film project

[deepairmike]

Seven Days In The Dark
By Tim L. Bass


It takes more than seven days to make a high definition documentary about a very challenging cave system in Mexico. I knew this intuitively and now by experience. But seven jam packed, equipment moving, traveling, TSA questioning, familiarization diving, infection fighting, interviewing, exploring, language deciphering and shooting days were all we had set aside.

Mike Young, cave diver extraordinaire, expedition leader, innovative designer and builder of the GEM gas extender and many other cave diving items approached me to make a film about the project in mid 2008. We would need a smaller HD camera and housing than the 40 pound system I had used on the Blue Spring film and also a very powerful underwater film light. We set to work acquiring these items (read: making most) and in mid-December 2008 we were ready. However, as the jet lifted off for Mexico I had not ONE single hour of experience with the new camera housing, light arm and LED lighting system! Seven days…we’ll see.

The trip did not start well for me. My regular work required a load of federal quarterly reports the last of which I completed at 8pm the night before the flight. On top of that I was feeling a little pasty, a sure sign that an infection was sneaking up on me. It is a wonderful thing in such circumstances that you can buy Amoxicilin over the counter in Mexico, after 12 doses all was right.

The Hotel Association put us up in the very luxurious El Cid but on the 10th floor! The elevators had a placard that warned: “THREE PEOPLE ONLY”. We thought we could hear the bungee cords (apparently common elevator rigging in Mexico) snapping each morning and afternoon when we would load the lifts up to the ceiling with gear and a few divers. Just to get our gear to the parking lot required four nail biting trips on these rather dubious machines. The five mile trip to or from the dive site required at least two trips and each time the rental van would be loaded beyond maximum. Each day we would get a minimum of twenty tanks and stuff them in the back of the van along with all the other gear and a few divers. Due to the load, there was no effective shock absorber control, brakes or acceleration. It was a good thing Adam was driving most shuttle trips – he deserves a Mexican taxi license!

The first day of diving for me was problematical as I realized we had already burned a half day of our allotted seven and everyone but Mike and Slim had yet to dive the system. The mission was to shoot film of artifacts in the artifact room near the entrance cenote. German had given Mike a very brief description of the route: enter, attach a jump spool to the main line turn right and in a few feet we would be inside the room. This room is very important to the story as it is the only cave system in Mexico to contain both pre and post Spanish Mayan artifacts (many of which are holy) as well as Spanish items. We dressed out carefully and Mike and I entered the cenote.

As planned, Mike attached a jump spool to the line and took off to the right. I followed with the camera, arm and film light. And then…I got stuck in a hole. Friends, it was so silted out I could hardly see the very bright film light just inches from my face. It was so tight I had difficulty moving my head. I was getting pretty “personal” with the cave. Call it a little off route, my inattention or whatever - I gently backed out of that hole as best I could, side mount tanks grabbing every rock, jump line getting tangled in my gear. I was the happiest man on Earth when I noticed the cold expanse of the main tunnel around me. I was not freaked but I was through for the day – better at this juncture to noodle things out in the sunshine. I humbly admit that I’m a filmmaker, not an explorer like all the other members of the team. Mike later entered the room and shot some great footage of some of the artifacts.

The next day (one and a half down, five to go) everyone got into the cave with side mount to learn the personality of the cave. I entered with the camera and Slim as my safety diver. I’m a PADI-MSDT, IANTD Technical Cave Diver and am also certified in normoix tri-mix but a camera in the hand can trump all that training and experience in the blink of an eye. I was grateful to have the experienced skills of Slim there to help me stay on line, point out dangers and hopefully keep my attention on the most important thing – the dive.

We swam the line and made a pretty good penetration into the system shooting formations and other members of the team both going in and coming out. It is a strange system. To my knowledge, every cenote in the known universe connects with the ocean, however this one doesn’t. Any halocline we encountered was apparently due to salt water seepage over time through the limestone. The cave completely changes character every 100 feet or so. At one moment it was like a Missouri cave, at others a sump – in other places huge, like the caves of Florida. There were absolute virgin leads everywhere you looked. Cave divers toss around the “Swiss cheese” metaphor a lot but let me tell you, this place was the definition of a Swiss cheese system! There was no life to speak of – only sulfur bacteria and a few microscopic crustaceans that must have dug out a meager existence from some sort of sulfur based ecosystem. Conditions were not great. There have not been very many divers in the system, therefore constant percolation was a problem if we lingered in any section. There was a slight halocline and milky white H2SO4 layers at certain levels that not only messed with our visibility but also with filming. Backscatter from the film light was so bad at times I might just as well been shooting a neutral gray card. After about an hour swimming the system I had about 20 minutes of bad footage. Beginnings are always hard but I usually do better. Tomorrow is another day…number three as a matter of fact.

