Missed T On Exit

Diver A and B decide to go down the mainline at Little River to the back of the Florida Room. The park closes soon so instead of the usual slow drift dive out of the system both buddies agree to a more "active" exit.


Enter the system with Diver A in the lead and Diver B behind. Through the cave leave a marker on the first T, take a left and head down the Serpentine passage. Reach the second T, leave a marker, and take a left towards the Florida room. After about 25 minutes into the dive, the dive is turned and head back, at a pretty fast pace with Diver B in the lead.


Reach the second T and take the right, back into the Serpentine. A retrieves the marker from this T. Going down the passage for a while, it seems to be unusually long. Diver A and B both notice the flow is going against them, and then notice line arrow pointing in the direction they came from. Diver B uses his light to circle an arrow, and Diver A acknowledges and indicates to press forward to verify they are no longer headed to the exit. A jump is seen, to the left, and arrows still pointing behind Diver A and B and the flow is still against them. Diver B indicates "Hold" and "Something is Wrong". Diver A returns hand signals, Diver B gives the "turn around" hand signal and Diver A agrees, with Diver A now in lead. passing the jump it is recognized as the "shortcut" and they are clearly in the Merry Go Round, having completely missed the first T on their exit. The marker is retrieved from the first T and Diver A and B exit uneventfully.


The biggest problem was introducing the time constraint and instead of having a more realistic dive plan and turning earlier trying to make up lost time with a rapid exit that led to poor guideline awareness. Instead of both divers immediately addressing the problem with the first "backwards" arrows and flow they both continued up the line hoping that these signs were inaccurate. At the first sign of trouble the issue should have been hashed out with hand signals and wet notes if necessary.


End result is both divers swore to never go on "hurry up" dives ever again and to always include adequate buffer for the dive to allow careful planning and execution.