Weekend Trip to Peacock and Cow 6/26 - 6/28

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07-01-2009 06:27 AM
Arctic Mike

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......
07-01-2009 07:57 AM
sskasser

Awesome report, Mike! Glad y'all had a good time!
07-01-2009 08:12 AM
Jay

Good report!

When the water is high enough and the vis decent floating from P1-P2-P3 and the other cave is a hoot. You can dive all three in one swoop!
07-01-2009 10:22 AM
IowaCaveDiver

we dove too

He put it perfect... we dove on sunday, Tammy diving a new Pinnacle Evolution 2 drysuit we just got.... we didn't bother with OG, he is right, it looked very scummy... down to P1 and surprised to see how high the water was and the clarity... however we spent a lot of time in the cavern while Tammy played with the suit and there seemed to be a lot of chunky mung matter in the water in the first 100-200' both up the Nicholsen line and peanut... we spent a good 40 minutes just in the cavern zone and first 100' both directions and then did a short little mainline swim up nicholsen... my 10W HID was sucked up by the foggy water and her H1000 HID did a bit better, but it wasn't a very exciting dive.

On a good note, we've been having a lot of dry hot weather and I would predict the conditions will continue to slowy improve.... so get out there and dive! (and then post!) I know we all have cabin fever having been surrounded with crappy conditions the past few months.

We ran into two groups of canadians on sunday, and knowing what type of drive they had to do to get down here, we begged them to axe the trip to the ginnie/peacock areas and head to the mill pond... conditions there are the best in cave country and anybody heading to florida to dive from any distance should be headded there... if you've never dove the millpond, now is the time to try it, you will be majorly surprised!
07-01-2009 07:14 PM
DogDiver

I bet if someone would take a few scoops of duck weed from Cisteen and put it into Orange Grove, the vis would clear up in a few weeks. "It wasn't me" lol
07-09-2009 11:53 AM
TONY CHANEY

Thanks for the report Mike and for the great dives. I really had a blast. OBTW, I think we saw Runawaylobster at Peacock. I have the map to Peacock and I have tried several times to measure our push up Peanut but it just does not look right. If I could pick someone's brain...other than being in a cave, underwater, in the dark etc. please tell me where we were in Peanut at 1800'. Thanks
07-09-2009 12:57 PM
Serota

Restriction

You were at or very near the Peanut Restriction, which isn't really much of a restriction, so you might not have recognized it as such.
07-09-2009 01:31 PM
FW

Quote:

Originally Posted by TONY CHANEY

Thanks for the report Mike and for the great dives. I really had a blast. OBTW, I think we saw Runawaylobster at Peacock. I have the map to Peacock and I have tried several times to measure our push up Peanut but it just does not look right. If I could pick someone's brain...other than being in a cave, underwater, in the dark etc. please tell me where we were in Peanut at 1800'. Thanks

Did you see an 1800' marker, or was that on the map?

Serota is right, 1800' is very near (if not at) the end of the Peanut line.
07-09-2009 02:01 PM
chimie007

Quote:

Originally Posted by TONY CHANEY

Thanks for the report Mike and for the great dives. I really had a blast. OBTW, I think we saw Runawaylobster at Peacock. I have the map to Peacock and I have tried several times to measure our push up Peanut but it just does not look right. If I could pick someone's brain...other than being in a cave, underwater, in the dark etc. please tell me where we were in Peanut at 1800'. Thanks

Tony, I'm not sure if you have ever been to the Peanut restriction. It is a very obvious feature of the cave. Very different than everything you would have seen once past the breakdown room. About 200' before it, the cave gets shallower and has a sharp right turn on top of a climbing slope. The cave is quite wide at that turn. The line is on the right wall.

At the "restriction", the line goes to a hole to the left which appears bigger right now then it used to be before the flood. The hole on the right is larger and the prefer route for most folks although I suspect the left hole will get bigger. I went through it but I'm in SM. Then 50' past the hole is the EOL on a flower pot.

AFAIK the Peanut restriction is at 1700' or so.
07-09-2009 03:38 PM
BobK

Quote:

Originally Posted by chimie007

Tony, I'm not sure if you have ever been to the Peanut restriction. It is a very obvious feature of the cave. Very different than everything you would have seen once past the breakdown room. About 200' before it, the cave gets shallower and has a sharp right turn on top of a climbing slope. The cave is quite wide at that turn. The line is on the right wall.

At the "restriction", the line goes to a hole to the left which appears bigger right now then it used to be before the flood. The hole on the right is larger and the prefer route for most folks although I suspect the left hole will get bigger. I went through it but I'm in SM. Then 50' past the hole is the EOL on a flower pot.

AFAIK the Peanut restriction is at 1700' or so.

Just went through the restriction Sunday. It's at about 1750 or so. BTW, I went through the restriction in BM, Russell went around it. Go figure...
07-09-2009 09:11 PM
TONY CHANEY

Thanks for the quick replys and helpful information. The problem that I was coming to was I could not believe that we had made it that far but no arrow to Olsen Sink, which would be the closet exit.
07-09-2009 09:43 PM
Sludge

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobK

Russell went around it. Go figure...

Uh... Way less claustrophobic.

All joking aside, when you get to the restriction (from entering at Peacock 1), the line "goes through" the restriction. It's a minor restriction, so you have no problem in backmount. But about ten feet to the right is a much larger hole, and it's sandy on the floor right there, so it's a no-brainer to move over and go through that opening. As long as you don't mind straying ten feet from the line.
07-10-2009 06:24 AM
BobK

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slüdge

Uh... Way less claustrophobic.

All joking aside, when you get to the restriction (from entering at Peacock 1), the line "goes through" the restriction. It's a minor restriction, so you have no problem in backmount. But about ten feet to the right is a much larger hole, and it's sandy on the floor right there, so it's a no-brainer to move over and go through that opening. As long as you don't mind straying ten feet from the line.

It's sandy through the restriction also. The line is partly buried at the peak of the restriction.