We launched from the public boat ramp just 1/4 mile south of the
spring run. The run is on the east side of the suwannee river and is a
shallow run approximately 800' long with a prominent boil at the north end
of the run, however the spring enterance is another 10-15' past the boil at
the bottom of a 30' deep crevice. When Wayne from Amigos told me that this
was the most challenging sidemount enterance he'd ever dove, he was not
kidding. It took me just around a minute to negotiate, but I worked harder
than i've ever worked getting through a restriction to make it in. With
next to nothing to grab onto, you must wedge your right arm inside to pull,
squish your head and neck against the ceiling and attempt to kick and push
with your heels, sqwashing and contorting your body to squeeze through the
gap. Thanks to Rich at Cave Excursions east, I learned that you must enter
to the right side of the restriction or else you won't fit... same thing on
exit. Just inside the cavern I tied off my reel the a cynder block waiting
inside... next time don't bother tying off outside the restriction, running
the reel through the restriction was not worth the effort. From there it is
about 100' swim down the passage to a room where the tunnel splits. To the
left is a line tied off close to the floor leading to the north tunnel and
as you look above you see a line tied off to the ceiling headding right to the
south passage. I tied off to the south passage and began to swim in that
direction... the flow still moving a decent rate and I was still trying to
catch my breath from the enterance (I checked my computer 18 minutes in and was still trying to catch my breath)! Anticipating the "upside-down"
restriction Rich warned me about, I didn't realize I had hit it until I was
1/2 way through it swimming belly down and working my tail off... I let the
flow push me a few feet back where I could flip over and begin navigating
the restriction as it is named, upside down, with the pull-n-glide technique
along the ceiling. A ways along I ran into a "t" with a right or left 90
degree turn and I took the left passage. The dive was very intriguing,
passage twisting and turning with longer, larger tunnels turning into duck
under restrictions, dropping down and corkscrewing into other body twisting
restrictions, into larger rooms and beautiful clay and rock formations. I'm
only guessing when I say I turned the dive around P700' and not less than
100' on the exit swim I came to a broken line... the line I held in my
fingers was flapping in the "breeze" (flow) and the exit side of the line
was nowhere to be seen. I pulled out my only safety spool, tied off and began
to swim in what I determined to be the exit route. Thankfully between the
flow and the wear/tear on rocks/restrictions I was able to navigate in the
correct direction, however as my reel began to empty I grew more and more
nervous... 1/2 reel empty, 2/3's empty... and when I last looked down there
had to be less than 5-10' left on the reel, I looked up to be just feet from
the ball of mainline that had wedged itself off to one side of the passage...
wheeewh! I reeled out the remaineder or my line and secured it to where the
mainline was tied off just feet from me. After resecuring the mainline and
my newly placed safety line, I cut off the jumbled mess of mainline and
thought perhaps I should wind it up on my safety spool... uhhh... but where
is my safety spool? In the confusion and fighting the flow to stay put, I
had dropped my spool and it was carried away by the strong flow. Without any
further choice I gathered my new blob of safety/mainline and began to swim
again towards the exit. About 200' further I found my spool stuck in the
silt and decided to try to untangle and wind my ball of line onto it.. I gave up quickly,
as it would have taken a good 10-20 minutes to sort that mess out, so I
shoved the whole mess in my pocket and continued. I feared I had a good
distance to go and with the line being as loose as it was when I entered, I
prayed that I hadn't broken it elsewhere unknowingly as I had done before.
I slide through the upside-down restriction (right side down this time) like
a blob of oil and seconds later popped into the main room where my primary
was tied off... wheewh again! Near the end, I now prepared for the squeeze
of an exit... trying to stall for a second just before the restriction I
quickly found myself reeling anxiously as the flow jammed me into the exit
hole and amazingly I poured right out into open water! No deco and a safety stop later I found myself back on the surface.
I now played a game that is becoming too common with my girlfriend called
"look at this piece of gear and tell me what happened on my dive"... as I
produced the ball of brown worn mainline wrapped around my empty spool.
