Unseen Jump, Silt Out, and Stuck

Little River

8.24.03


This dive involved 3 team members all on scooters. The plan was to scooter to the just before the dome room, drop stages and scooters and swim to the well casing. One of the team members had done this particular dive before, the other two (including me)had not. The diver who had previously done it led, I was middle man and another diver was last in. All of us have decent experience on scooters, and have completed multiple scooter dives without incident. We have all dove in Little River before and have close to 100 safe cave dives each. Each member carried an AL80 stage bottle. The lead and second diver were breathing 30/30 trimix in stage and backmount 104s (complete with argon bottle), the 3rd diver was breathing EANX 32 in both stage and backmount 104s.


The dive in was uneventful - we reached the drop point just prior to the dome room (about 1500 feet in or so) on half +200 of the stage and dropped stages and scooters. We then proceeded to swim to the well casing on backgas, arriving without incident and having a good dive. At the well casing, diver 3 gives the thumb up signal, so we all start swimming back and reach the scooters and stages without incident (located about 1500 feet or so on the main line - just beyond the Florida Room) - we reattach our stages and scooter tow straps and start out with diver 3 leading out at that point. I am following behind him and see him push his trigger on the scooter in a fairly low spot and then all goes black in a total silt out. I find the line, OK it and then try to move forward but can't move at all - after a minute or more (lost track of time while all of this was transpiring), diver 3 (who was in front of me at the time) turns toward me in the very low vis and points backward toward what I thought was diver 1 (who was right beside me on the other side). At that point we were all fairly calm and still (in my mind we were waiting for the silt to settle a little to figure the best way out - I knew I had plenty of gas, as did the others - I was still breathing my stage I had reattached a few mins earlier and had at least 2500lbs. backgas in my 104s - but we were between 100-110 deep, so I knew we didn't have all day to get past this problem and out of the cave). Diver 3 then proceeds to give me some hand signals which I do not recoginize and becomes noticibly more excited and anxious while pointing back (and to what I thought was diver 1). Diver 1's back was toward me and I began to think that diver 3 was indicating to me that diver 1 was having a problem, due to his anxiety level (at this point he is physically pushing me toward diver 1 and yelling through his reg) - I become very anxious that diver 1 may be in distress (he is not looking at me and when I take his hand (diver 1) it feels somewhat limp and unresponsive and he is not moving at all - and in my mind at that point, I fear he may be unconsious due to hitting his head or some other reason, and because of my perceived level of diver 3's anxiety who is behind me pushing and shoving hard on my back with both hands and yelling in his regulator)- I still can't go anywhere due to diver 1 being on the other side of me and zero vis and being hung up on something with my scooter - I also think at this point that diver 3 is closest to the exit and headed in the right direction. Vis is still virtually zero - diver 3 then somehow gets around me and heads backwards on the line while I am still settled trying to remain calm but now very worried about diver 1 (who I had lost touch contact with). At that point, I somehow lose my grip on the line and sweep with my hand trying to find it with no luck. Also, at that point, I was beginning to feel much worse about the situation when I suck my stage dry - I switch to my necklaced backup reg. and breathe on. I remember consciously slowing my breathing rate (which was getting higher) as I was now beginning to think hard about the limited supply of gas I had and wanting to conserve as much as possible. I also began to try and move any way I could while still doing hand sweeps for the line, which I finally hit again. I tried to back up but could not move as my scooter (a SS 26in) was caught on something that I could not see at all or feel my way to following the tow rope. Same with the now empty AL80 stage cylinder. I manage to unclip both the stage (I figure it is now empty and useless - only a further entanglement hazard) and scooter and push the stage out of the way (I have no idea where the scooter is, but at least now I am free from it, and I knew that no piece of equipment is worth your life if you can exist without it - even an SS 26"). I then am able to move somewhat better and start back on the line a ways when I see a light and see diver 1 coming toward me (I was overjoyed he was OK!!) He takes my hand and guides me back on this line a ways through alternating low/zero vis. where we then see diver 3 again. What had happened is that we had all jumped onto another line after picking up the scooters following diver 3 and were not paying close attention to the lines. Diver 3 thought he was on the main line when in fact he was on another very small side passage that got small and very silty - this combined with the scooter blast insured a lot of zero vis. - and quickly!


Once we are back on the main line, we swim out uneventfully, do our deco and exit. I exited with 1500 psi left in my 104s. The main issues (mistakes made) in my mind are: 1) not paying better attention to the line and just blindly following another diver on a scooter- we all three went onto the jump and did not catch the navigational error made by the lead diver at that point. 2) The communication breakdown between myself and diver 3 in the alternating low/zero vis. - anxiety breeds anxiety in a dive team and I got caught up in it and mistook what he was trying to communicate - this only ratcheted up the anxiety level for everyone, especially when it got to pushing and shoving - he and I have already discussed this point and will need to work on our communication skills for this type of situation. In hindsight, we have years worth of safe and enjoyable dives together, are great friends, and both share a commitment to continual self improvement and safe diving, so I don't think it will be a problem to improve here.


Only issue I had afterward was getting my scooter and stage and Goodman light handle for my HID out (those had all been left while I was clawing around trying to get out on that line). Another dive was out of the question due to our profile, but fortunately for me a couple of divers on scooters (frequent posters on this board, no less - they know who they are.. - Thanks again) were getting ready to enter for a dive and agreed to retrieve the articles if possible (we described where I had left them). I sit around for a couple of hours thinking about what happened and wait for the other divers who were able to retrieve the gear. They come back up with everything but the light handle (a small sacrifice to the cave...). These two helpful individuals represent the best side of cave divers and cave diving (seems like we mostly hear about the negative on these boards and the internet in general WRT cave divers) and went out of their way to lessen a fellow diver's logistical headache..


It was one of those days where I learned a whole lot!