Recent Manatee Conditions?

[giles45shop]

Anybody been to Catfish recently? Latest update on Tampa diving was 6/19.

Thanks,

John

[jj1987]

I went 7/10 and we went 3k past Friedmans and never hit viz >20ft. Not sure if it's better now.

[giles45shop]

Thanks, hopefully the vis is a little better now? We are swimming, so won"t be going 3k past anything

[jj1987]

Thanks, hopefully the vis is a little better now?

I wish I understood that cave well enough to give you an accurate response. From what I've gathered, the milk/sewer tunnels produce a large portion of the bad viz at Manatee, typically you can see a decent improvement once you get beyond them. I was told that when the river is up, the hydrostatic pressure increases, causing the outbound flow from those tunnels to be reduced, and not impact viz as much. I hope to hit up Manatee quite a bit during the next flood stage, if you look on tampadiving, the "good" reports are all surrounding a flood. Hopefully I'll learn more about it as time goes on.

Visually I don't find Manatee very appealing, but each dive there is a challenge, and as skills improve you're rewarded with lots more cave...I think that's what keeps a lot of us going back.

[scottj]

We dove Manatee this weekend and the flow was way up and the vis way down. Swimming upstream from Catfish we couldn't even make it to Sue. The exit out the headspring was like being shot out of a cannon. I would suggest anyone exiting there might want to wear a helmet! Friedman to Catfish is making for a fun trip although once past the sewer tunnel the vis drops to 10 feet. In Freidman the vis is probably 30 feet. For anyone experienced in the system the conditions actually make for a weirdly fun dive as you fly though the tunnels hardly able to see the walls until they seem to jump out.
--Scott

[Xenia]

I wish I understood that cave well enough to give you an accurate response. From what I've gathered, the milk/sewer tunnels produce a large portion of the bad viz at Manatee, typically you can see a decent improvement once you get beyond them. I was told that when the river is up, the hydrostatic pressure increases, causing the outbound flow from those tunnels to be reduced, and not impact viz as much. I hope to hit up Manatee quite a bit during the next flood stage, if you look on tampadiving, the "good" reports are all surrounding a flood. Hopefully I'll learn more about it as time goes on.

Visually I don't find Manatee very appealing, but each dive there is a challenge, and as skills improve you're rewarded with lots more cave...I think that's what keeps a lot of us going back.

Oh man, Manatee is one of my favorites. The dark rock is just amazing.

I don't have any recent info, unfortunately I was there last time 10 months ago, Christmas holiday 09... Little River was flooded and Manatee was clear as a bell, I was able to see Sue's sink for the first time so clear, stayed on my back there for a *while*! The flow was low!!!

I guess the main observation is: when other caves are flooded, Manatee is clear.. and vice versa, that's what I have seen so far.

[Bob Cree]

Did a September scooter dive in from Freidman. Seems this high flow and low vis is long term - we hit it hard for 30 minutes and made it back maybe 4000' in, WAY short of where we normally would get to, unbelievable flow! Vis was 20' the whole way and it never cleared up like it usually does. We had staged, so dropped our scooters and swam maybe another 500' before we said enough of this. The ride out was just that - what a ride - low vis and on the fast track!

It was interesting though, the water appeared not only milky, but heavy in particulate, and not at all like river intrusion blowing out. Since it never changed, this seemed to be aquifer water with flow so heavy, it was scouring all kinds of stuff out of the cave - should make the vis really nice when things slow down a bit...came out at Catfish to a basin FULL of divers - wow - ever see green duckweed go beyond the cavern zone in Catfish?

[giles45shop]

Anyone been to Manatee recently? Planning on heading there after the NACD meeting and doing a couple dives in conjunction w/ DUI Dog Days.

Thanks,

John

[Ben M]

I was there last Tuesday (10/26). Put in at Catfish and motored upstream. Vis in the first ~2000' of cave was not so good. Lots of particulate in the water and you could not make out all the walls (maybe 10-15ft vis). You can see the line and whatever feature was near it, but not the opposite wall. Where possible I was on one side of the line and my buddy on the other so our lights would penetrate a little bit further.

As has been said above, vis improved dramatically (to 50-60 ft maybe) once past a few crap water side tunnels and the sinks. Went 2000' past Friedmans and I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the cave. Went slowly on the way out checking out side passages and all the nooks and crannies. Once in the lower vis section I was back on the trigger and hauling butt since there wasn't much point. Swimming might be a little bit different though, except for the flow.

[giles45shop]

Thanks! We are swimming, so it sounds like we wouldn't make it to the improved vis areas. I assume the Catfish to Headspring vis was just as bad?, or was the magic filtering system in operation at Catfish to filter out all the bad visibility and just allow crystal clear water to pass there and flow out of the headspring