Detour on the Way to Ginnie
This past week I got two days to dive. Thursday we headed up to Little River and did 2 dives. The first was just following the Mainline and checking things out since I have not been there since the floods and one of my buddies has never been there. We made it to the top of the silt hill past the Florida room at 1400'. The second dive, we did the mud tunnel, then to the Harper Tunnel to about the first restriction (FYI: Before the first restriction the line is really loose, and looks like it’s been tied back, and I tried to tighten it some as well.)
I have to say little river looked a lot different, the white walls were covered in silt, and there was a lot more sand/silt on the bottom. Once we made it towards the back of the FL room, the cave looked completely different and the floor to roof distance looked a lot smaller. The vis was not bad 20-30' but a lot of particular in the water. Flow seemed to be how it was before the floods, maybe a little more.
On Friday, we went to Ginnie, our first dive was a quick circuit going from the mainline to the bone line, jumping to the express way line, made it to the end of the expressway line and jumped to the Bone Line, heading back out to the mainline.
For our second dive my buddy and I, went up to the Hill 400 jump (Thanks for the New Line), then jumped to July Spring, and immediately jumped to the parallel line jump. We headed up this line until reaching the first T were we went right, then continued to the next T again going right, went about 50 feet past and turned our dive.
Next week I hope to be doing a longer 3 hour BT and get to some more new places. If anyone is interested PM me.
Si, beware of the siphon SMs
It brings back fond memories of diving with an iconoclastic buddy whose name I won't mention here. He told me to lead the dive into Siphon till I wanted to turn. In b/mounts I popped into a bunny hole (sm tunnel). There was a line in there (9-10 years ago, so I kept on). He later told me he was planning my funeral. It was tight but I wouldn't do it again.
What is this about color coded lines at Ginnie? ARE y'all kidding? When did that happen?
Cheers,
Barbara
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jj1987
The siphon tunnel has 1 line, and that last portion that Berman marks SM is where the tunnel takes a small, sharp left. I can't remember if there's line in the side tunnel, but it's real short, and pretty small for BM.
Please be careful posting too much about these areas of Ginnie. They're not protected by the long swim that many of the back areas are, and they're pretty fragile area's of a cave that's already pretty destroyed.
Sweet Surprise vs The Heinkle
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jj1987
Dean,
If it's any help, typically stage 1 gets people in the 700ft range. I have to drop a bit early because as you know, too far beyond 700ft and you're going to be dropping the stage in the clay. Stage 2 I drop in the 1600ft range near the double domes jump.
I've found roller coaster doesn't really save me any time. I don't have the balls to let myself start doing visual jumps, and putting in 2 jump reels seems to kill any time you save. I can't see any way the hillier tunnel would save time, but I haven't tried it either. However, if you're OK visualling, the roller coaster certainly saves time.
Have you seen the split, insulation rooms, and sweet surprise? They're all prettier than the heinkle and easier to get to if you're swimming.
The one last thing I do differently on these long Ginnie dives is bring 3 o2 bottles between 2 divers. If you really take your time on the way out, especially near the heinkle where it's >100ft in some areas, you'll rack up close to 25-30min of o2 deco, and your buddy wont have enough spare o2 to share if needed due to a failure or stolen o2 bottle.
Thanks for the input.
I almost always take one stage into Ginnie and drop it off around the Hill 400 jump. I dive solo in Ginnie, and having a stage waiting for me at the Hill 400 jump gives me peace of mind in case of an equipment failure. I dive side-mount and always dive thirds, but having an extra tank waiting for me so far back into the cave is nice.
I almost never put in jumps reels while diving Ginnie, so I’ll try the Roller Coaster to save time with the flow on the mainline. I’ll skip the Hillier, and plan on dropping my second stage on the main line sometime after the jump back to the main line from Roller Coaster around Hangers and Weights, depending on when I hit thirds on my second stage.
I’ve never swam to Sweet Surprise. I’ve never been much beyond the main line then the jump to the Double Domes. So I appreciate the input about Sweet Surprise being better then the Heinkle. I’ll target Sweet Surprise instead of the Heinkle.
I agree, it is a bit stressful when you build up 30 or 40 minutes of backgas deco and are somewhat dependent on your O2 bottle. If figure in a pinch I can decompress with my backgas reserve and the reserve in my stage bottle. I almost always go in the Ear and out the Eye, tying off my O2 bottle at the sign in the Gallery, and I can’t imagine anyone who can get to the sign taking an O2 bottle. It would be interesting to hear if anyone has had an O2 bottle stolen, and if so, where it was dropped.
dean