Four days to go and Mike and I enter another cenote near the main entrance and find a more direct route to the artifact room. What an amazing thing to be in this room. Mayan pots that may have seen the sun for the last time 2000 years ago, a bulls skull, crocodile skulls, piles of bones and Spanish artifacts from the 16th and 17th century. In those centuries there were droughts in the area that lowered the water level in the cenotes. The Spanish took this opportunity to butcher animals in the cave because of access to cleansing water. As I shot footage I could imagine Conquistadors cleaning the carcasses of bulls, crocodiles and other animals in the dark recesses of the cenote. I could also picture Mayan priests hundreds of years before placing sacred pots and other objects in the belly of the cave for safe keeping and as an offering to the gods of the underworld. For both it was an essential place, a special place. I felt honored being there recording their leavings for a modern world that has mostly gone beyond fighting for subsistence or worshiping ancient gods. I finally get it, this is not just any cave and we are not just here to push the line. It is a bridge between many different cultures and people. We are here to film, explore and show the world this magical cave so all of us will know what came before and what is now. We are part of the bridge that continues into today and tomorrow.

As we dove in one section of the system I could hear the rumbling of street traffic above on the highway. When we came out of the cave the bubbling of the water was mixed with the electronically amplified reggae beats of the beach club just 100 yards away - all this and ancient artifacts just a few feet underground. What a world…what a project.

Only three more days but it’s push day! The other supporting divers in the team (Adam, Robert and Slim and at times Mike Young, Brenden, and Mike Wright) had placed safety bottles at critical points in the cave. The push team consisted of Mike Young, Brenden and Mike Wright all fitted with GEM air extenders and scooters - probably the best of us all. My self imposed assignment was to enter the cave with Slim, swim to the more photogenic parts of the system and wait for the push team to get footage of the actual attempt. We swam in and waited at the “short-cut dome” which quickly silted out due to percolation. We moved deeper in the cave and waited some more…same problem. In fact, for the hour or more we spent in the cave that dive we stopped and waited at five photo stations and experienced the same problem. Our exhalations were driving silt and gunk off the ceiling of the cave, right in the path of my dome port. We finally started out in hope that we would meet up with the push team but never saw them.

As I surfaced, Mike Young (still on the surface) looked at me and said: “We’ve had a few delays…”, my response was, “No S- - t?”. Mike Wright had a few problems with his re-breather unit and had lost an exhaust diaphragm so decided to abort his dive while Mike Young and Brenden as a two man push team decided to go for it. Two and a half hours later they returned with stories of what they had found.

We thought that we needed off shore underwater shots of the famous Cozumel reefs to contrast (in the film) with the very different conditions in the cave. So, the next day we scheduled an open water trip with the dive shop at El Cid. We wanted to dive The Devil’s Throat but their young and apparently inexperienced divemaster missed it! I’ve dove the throat before and when he looked confused I just pointed where I had seen the entrance just 50 yards back. This may have been a day to relax for the others but I was working my tail off. There were excellent shots of corals, reef fish, morays, and giant turtles. The film effort was aided by Mike Young’s kick butt LED film light which restored color at over 100’ in ambient daylight! I’ve worked with surface supplied 1K, A/C film lights and they were not even close to Mike’s light. Imagine, if you will, the sun bottled in a very small container all directed at the subject. God himself does not have that kind of light!

That afternoon Brenden and Robert served as my film crew while Adam did a pretty damn good job collecting sound as we drove around the island getting local shots. The other guys dove the system to place more safety bottles and check others for the push the next day.

