May 1, 2007 -- Double Lines, Devil's Cave System, Ginnie Springs

Preface: This was a guided dive with Rich Courtney. The decision to employ a guide is a difficult one: on the one hand, it diminishes the sense of adventure of doing it on your own ability, but on the other hand, it enhances your enjoyment of the dive in that you can concentrate more on the scenery, with less anxiety. Another factor is that I can't afford to spend $4,000 on a scooter--to rent one instead and also be guided by Rich was, in my opinion, a bargain. And, time spent with Rich is an end in itself: he is fun to be with, with a great personality. And he teaches you a lot. I feel that I made the right decision.
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Dive: We scootered up the main line and up the Hill 400 line, and parked the scooters and my stage bottle (which I had breathed down one-third) at the junction of the Syphon Tunnel/Hill 400 Line. We jumped to the Double Lines tunnel, and started swimming. The tunnel is incredibly featured, and beautiful, with little evidence of human passage; i.e., it's largely pristine. Visibility was excellent, with almost no detectable flow. At times, the ceiling is very low, especially through a 100 foot long bedding plane where good technique was in order. Small, narrow swim-throughs and precipitous ups and downs added to the interest. I hit thirds at exactly the double arrows (where the Sherwood Split departs, and at 1600 feet penetration from the Devils' Ear entrance), and we continued to swim the rest of the circuit back to the Hill 400 line, looking into the entrances of various side tunnels such as the Ice Room tunnel. We swam down the Hill 400 line a couple hundred feet, retrieved reels, the stage bottle, and scooters, and scootered out. I almost lost Rich's scooter to the Santa Fe River before I caught it exiting the Ear! It had been a great experience for me, although I need more practice with the scooter (I'm still holding onto it, instead of letting it pull me via the D-ring on my crotch strap).

Fun Facts: Gas used on ingress (to the double arrows on the Double Lines Circuit): 97 cubic feet. Gas used on egress: 77 cubic feet. Mixes for back gas and stage bottle: FO2 32%. Bottom time was 63 minutes and decompression time on 100% oxygen was 5 minutes. Max depth was 99 feet, and average depth was 69 feet. Max PO2 was 1.28, and max PN2 was 2.72 for an END of 83 feet.