IRAP Administrator
08-03-2007, 09:31 PM
It was not a casual disagreement. MDB (my dive buddy) had turned the dive and I was leading out. We had backtracked along the most recent jump we had taken and MDB had pulled the reel. I had started moving along the line to the left and MDB had flashed me. His gesture was unmistakable. The exit was to the right. I had pinned the line on the way in and felt certain the exit was to the left. We had turned the dive and couldn’t agree on the direction out!
After several minutes of wet note and slate discussions, and with the Wilson arrows marking the jump pointing to the right, I had lost all confidence in my understanding of where we were. I turned and followed MDB’s suggestion to the right. I wasn’t that worried, we had turned the dive early (it hadn’t gone well), had tons of air and were heading for the nearest exit. I was, however, very confused and not at all sure where we would be exiting. I was very relieved (as was MDB I found out later) when we hit an unmistakably recognizable section of cave and shortly thereafter reached our original jump reel. MDB had been right, but I was even more confused. I didn’t know how we had gotten there. We exited the cave and spent a long time talking about the dive and how we ended up in the situation we did.
We were diving Peacock. Our original dive plan was to enter at Upstream Olsen and take the first RS jump. We would follow the line and turn down the Cisteen line toward Peacock I. We would then make the jump into Upper Wishbone and pick up a pin MDB had left on the previous day’s dive from Peacock I. MDB and I had done several dives together, were very comfortable together, and did not feel the plan was overly aggressive.
With MDB leading, we dropped in, made the RS jump, enjoyed the immediate small corkscrew and headed out along the line. We passed the jump into the Crypt and continued on. Based on the previous day’s dive, we assumed this line was a continuation of the Cisteen line and were very surprised when it dead-ended into the wall at the junction with another tunnel. A foot above the termination, another line (which turned out to be the Cisteen line) swept in from the right and continued off to the left. There was an arrow pointing to the left (toward Cisteen Sink it turns out). MDB stopped and appeared to me to be unsure of which way to go. In reality, he was fine, and was just checking in with me. I swam up alongside MDB to try to help figure out what was going on. There is not a whole lot of room, and not a little silt. In short order, the vis started dropping quickly. I backed away as the vis worsened. MDB turned the dive and gave me an OK. Due to the vis however, I never saw his “turn” signal and only saw the OK. What he was saying was, “let’s get out of here”. What I saw was “OK to make the jump to the new line?” By then the vis was almost completely gone, and all I could see was MDB’s fin tips. I followed along behind MDB, thinking we were heading down the Cisteen line, when in fact MDB was leading back out. The vis quickly cleared up. I was not at all happy knowing what we had just done to the vis and thinking we would have to back track through it on our exit. We continued along the line reaching a RS jump. MDB flashed an OK and I responded. MDB had decided to check out the jump into the Crypt, but. I thought we were jumping into Upper Wishbone. Since the arrows were pointing away from the direction we came (toward the main line at Peacock I I presumed, but in reality pointing toward Olsen), I pinned the line to confirm that we had to return against the arrows. We ran toward the crypt and MDB turned the dive. For MDB, this was the second turn. To me, we had gotten as far as we were going and it was time to head out. I turned to lead out, got to the line and started our wet note and slate conversation.
In looking at the dive, MDB and I agreed that we had made several mistakes along the way. First, we had not done our homework. Had we known that the jump off Olsen ended in a short jump to the Cisteen line we would not have had the confusion at the intersection and probably not have destroyed the vis. Our technique, somewhat obviously, fell apart. Bad vis doesn’t just happen, we caused it. Our buddy communication failed. MDB turned the dive and I never even saw it. To compound that, MDB continued to lead the dive, even after turning. I never noticed since I thought he WAS still leading. We hadn’t been in this section of Peacock before, and I wasn’t familiar enough with the cave to immediately recognize were we were.
In this case, there were no real consequences of our mistakes, other than a bit more adrenaline than usual. This is primarily because we were diving Peacock with four exits within easy reach. The worst we could expect would be to come out the wrong place. Another time, another system that may not have been the case.
