Must-do dives & FL accomodation - Jan 2013

[deepairmike]

For housing in the High Springs area you can't beat
http://www.michael-angelo-art.com/chateau_h2o/
Michael Angelo is a cave diver and set his house up to be diver friendly. Also he's a great guy!!!!!

[jj1987]

Thanks for the info. I'll check out the houses.

Really looking forward to having a bit more time (and gas) to take a proper look at the caves, I was probably a bit too distance/beat the flow focused last time. I've grown out of that a little.

Is Manatee comfortable to dive without a scooter or will I just end up with a headache ?

Steve

I swam Manatee....once. It's like touching a hot stove, you'll never do it again.

[Greenwood_60]

If the vis is decent, Telford is an incredible cave. The peanut line at Peacock to Waterhole is a great dive. At Madison, do the Godzilla circuit... 3 incredible rooms and some great passage connecting them. I really enjoy the Harper tunnel at little river, and the Florida room there has some very cool fissure in the ceiling.

[FW]

I swam Manatee....once. It's like touching a hot stove, you'll never do it again.

Wuss!

[Jay]

Another bump for COW. I would say that is a do not miss dive. Find someone who is a CDS member if no one in your group is. Or you could just leave a case of sprite at Kathy's with FoRRest's name on it and they might let you in.

[Sludge]

Find someone who is a CDS member if no one in your group is.

Uhhh, they changed that a number of years ago. EVERY member of the team must be CDS members, or you're trespassing.

[MORGAN]

You can join the NSS-CDS at Dive Outpost at the same time you register to dive Cow.

[mdax]

Diving Cow and Peacock is a great idea right now, the river's a little wild for telford. In my opinion Cow alone is well worth the cost of joining the nss-cds, it's a beautiful system.
I'd definitely check out Madison Blue, it's worth bringing a couple sets of doubles and really getting to know the system.

Staying at Dive Outpost would be great fun while doing the Cow and Peacock dives.

Since you are now cave 2 going to Ginnie and jumping up to Hill 400 and checking out the Double Lines area would be fun.

I know the focus is on caves, however going down to crystal river to check out the manatee's with Birds operation and then doing an afternoon dive at Manatee is a great way to spend a day.

[MichaelAngelo]

For housing in the High Springs area you can't beat
http://www.michael-angelo-art.com/chateau_h2o/
Michael Angelo is a cave diver and set his house up to be diver friendly. Also he's a great guy!!!!!

thanks Mike
We are close to all the High Springs Caves, 4.5 miles to Ginnie Springs and under 50 mins to Peacock and Maidson, Under 30 mins to Manatee, Little River. Under 30 for great restraunts in high Springs, Gainesville or Lake City. We have Dish TV ,wireless internet, 3 bed two bath, full kitchen, laundry room. We have both a bar-b-que pit and campfire pit, covered patio with gear benches, hanging rackes and gear lockers all on a 10 acre secluded wooded lot. 15 mn to Cave Country Shop, Amigos or Extreme Exposure shops as will as WinDixies. rates are $75 for first 3 divers, + $35 for a 4 th, $125 for up to 6 divers + 9% tax per night. We have two Kayaks for diving the river caves for rent @ $15 a day per kayak
PM me or write me at MA9001@aol.com.

[DA Aquamaster]

Peacock:

- The Spring Tunnel in P3 is very nice - one of my favorites and with a stage you can drop it at about P.800 where you make the jump and then you should be able to go end of line or close to it with cave filled 95s/130.

- As others have mentioned, the P1 to Water Hole dive is nice and easily done on a bit less than thirds on 95s/130s.

- If you are staging the dive, you can go from P1 to Olson to the Nicholson tunnel, then intersect the Cisteen line, go through the Wishbone tunnel back onto the Cisteen line, and then go to the Crypt. It's 5 or 6 jumps depending on what line you take to the Crypt, but it catches some of the most interesting tunnels in Peacock, and it's easier to navigate than it sounds as it's all well marked and pretty obvious.

Lafayette Blue:

If it has not rained recently and the viz is good both upstream and downstream of Kitty are great dives. It's still touristy and close to the beaten path but not overrun with divers. If it's only 20 ft or so, the dives are a little more on the "meh" side, but there are still some great old lines and markers in there that give it some historical significance.

Cow Springs:

My understanding is that it's now Full Cave and Abe Davis plus NSS-CDS membership to dive there, but it's a different cave upstream with dark walls, some interesting restrictions and one of the prettiest caverns around.

Millpond is a few hours away, but it's a great place to dive:

- "Upstream" Hole in the Wall is another favorite. If the viz is good, it's a must do dive.

- "Downstream" Hole in the Wall is also good and has some great formations on the ceiling in the first portion of the dive.

- Mainline JB is great, even on the mainline, and if you do two days at Millpond, it's worth an extra day for a couple dives there.