Two more days left and another push day - it was the same plan as before: the film team in before the push team except this time everything worked like a charm. We got several great shots of the push team on their scooters, guys exploring the cave, divers swimming with, dropping, and retrieving safety bottles. All the other days should have gone like this. When I reached thirds I handed the camera system off to Adam and Robert to shoot footage further back in the cave. A housing breach was NOT what we needed at this point but that’s what they got. It was not a catastrophic leak, just enough to fog the dome port internally and render some of their great footage useless. This fault was probably due to a microscopic sand grain working it’s way around an “O” ring either on the front plate or around one of the control glands. It was a damn shame too - Adam and Robert did a superlative job shooting footage. Slim and I spent and hour and fifteen minutes on this dive – the push team was in the cave four hours and twelve minutes. Mike Young (with his more aggressive mouthpiece) used only 1000 psi from his back mounted tank, Brenden used 2100psi.and Mike Wright used about the same. They didn’t need any of the safety bottles. Yep, I think that GEM air extender of Mike’s works like it should! I will let the push team tell the tail of the push – things are always better when told 1st hand.

The last day before flying home - Mike Young as interviewer, Adam as sound guy and me on camera and directing as we had plans to interview the Mayor, a biologist from the State University of Q. Roo and the chief underwater archeologist for the University. At the edge of the jungle, on the manicured lawns of the Beach Club we waited on the mayor. Finally he arrived in two or three large SUVs with his rather large entourage. It is very apparent that this new Mayor is really trying to do good things for his people. He is a very busy guy but we sat him down as it sprinkled rain and he was kind enough to answer all our questions in Spanish. Later we had good interviews in different locations with the biologist and German the chief archeologist, original discoverer and explorer of the system. They are all an important part of the story and were all gracious in their interviews.

It wasn’t really seven days in the dark but it seems so in my dreams. There were cocktails with Slim on the balcony of our room, chatting up waitresses with Adam and talking with old friends at the Barracuda, the fiesta at the town square, the great local Mexican/Mayan food, talking diving and life with Brenden, trading jokes with Robert, trying to figure out Spanish (while watching a Mexican movie) with Mike Wright, Mike Young riding the shopping cart “Cowboy Style” at the mega market. The tall stories we told and heard around the ice cream stand! The old friends we met and the new ones we made. Seven days is too short a time to produce a great documentary in another country. We’ll go back and finish what we started…another seven days just might do it.

[deepairmike]

Intro by “Slim” Leonard
It all started a long, long time ago back when I was just a young kid. Ops, maybe that is to far back. Ok it was like back in 2004 Deigo had written a story for the UWS about a cave system that was just found in the Yucatan area and I emailed him to try to dive that cave when I was in the area a few months later. Well, we were able to make plans that he would pick me up after I got back from a boat dive on the reef. The first day he took me to Arleeto and we did a dive to let him see my skills and then after that he said we would go and dive the new system the next after noon. That next day he picked me up and showed me a map that is in progress and had not been finished. I got to literally go to the end of the line all over the place since they were still exploring it. Then in 2005 after hurricane Wilma I was able to meet with him again and dive it one more time and it was amazing to see the changes to it.

Now let’s jump forward to today’s time. Mike Young, a cave buddy of mine and the inventor and manufacture of my rebreather the GEM asked if I would like to go on an exploration trip with him and a few others. When he told me where and what system we would be working on I just had to say yes to it.

Many months if not a year before Mike Young had been working on some new designs for scooters that would work in the cave and lights that would give us not only the burn time but the output we needed.

I think that Mike Young had talked to a cave buddy of his from the Yucatan area at last years cave conference. He approached Mike about pushing a cave by the right people who are used to Side Mount diving in extreme conditions. With all this Mike had started to get things going for the logistics and gear. He had even approached a few manufactures during DEMA and worked out a deal with Hollis to make some pockets to carry the batteries used for the scooters and they even shipped him a custom Dry Suit that is going to be out on the market soon so that it could get tested along with some harnesses for a few to use.. C & J Sports in Eureka AR had donated some regs to use for safeties in the cave system. We also got help with weight and O rings from apple at Dive Paradise.

After many different times all of us try to get together to do some more dives with each other and get back in our grove both in Roubidoux and at Blue Springs to test and re test the scooters and with all the dives in Beaver Lake it was all starting to come together. As time got closer and closer we were all getting pumped for the trip.

