Lost Buddy Silt-out

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Steve from Kentucky pm'd and we arranged a dive for today, monday. I was out checking conditions a few days ago and the water looked clear. Today the basin was as clear as I've ever seen it. We were two happy divers gearing up, talking about the last time we'd been diving in guy-james, how the rains had kept us out. We each took a stage, thinking with the viz so excellent we'd want a nice long dive.

As we discussed the dive plan in the water and compared psi/cf, we didn't really see the need for a line. we could easily swim to where the mainline began. I decided we best go ahead and run a line from open water; you can never tell what might happen.

As we went the viz was amazing, best I've ever seen, but then it just went down to almost nothing. The stop sign was blown over and out of position and there was no line attached to it (as best I could make out in such poor viz). A concrete block was tied to the stop sign with the line tied to the block and there was no block! I searched for it and couldn't find it, called the dive, and we returned to the stop sign, where I "uncalled" the dive and searched off the other side and found the block and tied in. Returning to pick up steve at the stop sign I signalled that we were good to go, guideline in place.

The viz slowy got worse. Down to a foot or less. Everything was covered in deep fine silt and with the line on the floor you couldn't follow it without silting out the cave. But this cave is often poor viz the first few hundred feet and then clears up real nice, so we kept going. Then the mainline became totally slack and I pulled in 10 feet of loose line. It tightened up a bit so I went on and fount the T that marked the super-silty side passage. I went on up the hill where all the stakes holding the line were gone (all but one). Then just ahead the viz broke wide open and I could see again! 10-15 feet of clear water!

But where was steve? I cupped my light, but he was nowhere to be found. I turned to go back along the line, back into that muck of no viz. The line was totally slack and like wet spaghetti it looped and twisted every which way. I had to follow it slow and careful using both hands. Then I bumped into Steve! The viz was so bad that the only way to see your buddy's light was if it was pointed directly at you from a foot away. He had lost the line and was waiting patiently for my return. I placed the line in his hand, and placed my thumbs up in his hand too.

We headed out, back through the no-viz muck that was now even worse than on the journey in. I had the line in my hands, but I couldn't see it at all. Then the bottom sloped up, and up, and we were in clear water! We'd gone the wrong way and was headed into the cave, not out! It's real easy to get turned around on a slack line in no viz. We enjoyed the view for a few minutes. I had almost decided to just go and do the dive, but then the thought of getting out from 500 feet in through slack line and no viz convinced me we best use all our gas to get out, and no more going further in. Steve agreed.

Steve led us out and when we got back to the T (which we couldn't see at all), he got all wrapped up in the white line (the T line). I kept pushing him forward, but he refused to budge. Finally it occurred to me that he must be hung up so I began feeling all over his body and sure enough line was tight and wrapped up in his tanks. It didn't take long to cut him free and he was gone. I swam on along the line hoping he was in front of me, but then thought maybe he wasn't. Maybe he swam back into the cave in the post-entanglement cluster f**k. I turned and went back. back to where the T used to be, back to the hill, but no steve there. Surely he would have waited on me in the clear viz at the top of the hill or turned to come out.

I lost my buddy. What would I tell his wife? Who would I call to come help with a body recovery? Why didn't we call the dive when we found the viz so bad? Or when the mainline was found to be so slack?

I turned and decided I had no choice but to swim back along the line searching for him. I swam and swam, cupping my light every few fin kicks and looking around, peering through the intense dark. If I turned my head just so I could see a faint glow from behind me, but it always seemed behind me, even when I turned 180... my back up light was on! Dang. well, best to keep it on in this viz, it may offer steve some chance of finding me if he comes up behind me.

On I swim and then I get kicked in the head with a fin! Steve! He's been slowly following the line out this whole time. I sigh relief. We are on the mainline. We are going out and for the first time in a very long time I think we might make it out ok.

And we did.

In retrospect, we should have called the dive when the viz went to a couple of feet. But this cave is noted for clearing up further in. Then our second wrong decision was continuing on with the totally slack line that could not be ok'd, but had to be pulled through one hand with the other with zero viz (by feel only). That's where steve lost the line. The line in this cave is right along the floor and with it spread out like spaghetti it was on and under the silt, which only made matters worse. A traditional lost line search was problematic with the line buried in the silt like that. However it was already zero viz, so planting something (spare mask? wetnotes?) into the silt and tying a safety line might have worked, although for sure it would make silting worse.

