Woody's room

[the dude]

3-29-11 orange grove to woody's room.

we arrived early to find the orange grove lot completely empty. after unloading and setting up on one of the doubles stands, my buddy and i carried our stages down to the water and found it to be crystal clear. the duck weed was thick as usual. it also looks like the carpeting on the stairs was redone since the last time we dove og. after reconfirming the dive plan and checking gear we entered the water and retrieved our 80's. bubble check, s-drill and we were off to the races.

the main tunnel of orange grove looks the same as always. no problems or note worthy events moving through this section of the cave. i always enjoy the brief section of cave where the line zig-zags through the slot formation so i followed the gold line. my buddy went around it and we met up on the other side. we found a great area to leave the stages just before the 900 split and continued.

shortly we dropped through a feature that my buddy has named "the hatch." divers basically descend through an opening in the floor following the gold line. the clay is scarred up in this area from people who didn't anticipate the buoyancy change properly. there is a clay bank off to the side that shows nice layering and i always pause to check it out.

moving forward we found the jump easily and tied in. the line for this tunnel is high and to the right of a diver facing challenge on the gold line. it's not marked, exactly, but if your observant it's easily located. care should be taken when running the jump line as you have to ascend about 10 feet and your line will cut across the tunnel. there are some small rocks along the bottom that can be used to run a reel if your so inclined. there is a water quality/flow monitoring gadget tied to the line here and we were careful not to disturb it.

the rest of this dive was all new cave for us. we could tell right away that this tunnel is not well traveled. the floor is clay covered in silt, mostly smooth but showing the normal markings near the restrictions. the walls are a bright white limestone that makes a primary light look ultra bright compared to the orange grove section. the line looks like it's been there a while but seems to be in ok condition. we encountered some sections of slack and popped tie offs that i gently replaced in what i thought were the most appropriate places.

the first section of this tunnel is of average size for the peacock system. we quickly encountered a T in the line that jumps off to the right. that line was laying slack on top of the silt and we did not make any effort to fix it. i dropped a cookie and moved on. the tunnel starts to narrow and lower down very quickly after this. we passed a survey marker which i believe said something like 595, and came up to what i thought was another T this time to the left. this turned out to be a number of lines wrapped around large rocks holding the main line in place.

passing through a restriction we found ourselves in tunnel did not allow one to bend their legs up in order to kick. we spent the rest of the dive moving at a snails pace, gently rolling an ankle or finger walking on the wall/loose rocks. side by side travel is impossible and the cave ceiling is only 3-4 feet above the floor at it's highest. silt moves ahead of you just from extending your hand, and my buddy reported the normal silt that you would expect from following someone in such tight corners. the cave widens to the right and there are a number of large rocks that are visible from the left wall where the line runs. one can also bend his legs at this point. i assumed this is what is called woody's room, but that is up for debate.

the next section of cave is some of the tightest and most narrow that i have been in. similar height and width as above with the same silting. we turned the dive at this point not because of gas but because the line vanishes into a silt bank that totally blocks the passage. this is single file cave and turning around proved to be exciting. i am 6 feet tall. in order to turn i had to rise slightly to the ceiling, pull my legs in towards my chest, and use my fingers to turn. i turned to find that i was now in a complete silt out from my buddy pulling off a similar move. i found the line and gingerly kept a finger on it while moving forward. after about 30 seconds of listening to my buddy breath but not being able to see him, we popped back into better vis.

the return trip was uneventful. we pulled our cookies and jump reel and moved back out towards orange grove. the orange grove tunnel felt massive after being in such a small area. the park was still empty when we got out. we dropped in to say hi to ron and cathy and then headed home.

112 minutes, no deco
bm 108's; 33% 3300psi
al 80; 33% 3000psi
average depth around 30-40 feet from what i can remember

[JCDdiver]

Thanks for the report.

[sskasser]

Nice report, I look forward to checking that area out soon.