I get on the ground and take a shuttle to where we stayed and was the last one to arrive since my flight was different from theirs. We met at the El Cid. Now that is another story but to be short about it. Can you imagine all of us with the gear every morning and afternoon that we had to take up to the 10th floor? We would send the elevator full of gear down with people on the bottom to unload it. Imagine funny looking stuff in the elevators stopping on other floors as they down trip after trip. The elevators had a max of 3 people. Um I think we would have 1 or 2 and many sets of gear so I know that we over did it a few times. Going up is not bad, it was coming down on one of them that the elevator would be about 3-4 inches below the floor and we would have to pry open the doors.
First day of diving we just relax and get an idea of what the system is and get First day of diving we just relax and get an idea of what the system is and get some swim times for us to use for when we do the big push. We had rented a mini van and it would take 2 trips a day. Getting all the gear and divers to the site in a mini van and Mexican traffic was an adventure in itself. It took two trips each way. We would go get our fresh tanks every morning then load all the gear we could and a couple of divers then off to the cenote, come back and load the rest of the team and more gear. Adam and Mike Y. got a lot of experience learning the ins and outs of driving on the island. Everyone got to see the fill station on the island (wow what a setup).

Since we would leave many tanks in over night for about a week we made sure that all O-Rings were in top shape. Well it got to the point that each morning we would open an O-Ring shop, funny how I got to do so many. I almost became O-Ring Boy. We would end op replacing O-Rings every morning on almost all the tanks. Oh they would work for OW diving but not what we were after. This became a norm and no big deal. We can get them out and replaced in almost no time now.

After the first day and everyone has had a chance to get back in the swing and get all adjusted to the system and Mike Young had placed crocs (our markers) at intersections that we deemed to be the shortest routs to get back to the further sections of the system we all got our stuff, and I do mean our stuff packed up and returned to the Hotel with many trips. We sat down and decided our dive teams. Mine was as safety diver and I would be with Tim Bass the Camera Man and that way I can keep an eye on him and his gauges so that he can keep his cinematography mind going. Mike Young, Mike Write, and Brennan were considered team 1 and the main push team, then Adam and Robert were team 2 and then that leaves Tim and I as camera team, sounds better then team 3.

The natives that saw us gearing up and going into the cenote were very interested in what we were doing. With perfect broken spanglish we tried to explain, but they seemed to be more interested in learning new words than what we were doing in the cave. After the first day one of the natives (Martin) made several trips to check on us and to learn our names Mike, Slim and Tim seemed to be easy but Adam wound up being called El Diablo (the Devil) because of the art work on his arm.

The following is the short group dive report by Mike Young the group leader:

Jan 8th 2009
A Mike Y and Tim run a reel to the artifact room to get video, Tim has some problems and Mike Y. takes camera and gets some film work done. Mike Y leaves camera and starts placing Croc shaped cookies at the intersections pointing the way in.
Brennan and Robert go to the Left at C3 to look for a path then comes back to C3 and goes left and place C4 and exit.
SLIM, Adam, Mike W. verify that C3 and C4 are correct and located and placed C5

Jan 9th 2009Mike Y. and Tim film artifact room again (can never get to much footage)
Robert and Adam drop 3 safeties at C5
Mike Y., Brennan, Mike W. breaths stages to C5 and drop them and move safeties to 3000’ in
SLIM, Tim, leisurely dive and film some of the cave and spelotherms in the system. (Did that many times)
Adam and Robert, take 2 safeties to C5 and 2 to C6

Jan10th 2009
This is the first push day and it was the day with the most problems but we were all able to get some work done.
SLIM, Tim get film of push team but fail due to the problems and delays of the push team.
Mike Y., Mike W., Brennan have many delays as the push team. Mike W. loose’s an exhaust port diaphragm, Brennan and Mike Y. decide to move the safeties and do a short push for a recon dive. Move the safeties further in, drop 1 at 2000’ 2 at 3000’ and 2 more at a T intersection about 3500’ in (furthest any of this group has been in). They go left and find a dome room with air another 30 feet hit the end of the line, hook on reel and start laying line. Go 65 feet and run back into an existing line 150’ from the T intersection.
Adam and Robert do a fun dive to look for leads in the first 2500’ of passage.

