Roubidoux Spring, Mo 8/7/09

[deepdiverbob]

Me and buddy Ken headed down to RBD after wok today. We checked in at the comm center at 5:15, and saw that we had just missed Jason and Jim by about 2 hours.

We geared up, and decided our first dive would be made on a stage bottle, running the jumps in the upper tunnel. I ran the reel, with ken following close behind. We dropped of O2 bottles at 20, right after our secondary tie off. The dive went as planned, with no major glitches. Vis was about 15-20, but seemed a little milky. I never did detect any flow in the cave, or even at the enterence, on any of the dives. There does seem to be a bit more rock in the entry way. I thought maybe it was just my imagination, but Ken mentioned the same thing.

Dive 2, we dropped down into the lower tunnel, just to take a peek in, then slowly made our way back out, checking under rocks, ledges and anything else that might hold a stray crawdad. We bottomed out at 140 foot, and vis seemed to improve maybe a few feet at that depth. Or maybe I was just really narced, who knows.

Dive 3, we decided it would be a short one, since it was already getting late. So we decided to do another bounce dive to the lower tunnel, and gather the jump reels that we ran on the previous dive, and again slowly made our way out.

That habitat is really an eye sore in there. It had all kinds of loose ropes all over the place on it. We secured a few of them, but that thing, in my opinion, needs to get used, and removed, or just flat out removed.

Made it back home just a tad before 1AM. Just got done uploading the gear, and heading to bed shortly. Talk about a great way to start a weekend.

[WJH]

. . . That habitat is really an eye sore in there. It had all kinds of loose ropes all over the place on it. We secured a few of them, but that thing, in my opinion, needs to get used, and removed, or just flat out removed. . .

Yep, on a day with great vis you return to the Reaper sign, look up and see the sun streaming in through the cave opening . . . and that eyesore! Perhaps they could put a "construction zone" sign on it to announce how many days it will continue to wreck the natural beauty until their whatever project will be completed and it is to be removed.

WJH

[SLIM]

Maybe since Swallace reads this board once in a while (just to seel stuff) he might see this report and think about it.

Good to hear you all had fun in there. Saturday was a great day for me as well but my buddy and I did not get what was planed, maybe next time.

SLIM

[scububa]

Went over with Jason to dive. Last weeks reports sounded pretty good. We were on a fairly relaxed schedule. We headed over on our 1.5 hr ride at about 10:00 a.m.

We headed down to Robertsville to turn around and go back for Jason's cave card (left in his vehicle) :-O You need it to sign in at the EMT comm center. We checked in and went down to the spring. We elected to park at the top and boy was there a lot of traffic and a tremendous amount of dust. I am thinking unlocking and driving down is a better idea. Lots of kids in the spring. We recruited two very interested lads to 'guard' our tie off.

We had to run a plan on site. Jason had only air. I had 50% and 100%. We decided Jason would deco out on my 50% bottle. We wound up doing one dive at 60 minute run time. I ran the reel. Did a smooth job going in which surprised me since it has been a bit since running. I was only one minute off of SLIM's time at the mainline tie in. I have to admit that Jason carried my O2 bottle in to drop off behind me. (And, since Jason deco'd on my 50%, he carried that out. I like diving with Jason, he carries my stuff.) We ran back to the gap in the main line in the lower tunnel (around the 650 mark). I ran a spool over to pick up the main line again and we turned at our planned time (around 800'). The mainline does need repair, but where it is intact, it is in good shape.

I was amazed on how much 'damage' was done to the passages with the late spring/early summer rains and HIGH flow. Lots of chips out of the surface up high and overhead. Evidently the flow carried enough debris to scrub the tunnels all over. I would have expected it to be localized to lower surface areas, but not way up high and overhead. Also, in the lower tunnel on the way out, I could really notice the percolation off the ceiling from Jason.

The flow was pretty mild, but I could feel the push coming out. Not so much that it made it hard to pick up the reels, but I could feel it at times. Vis was milky, but still pretty good (25').

At the deco stop I managed to get a loop in the reel and had to wrap the reel from the 20' point. Now that's more familiar! I expected SLIM to pull up as we straightened the mess out at the truck

Over all the weather was pefect. Maybe a bit hot, but we had good shade to gear up. You didn't waste anytime getting in.

[wallace]

For Sale!

Ops, wrong area!

The plan is to have it out of the way and up where most will not even notice it. With conditions finally improving we plan on pushing the system this year and if all goes as planned will have an updated map for divers to use and others in the community.

We will be replacing the line from the entrace out to the big room where most use it this fall also. It has really started to fall apart over the past few years with all the heavy rains.

Shannon

[WJH]

For Sale!

Ops, wrong area!

The plan is to have it out of the way and up where most will not even notice it. With conditions finally improving we plan on pushing the system this year and if all goes as planned will have an updated map for divers to use and others in the community.

We will be replacing the line from the entrace out to the big room where most use it this fall also. It has really started to fall apart over the past few years with all the heavy rains.

Shannon

That would be great, Shannon. The previous habitat, which was floated up into the ceiling, was never a concern and as you say was usually not even noticed. Line repairs would also be much appreciated by us casual divers. Conditions could hardly be any better than they are now, so have at it.

WJH

[SLIM]

Sorry I have been away from a computer for several days, thanks Shannon. If you need line, let me know how much you need and I will pass it along and get it delivered to you if you all have not already gotten any.

Can't wait to see the map grow more then what your group has alredy done. You guys have do so much and had some great inovations.

SLIM