CaverCraig and I met up and decided to go to Harveys, a little cave close by that I had never been to. It was a kinda spur of the moment thing but I was pretty damn happy about it cause how else would you want to spend your birthday other than exploring a new system? So we made it out to the sink around 730 and were in the water around 8. The water around the sink was pretty murkey, maybe 5' viz at the log at 20' where the line starts. My computer was acting strange and I could get it to work right so I just used my depth gauge and watch... which was quite a hassle as you will see. We descended down the line until we hit the dumbbell and started into the cave. It was eerie, I havent been in a cave yet where the viz wasent less than 60', and here at the mouth it was maybe 20'. We started in and took a left at the first T into the upstream portion. I could tell this is an unpopular dive because the line had a bunch of silt accumulated and there was almost no diver damage to the cave, which was great. The passage is pretty large, in most places you couldnt see the other side or the ceiling from the viz. We kept a slow relaxed pace so I could get used to the system. The walls in this cave are really cool, covered in Goethite formations all over the place. The walls are also not quite the same hard limestone you find in alot of places, they are a little softer, almost like a very hard clay in some spots. As we got farther back into the system, the viz cleared up a little to 35' pushing 40' in a few spots. Hovering up around the ceiling was great, you could see alot of the cave from that viewpoint. We passed the jump on the left to ? (ive heard the Crystal Room, dont know for sure) and it looked like something I would like to check out soemtime. Continueds on maybe a few hundred feet more and turned at about 31 minutes in. On the way out we noticed a plethora of cave crayfish falling down from the ceiling, probably dislodged by our bubbles. I also saw for the first time dead crayfish in a cave! It was actually really neat because the decaying crawfish had turned the sediment around them various colors, a black oxidezed band around the crayfish and the a grey band and a lighter brown band around that, it was really cool looking. We came out of the upstream portion and decided we had enough air to go check out the downstream a little. There is a noticable change in the flow in that cave, even as low as it is. We only went back maybe 100-200' in this side before we turned out. I think we will try and hit the deeper shaft on our next dive. We exited the cave and made our way up to the log for our deco stop. Craig switched to his O2 and was out of there faster than some tacos I had in mexico this one time, but since my computer failed before the dive even started, I had to revert to my trusty ol air decompression tables... 17 minutes of deco, and I was already cold. I think that was even cutting it close on the tables, cause I didnt round up the depth (82'-come on). I tried figuring out my EAD with 32%, but couldnt remember and had no lead in my pencil. And then, to top it all off, when I took my slate out of my pouch, my compass fell out and decided to be just out of my reach... sinking slowly out of my life. I was pretty cold when I finished my deco so I got the F out of that nasty sink and went home and had a beer to celebrate. If anyone ever finds a good ol walmart camping compass at the bottom of Harveys sink, call me. 409-771-3049
Cheers,
Andrew
(it was actually an awesome dive!)