Jan 11th 2009
We do 2 ocean dives to film and get some footage to help out with El Cid. The DM missed the first dive; he could not find The Devils Throat. We go to Tormentos for the second reef and got some great film of it with the over powered video light that was made for the camera it is only like 5000 lumen LED and man can it bring out the light on the reef. This was also a day of rest so we cold all be ready for the next push day.

Jan 12th 2009Mike Y, Mike W. Brennan scooter in and move the safeties to the short cut to the air dome. They drop off some food at the air dome and head out to find a lead. Mike Y ties in and starts running line.The perculation is nasty and after about 150' the passage gets larger and turns to the left. At about 400' it joins back to main line. We look for a new lead and spot one. Brennan has spool 1, he gets tied in and runs a foot of line before it jams. After the unjam runs about 50 more feet of line and it jams again. Mike Y. cuts the line and ties in the spool he made (almost jam proof ) and Brennan run some more line, Into one of the most beautiful rooms I have ever seen. We get about 230’ of new line laid. Return to the air dome to eat and regroup. (I hear they all loved the food they picked out, the TWIX was the best, and only one liked the other nasty stuff). They then go to the right of the T and it gets nasty fast, with the walls being gravel and
not rock. Decide to call it and pick up safeties and exit. There total dive time was 4 hours and 10 minutes.
SLIM and Tim Video the push team and safety team and the cave with some great shots.
Adam and Robert drop and retrieve more safeties.

Jan 13th 2009
Mike Y., Adam, Tim Film interviews with many people and get more of the history of the cave and some of the artifacts in the cave system.
SLIM, Mike W. Look for leads between C4 and C6 on an outside loop. Lay about 310’ of new line and pulled all the Crocks.Robert, Brennan use stages to get C5 and pick up the last safeties in the system and get some bacteria samples. Robert exits and Brennan look at a lead from day 1. He tied in and laid about 185’ of new line.

The dive teams exit the system until next time.
I know that everyone had an awesome time on this expedition. The only problem is it means we have to go back and finish what we started. We have found many more leads to go and chase down and several of them we have marked. Since we all know the system even better and what all it will take to get some more of the job done, we have just started. With all the filming that was done, and after it gets edited, it will just have to wait for more. Now that we can plan the dives better and have a better knowledge of what needs to be done, we are all going to start prepping for next year’s push since we can get there much faster and let some of the others split up to the places we have marked to continue the work.

You all will have to wait until next year to hear any more about this, but trust me; I bet it will be worth the wait.

[FW]

WOW, that is a heck of a trip report. I can't wait to see the video!

[SLIM]

FW

You know it will be worth the wait. It might take some time but once it is done, everyone will like it.

Yup the GEM, Lights, and scooters that Mike Yound (depairmike) designed and made for the trip all worked just awsome with no problems.

Maybe one day we can get togather and show you some clips at the next MO workshop.

Like is said, it is an ongoing project that is more then wa planned but I think well worth it.


SLIM

[skdvr]

Awesome report...

Thanks for sharing....

Phil

[sskasser]

Woo hooo! Way to go, Big Bro and Mike! Awesome reports! I agree with Forrest...I can't wait to see the video!

Dear Santa...I want to go to Mexico!!

[scubadam67]

March 2009
By Adam McDowell
Dive Team Mike Young, Brendan Nappier, Adam McDowell



It’s been said that you can’t make a video of a cenote exploration in seven days and we have proven that, but we haven’t proven that it can be made in 11 days. With the gauntlet dropped before us we sat out to finish what we started with a new plan some new equipment and a small part of the original team.

On a cold blustery morning in March, I met Mike Young at the airport in Fayetteville for our flight to Dallas. With very little time for contact between trips we had to do a bit of equipment shuffling before we could get all the bags under the dreaded 50 # weight limit. Mike and I go over our ideas on the flight to Dallas before we meet up with Brendan Nappier to make the team complete. The plans and ideas begin to flow from all three of us almost immediately all with the same objective in mind, to finish a film that was started months before and still have time to check more leads in the mysterious system. Brendan has leads he wants to pursue as does Mike so timing will be very important. I try not to add to the conversation, as I tend to follow my gut when it comes to exploring a new passage. I like to enter a room and see where it leads me before I choose a direction. I have followed a great many dead end leads in this system and really don’t have a plan in mind other than to get the best footage of a gorgeous cave that I can and hopefully find a lead that gets in my gut and tells me to look around the next corner.

