Meeting House...Amazing Cave

[Jont]

Great dive at Meeting House today, no flow, 20 - 50 foot plus, huge rooms to tiny restrictions.

Just great.

[diverdarren]

What kind of depths. Jon, and where is Meeting House, approximately? Never heard of this one.

[TracyN]

Where is meeting house??

[Jont]

Hey guys,

Its in Wakula, quite simply I was blow away, the depths are fascinating and give you an idea of just how big this damn cave really is, from the pit its a straight drop to about 20 feet, from their the mound goes down quickly to about 170, once in the 2.5 foot crack the cave explodes into this massive room thats from 110 maybe a little deeper to about 170, huge relief, the width is bigger then Manatee by far (but I've only been about 5000 feet up Manatee). Max depth is unknown but over 250 but safe swimming dives are within the normoxic trimix zone, if your on a scooter and are comfortable getting a few thousand feet back this can become a very big staged dive as to how big is anyones guess.

I learned a few thing immediately though:

1) I'm an FNG when it comes to caves this big.
2) Those 2 sporty little "safety" reels are useless
3) The floor is not your friend.....god knows how many feet of incredibly fine silt cover the floor
4) The gold line is more like gold string

This is certainly one of my most memorable dives to date, the walls are white and bright, just amazing, there's not doubt virgin cave here and the need for further exploration, mapping, video and water sampling clearly exist.

Of course the kicker was at the end of the dive when I was told that this was just the Junior varsity cave...........

Nonetheless a great day.

Jon

[Kelly Jessop]

2) Those 2 sporty little "safety" reels are useless

That is why I carry a Jasper reel as my safety when doing power cave

[Jont]

That is why I carry a Jasper reel as my safety when doing power cave

And that is why you are still with us.

[Cavemn]

Hey guys,

Its in Wakula, quite simply I was blow away, the depths are fascinating and give you an idea of just how big this damn cave really is, from the pit its a straight drop to about 20 feet, from their the mound goes down quickly to about 170, once in the 2.5 foot crack the cave explodes into this massive room thats from 110 maybe a little deeper to about 170, huge relief, the width is bigger then Manatee by far (but I've only been about 5000 feet up Manatee). Max depth is unknown but over 250 but safe swimming dives are within the normoxic trimix zone, if your on a scooter and are comfortable getting a few thousand feet back this can become a very big staged dive as to how big is anyones guess.

I learned a few thing immediately though:

1) I'm an FNG when it comes to caves this big.
2) Those 2 sporty little "safety" reels are useless
3) The floor is not your friend.....god knows how many feet of incredibly fine silt cover the floor
4) The gold line is more like gold string

This is certainly one of my most memorable dives to date, the walls are white and bright, just amazing, there's not doubt virgin cave here and the need for further exploration, mapping, video and water sampling clearly exist.

Of course the kicker was at the end of the dive when I was told that this was just the Junior varsity cave...........

Nonetheless a great day.

Jon

If you like big cave try Indian Springs. All white and pretty. The 747 is named quite appropriately

[Jont]

If you like big cave try Indian Springs. All white and pretty. The 747 is named quite appropriately

Dude,

I'm drooling......every time I show up its blown my friend Jerry (a guide) and I are waiting, at this point its the principal of it Jerry and I must dive this cave together.

I did a second dive at meeting house with my friend James, he's a fantastic guy and an amazing diver and for those of you who know him please don't hold his association with me against him, in his defense he called me a stroke the entire day.

We had great chemistry in the water and wow what a great cave, its amazing, I have some video but because of the size of the cave (and my poor skill with a camera) its not great I'll try to edit it and post something "tolerable" but be warned it wont be pretty.

I'll post some vid in a few days.

Cheers,

JonT

Oh if anyones interested I'm thinking of starting a new "diving " clothing line........STROKE by JonT.............."when you know you're a stroke and damn proud of it"

[Sludge]

he called me a stroke the entire day.

He sounds like a real winner.

[amphipod06]

He sounds like a real winner.

consider that a joke, if they dove together anyway he is obviously not what he was called...

Dive safe,

Celia

PS BTW, I do have a real stroke card (says stroke on it and everything!!) I should know!
LOL