quarry.
They have rerouted the road (path) to the dive shed. Instead of coming in mid-field and having a shallow grade descent, they have tried to block it off (fallen trees) and direct you down at the far end of the field. Tom used this route, Dave left his car in the field. Getting in was not so bad. Getting out with 2-wheel drive p/u loaded with 3 sets of gear was possible but not easy. Even a hint of rain and you might not make it out. Unless they rework that 'ramp' some more, it's going to be a 4wd kind of thing. They are doing some major construction for a new zip line in the quarry, so they might be doing some more grading. It seems to be worked 'some' since the last time I was in the area.
Nice hot day (91 deg 80% humidity). Water levels are towards the high side, but not flood high. We did two dives, both from the basic entrance.
Dive 1 - around to the quarry circuit and back
Tom and Dave are diving intro level and gas planned accordingly. I dove a stage for the first dive with the plan to stay on it and save my 85s for a second dive. (Tom and Dave were diving much larger tanks.) I dropped an O2 bottle at the entrance just as a safety and to have O2 at hand. (We didn't use it.) Tom led, Dave second and I brought up the trail. Tom had Dave drop cookies at the Ts, where we took two lefts. Dive was turned at the ascent area on the quarry side. I led out. From my perspective, a nice dive. My mask was a major fogging event and I dove most of it with water in the mask to clear it.
It was my first dive with the Predator computer. Nice to read in the water, nothing real sexy on a shallow, non deco dive. Getting use to where to wear it and all. The strap slipping was not a problem as I had been reading about. I think they went to new buckles that take a depress action to 'un-cam'. The buckles are not easy to snap on with one hand. The routine appears to be
1) click buckles, un-cam and get max slack
2) slip over hand onto arm and pull straps to snug
3) unsnap buckles with finger/thumb to remove
(REPEAT AS NECESSARY)
Dive 2 - Head out toward elevator
Not exactly sure we can get there on intro gas plans, but decide on that as basic direction. Short map sketch (steve2881's) review and we think we have a Left, Right plan. Dave leads, I take mid and Tom trails. (Plan adjusted as I seem to have the puniest light.) I am ready to drop cookie as mid man like dive one, but Dave continues this role, so I stow mine. My mask treatment during the SI has done the trick. Vis is much different :-) We made three Ts. And we took the main hall road and went down the tracks until Dave turned on gas plan. We spent some time exploring the 'cavern' on the return. I mainly played with the computer screens and determined my mounting was going to interfer with a valve shut down, so I need to find a better mount location.
The vis was highly variable. Going in it was pretty limited. Then we had pockets of great vis and areas of decent vis. One area of good vis mixed with smoky layers. Lowest was 5 footish, highest was 40 footish.
The temp at
max depth was 46 deg.
In the cavern about 60 deg
Surface pool about 78 deg.
We finished the day with a drysuit walking exploration of the Bat cave and air areas of the tunnels over a couple of land areas and back out another tunnel. Lots of bats in the big dome room area. We seemed to gradually be attracting their attention and they came back our way and I requested an exit operation.