The first day in paradise is filled with figuring out how to get 9 aluminum 80’s loaded into the compact rental car without crushing any of us and deliver them to the cenote for the next day, then back to the room to assemble all of the modular dive gear that we packed away for the flights. We are all going to use the GEM rebreather which Mike developed and used on the original exploration so we should be able to use one tank of 36% nitrox per day enabling us to carry our drive gas and bailout gas with us with no staging saving time in and out of the system. We are also able to extend our exploration by using a new scooter that Mike has designed. The scooter was designed to pull three divers in tandem at 70 to 80 fpm for 1-½ hours and also be able to breakdown into small enough pieces to pack into baggage for air travel, not an easy task. The original design had the diver wear the batteries and plug them in with a hot plug like our lights use but we had a hard time getting enough battery to run the speed and time so Mike opted to mount the battery packs in pontoons on the scooter itself. To get the speed we wanted no matter if there are three divers or two or one he put a speed control on one pontoon and on the other is a switch and cord that will allow us to use our video light batteries to also run the scooter.


The first day of diving had Mike going into the first room solo to try and get a little better video of the artifacts then return to the surface to meet up with Brendan and I. We all three enter the cave Mike first then me and then Brendan meeting at the stop sign for a final check and to hook up to the scooter. Three divers on one scooter is going to be a challenge and I will be carrying the video camera. We set off down the large open passage to explore one of the most unique cave systems in Mexico. How can it get any better than this? The ride in to the system goes off without a hitch we glide around corners and over breakdowns like we have been riding together for a lifetime. We drop the one safety bottle that Brendan is carrying at the fifth intersection and do one more check to make sure everyone is ok. This is the last point to turn solo, if one of us turns we all turn. I make the call to turn and go on open circuit for my exit. As I kick slowly back toward the opening I find that I’m more relaxed than I have ever been no one to worry about just me and the cave. As I reach the cavern zone I stop to enjoy the beauty of the sun shining down through the roots and I’m both happy to see the opening and sad that I ended the dive so soon. With a limited number of days to dive the system, a diver can convince themselves to go on and not listen to their gut but mine said turn the dive and that’s what I did. Maybe nothing would have happened but I’m here to tell the story and that’s what is most important. After I left, Mike and Brendan continued on to the final intersection where they dropped the scooter. Taking the new short cut to the dome room to shoot film and then to take a break. After a much-needed snack the team goes over the plan one more time before they set off to film the blue room and make a survey of it.

Brendan gets several good shots of Mike surveying and some great shots of the formations.The water seems to be different here than in any other part of the cave. It is fresher and warmer and the dive computers read zero because this is very close to the surface. With the filming and surveying work done for this section of passage Mike ties in a reel and sets off to check a lead but turns around about 100’ in and pulls the line. As with most explorations you have to chase a lot of dead end leads before you hit the right one. The next lead ran out about 400’ of line but looped back to the original line where it was tied off as a 5’ jump. It’s time to go back to the dome room and discuss the new leads on the way and Mike marks a new lead at a large breakdown pile. Brendan films Mike surfacing in the dome room. After a short break they went back to the breakdown pile and tied in a line that they ran out for 350’ into a huge room where they couldn’t see the walls and tied off there. Mike and Brendan surveyed back to the tie in spot. Back to the dome room to pick up the cache of snacks and drinks it is decided to turn the dive. Mike picks up the scooter and Brendan hooks up behind him with the camera and they head out with Brendan shooting video on the way. With over 3 hours of dive time and 750’ of new line it feels like a very good first day.


During the evening and between dives I take the camera to try and get some video of locals and the island. I find that I like to be behind the camera very much and with the island as a backdrop there is always something interesting to shoot. We are staying in a room above one of our favorite restaurants. The room is what we like to call Mexican rustic. Which means almost warm water and somewhat cool air conditioning but it is cheap and they don’t mind all the gear that three cave explorers and film makers have to carry in and out everyday. We are getting better at packing the gear into the little car and still being able to fit our bodies in also. The daily routine is to get up early in the morning, get our fresh tanks then head off to the café for a big carb. filled breakfast with friends. Then back to the room to load the gear. With everything loaded it’s down the coast to the cenote for a day of exploration and filming.


