Eagles Nest 4th October 2008

[Dinny]

Peter, Tj and I dived Eagles Nest on Sat 4th October. The thermocline in the basin has broken down and the water temperature is 72 degrees throughout the cave and basin now. The visibility in the basin is still poor (less than 20 feet). On our way in, a medium sized (6 footer) gator was swimming along the surface with us, but was just curious

The visibility in the cave was 40-50 feet. We went up the Upstream Tunnel to Randy's Room, max depth 285 feet. Lots of crayfish in this part of the tunnel. Deco was uneventful until at the last stop (15 feet for 20 odd minutes), I saw the gator swimming behind Tj. Not wanting to alarm the guys I kept it to myself for a while, but finally communicated it to the guys:



However, they weren’t in the least bit bothered…

We finished off our deco, and as we surfaced it was getting dark. I scrambled to get up the steps to get my five bottles off first. I was not going to be gator bait! As we geared down and got ready to leave, we caught a glimpse of the red eyes of the gator at the other side of the pond.

The day was a good day for critter sightings; we saw a pygmy rattlesnake in the parking area, a monster water snail creeping around the steps as we exited, sorry no pictures , oh, and that gator….

Here are a few other pictures: