First Visit to Cow, With New Buddy, 12/2/08
A new cave, with a new cave diving buddy, meant an elevated anxiety level for the undersigned. After Craig ran the primary reel to the gold line, we swam (and pulled on the rope) upstream to the vertical tiers of restrictions at about the 900 foot mark, and I turned the dive with 200 psi left to thirds turn pressure, and we swam back to the entrance.
Max depth was 91’ at the point of turning the dive, with an estimated average depth of 50’. Time on ingress was 27 minutes, and time on egress was 22 minutes, for a flow rate index of 1.22. My SAC rate was 0.89 cu feet per minute. END at max depth was 73 feet, with a max PN2 2.5 and max PO2 1.12.
Cow is a spectacular cave: beautiful rocky formations, low and narrow in places, with dark rock that seemed to suck up the beam of my light. Good technique was required. Disturbing was the graffiti at the end of the pull rope on the clay bank to the side. Visibility was reduced in one part of the system, perhaps the result of passage of another party of two. Towards the turning point of the dive, visibility was very clear.
As enchanting as the cave was, it was also a pleasure to observe Craig Walters’ superb skill and technique: His buoyancy control and navigational abilities matched the best I’ve seen. He later humbly attributed this to his side mount rig, but it could only come from experience and practice. He’s a nice guy, too, and hence a fine cave buddy. After 20 minutes into the dive, I was at complete ease diving with him.
We put the icing on the cake by swimming downstream a couple hundred feet; it was a pleasant surprise to recognize it from the many poster-size photos I’d seen on dive shop and restaurant walls!
Thanks go to the NSS-CDS for maintaining this jewel.
