Trip Repot Madison Blue 7/31/10
From Saturday, July 31st, 2010:
KG and I met in Lake City at 7:15am where we loaded all the dive gear into his vehicle. Normally, all the tanks are left in his garage in Gainesville, but seeing as how we had pumped our doubles to over 4000 psi at Amigo’s after diving Little River 2 weeks ago, we thought it wiser to store them in my air-conditioned storage facility than a 90 degree garage. I remember to bring the doubles- he forgot to bring my O2 bottle. Not a problem, though, as we knew we wouldn’t have much deco on this particular dive and could easily share the O2 from his ST40. We headed off to Madison Blue.
Arriving there around 8am, we were relieved to learn that no other divers had beat us to the punch, so we parked over by Martz Sink. Our dive plan consisted of staging from Martz until reaching thirds, then continuing upstream through the Mount Offshoot, Potter’s Delight, Rocky Horror, and ultimately to The Courtyard on back gas. After getting all the stages down to the water, and getting our rigs set up and ready, we began suiting up.
It was at this moment that I realized that I had forgotten my drysuit thermal wear and was now faced with either canceling this dive or preparing myself for a less-than-comfortable exit from the cave due to acute hypothermia. Looks like I was going to suffer one way or another, so I borrowed his t-shirt and, along with my shirt and shorts, used them as insulation for the dive. The temperature of the water was as usual, but that was not the problem I was initially experiencing during this dive. The lack of insulation around my legs and arms made proper trim much more difficult, as the air inevitably found its way to my feet. It wasn’t until we dropped the stages about 3/4ths of the way from the Half Hitch to the Mount Offshoot that I had finally adjusted my technique to account for the air shifts within the suit.
I ran the reel from the double arrows at the Mount tunnel and we made our way upstream. Visibility was excellent all the way through Potter’s Delight into Rocky Horror. The knotted line throughout was a surprise since I had last visited this part of the cave back in late 2000. A memorial placed in 2007 was another unknown sight as well. I also noticed that a time-warp of some type had happened as well: the floor of Potter’s and The Horror were completely obliterated with all sorts of marks from hands, fins, etc. much more than I had ever remembered. I guess 10 years of cave diving traffic will do that. It was then that I began to really notice the coldness of the water and the shivers slowly began. Knowing I would pay the price regardless on the exit, I made the decision to continue to the “good” cave to justify this cold ass dive.
We slowly but deliberately made our way through all the restrictions and then reached the nice open tunnel with the fluffy silt before making the drop into The Courtyard. I have always been fascinated with that first drop that takes you into the “other” cave. Madison is one of the most beautiful in my opinion, and it only gets better the further in you go. Today was no exception and I led on to the next drop, stopping there because the cold was becoming noticeable in my uninsulated legs and arms. Apparently, there is an ongoing survey taking place as there were cookies all over the line at survey stations throughout. I motioned to KG to turn and he began the exit.
---The last time I had left this cave my old dive buddy LC and I were talked into removing some safety bottles stashed at the inbound side of The Horror by Mike Bruic, who at the time ran the place. We already had one stage and a scooter each and with us both adding another stage made the exit quite exciting. I do remember it taking an inordinate amount of time to get out because it was zero vis ALL THE WAY back to the main line.---
This time, however, KG was exceptionally deliberate and quick on his exit and I could see as far as the cave walls allowed exiting. It was great to be able to see and appreciate the confines of that area by seeing another diver in front of your for scale. By the time we made it back to Potter’s Delight the cold was becoming all-consuming. At the first opportunity, I passed him on the side and made a hasty exit to the reel I had placed. While I struggled with the shakes removing the reel, he zoomed on by me at that point and helped me with the line loop attachment back at the double arrows. Then he kicked in the afterburners and we left wake behind us heading back to Martz. It had taken us 54 minutes to make it to max penetration and only 29 to make it back out. We only had 5 minutes of deco (thankfully) and I shivered uncontrollably the whole time and then exited. Afterward, I noticed I had lockjaw from biting on my regulator mouthpiece so much from the cold. Other than that, no ill effects. A great dive, as always!
Stages: AL80s filled to 3300 @ 32%
My Back Gas PST120s cooled to 3800 @ 32% / KG’s Back Gas PST104s cooled to 3800 @ 32% / Bottom Time: 0:83 / Deco: 0:05 @ 10’ 90% O2
Max Penetration: about 100’ short of the pressure gauge along the main line in The Courtyard (if it’s still there),
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Originally Posted by GatorCaver
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