Eagles Nest Flow...

[smaclean]

It used to be experience that you knew which way to go. Downstream hits a duckunder restriction at 200 feet. If you go the other way and hit 270 with no duck under that must be upstream. This was too complicated apparently so a wise diver put little signs at the debris cone pointing divers who didn't know better which way to go.

[Ben M]

OK, I'll bite...how the heck do you know which side of hole in the wall is "downstream" when last time I was there I could have sworn they were both springing?

The downstream line is tied off on the bottom (down) and the upstream line on the top (up) of their respective passages. I have no idea where their original names came from.

[cavediver27]

The downstream line is tied off on the bottom (down) and the upstream line on the top (up) of their respective passages. I have no idea where their original names came from.

Not sure what you described above because it makes no sense. This is the correct way to determine the direction:

When you drop down the line through the chimney you come to the 'T' located slightly to the side of the top of the debris cone. The line that goes DOWN the cone is the UPSTREAM line. The line that goes UP the towards the top of the cone is the DOWNSTREAM line. That is the correct method.

Simply put, you go "up" to go downstream and you go "down" to go upstream.

All I can say is there is a lot of mis-information posted about Eagles Nest from people who probably never actually dived it. As always, my suggestion is that if you never dived it before do the following:

1. Be full cave and at least hold an Abe Davis or Wakulla.

2. Hold advanced trimix certification and be very comfortable diving deep.

3. Find someone who has experience in the Nest and dive with them for your first couple of dives.

4. Plan your gas, overall dive plan and bailout tables with the experienced diver.

5. Turning on thirds is not necessarily the primary (or even the correct) turning factor, turning on time, which is often before thirds, is often the correct plan. At these depths, time is much more critical than at 95' in Ginnie.

6. Your safety reel should be a primary reel, not the typical safety reel. If you loose the line in the Nest you well need lots of line to find it again.

7. A few other thoughts:

a. Carry an extra mask in a pouch
b. Have at least 2 computers / bottom timers
c. Carry an extra primary light.

8. There's lots more but this reply is getting too long.

A final thought I need to say. When diving deep, especially in caves, time is critical. If you have a problem at depth and it takes 5 or 6 minutes to resolve it, your gas and deco obligations change dramatically. Those extra stressful minutes probably burned through a bunch of back gas and you've added about 30 minutes to your run time. When something goes bad deep.....you have very serious issues to deal with and hopefully you have the experience and training to resolve them and survive the dive.

[Ben M]

Not sure what you described above because it makes no sense.

That might be because James asked about a different cave. [/End Hijack]

[Mike Edmonston]

3. Find someone how has experience in the Nest and dive with them for your first couple of dives.

6. Your safety reel should be a primary reel, not the typical safety reel. If you loose the line in the Nest you well need lots of line to find it again.

Well put Dave,

I think divers should REALLY pay attention to #3 above. the Nest is not Peacock or Ginnie.

I also think that most first time nest divers never took #6 above into consideration. Again a very important point.

I still mostly dive the nest with divers that are MUCH MORE experienced in that system than I will ever be. That way they can show me where all the cool stuff and fossils are.

Cheers,

[sdenney]

Also, if you are diving wet it is highly recommended to dive with a dual bladder wing.

[Rikki Battistini]

You are 100% right Dave on everything you say. I wish I could have pointed out the gas issue in the way you did here. My post earlier did not explain it in the way it was intended but thanks for you comments no offense taken, I am always keen on a full "debrief" after a dive with whoever I dive with.

[karst2008]

Wow, it is amazing that very little of the question I asked actually got answered. Thank you for those of you who actually responded to the question. I explicitly put that this question isn't about planning, for the purpose of not filling this post with people on thier soap boxes explaining about deep cave dives. I know how to plan deep dives and long difficult cave dives. I have also never been one to rush a system.

I only had a few questions about the nest that some people with more experiance in there would hopefully be able to answer.

Unfortunatly, in today's cave diving community the divers arnt aware of the individual system and just feel warm and fuzzy because there is a gold line.

So back to the questions... Does anyone have any more input/observations?

[cavediver27]

Wow, it is amazing that very little of the question I asked actually got answered. Thank you for those of you who actually responded to the question. I explicitly put that this question isn't about planning, for the purpose of not filling this post with people on thier soap boxes explaining about deep cave dives. I know how to plan deep dives and long difficult cave dives. I have also never been one to rush a system.

I only had a few questions about the nest that some people with more experiance in there would hopefully be able to answer.

Unfortunatly, in today's cave diving community the divers arnt aware of the individual system and just feel warm and fuzzy because there is a gold line.

So back to the questions... Does anyone have any more input/observations?

Well, I just re-read your original post and it seems that just about all of your questions were basically answered already: flow, upstream, downstream, Lockwood and so on.

I would have thought you might have asked in your post about the first 500' of the system as that would seem reasonable to me. You haven't even been in the cave and yet you want to know about the end of the lines. That makes very little sense to me.

So, as you requested, here is my "input/observations": Find someone with experience in the Nest and get in several upstream and downstream dives to start to learn the system from and with them. Take it incrementally and slowly and the rest of your questions will be self answered.

Too many people who tried the "too far too fast" approach in the Nest have needed to be recovered. Take your time and live to enjoy the next dive.

If that's not what you want to hear then there isn't anything more I can say.

[Rustykfd]

Wow, it is amazing that very little of the question I asked actually got answered. Thank you for those of you who actually responded to the question. I explicitly put that this question isn't about planning, for the purpose of not filling this post with people on thier soap boxes explaining about deep cave dives. I know how to plan deep dives and long difficult cave dives. I have also never been one to rush a system.

I only had a few questions about the nest that some people with more experiance in there would hopefully be able to answer.

Unfortunatly, in today's cave diving community the divers arnt aware of the individual system and just feel warm and fuzzy because there is a gold line.

So back to the questions... Does anyone have any more input/observations?

Maybe you should ask questions that don't sound like another guy that is going to try to kill himself.