Running primary at Little River...or not

[stairman]

Hey Bill how do you fun a line?just kidding/

[WEPIV]

I dive Little River more than any other cave site and, although I did not always run a line, I do now as I heard of a time once where something collapsed back in the system and it caused a major silt out. It just seems to me to be the right thing to do.

[Mike]

23.7%

AW probably said it best, but here is my observation from nearly 40 years of diving Little River.

If it is bright daylight, with no clouds, and normal or higher flow, and the divers are *very* familiar with the cave, the risk *may* be minimal.

Even a partly cloudy day will move the daylight zone closer to the entrance.

With the flow down, you can't follow the current out (or be blown out).

The most dangerous times are just before the river rises, and just after a flood. I have been in there during each, and I am certain I wouldn't have been able to get out without a line to OW. In fact, after a flood, I run the line from the surface.

When the river starts to rise, tannic river water can come up the run, and into the entrance. This could happen during a long dive, changing the vis while you are in the cave.

After a flood, the vis is low in the entire system. Once I was coming up the chimney, and got blown past where the line levels off toward the entrance. It took us about 10 minutes to find the line again. I was sure glad we had put in a primary on that dive!

I've been there when the water was so high we had to tie off to the landing on the stairs.
I always run a primary.
better safe than sorry.

Mike

[RN]

AAHHHHH!!!! I smell a new full-cave skill assessment requirement - The lost exit drill.

You joke, but we did have this drill in full cave. We were exiting Peacock III, came to the end of the main line and no primary!!! Tie off the safety reel and start looking. Thankfully, it was easier finding the exit than it was finding the main line on the way in! BTW, this was our 1st dive in PIII.

[Mike Edmonston]

AAHHHHH!!!! I smell a new full-cave skill assessment requirement - The lost exit drill.

You joke, but we did have this drill in full cave. We were exiting Peacock III, came to the end of the main line and no primary!!! Tie off the safety reel and start looking. Thankfully, it was easier finding the exit than it was finding the main line on the way in! BTW, this was our 1st dive in PIII.

UHH... Where the hell did your primary go? did the instructor remove it for the drill? Did he have his own permanent line to the surface? Unless I'm mistaken that would be a violation of standards right?

[grim reefer]

I was there last saturday and there were already 4 or 5 lines already there and running my line was good practice to keep it out of other lines
but i always run my own line wherever I dive Richard

I thought you usually get Al to run the line

[RN]

AAHHHHH!!!! I smell a new full-cave skill assessment requirement - The lost exit drill.

You joke, but we did have this drill in full cave. We were exiting Peacock III, came to the end of the main line and no primary!!! Tie off the safety reel and start looking. Thankfully, it was easier finding the exit than it was finding the main line on the way in! BTW, this was our 1st dive in PIII.

UHH... Where the hell did your primary go? did the instructor remove it for the drill? Did he have his own permanent line to the surface? Unless I'm mistaken that would be a violation of standards right?

Sorry for the delayed response. Just saw this post.

The primary was moved as part of the drill. It was still in the area, but with the visibility in PIII, it wasn't anywhere we could easily see it. No violation of standards occurred (maybe it's against NAUI Cave standards, but I'm not NAUI cave trained). The goal of the drill was to see if we would handle the situation correctly. And we did. And before you say this would never happen, with some of the training going on these days, I wouldn't be surprised to come out of a cave and find my primary missing. Maybe someone else mistook it for theirs and took the wrong one (I have distinctive markings on my reels that identify them to me). Or maybe someone thought they were the only one in the cave because they didn't see me and decided to be "nice" and pull the reel. I'd rather have the situation occur in training so I'm prepared for when/if it happens for real.

[tflaris]

It is one of the skills sets that separates us from other types of diving and take great joy in runing a line because it is your way out in case of a silt-out. Regardless of the distance. IMHO.

[Mike Edmonston]

Sorry for the delayed response. Just saw this post.

The primary was moved as part of the drill. It was still in the area, but with the visibility in PIII, it wasn't anywhere we could easily see it. No violation of standards occurred (maybe it's against NAUI Cave standards, but I'm not NAUI cave trained). The goal of the drill was to see if we would handle the situation correctly. And we did. And before you say this would never happen, with some of the training going on these days, I wouldn't be surprised to come out of a cave and find my primary missing. Maybe someone else mistook it for theirs and took the wrong one (I have distinctive markings on my reels that identify them to me). Or maybe someone thought they were the only one in the cave because they didn't see me and decided to be "nice" and pull the reel. I'd rather have the situation occur in training so I'm prepared for when/if it happens for real.

Oh yes, I agree. Someone WILL eventually pull your reel out of ignorance, or mistake. The fact that it was just repositioned is NOT a violation of standards as it was part of the drill. Kudos for handling it correctly, and I hope you never have to use that skill for real in a silty cave.