Eagles Nest (Downstream) 11/6/2004
Pictures @ http://cavediver.net/en_nov2004.htm
The preplanning phase of the dive involved e-mailing dive plans amongst the team, to solidify a plan. We were deciding whether to go upstream, or downstream, and the route we were going to take. The emails also discussed gas mixes, bottom times, run times and the resulting decompression schedules. We finally decided on a downstream dive with a 30 minute bottom time.
As a result, the team decided to dive with 10/50 (10% oxygen and 50% helium), 32% and oxygen. I already had my tanks filled, so I used 15/43 and oxygen onboard. My open circuit bailout gas consisted of 15/40, 32% and oxygen. In addition, I had another tank filled with air for my drysuit (a total of 230 cubic feet of bailout gas and 40 cubic feet of dive gas).
The plan was to meet at the Iron Ranger at 8 AM. So, I left my house at 6:20 AM. At about 7:30 AM, I decided to check on the progress of my dive buddies. I called TJ and he stated they were running late. Something about an extra long stop at Starbucks, to get some sugar for his drink. He suggested I stop for a long breakfast! Instead, I suggested that we meet in the parking lot at the Nest.
I passed the Iron Ranger shortly before 8 AM, as planned, and proceeded to the Nest. The roads were rather dry and it looked like they had been improvement after my last visit on August 1st, 2004. I had a trip to the Nest planned for Sunday, August 15th, but Hurricane Charlie changed those plans. The sand dunes appeared to have been mixed with gravel, which produced a much smoother ride. Thanks to the Wildlife Management Area Rangers; I got to see my annual pass money put to good use. The roads are a little longer than the use to be, a long time ago, but they are much easier to navigate.
I got to the parking area of the Nest at about 8:30 AM and proceeded with the final preparations. I went over to sign in on the clipboard, but it was gone. Does anyone know where it went? I put my bailout tanks, in the water, on the stage bottle line. The pond looked crystal clear, the sky was bright blue, the sun was shining and the air temperature was in the low 70s. What a perfect day for diving. 8)
Just before I did my final preparations, my dive buddies showed up. I got everything ready, with the exception of putting my new batteries in the Hammerhead primary / secondary, resetting the sea level in the computers and the oxygen calibration. Once the rest of the group was close to being ready, I finished my final preparations and headed into the water. Shortly afterwards, the rest of the group proceeded into the water.
We hooked up all of our tanks and did some pre-dive checks. TJ, Mike and Jay were all diving sidemount and I was diving closed circuit. Mike and Jay were diving with their VR3s and tables, TJ was diving with his NiTek He and tables, and I was diving with my Hammerhead, VR3 and open circuit bailout tables. Next, we talked about the dive plan.
The dive order was going to be myself, Mike, Jay and then TJ. We swam out in the clear pond to find the head spring. I found the entrance and we all descended. We dropped our oxygen stage bottles on the log at 30’ and then we entered the chimney. The chimney starts at about 35’ and then drops to about 70’ where it then opens up into a big room called the Ball Room.
The Ball Room is an enormous cavern (about 200’ – 300’ in diameter) with a mound which comes up to about 130’. The edges of the Ball Room drop down to about 198’, before you enter the cave in either direction. I dropped my 32% bail out bottle, on the line, on the top of the mound. I was waiting for the others to drop their bottles; when Jay started to head downstream. After we headed up over the hill, the rest of the team dropped their 32% stage bottles.
We then dropped to about 198’ to go into downstream cave. The visibility was 40’ – 50’ in most spots; which was the best that I have seen it this year. The Nest has some very wide tunnels. We passed the “T” to the Lockwood tunnel and continued towards the Pit. I was expecting the Pit to be deeper on this trip, because of all the rain, but I only got a depth reading of 281’. The last time I was at the Pit, I got a depth reading of 283’. I think Jay said he got a depth of 292’.
Just after the Pit we passed the “T” to John’s Pocket. I noticed some line arrows were added at this junction. Thanks to whoever added the arrows; they are very helpful. We continued up through Jim’s Room, as we headed towards the Half Moon Room. Just past the 800’ marker, TJ called the dive at 18 minutes (our planned turn time was 19 minutes). In this area we noticed lots of extra white cave line. We all turned around and headed out.
At about 23 minutes into the dive my HID died and I went to one of my backup lights (a UK-SL4). On the swim out, I noticed Mike was swimming above the line and TJ and Jay were swimming up by the ceiling. It was really nice to be using a little less light, because it highlighted the other divers. Using my backup light, the visibility looked as though it was about 60’ after the Pit. I could see TJ and Jay lighting up the ceiling of a large room. It would have made an excellent photo.
The VR3s started giving deep stops while we were still in the cave. We continued with our stops up to the mound, the chimney and into the pond. The stops grew longer as we continued our ascent. Jay cleared his computer about 10 minutes before the rest of us and he signaled to us that he was done and was heading out. TJ cleared his computer next and he started to take more pictures.
When he finished taking some pictures of me, I signaled for him to pass the camera to me. I took several pictures of him and then I passed the camera back. He went over to Mike and started to take “a lot” of pictures. After awhile Mike got annoyed with TJ in his face and he gave him the universal signal for enough is enough. Mike’s computer cleared last and we headed for the exit. When we exited the water, I had a run time of 139 minutes. The temperature of the pond was in the lower 80s and the cave system was around 72 degrees.
My gas consumption for the dive was about 15 cubic feet of 15/43, 5 cubic feet of oxygen and a trivial amount of air to inflate my drysuit. I ran my wings off of my onboard trimix tank and my trimix consumption would have been lower if I had used air for the wings instead. I thought about moving the hose over to the other regulator the night before, but I left it. Next time I will make the correction.
After the gear was all loaded, we headed for lunch. TJ suggested a buffet style Chinese Restaurant a little ways past Highway 50. The restaurant had lots of tables full of food, so we settled for the buffet. The food was excellent and they had a great selection. After I had some food off the buffet, I went over to the Mongolian BBQ. During lunch we debriefed the dive, talked about the NACD Conference, the CDF and TAG.
