ginnie 11/26/10 and Peacock 11/27/10
Ginnie Springs 11/26/10:
Today was a nice little swim dive in Ginnie Springs. I slept late and didn't even get out of bed until 9:00. It was 11:00 before I even got to the cave.
I had big plans of going to the white room and completeing the maple leaf circuit, then continuing up the mainline to the far end of the roller coaster and coming back through there.
I dropped O2 at the sign and swam on in. I took a little side excursion immediately after going through the keyhole and popped out right after the park bench. I swam back to it and tied my jump in and went down the bone room line. I got to where I thought was the right place to turn off the line and find the White Room, tied in my primary and went exploring again. It was quite a ways until I found the room (Thanks to Tflaris for letting me know the distance) and I was glad that I didn't try to use a jump reel. The room was a nice experience and I locked down my reel in order to just hover around in the room for a couple of minutes.
I reeled in and continued down the line until I got to the end of the line and did a visual back onto the mainline at the Maple leaf. I continued further into the sytem on the mainline and about 200' short of my destination of the Coat Hanger, I decided that my comfort level was maxed out and gently did a slow turn and began my exit. My nose had become completely plugged and I was feeling crap in the back of my throat that was making me feel like I was going to choke. I found a big chunk of rock where I could kneel down and clear things up. I took my mask off and blew my nose, went to OC in an attempt to get my throat cleared out. It is impossible to "hack up a loogie underwater, ther just isn't enough volumn in my mask to allow a deep enough nose breathe to facilitate this. OK, maybe a bit too much information about this. After several minutes with no success, I was off and swimming again.
Not much longer and without even knowing when it happened, my nose was clear and my comfort was up enought to get curious about a little dark tunnel under the rocks and I went in to have a look. Nothing much to report on this little jaunt.
After flying out the Lips, I decided that it was high time that I viewed the catacombs. I found the first little tunnel on the right and went in. After my second turn I came back out and tied in my primary. It was looking like I was destined to get lost without it. The flow was forcing me through the passages faster than I could navigate. Needless to say, I was bounced off a couple of the walls and kicked up the bottom a bit too. Luckily the bottom consisted of tiny tiny little rocks instead of silt and it was settling almost as fast as I was disturbing it. I had no clue as to my where abouts, there were just too many turns to keep them straight. All of a sudden there was light! It was another diver on the mainline. I was back out. ****! I have to fight that flow to reel back in. This was probably my absolute worst bouyancy/trim experience in a cave that I have even perpatrated. The flow was strong, the tunnel was low, tight, and not enough room for any kind of power kick. By the time that I finished this little endevor I was ready to thumb the dive and get out of there.
I picked up My O2 and went up to do deco. The rest was uneventful.
Peacock 11/27/10:
Today was my turn to help out a couple of other cave divers. I have been fortunate enough to have had several people guide me on some dives here in N. Florida and I got my chance to reciprocate today.
I had previously been asked to do a clean up for Timmy to retrieve a couple of spools that he had left in Peacock. I was hanging out at Dive Outpost and hoping to find someone that was hard up enough for a dive buddy that I could snag them. In come a couple of guys from Finland, Patrick and Johanson, poor bastards! Cathy matched us up to do a dive together. While looking at the map and working out a dive plan, Patrick mentioned Orange Grove and a long dive on several occassions. I finally asked him if he wanted to do the Grand Traverse. He smiled and nooded his head. The grand Travese it was then, this was going to be a nice little check out dive for these guys.
We got to Orange Grove and I unloaded my gear. I drove down to Peacock and Johanson picked me up and returned to Orange Grove. We were all too lazy to make the walk unnecessarily. I ran into Mel Clark while here.
I gave a dive briefing and we looked at the basin prior to suiting up. We all geared up and meet in the basin. We did our bubble checks and off we went. I guiding didn't start out too good. I went too deep and missed the entrance, I came back up a bit and signaled for them to follow. I don't even want to know what they were thinking at this point. I am sure that they relaxed a little when we finally reache the gold line though.
We did a nice, slow, easy dive. We surfaced for a moment at Challenge Sink before continuing.
Upon reaching the peanut resatriction I pulled the first of Timmy's spools. On our way I pointed out the jump to the cisteen line (way to the crypt) and then we were at Olsen Sink. I pulled the second of Timmy's spools. He had that damn line feed under every damn thing in the sink. It was a PITA to pull and reel up. We didn't surface here, we just kept going.
I pointed out the PotHole sink line and the slate to them also.
Next thing you know, the dive was over. We did a short safety stop and clipped off our BO tanks and exited.
On a side note. Johanson had a bag delayed by the airlines and was missing the can and scrubber to his meg. Timmy was nice enough to loan his can, scrubber, fins, tanks and some other gear to him. This made todays dive possible. His bag did show up today and I will be bringing Tim's stuff back to S. Florida tomorrow when I return.
