What do you do when you see snorkles 300 ft into a cave?

[chrisp]

I dove Manatee Sunday morning with a friend of mine. It was the first time we had been there. We entered at Catfish and headed upstream.

Neither of us were really comfortable with the conditions. Vis was somehwat murky and of course the dark walls make it feel even worse. It was very disorienting not being able to see more than one wall at any given time.

We got to about 500 feet before hitting our turn pressure.

As we made our way out, somewhere around 300 feet, we saw 2 lights heading towards us. I remember thinking "that's weird, I didn't see any other cave divers suiting up while we were". As I was pondering this oddity, I noticed something that stuck out like a sore thumb... snorkels. Snorkles? Really? Then I noticed the single AL80's with single 1st stages. Oh great....

At this point all sorts of things ran through my mind in a matter of seconds but it didn't take long to realize I had to act. I flashed my light at them to get their attention then shined my light on my other hand and signaled "You Out". They strared at me blankly. Again "You Out". No reaction. "You Out", "Out, Out, Out". They look at each other but do nothing. This actually goes on for about 45 seconds before one of them (the 2nd diver heading in) begins to turn around. After another 5 or 10 seconds the lead diver finally decides to turn around as well. Anyone want to guess what happens next?....

Yep, that's right. They start hauling A$$ out of the cave flutter king up a rooster tail of silt in their wake. As I (slowly) made my way out I keept thinking about how amazing it was that these two really seemed to think it was ok for them to be in there. I'm sure they had no idea I was going to remove the line they had followed into the cave. I wonder what they would have done when they got to the end of the gold line and were still well within the cave?

We were in the water for another 1/2 hour or so before exiting. I don't know if they had left the area or just changed clothes, but we could not find/identify them when we got out. I'm still not sure exactly what I would have said if I did find them, but I'm sure I would have said something.

The whole incident leaves me scratching my head. I've seen lots of open water divers in the devil's eye entrance at Ginnie but rarely ever past the ambient light zone. 300 feet in a cave with crappy vis just blows my mind.

[Sludge]

It's time for the annual posting of my "Favorite Harry Averill Story."

About twelve years ago I was at Peacock and Harry told me what had just transpired. In the cavern zone he saw two obvious open-water divers. He dragged them out, and when they surfaced he pointed to the sign and yelled, "Didn't you see that sign? No Open Water Divers!"

One of them got all bowed up and said, "We're ADVANCED open water divers!"

[RN]

Personally, I would have followed them out and read them the riot act. I would also have turned them into the park ranger.

But don't discount it completely. They could have been cavern trained. I saw a cavern class the other day in which 2 of the students had snorkels on and the instructor said nothing about this.

[Gary]

Whatever you do make sure you don't give them any excuse to sue you.

[Dark Eternal]

Don't you know, they were CAVE snorkels!

Ive seen similar at JB but not to that extent. They got back to the sign and took it's advice and did not go further. They were however dragging one of the divers in by their octo (who obviously did not want to go in)

[FW]

I agree that OW divers shouldn't be 300' into Manatee.

I don't think that the presence of a snorkle is an absolute sign that they weren't cave divers. I have used a snorkle 6,000' back into a cave. It was shallow, and had numerous air pockets. you could do the whole dive on backgas with a snorkle, or have to do a multi-stage dive.

[Line Squirrel]

IMO the Park staff at Manatee is making a very bad decision to continue to allow O/W divers to access the water via Catfish.

They allowed it during a flood and manatees happened to be in the head spring basin during this time so they lifted their "ban" a year and a half or so ago and allowed O/W in at Catfish, was supposed to be temporary but they never reinstated the rule.

[FW]

Don't they have a "no lights" rule for OW divers?

IMO the Park staff at Manatee is making a very bad decision to continue to allow O/W divers to access the water via Catfish.

They allowed it during a flood and manatees happened to be in the head spring basin during this time so they lifted their "ban" a year and a half or so ago and allowed O/W in at Catfish, was supposed to be temporary but they never reinstated the rule.

[kidsdream]

It would be surprising if the two divers were Cavern certified. They were diving standard BC's and ALU 80's with a single 1st stage (no H-valves) or redundancies.

Their primary lights were small Halogen handhelds and one of the divers we holding a second light in his other hand. We most likely will not know more than that as they gone by the time we hit Catfish on the way out.

I agree that OW divers shouldn't be 300' into Manatee.

I don't think that the presence of a snorkle is an absolute sign that they weren't cave divers. I have used a snorkle 6,000' back into a cave. It was shallow, and had numerous air pockets. you could do the whole dive on backgas with a snorkle, or have to do a multi-stage dive.

[Sludge]

They were diving standard BC's and ALU 80's with a single 1st stage (no H-valves) or redundancies.

That meets standards. Open water configuration.

But being 300' in the cave doesn't.