IRAP Administrator
08-03-2007, 09:53 PM
My dive buddy and I decided to scooter Little River. I had only scootered there once before. Our plan was to scooter to the wellhead. He had been back there several times. I had swum to past the Florida room, but not the wellhead.
The dive in was uneventful. We made it to the wellhead in a short time, still scootering. We had passed some small spots just before the wellhead but continued scootering. When we passed the wellhead my buddy motioned to continue scootering. As I continued the cave got smaller and smaller and I realized that we should not be scootering back here. I turned to my buddy and gave the thumbs up. I checked my pressure gauge and saw that I had just under 2700 psi left, still about 300 psi from thirds. That was the last thing I saw for some time. As I looked up to head out I saw a rolling cloud of silt fill the tunnel. I looked down and right and had a brief glimpse of the line about three feet away as the cloud rolled over me. I immediately sank to the floor of the tunnel a few feet below me. I settled down and thought about finding the line.
There were no immediate tieoffs available and I briefly considered unclipping my scooter and tying off to it. My first reaction was “this really sucks” and I was surprised at my calmness. I realized I had plenty of air and with the flow out of Little River I had plenty of time to find my way clear. I recalled two things my instructor had told me. One: Eventually you will do a dive that despite following all the rules, something will happen and you will wish you had taken up bowling. Two: The story of the two intro divers who had scootered back to the wellhead with only one making it out alive.
Well I knew my buddy was downstream from me and I could not help him unless I found the line.
I decided I would inch to my right a few feet and try to touch the wall. Limestone never felt so good!!!. Once I touched the wall about a foot off the floor it was easy to trace it down to the floor and the line. Nylon felt even better! I breathed a lot easier. I then wrapped my tow line around my mako and clipped it to my left shoulder and waist d rings like a stage bottle. I was not ready to abandon it. I did not know the source of the cloud but it did not appear to be dissipating with the flow, and I thought I would take it with me in case I needed to make a run for it when (if) I reached clear water. It would not affect the speed I would be traveling at doing a line drill in any event. So with my right hand in an OK around the line I stared my journey out, slowly.
My left arm was wrapped around my scooter and my light was in my left hand. The passage was relatively small at this point, but I knew it opened up into a large sand filled room up ahead. Hopefully with my light on my left my buddy may be able to see it if he was off the line in the larger room. As I inched along I considered at what point I would look for my buddy. I decide to inch along for a few minutes and see if the vis improved and if he was on the line. I was strangely calm and breathing easy. This was just like the eyes closed drill in my class except I was all alone.
A few minutes passed and I saw a blur of light ahead of me. My buddy had arrived and the vis seemed to be about 6-12 inches now. Life was good! We signaled OK to each other and he abruptly turned and headed out. I did not have a chance to make touch contact with him and I could barely discern his fins ahead of me. I managed to keep him in site for a few minutes and then he was gone! Vis was now over a foot and I could tell by the sand and the slope that we were in a big room. I could hear his scooter so I knew he hadn’t gone far. I waited a few seconds and vis was clearing. It appeared to better higher so I left the line and floated straight up. Vis was very clear in the top of the room but I could not see out of it. My buddy was floating around and appeared to be searching for something. I signaled him and convinced him to follow me back to the line. With the vis being several feet, I stayed close to the line and kicked slowly. I heard the whine of a scooter again and vis disappeared. Back to the line drill again. I caught up to my buddy again several minutes later and we proceeded out. Vis ranged from 1 foot to 3 feet almost all the way to the deep section jump. It then cleared back to good reliable Little River Vis and we continued out.
My buddy tried to explain something at deco about his trigger and when we finally exited he told me his trigger had stuck on when we turned filling the place with silt. I know it hard to imagine a scooter filling Little River with such a silt cloud, but it is true. I understand how an intro diver could panic in that situation. One thing I learned later was that NO ONE scooters that far. People drop before the well head. I did not know any better and because we were clean and careful on the way in I kept going until it got very small and silty and I was uncomfortable scootering. I have not scootered past spots I have swam to unless I know the details of the passage very specifically. Yeah, the old adage is to never scooter past places you haven’t swam to, but let’s face it most people do. How many people swim to the Hinkle before they scooter it. Very few. I do stick to the adage of not scootering past a point I cannot swim out from based on air consumption and flow or specifically plan for longer dives based on the people/conditions etc.
