Little River 12/29/11 - Coming to terms with my addiction
After experiencing such a great (unplanned) solo dive at Jackson Blue on Christmas Eve, I finally made the needed adjustments to my sidemount rig and decided to do Little River. I hadn't been there in a while (I'm guessing a little less than a year), and was growing tired of the Devil's System.
...So a quick little jaunt to the Dome Room seemed in order.
I wanted to see how the Fronkensteen sidemount rig I created did under testing. It is a conglomeration of a Hollis HTS-II harness with DR RecWings mounted outside and DR butt plate thrown in for good measure with ludicruous amounts of tweaks and modifications. I wanted it to be able to be completely disassembled into its components so that I could still do open water or cavern diving without all the superfluous rigging still attached. It passed the test and made this dive a memorable one.
I arrived at LR and there were already 2 teams of divers in various stages of dive prep ahead of me. Knowing how small a lot of the passage in LR is, I was initially worried about carrying my DPV in there, feeling a real possibility of getting stuck behind a swimmer and unduly pressuring them to 'make way'. If that situation were to occur, I then reasoned that I would just park the DPV and then go to the backup plan- which was to just swim the cave normally. So I then took my time setting up all my gear and eventually hauling it down to the water. By that time, the first team in sidemount gear had already descended and the second team in backmount was finallizing their dive plan at the surface. Back up top, another team consisting of 4 divers arrived and I began to suspect that the cave was going to get really packed really soon.
I then donned my drysuit and SM harness and slowly made my down the stairs (my 6th trip), just as the 2nd team slowly slipped under the surface of the water and into the cavern. After getting in the water, I slipped on my SM tanks, deco bottle, and DPV and made my last mental checks and slid underground, about 7-10 minutes behind the previous team. The basin was a little smokey but the cavern cleared up nicely and yawned in front of me, and the flow was almost imperceptible (by Little River standards). I motored down to the bend and placed my O2 bottle out of the way, oriented myself and took measure of the small amount of sunlight that still managed to trickle its way down to me. My plan was just to hit the trigger and not let off until needed.
It was so nice to be able to visit this old friend again and LR did not disappoint. I zoomed along the main line and then down the Syndrome Shaft, through the twisties a bit until I met the 2nd team of divers. They were not down long and were making their exit, swimming low down near the cave line on the floor. Thankfully, I was up high (a force of habit) and was able to easily accomodate their unimpeded exit. After un-assing their AO, I then dipped down to mid-level of the cave and once again hit the trigger. It was not my intention to sight-see on this particular dive, but after passing Table Rock (what is left of it), I could not help but to browse the aisles, as it were, on the way past the Mud Tunnel up to the Big Tee. The flow was below normal and there seemed to be a lot of ceiling percolation from exhaust. The walls had a fine layer of silt on them, too. Viz was pretty good and was well enough to see from wall-to-wall anywhere up until the Florida Room. I took the right at the tee as I was itching to finally get to some big(ger) straight cave and The Merry Go Round was the ideal start to a flight underwater.
The last bend right before the Florida Room greeted me and I knew I was in for some great cave. The water cleared up a little here, but that may be due to bias from having larger cave to look at instead of up-close and personal cave walls. Either way, I was steadily traversing the few dips and climbs until reaching the part where the passage narrows and takes on a look of Telford, with scraggly and sharp rock surfaces protruding into the passage. After reaching the jump to the Old Deep Section, the main line takes a hard left turn and I decided to leave the scooter just before then and swim the rest of the way to see if the SM rig was still performing well.
My bottom time at that point was right at 0:11 and I realized that this was probably going to be a short dive. Nonetheless, I swam on to the Dome Room and ascended to the top, remained there briefly while eyeing the crevice above my head, and then made my way down to the end of the Dome Room where the line continued onward. As I am wont, I sat there for a while shining my light down the passage, where it continued out of sight. Bottom time was now at 0:16 and, having accomplished my goal, I decided to head back out.
The journey out was as I expected, not terribly fast due to the low flow, but enough to make me get off the trigger twice in the area after the outbound jump to the Mud Tunnel. Upon reaching the S-Turns right before the Syndrome Shaft, I got off the trigger altogether and prepared for the obligatory dumping of gas from my BC and drysuit. As soon as I began the ascent, I saw faint light above me and then suddenly the light beams from 4 divers overhead.
Usual protocol being for the exiting divers to be given the right-of-way, the lead diver paused just after seeing my light and I then ascended into a small alcove in the ceiling, motioning him to go on and pass me while I remained there. This was a win-win situation for all of us: their team did not have to bunch up and clog the cave waiting on me to exit, and I availed myself of an inordinately slow ascent. I can't count how many times I have left that shaft with a headache...this time was not one of them!
I never met the 1st sidemount team in the cave but they were finishing their deco obligation by the time I retrieved my deco bottle and made my way to the ledge at 17 feet. The last time I was here, the ledge was at 21 feet...
No required deco, but I did make a :05 stop on the 100% O2 and then exited.
Even though my total bottom time was only :41, it was still a great dive and I got a lot accomplished. I am just a breath away from having the SM rig idealized and should know for sure when I dive Cow Spring tomorrow.
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Originally Posted by TJDiver
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