Morrison Springs 01/01/12

First dive on the new year and it sucked.

Basin is tannic and the water level is up thanks to all the rain we got. The log is at 20 foot. The level is 5-10 feet lower than what it should be (as opposed to being 10-15 feet lower than what it should be). Vis in the basin is 5-15 foot. Flow is down from what it was a month ago so the rain was enough to bring the river up but didn't recharge the aquifer at all to speak of. Visibility in the lower cavern was probably 50 foot vis (its normally unlimited). Temperature in the basin was 67 and it was was 68 in the lower cavern.

As far as the dive goes, at about 5 minutes into my dive I got a reverse block in my left ear and aborted the dive. I made my ascent which took around 30 minutes. But I was able to ascend without damaging my ear (which is a blessing for sure). I passed several open water divers that were playing in the basin on my way out and didn't have any other issues.

There was a lot of tannic water coming out of a side vent in Morrison as well the day before. Our computers were reading 64-67° and the dark water was a bit warmer. The basin was all green, but the water in the upper and lower caverns were clear and blue.

Yeah, I normally hit the lower cavern, then the upper cavern, but since my ear started giving me trouble as soon as I hit my max depth I didn't get to check out the upper cavern

I drove home from Panama City Beach with my family, and my son started screaming in the backseat, so I pulled over. Just happened to be on FL82 right where the sign for Morrison was. What are the odds!

Tom