For the 2/3rds that don't always run a line.....

The last time I was at Ginnie the river was up and you had a hard time finding the ear in the tannic river. So everyone was using the eye there were 8 lines going into the system we had O2 and a stage. We talked about not running a line because there were so many there, but we decided to run one. I ran the line under 8 other lines thru the ear to the sign. We did our dive came back to the sign and our line was the only one left you could not see light thru the ear because of the river. I was glad that we ran a line not because I did not think I could get out with out it but if something had gone wrong we would have been safe.

Ok, this far I have not had ANY reason not to run a line but if it comes to that, NOT GETTING TO DIVE vs running a line... then there finally might be a reason for me to consider not running a line after all. One has to set some priorities for chrissakes...

yeah ! go ahead.....ya know where the 'gold' {main} line tie off is, wat da heck....ya don't need to run your own reel, right ? That is lest you are really an idiot, & you got an in-experienced buddy with you & you're going into a rocky, tight entrance with 7' of muck [silt] underneath you and one or both of you drop a knee or fin in the silt ! Good-bye vis ! Got a reel ?
If you're not ~tied-in~, you are S.O.L. ! Hasta-le-Vista Baby -!
Moon-walking or space walking is a hell of a lot safer !

'Chomp on this' for thoughts !
:smt013
See ya -!

je

When DON'T I run?

- Open entrances wtih sandy bottoms. High flow helps.
- On/off gold line where there is no clay on the bottom.
- Passages where i KNOW there are no side passages.

Where DO I run?

- White - to white
- Caves I don't know, often even when perfectly clear
- Caves with few arrows
- Caves with low flow
- Caves with lots of silt
- Narrow or low passages

In other words, I tie off very often.

I've had two scary occasions I didn't run a line. Both are indicative of why MORe rather than LESS caution should be used:

1) Back left of Ginnie. Missed a jump on teh way out, and fortunately had a reduced laminated copy of Jeff's map in my pocket. I had to do an extra 1000 ft of swimming. Fortunately I had LOTS of gas on me and so all it did is make me pissed off with myself, nad up my heartbeat for about 20 minutes. Incredibly stupid.

2) In a low flow, small, silty cave. The line ran on the left wall. The passage was about 20 ft wide, with beautiful white vertical sheets separating two passages right next to each other with frequent breaks. The wall can't have been wider than 6 inches. I went around the right hand side thinking I'll go 10 feet and then rejoin the line. What I didn't know is the floor gradually went up until I couldn't go forward wtihout silting out - which I did. Fortunately someone was with me. He sat there shining a light, which I saw pretty quickly. Incredibly dumb again - and that was "just" swimming 10 ft off the line!

This is why I feel these discussions are important. I have learned the hard way to be MORE CAUTIOUS than I used to be.

There waas a time when people used to post their bad experiences. What happened to those threads? Why does no one post them any more?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aainslie

There was a time when people used to post their bad experiences. What happened to those threads? Why does no one post them any more?

---

http://www.cavediver.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=57

This section of the CDF is ONLY for people to post (anonymously) about incidents where they messed up big time, where they at least thought it might be fatal. The reason for anonymity is so people can post everything that happened, no matter how dumb, without fear that people would second guess them or criticize their actions.

To make a post here, send a PM to IRAP Administrator, with the text being a write-up of the incident. Moderators check this inbox regularly, and that mod will check the entire report, and remove any details that would inadvertently identify the writer. The incident will then be posted and the thread locked.

If anybody wants to post about an event that they have discussed elsewhere, go ahead. The anonymity is only academic, anyway. ;)

After a discussion by the moderators, the IRAP posts don't have to be anonymous. If you want to be identified in a post, go ahead and post it in the IRAP section. A moderator will lock the thread soon after, as these posts are not intended for discussion (finger-pointing).