Ginnie 11Nov04

[Dwain]

I did a dive at Ginnie Springs on Thursday 11th of November 2004. Dave and I met at Cave Excursions East. We got there early enough to the first inline for air fills. What a line it was. It seemed that everyone was there.

After making our way to the parking area closest to Little Devils, Dave and I meet a few other cave divers that just happened to recognize me from my photo on CDF. We had a few laughs and took our time setting our gear up. About this time the crew from Dive Rite was exiting the water. They were testing out their rebreathers. We both chatted with L. H. about the design differences. I have to say that I’m very impressed by its design and construction. I saw noticeable differences from when I saw it last June at Orange Grove.

For the first dive plan was to just follow the main line and see how far we would get. We entered into the system through the ear and followed the gold line. Upon entering the area of the Mud Flats the water turned a bit cloudier. We went on through the Maple Leaf; this is where I noticed the flow had picked up.

By the time we were passing the Coat hangers the darkness of the cave seemed to swallow my light. I remember thinking that my battery must be going dead. But it can’t can it. I left this AM with a full charge on it. I took my hand and covered my light for a second thinking that my eyes must be playing tricks on me. Then I looked back at the light and realized that it wasn’t the light but the water. Then I remembered that the River Intrusion Tunnel was not to far ahead.

We went a little further and passed the 1300 foot market. At approximately 1350 feet I called thirds and at the same time Dave was calling thirds . If I remember correctly we were in the beginning of the Sand Dunes. It’s great to know that when we dive we are always within a 100 psi of each other. When I look at my gauge I know just about how much air he has left. Once we made it back to the log in the Ear we had 15 minutes of deco to wait out. So we ended up eating power bars during deco to pass the time .

Our second dive called for a fun run through the Catacombs. It was simple dive of running the line for line practice. We took our time going through the catacombs and found a bunch cave shrimp to play with. This dive ended up being called a bit early due to the slice of microwave pepperoni stuff that I ate from Ginnie. Back doing our safety stop I spit out my regulator from the food. I found out that pepperoni doesn’t agree with me at partial pressures.

In all it was a great day for diving, seeing friends, and meeting new ones.

[OFG-1]

Greetings and good report. BUT
Was the moral of this story to be sure you chew up the pepperoni stuff small enough to hurl back through your regulator without cloggin it?

[ARY]

Dwain, nice to meet you and Dave. Me and Tom also noticed visibility droped before Coat Hangers, Bone's room line was also about 30'viz. I wonder if Hill 400 lines were more clear that day.


ARY

[Gary]

On the 12th I noticed some tannic intrusion from the strangest place: on the left of the main line from a crack in the wall just past the stage bottle rock at p1800'. It was very localized appearing as a brown darker "dusty" area only within a few feet of the crack. I wasn't sure but it did seem to be effecting the visibility downstream of the stage Bottle Rock slightly.

Upstream of Stage Bottle Rock viz seemed excellent. No intrusion was evident at the River Intrusion Tunnel across the passage or the jump ahead to the left. My route went all the way up into Mainland and I saw no evidence of intrusion along the way including the "Spill Tunnel" which is often a contributor. I saw nothing passing the Spill Tunnel on the main line and also nothing while exploring braches in the far end of Mainland which seem to contribute flow to that area. Nowhere else did I see recent signs of intrusion.

I'm fairly certainthat upstream Hinkle was free of tannic as well.

On the 13th our dives took us up the Roller Coaster around the Double Lines circuit and back on Hill 400 and all that was clear as well.

I was wondring though if anyone visited Double Domes and what the vis there was like. That seems like the closest area that to the crack on the main line that might have seen tannic intrusion.