On the positive side, we were able to have direct understandable communications when we had our disagreement. We were able to spend several minutes “talking” without doing any damage to the vis. I learned that I had a buddy I can count on to remain calm under stress.
After several minutes of wet note and slate discussions, and with the Wilson arrows marking the jump pointing to the right, I had lost all confidence in my understanding of where we were. I turned and followed MDB’s suggestion to the right. I wasn’t that worried, we had turned the dive early (it hadn’t gone well), had tons of air and were heading for the nearest exit. I was, however, very confused and not at all sure where we would be exiting. I was very relieved (as was MDB I found out later) when we hit an unmistakably recognizable section of cave and shortly thereafter reached our original jump reel. MDB had been right, but I was even more confused. I didn’t know how we had gotten there. We exited the cave and spent a long time talking about the dive and how we ended up in the situation we did.
We were diving Peacock. Our original dive plan was to enter at Upstream Olsen and take the first RS jump. We would follow the line and turn down the Cisteen line toward Peacock I. We would then make the jump into Upper Wishbone and pick up a pin MDB had left on the previous day’s dive from Peacock I. MDB and I had done several dives together, were very comfortable together, and did not feel the plan was overly aggressive.
With MDB leading, we dropped in, made the RS jump, enjoyed the immediate small corkscrew and headed out along the line. We passed the jump into the Crypt and continued on. Based on the previous day’s dive, we assumed this line was a continuation of the Cisteen line and were very surprised when it dead-ended into the wall at the junction with another tunnel. A foot above the termination, another line (which turned out to be the Cisteen line) swept in from the right and continued off to the left. There was an arrow pointing to the left (toward Cisteen Sink it turns out). MDB stopped and appeared to me to be unsure of which way to go. In reality, he was fine, and was just checking in with me. I swam up alongside MDB to try to help figure out what was going on. There is not a whole lot of room, and not a little silt. In short order, the vis started dropping quickly. I backed away as the vis worsened. MDB turned the dive and gave me an OK. Due to the vis however, I never saw his “turn” signal and only saw the OK. What he was saying was, “let’s get out of here”. What I saw was “OK to make the jump to the new line?” By then the vis was almost completely gone, and all I could see was MDB’s fin tips. I followed along behind MDB, thinking we were heading down the Cisteen line, when in fact MDB was leading back out. The vis quickly cleared up. I was not at all happy knowing what we had just done to the vis and thinking we would have to back track through it on our exit. We continued along the line reaching a RS jump. MDB flashed an OK and I responded. MDB had decided to check out the jump into the Crypt, but. I thought we were jumping into Upper Wishbone. Since the arrows were pointing away from the direction we came (toward the main line at Peacock I I presumed, but in reality pointing toward Olsen), I pinned the line to confirm that we had to return against the arrows. We ran toward the crypt and MDB turned the dive. For MDB, this was the second turn. To me, we had gotten as far as we were going and it was time to head out. I turned to lead out, got to the line and started our wet note and slate conversation.
In looking at the dive, MDB and I agreed that we had made several mistakes along the way. First, we had not done our homework. Had we known that the jump off Olsen ended in a short jump to the Cisteen line we would not have had the confusion at the intersection and probably not have destroyed the vis. Our technique, somewhat obviously, fell apart. Bad vis doesn’t just happen, we caused it. Our buddy communication failed. MDB turned the dive and I never even saw it. To compound that, MDB continued to lead the dive, even after turning. I never noticed since I thought he WAS still leading. We hadn’t been in this section of Peacock before, and I wasn’t familiar enough with the cave to immediately recognize were we were.
In this case, there were no real consequences of our mistakes, other than a bit more adrenaline than usual. This is primarily because we were diving Peacock with four exits within easy reach. The worst we could expect would be to come out the wrong place. Another time, another system that may not have been the case.
On the positive side, we were able to have direct understandable communications when we had our disagreement. We were able to spend several minutes “talking” without doing any damage to the vis. I learned that I had a buddy I can count on to remain calm under stress.