It was most amazing that cave lights (10w HID) were invisible unless pointed direcly into your eyes from a couple of feet away. With loose line and a T where a knotted survey was attached going into a super silty mud tunnel it was inevitable that one or both of us would get entangled in it, but it still took several minutes before we realized that was the problem.

In light of the recent discussion of goals and objectives, I suspect that our "goal" of reaching the clear zone may have clouded our judgement on calling the dive. I definetly thought about calling the dive when I saw just how poor the viz was. Given the super-clear basin, it was very unexpected to find such poor viz although we knew the viz in the early part is always worse than the later part. Then by the time we'd resolved lost line in silt-out and were in the clear zone, it was obvious we would have to negotiate the silt out and loose line area again to go home. So the good call was to end the dive right then, while we still had plenty of gas to manage whatever other problems we might encounter in that sightless zone. Good thing too, cause that's when we got entangled!


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[Jax]

Newb question - what caused the slack and what caused the move of the concrete block?

[Dominic]

Thanks for posting. I always learn something from reading these reports.

[FW]

Newb question - what caused the slack and what caused the move of the concrete block?

Not noob at all. Tennessee has a lot more variation than Florida. Rather than having about the same flow all year round, like FL, TN varies from almost no flow, to something approaching a fire hydrant. The burst of high current moved the sign, concrete block, and dislodged the line. They were lucky the line was still intact. I have seen other caves up there that only have scraps of lines after a big flood.

[skip]

Yes, what Forrest said. When I found the loose line looping all over the place, I was just sure that I'd follow it along and come up with broken end. It wasn't broken as it turned out, but that's what I expected from past experience. This mainline however is goldline (just like in florida). we pulled the survey line from the front part of the cave and replaced it with goldline, leaving in some survey line (the T) and further in (which we didn't get to, so don't know what shape it's in).

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[reiterman]

Glad all are safe. It is incidents like this that we can all learn from. Thanks for posting.

David

[NikoSuave]

I'm also glad to hear you exited the dive safely. Remaining calm (not panicking) and relying on your training and experience are the primary reasons for your safe exit. Sounds like a little bit of luck was on your side too considering the extremely slack guideline was still attached to something. Thanks for sharing your story.

[BB1]

OK another noob question:

During our training we regularly found that the line had gone slack (I blame our Big blue cave monster/Instructor) and we were taught that you stop and fix the problem right there and then and do not progress until it is fixed.

After finding the slack on the way in you mention " turned to go back along the line, back into that muck of no viz. The line was totally slack and like wet spaghetti it looped and twisted every which way. I had to follow it slow and careful using both hands."

Did you take up the slack on the way in and secure it and if so why did it go slack again?

Not pointing fingers, just trying to understand and really glad you both came out ok!

[FW]

...Did you take up the slack on the way in and secure it and if so why did it go slack again?...

While fixing a slack line in clear water is fairly easy, it is much harder in low viz. There is a big danger of pulling the line into a line trap.

The bigger issue is not knowing if the line is just slack, or broken. If it is broken, and you pull up the slack, you will loose what little information there is to be had about where the cave goes.

The only thing I might have done different would be to exit, and discuss a plan with a buddy that I never dived with before. Especially one that never encountered slack line in low viz.

[DA Aquamaster]

As Forrest notes, the context of the situation is important. Replacing/fixing a loose tie off on gold line or well maintained white line in a frequently traveled tunnel is different than encountering an old loose line along several hundred feet of less traveled and less well known to you cave.

It's common to ecnounter line in less frequented passages where the line is very old and slack due to age. There are definite downsides in attempting to fix loose line, when it's pretty much all loose - and old to boot. I have also encountered slack line in areas where the rock was very soft and fragile and would not support a tight line. In that case, tightening the line would just promote damage to the cave and result in more loose line, silt-out's, etc as successive tie offs fail.

It's one of the differences I think between "training" and what you can encounter in the real world, and one of the many reasons why cave diving is a life long learning process.