Weekend Trip to Peacock and Cow 6/26 - 6/28
We arrived late in the evening on 6/26 and picked up our key at Cave Excursions. We were staying at Bill's trailer known as Paul 1. The layout and condition of this place was a very pleasant surprise! A good nights sleep and we would be ready to check out the conditions at Peacock in the morning.
Saturday 6/27. We surveyed the sink conditions topside. OG looked absolutely terrible. Not only tannic but a lot of algae. We saw no duck weed on the surface. Cisteen was covered with the green stuff. P1 looked a lot better but was off from its usual crystal clear self. The water level was very high and P1, P2. and P3 were all connected via the surface water. For our first dive we headed up the P1 main line to Olsen Sink. It was a pretty laid back dive taking over 40 minutes to reach the sink. Visibility was approximately 40 feet. We exited via the mainline but took an excursion up Peanut to the Breakdown Room before finishing. The vis through the Peanut Tunnel seemed even better than that in the Mainline P1 Tunnel. After lunch we decided to give P3 a try. There was absolutely no flow and no vis in P3. Every exhalation released a ton of debris into the water from the ceiling that just hung in the water column. We aborted this dive after about 15 minutes because of the vis. I dove over to P1 from P3 and we did another dive up the Peant Tunnel. This dive we went approximately 1800 feet before retracing our route on the way out. Vis was still good although there were a lot of Teams diving so it was not as good as earlier.
Sunday 6/27. We decided to give OG a try. There is absolutely zero vis in the basin until you hit approximately 35 feet. After that it clears up pretty quickly so that in the cavern zone you have about 20 feet of vis. There is decent flow in the cave and vis increases to about 30 feet. At 1100 feet the flow appears to stop and vis drops back to about 20. It gradually improves but never seems to get back to where it is at the start of the main line. There was also a lot of milky white algae floating along in the water column during the time of reduced vis. I was surprised to see the remains of a good sized fish about 1200 feet in. We took the mainline up about 1300 feet before turning the dive. On the way out we took a quick peek into Lower OG and the vis was approximately 40 feet. It may have been the clearest of any of the systems that we had dove. After lunch we stopped by Cathy's and picked up the key to Cow. The basin at Cow doesn't look very good but about 5 feet down you have typical clear spring water. We dove both Upstream and Downstream with both providing a great deal of enjoyment. Flow was really up and vis was quite normal.
Monday 6/28. We decided to return to Cow for an early morning dive before heading home. We pushed up the mainline to about 1000 feet before turning. Cow has been a favorite of mine since I got certified and it did not disappoint on this trip! The dives here were the best of the entire weekend!
The heat index during the weekend was over 100. Bill was telling us that it had gotten up to 118 the previous week. Proper hydration was absolutely critical for us, not only because of the heat but because we lost a lot of blood to the Florida State Bird! :smt081 Some times it seemed as though our bottle of OFF was filled with sugar water!
All in all a great weekend of cave diving. A lot of bottom time, great conversation, and plenty of relaxation. Now it's back to the grind......