Day two starts with all three of us entering the cave together with the scooter to get more film of the system. There seems to be something wrong with the scooter so we ditch it and move on to shooting film of all the formations in the cave and checking leads into the fourth intersection. Mike and I both decide turn to exit and Brendan continues on to retrieve the safety bottle that was dropped at the fifth intersection. Brendan then goes to look at a lead he had found back in January that had been calling for him to return. He tied in his first spool of line and ran out the whole spool and tied in his second and ran it empty in the middle of a large room. He reeled the second spool back in and pulled an extra 80’ of line that had been left in January in a dead end passage. Taking a new lead he lays line through a passage that ends up back at the main line between intersection 5 and 6 so he reels back in again and returns to the big room where he left off earlier. Running all the spare line he has, Brendan ties off in a smaller tunnel and turns the dive. When he surfaces we can see the excitement in his eyes over what he has found. He then describes a huge room and some smaller passage with some formations in it. Brendan feels like this is good passage so we decide to get him out of the water and get some lunch then go back for a second look.

Dive two for the day and we kick in to Brendan’s lead as we enter the room that he described as having some formations in it I’m amazed it is some of the oldest and most beautiful cave that I have ever seen. There are stalagmites growing up from huge blocks of breakdown and bedding plains filled with thousands of soda straws farther than my light can shine. Mike and I both look at each other and laugh thinking about how Brendan had described it as having some formations. Following Brendan farther along his line checking every possible lead and exploring the tunnel thoroughly. I get to the end of the line first, I leave Mike there while I check for the direction of the main tunnel. I have one good tunnel off to the left and one smaller one to the right, when I return to the line I point Brendan to the lead on the left and he begins to run line. This is a fairly tight tunnel so it moves slow and is a little silty but Brendan lays line with me following to set the line and help with tie offs. It was time for me to turn and as soon as I found a place large enough I did Mike signaled Brendan and left with me. Brendan continued on for a little farther, with 160” of new line in the lead he turned for the exit. On his way out he checked a lead that he had marked. The new lead ran for almost 100’ before walling out. Brendan reeled in the line and exited the system for the day.

Food seems to be such a large part of the Mexican experience and it engulfs us almost as soon as we get on the island. We seem to strive for a better or cheaper meal at every turn. Tonight we have tacos at a local café just off the main square. With Mike’s in-laws joining us we have a great lot of fun telling stories of the days filming or exploring. Our work here and our antics seem to amuse them. This place seems to be magical some how everywhere you look there are divers and they all have their own adventure going. I wonder how many of them ever dream of the type of adventure that we are on right now going into unknown passages with ancient artifacts and geologic formations that have never been seen by the human eye and may never again.


As we begin our final day of diving I realize that my sore back is not going to let me dive so it will be up to Mike and Brendan to finish the expedition without me. Mike has figured out the problem with the scooter which as it turned out was just a charging problem and that they will be able to use it today. With them both on open circuit they scooter past intersection five to the jump. Brendan swims ahead to shoot film of the newly found formations as Mike works on the survey. Brendan leaves the camera at the end of the big room and continues onto the smaller room where he had ended the line before. He drops one stage bottle. The visibility was still poor from the day before so he takes the smaller lead that I had shown him earlier. It went through a small Swiss cheese passage and wound up back at the main line so he went back through and found Mike at the end of the big room. They decide to exit and shoot film on the way out .

At the end of this trip and counting what we did in January, we have over 2400’ of line added to the existing line. Not bad for eleven days of exploration, shooting film and survey too. I have talked to Tim to see if he had viewed any of the film and he assured me that you can make an exploration film of a cenote in Mexico in eleven days. I believe the only way it was possible was with a team that works together as well as ours and a lot of very forward thinking when it comes to designing scooters and rebreathers for a specific job. I hope that we will get a chance to go back and see this cave system again, but if not it is nice to know that I had a small part in bringing the beauty and mystery of it to the eyes of the world.

[deepairmike]

we hope the film will be edited by the May workshop!!!!!!!!

[skip]

very very nice. excellent job guys. maybe in may, but for sure in september at the Missouri workshop.

-skip

[Walter Pickel]

Dear Santa...I want to go to Mexico!!

You're right...It is better in the winter. However, the week I just spent there was amazing!