Rebreather Dives, Rocky Horror and Madison Blue
I'm looking for a report by any cave diver using a rebreather who has gone past Rocky Horror and up the line, in either direction, in Madison Blue.
My question is how far were you able to reach before turning?
A couple of years ago, Mark and I swam about a mile upstream in the Courtyard.
We turned at 2 hours and had a 3 hour bottom time. The current was fairly stout - coming out was a blast!
Total dive time was just over 5 hours. (That was with 13 cubic ft. tanks, FWIW.)
upstream
Lamar ,
Do you know who holds the end of the line upstream and also downstream now?
Tom
I know Bill. Wayne and some others had been putting some line in but I am not sure if it was on the end or just in side passageways.
Upstream, around 5500', the going borehole diminishes to a 3 way split. Bill M. put a bit of line in one tunnel, I added some in another. I believe Wayne and some buddies have pushed one of the tunnels out to the 7000' range.
Downstream, as far as I know, Bob McGuire still has the end somewhere past 8000', via the Crossunder tunnel. (It looks totally different from the Courtyard.)
Just curious, how did you handle your bailouts?Originally Posted by Lamar English
Bill
Courtyard and Crosunder
Downstream he had to fight that current all the way back.... I hope it looked better after going in some ways than it looks right after dropping down into the Crossunder. Not really very interesting compared to the courtyard area. That's a long way in a siphon even with scooters. Upstream at 7K is still impressive especially considering setting it up getting everything though RH, Guy told me about carrying his setup bottles through there right after I did the RH the first time. Gave me a whole different perspective on what I thought was a tight tunnel.
I swam upstream from the Crossover towards the Court Yard area and it seemed to be getting nicer the closer you get. I was considering doing that circuit but at the time was diving a wetsuit and figured it would be more deco than I would care to wait out while freezing.
Since I probably will never get anywhere near that far back into the Court Yard does the tunnel narrow down and become less interesting than the first thousand feet? That first part to me is one the nicest areas I have seen in a cave. But I'm pretty sure even it it get smaller it is nice because not many people have been back there and if you put line in its always nice!
On a different note has there been any real good video done in the Courtyard area and back? Or photography for that matter? I had considered getting some nice WA shoots back there but it would involve having some divers set up strobes in different places and someone with a nice Low light DSLR. Rebreather divers really would have a lot of advantages setting up and performing this sort of work.
Sorry if I am a bit long winded on this but I really love that area.
Tom
We both left full stages before RH, then carried another the remainder of the dive.
Lamar
The large breakdown areas with the ups and downs common in the first 1000' of the upstream changes about 3000' back. The cave then levels out and is actually bigger and prettier (if that is possible) than the first 1000'.
I wish I had a camera on that dive with Mark; it would have been great to video that trip out with 2 50w HID's lighting the way.
The Courtyard
Man I wish you had not told me it was nicer. Now I'll have to try to get further in to see some of it. Now I need more stages, better drysuit underwear ( I am not fond of Deco ) and a way to keep the bottles from becoming damaged. Wayne showed me some left in there just for a short while. It pitted them pretty bad. My first time in the Court Yard made me tell my buddy that I understood why people dive rebreathers. On OC your time in there is just too short.
I wish you had had two 50 watt HID back there with a video camera also. I saw the light Mark had and it was really nice. One of my buddies has been working on building a couple of 50's but its taking some time to get things right and he does not have all the tools he needs or the budget. I think even more light would do it justice if it gets that big and a nice 3ccd HD camera. Any takers out there? Becky and Dave are you reading this thread? Or perhaps Paco as he does nice work. I think he is using two or three 50 Watt in his movies.
Lamar:
Thanks:
We did a similar drill when on doubles. Now that we're on RBs we've been scratching our heads.
Seems like best bet is to drop al 80s at the entrance to RH like you said (there's now a sign-in slate with "in" and "out" to help with mid-tunnel confusion, even though Wayne has put in "turn-around markers" in the tunnel), push scooters and additional al 80s or maybe one larger steel thru to the Well, and start with fresh scooters and BO bottle(s) up stream on the main push. We're running 7 lt bottles (OMS steel 45s) as 2 diluent bottles mounted on our canisters - a little harder getting thru RH as we found out on our last trip but lots of backup gas (+ bailout bottles, of course).
BTW, last time we (Jeff Hewlett and me) were in, the Crossunder was completely silted in at the basin/Rabbit Hole side. Suggest that anyone trying to do the circuit proof the Crossunder before starting downstream from the Well so as not to find any surprises. We put in 5 "T" slates from the Well to the Crossunder and a new line from the Aqueduct to the Crossunder about 1 year ago, so that should help with the navigation.
Can't imagine 8,000 feet downstream from the Crossunder. Man!
Regards,
Bill
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