On Saturday night July 19 2008, on our 4th attempt, Marc and I made the swim to the Ice Room !!!! We sat down with the map and formulated our plan months ago...from there we started testing setups as far as stages and the best route to take.
Our plan was simple enough, Single stage up the Mainline to Hill 400, after the jump drop stage and continue on backgas to our next jump somewhere around the Hill 400 1200' mark, jump left and continue up towards our final destination one more jump, a couple of "T's" and we would be there, simple enough right???...
On our first attempt we missed our jump and actually swam to the Bats before realizing it...we tuned and picked up our missed jump and actually made the first "T" before hitting 3rds. We didn't reach our destination, but hey we gathered some great intel for our next attempt !!!!
The second attempt had to be the most embarrassing, here we were during the NACD conference during the Rebreather workshop at the Little Devil pavilion. I am sure we justified every rebreather divers decision to make the plunge to the dark side with that one.....Picture this, 30 or 40 rebreather divers sitting in the pavilion with us setting up for our second attempt, stages, deco, several trips to the water, the last being with a set of 95s strapped to our back. Fifteen minutes later, here we come back to the truck dejected and a little more than red in the face. We had a light failure at the Hill 400 jump, actually never came off the damn stage bottles....a big part of me wanted to go over to the pavilion and explain, but I let them have there fun...(I seen the giggles and finger pointing guys, I can only imagine what you were saying)
The third attempt was marred by an exiting diver in the ear playing with a jammed reel....we pulled inside the Ear and there he was....playing with a jam of apparently astronomical proportions he delayed our progress by about 10 minutes...but the exiting team does have the right a way. On that particular swim, everything else went according to plan with the exception of our destination. FIRST "T" AGAIN !!!!!! DAMN THE LUCK !!!!
After several discussions over the next week, Marc, David and myself decided we needed more gas.....so a phone call was made to Cave Excursions and 3 sets of 108's were ordered. Now even with a small delay or two, we should make it with more than enough gas. Now we had to find the time to get our asses back to FL for attempt #4.
The opportunity presented itself this past weekend, all we had to do was take a trip with the Redneck King himself and help with an OW class during the day and the nights would be all ours !!!! Friday night after driving down Marc and I hit Cow for a nice little stroll up the mainline on the upstream side. The dive went off without a hitch and we even shot some great video. Saturday was spent at Ginnie playing DM for a great group of students from N. GA who we finishing up there open water course. They made our day very easy. With the days work complete, it was now time to "bust hell wide open" and make that swim.
We both had a great prime rib at "The Conestoga" in Alachua, then to Amigo's to top off our 108s. After topping off, we headed back to Ginnie. The crowds had settled slightly from earlier in the day, but the party was still going strong. The good news was, there was only one team in the cave system when we made it back. Before we got our gear setup, that team was on the steps at Little Devil. Now it was all ours !!!!!!!!! Stages and deco bottles went to the steps at the Eye, then the gear went on. We hit the water and got the extra bottles clipped. After a quick discussion about our plan, contingencies, and turn pressures we were on our way. We dropped our deco bottles at the sign, and swam the stages back to the Hill 400 jump, we made the jump and dropped stages about the ~750' mark on a nice little rock ledge on the right wall. Stage bottles clipped to the line we pushed forward. Jump #2 went off without a hitch. The swim up "Lin's Line" was great. The passage was low with two restrictions but we passed through them both cleanly. Before I realized it, Marc had pulled another spool for the jump off of Lin's Line. The 3rd spool in place a quick check of our backgas and we were on our way. The two "T's" came in rapid secession with cookies dropped on the exit side of both. The final leg went off without any problems and before we knew it the ceiling had lifted, angels were singing, HIDs were shining on the walls of the Ice Room !!!!
To my dive buddies, great job!!!! Marc I would follow you to hell!!! David wish you could have been there brother. My only question now is....whats next???
