Rebreather Dives, Rocky Horror and Madison Blue

[saturation]

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?

[Lamar English]

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.)

[tomhauburn]

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.

[Lamar English]

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.)

[tomhauburn]

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.)

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

[Lamar English]

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

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.

[w ripley]

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.)

Just curious, how did you handle your bailouts?

Bill

[Lamar English]

Just curious, how did you handle your bailouts?

Bill

We both left full stages before RH, then carried another the remainder of the dive.

Lamar

[w ripley]

We both left full stages before RH, then carried another the remainder of the dive.

Lamar

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

[saturation]

Thanks everyone for very useful information. On out last dive at Madison on OC, we made it past an area where the clean limestone tube of a cavebecomes dark and clay like, and the cave flattens out more. But there are no distance markers so hard to know distance but still on the mainline; we were at least far past the gauge and past a cookie with a dolphin on it. These were double stage dives and about 3.5 hours of run time. This was our second push with 2 stages and we got farther as we learn to maneuver inside RH better, but I don't think we are getting much farther than that dive and that may be it for distance, unless we bring 2 stages through RH, bring scooters [ wishful thinking that is ] or we move to RB, and the list goes on!