Okay, I'll make my first dive report post.
Left St. Louis on Christmas day at 5:30pm with WJH. DeepDiverBob was about an hour behind, driving down with his dad, Karl. We arrived early morning and checked in with Cave Excursions for our trailer. After getting all the non-essentials out of the truck, we headed over to Peacock Springs. This was my first trip to the area. The excitement level was high. The weather was a bit drizzly, but after the torrential downpour coming off the mountain at Chatanooga and the fog the rest of the way, it didn't seem so bad.
We dove for five days and I had a tremendous time.
Day 1
D1 - Peacock P1 - 81 min - Bill, Bob, Jim
Dove the mainline, over Olsen sink and about 450' past.
This was my longest dive in a cave swimming. (Previous dives included deco.)
Also, my first traverse of a sink. Wonderful dive.
D2 - Peacock Peanut - 11/27 min - friend/Jim
I was pooped from the driving, no real sleep and D1. Another guy was looking to jump in with us. I knew I didn't have another 80 min. one in me, so Bill and Bob dove as a team and I went with the new guy. Let's just say things didn't go very well for team 2. Unnecessary bumbling with a primary reel (after planning to not need one), getting a jump spool inadvertently hung up and lack of response to light signals caused me to turn the dive in the cavern. After getting out and having a 'heart to heart' with my new friend, we went back in and followed the plan and started up Peanut. I ask him to leave the primary clipped to the deco rope, but he carried it on his scooter ring and got hung up. I took it off and clipped it to the mainline. As we got to the top and the tunnel got smaller, I decided I was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person since I didn't know the system myself. I turned the dive and when we got to the bottom and had some room, I signaled to do some drills. Then we exited. Turned out okay as that is about as long as I had in me anyway. Hopefully the practice and drills were helpful. He was an intro diver, boning up to begin a Full Cave a few days later.
Day 2
D1 - Peacock Orange Grove Distance Tunnel - 86 min - Bill, Bob, Jim
Nice dive back to 2000'. We did short in water stops with O2 just because of diving multiple days. A new longest dive ;-)
D2 - Peacock Orange Grove Grand Traverse - 86 min - Bill, Bob, Jim
Did the run after knowing our consumption and run time from D1. Briefing heavy with recalculating 1/3s at the sinks and the arrow direction along the entire route. Firmly understood we might turn the run depending on progression. Not a longest, but my first traverse dive. After the dive we met some great folks from Nag's Head. They had grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and invited us to eat. A real fun group, that we ran into at ALL the next sites.
Day 3
D1 - Peacock Orange Grove Distance Tunnel - 87 min - Bill, Jim, Bob
Same dive as yesterday, but this time, we carried a stage for practice. Stage gas not planned into dive. We got to the same spot, thru the squeeze to the begining of the canyon, and turned on thirds. (You got it, a new longest dive.)
D2 - Peacock P1 to Crypt - 102 min - Bill, Jim, Bob
Breathed a stage in, dropped it for the return. Had 2 jumps. This was the only dive that built up on me. The time, the distance, the two sinks, the jumps, arrow changes and deco time (no deco planned) just gave me an overload. I knew we were turning the corner to the Crypt (from the brief), but called the dive which was accepted with no hesitation. Oh, yeah, another new longest dive (which we are done with for this trip ;-) Also, I got to meet Forrest Wilson at the Outpost at the end of the day.
Day 4 -
D1 - Ginnie Springs, Eye - 81 min - Jim, Bill, Bob
Extensive briefing on the flow and where the line was since I was running the reel this time and had not been in this system. What an awesome dive! (Actually they all were and each system was so different from the others that I am still amazed.) I had some help with placements as I dealt with the flow. But, the brief was good and we got to the Lips without inordinate effort. I tried to pay attention to postion in the flow to minimze effort. We were able to make it to 1400' on the main to the Sand Dunes, I believe. Coming back was like flying thru the Grand Canyon, but many of you already know that.
D2 - Ginnie Springs, Eye - 71 min - Bob, Jim, Bill
This dive we were going to do a jump. The plan was to take the first jump, but we headed off the wrong direction and another team right behind us, tied in and jumped the right way. We untied and went to the next jump (to the left) and went up to Hill 400. 1100' is in my notes. I also met Tom Mount after the dive at the changing house.
Day 5
D1 - Peacock P3 - 71 min - Jim, Bill, Bob
We went back in on the main line to the end to the right of the T to Henley's Castle. Or at least that is the way I describe the line configuration there. Again, a totally different looking system. The worst vis of the trip, but still an nice dive. And, my first siphon, but it was pretty mild.
D2 - Cow Springs, Down Stream - 40 min - Bill, Jim, Bob
Last dive of the trip. Lots of work, but a pretty system and great vis. Not a fan of all the squeezing thru the bedding planes that don't open up to anything, but glad I did the dive. We tied in to the left main and went to the where the work got enough, came back and tied into the right line and took it back. As we came out, Bill was interested in popping in and taking a look at the upstream entrance. I signalled to them in the spring that I was going to stay in the spring and was okay for them to go. There were two rebreather divers coming out of the upstream at this point also. The siphon was stronger here. It was the shortest dive of the trip, but we had mountains to cross going home.
We packed up, cleaned up, had a last dinner with Bob and Karl and Bill and I hit the road.