The dive in was uneventful. We made it to the wellhead in a short time, still scootering. We had passed some small spots just before the wellhead but continued scootering. When we passed the wellhead my buddy motioned to continue scootering. As I continued the cave got smaller and smaller and I realized that we should not be scootering back here. I turned to my buddy and gave the thumbs up. I checked my pressure gauge and saw that I had just under 2700 psi left, still about 300 psi from thirds. That was the last thing I saw for some time. As I looked up to head out I saw a rolling cloud of silt fill the tunnel. I looked down and right and had a brief glimpse of the line about three feet away as the cloud rolled over me. I immediately sank to the floor of the tunnel a few feet below me. I settled down and thought about finding the line.
There were no immediate tieoffs available and I briefly considered unclipping my scooter and tying off to it. My first reaction was “this really sucks” and I was surprised at my calmness. I realized I had plenty of air and with the flow out of Little River I had plenty of time to find my way clear. I recalled two things my instructor had told me. One: Eventually you will do a dive that despite following all the rules, something will happen and you will wish you had taken up bowling. Two: The story of the two intro divers who had scootered back to the wellhead with only one making it out alive.
Well I knew my buddy was downstream from me and I could not help him unless I found the line.
I decided I would inch to my right a few feet and try to touch the wall. Limestone never felt so good!!!. Once I touched the wall about a foot off the floor it was easy to trace it down to the floor and the line. Nylon felt even better! I breathed a lot easier. I then wrapped my tow line around my mako and clipped it to my left shoulder and waist d rings like a stage bottle. I was not ready to abandon it. I did not know the source of the cloud but it did not appear to be dissipating with the flow, and I thought I would take it with me in case I needed to make a run for it when (if) I reached clear water. It would not affect the speed I would be traveling at doing a line drill in any event. So with my right hand in an OK around the line I stared my journey out, slowly.
My left arm was wrapped around my scooter and my light was in my left hand. The passage was relatively small at this point, but I knew it opened up into a large sand filled room up ahead. Hopefully with my light on my left my buddy may be able to see it if he was off the line in the larger room. As I inched along I considered at what point I would look for my buddy. I decide to inch along for a few minutes and see if the vis improved and if he was on the line. I was strangely calm and breathing easy. This was just like the eyes closed drill in my class except I was all alone.
A few minutes passed and I saw a blur of light ahead of me. My buddy had arrived and the vis seemed to be about 6-12 inches now. Life was good! We signaled OK to each other and he abruptly turned and headed out. I did not have a chance to make touch contact with him and I could barely discern his fins ahead of me. I managed to keep him in site for a few minutes and then he was gone! Vis was now over a foot and I could tell by the sand and the slope that we were in a big room. I could hear his scooter so I knew he hadn’t gone far. I waited a few seconds and vis was clearing. It appeared to better higher so I left the line and floated straight up. Vis was very clear in the top of the room but I could not see out of it. My buddy was floating around and appeared to be searching for something. I signaled him and convinced him to follow me back to the line. With the vis being several feet, I stayed close to the line and kicked slowly. I heard the whine of a scooter again and vis disappeared. Back to the line drill again. I caught up to my buddy again several minutes later and we proceeded out. Vis ranged from 1 foot to 3 feet almost all the way to the deep section jump. It then cleared back to good reliable Little River Vis and we continued out.
My buddy tried to explain something at deco about his trigger and when we finally exited he told me his trigger had stuck on when we turned filling the place with silt. I know it hard to imagine a scooter filling Little River with such a silt cloud, but it is true. I understand how an intro diver could panic in that situation. One thing I learned later was that NO ONE scooters that far. People drop before the well head. I did not know any better and because we were clean and careful on the way in I kept going until it got very small and silty and I was uncomfortable scootering. I have not scootered past spots I have swam to unless I know the details of the passage very specifically. Yeah, the old adage is to never scooter past places you haven’t swam to, but let’s face it most people do. How many people swim to the Hinkle before they scooter it. Very few. I do stick to the adage of not scootering past a point I cannot swim out from based on air consumption and flow or specifically plan for longer dives based on the people/conditions etc.