Jackson Blue Line Conditions versus Peacock/Ginnie/LR

[Red Hat Jef]

I dove JB this past weekend - spent some good quality time just looking at the cave along the main line and a jump or two.

One thing I noticed was that the line conditions were not as "nice" as places like Peacock, Ginnie, or Little River. On the main line, it looked pretty OK and there were markers for things like 100 feet and sometimes a jump. Get off the main line, and it was a little bit worse. I took the king's bypass line and wound up turning the dive because I wasn't comfy with the line arrangement - the first T was OK but the second T was on a rock that looked like cave line macrame and I was not confident I could follow the line around the rock in zero viz.

Most other "tourist caves" I've been in have pretty decent lines, even off the gold line in low silty places. Why the discrepancy in line conditions between Peacock/Ginnie/LR/Cow? Or did I just get unlucky and found the one line that wasn't well taken care of?

[EEL]

Jef,

Don't let the pink line in King's Canyon intimidate you. I would recommend that any time you come across some macrame in the cave, take the time to fix it and carry on. Maintaining the lines is everybody's responsibility.

Hope you enjoyed your dives.

Mark

[Red Hat Jef]

I did see the pink line - although right now it's faded to the point where it's barely recognizable as pink.

I think if it was a place where I'd been before (it was my first time in the bypass) I would have fixed the line and not thought twice about it. It was my first time in that passage - which made me feel a bit like I should see the cave and where the line goes first before I try to fix anything - maybe all the territorial discussions on this forum about line placements make me a bit wary to change anything - don't want to get grief for moving or fixing someone's original exploration line.

Additionally, given the shape of the line and the age I was guessing it to be, I didn't want to risk breaking it, or making it worse, by messing with it.

[EEL]

I understand, I will fix lines that I encounter that are obviously loose or broken, but I will never move any tieoffs. Like you said some folks get all huffy when others mess with their lines. Hope you enjoyed your dives.

Mark

[Red Hat Jef]

I had an absolutely great dive. I actually chose that path because I'd seen a video about a year ago that stuck in my head...the part around 7:30 really looked intriguing to me. It turned out to be far cooler in person, which was an unexpected surprise. It's also nice that you can swim all the way back there with very little issue - the first time I went I turned the dive at 800' crouched behind a rock pillar where the gold line Tees - it just wasn't fun swimming in that flow. (but the ride out was awesome)

[SuPrBuGmAn]

If you think Peacock and Ginnie don't have areas of bad line, you need to spend more time off the main lines in those caves as well?


Turn your dive at your comfort level, there are lots of caves out there with lines that are in a real mess, or in constant need of replacement for various reasons.

[JahJahwarrior]

Little River, nice line? It's ok, but I've got a big gay rights pin I found pinned through the line once, and there are no distance markers in there because people keep stealing them, plus a lot of the arrows are "personal arrows" which are twisted out of shape by the force on the line. Not to mention, the plethora of line traps.

Peacock has good lines, which see wear during flooding. I think it's illegal to tamper with the lines, but is it illegal to replace line when it breaks on you?

Typically, the further off the mainline you go, the worse the lines get. It's one of many reasons to carry knotted line on a jump reel that you are ready and able to use in the cave to replace line. But, even the worst tunnels in well traveled cave are better than the out of the way caves. River caves often have multiple lines run in parallel to replace sections covered during flooding, making navigation in an emergency a mess.

[Jim Wyatt]

Illegal may be a bit strong of a word, but it may be true. There is a line committee charged with the maintenance of the lines at Peacock and divers are not supposed to be in there making line changes. See more discussion at: http://northfloridaspringsalliance.org/lines.htm

On the other hand it is the responsibility of every cave diver to make repairs to any line they see that is a safety issue.

[RN]

Peacock, Ginnie, and Little River have line committees, as Jim has mentioned. There's no such thing for Jackson Blue. Like Mark said, it's pretty much on those of us that dive it to maintain it. There are quite a few areas there that would be difficult to follow out in zero visibility if you don't know the cave that well.

[ffdiver5597]

Could a line committee be formed for Jackson Blue?