Interesting line experience at Ginnie

Hey all, I wanted to relay our experience at Ginnie last weekend and see if any of you can answer some questions or get your input.

Our plans were to dive Friday, Saturday after the NACD conference, and on Sunday. Since we were diving three days, I decided to leave our reel in the Ear and we could make sure the line was OK at the beginning of each dive. During our second dive on Friday, we tightened a loose spot on the line. Upon our exit, it seemed fine.

We missed our Saturday evening dive. On our Sunday morning dive (10AM), we were greeted to a sight of 8 or 10 open water divers/students in the ear. (I did not think you could get that many divers in the Ear.) They were all in the 15 to 30 foot range -attached to the wall, on the log, and in the sand on the downstream end of the ear. Needless to say, they were oblivious to my buddy and me but we just headed down. Our line was now on the left side of the Ear rather than on the right side where I originally ran it. I am thinking "Great, I messed up a tie-off and someone had to fix my mistake". My buddy saw a loose spot and tightened it and we continued. Inside, we dropped our O2 bottles and proceeded down the gold line. An hour later upon our return, we noticed that our line had been balled up and stuffed in the regulator retaining strap on my buddies O2 bottle. We looked at each other with a WTF look on our faces. So we took a few minutes and reeled in the line. Then we noticed the line had been cut - another WTF look. After the dive, another team gave us a piece of cut cut line that they had recovered (without the looped end) which appeared to be part of our line. If so,our line was cut twice.

Now I am wondering:
1. Did an OW diver get caught in the line and have to cut themselves loose, or
2. Did I hit the line with an O2 bottle or fin on the way down and dislodge it so that it got in someones way and had to be cut.
3. Who put the line in the retaining strap - an OW instructor or a subsequent cave diver.

This leads me to the following questions/comments.
1. After this weekend, I may leave a reel in if I do a second dive but will not leave it in over night. Between the current and water, it seems like too much time for the line to stretch, become loose, and dislodge itself. What are your thoughts or your practices?
2. Did any of you that dove Ginnie this weekend remember seeing the line I am referring to. If so, did you see something that we missed that would cause the line to be moved, cut, and stuffed into a retaining strap.

In advance, I apologize to whoever retied our line in the Ear as that seemed to have resulted from the line being left overnight.

Thanks for your help.

Happy Thanksgving.

There were 2 VERY lose lines in Ginnie around 6pm Saturday, it would not surprise me if someone got tangled and had to cut themselves free. There were something like 4 reels in the system at that point. With all the traffic that system gets, I would just assume the line was kicked and not necessary anyone ran it incorrectly.

FWIW as you're entering the ear, cut a hard left and go up on that ledge for your secondary tie off. There's several nice big rocks for a secure tie off, and it really helps make room for more lines when you go that far left.

If anyone wants to donate about 20ft of gold line, I could solve this issue by running gold line to the far right (looking in) which would leave the left side for training dives, and allow basic divers to still access the catacombs within standards...I know I know, OW divers would walk past the DANGEROUS CAVE sign, the no lights sign, the cave maps on the wall when they sign in at the office, the website information, miss the huge cave opening, but yet see a thin yellow string and think "there must be a cave here, let's go!"

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Originally Posted by jj1987

FWIW as you're entering the ear, cut a hard left and go up on that ledge for your secondary tie off. There's several nice big rocks for a secure tie off, and it really helps make room for more lines when you go that far left.

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Thanks - I will be back weekend after this and will look to the left.

I believe it was Jim Wyatt who pointed out a tiny little rock at the very bottom of the entrance that is really a pretty safe exit point, that is just the right size for a primary tie off. Never seen anyone else tie off there, and your line is out of the way.


Why does the addition need to be goldline? 36# could work just fine. Infact, make it a snap and gap jump at the beginning of the system. [edit] here's a thought: run the jump parallel to the goldline for 10-15 feet, just a foot or two apart, and put several arrows on the jump. Makes it real easy for everyone to use. Run the line to just barely the OW zone, but run it high, so OW divers don't see it extremely easily, and put a sign on it reminding OW divers not to follow it, which would make it safer than reels, which are easy for OW divers to find, and have no warning sign, and entangle divers. [/edit] Then, intro divers and all still are forced to run a line, getting their practice in. Only apprentice and full cave divers could use the added line to avoid running a reel, as it requires a jump. Only problem then is, divers would need to understand how to use cookies and...I've kinda lost my faith in cave divers when it comes to difficult tasks like this. ;)

Hey Sandy,

I was in the group that recovered.....a piece of your line, and returned it to you at the steps. We entered and exited through the eye and did not run a new line as there were six lines already. It was a busy weekend and no need to add to the web (don't tell my instructor).:smt013

We commonly run a primary through the Eye to the Gold Line and leave it in overnight, but we're never there on the weekends during heavy traffic times. We run it tight and to the far right, haven't had an issue yet.

Yes it was very busy, I had a class in there on Sunday. When we went to the eye there were 5 lines in there.

LL

I don't run a line in the ear just because of this. I know, I know...
John

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Originally Posted by Keith

Hey Sandy,

I was in the group that recovered.....a piece of your line, and returned it to you at the steps. We entered and exited through the eye and did not run a new line as there were six lines already. It was a busy weekend and no need to add to the web (don't tell my instructor).:smt013

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I think you just did!! :)