SOME QUOTES: "If you go in a cave, PREPARE TO DIE!!!" - Bill Freeman, to Charles Read, on the occasion of his basic open water certification checkout dives. Funny, until that point I had never really thought of going in a cave.. But at that exact point, I began to think it might be a lot of fun. The rest is history... THIS history. "And I looked behind me and I thought, where's Charles gone? And then I saw the bubbles coming up from beneath me, up through the coral, and I thought - oh no! - he's at it again!!" - Bernice Constantin, see Dive 17. This is some of my dive log. Unfortunately about 2/3 of the dives got left behind at Miami airport, so it's very incomplete; but I think it says a little something. The up to date version can always be got on http://read.trin.cam.ac.uk/scuba/diary.txt Dive 1. Rainbow River, Florida. 1st dive after certification (open water). Buddy = Bernice Constantin. [a guy - the name's pronounced Burniss] Max depth = 30' (but only by digging holes in the sand :) Water temp = 75F, Air temp = 90F. Weather good except for short storm. Used canoe as "dive boat" - worked O.K. Costs: $2 per person to use boat ramp and park car Very good visibility; some interesting fish (and LARGE ones if one were an angler). Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 0 1 cave/cavern 0 0 Dive 2. Crystal River, Florida. 2nd dive after cert. Buddy=Bernice. Max depth=42' Water temp ~75F, air ~90F. Weather good. Canoe again used as dive boat; worked well but we canoed - paddled - ~1 mile each way; shd use an engine! Visibility poor until we found the fresh water of the springs. Then good beneath the murk. Not exactly sure which of the main springs we found. More big fish+turtles. Costs, none. Even the boat ramp was free. Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 0 2 cave/cavern 0 0 Dive 3. Little River Springs, Florida. 3rd Dive, 1st cavern dive since cert, unless you count a brief moment ("natural bridge") at Crystal River. Buddy=Lloyd Wiseman. Max depth 52' Water temp 72F, air temp ~90F. Weather good. No boat needed, just drive up. Costs none. Visibility very good but this was a funny dive because Lloyd previously quizzed me about whether I was afraid of going into a cave, was I scared of the "overhead environment" etc. But when we got there, he himself seemed to have nerves or something, so he never took me beyond the "cavern" part [where there's still daylight], and not quite to the bottom of that. My curiosity is aroused. I had been looking forward to doing something Naughty by going into a cave when only open-water certified. Especially as that wonderful Christian brother (and slightly over-zealous guardian of public morals) Bill Freeman warned one "if you go into a cave, PREPARE TO DIE!!". But then we didn't do it. Hmm. Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 0 2 cave/cavern 0 1 Dive 4. Little River Springs, Florida. Buddy - none, my first solo dive, and first cave dive. Max depth 62' Water temp 72F, air temp ~90F. Weather good. Access, just drive up. Costs none. Visibility very good. So. I returned on my own and investigated some of the cave. I don't own a diver's torch so I took an ordinary one and filled it with oil so as to equalise pressures. Worked OK to 62'. Didn't have enough weights so used a car-jack! Used a reel [i.e. a ball purchased at Wal-Mart] of 720lb nylon line for safety line. ERROR - got tangled in it (it came undone from the rock I had it tied to). Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 0 2 cave/cavern 1 1 Dive 5. Little River Springs, Florida. 2nd solo dive, 2nd cave dive. As for Dive 4 except no error with the safety line however: ERROR - to make myself less buoyant, I did not wear my wetsuit. After 1/2 hour in 72 degree water this is COLD - I was shivering. NOT to be repeated. Buy the weights! Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 0 2 cave/cavern 2 1 Dive 6. Santa Fe River, Florida (Big Awesome, Myrtle's Fissure). Buddy, Lloyd Wiseman. Max depth ~35' Temp ~80F, air temp ~90F. Weather good. Access via free boat ramp next to bridge over Santa Fe. Canoe performed well along with its 2hp outboard which did well once we got its fuel/oil mixture right. Costs, none. Visibility rather poor. This alas rather spoiled the dive; we couldn't see a thing at Big Awesome, and even at Myrtle's Fissure (where there is a spring which we hoped would be clearer) the waters of the spring were themselves fairly murky (not as murky as the river) and we could only see down to a depth of 35' (out of 60). Dim red light at top of fissure. I'd really like to return when there's less tannic acid in the water. Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 0 3 cave/cavern 2 1 Dive 7. Little River Springs, Florida. 12 Sept '97. Weather excellent, mostly sunny, a little cloud. Air temp ~85F, water temp 72F (for the first time, measured with a thermometer). ___________ __________ | | | | 59 | | | | | | |______________| 25 [the above diagram means "I went down to a max depth of 59' and stayed there 25 minutes"] Suwannee river very low. This dive mainly about testing my two cylinder rig [this consisted of several biggish hose clamps tied together in two rings and used to clamp two aluminium 80 cylinders to my backplate, designed for one cylinder only. The second cylinder had only a regulator attached - no second pressure gauge as yet, and certainly no connection between the two tanks. ] 3rd solo cave dive. Suspect water will become clearer in other places due to low water levels. Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 0 3 cave/cavern 3 1 Dive 8. A brief interlude at Peacock Springs. ____________ ____60___>> D9 | | | | 12 | | | | | | |______________| 20 [The 60 >> D9 bit denotes a 60 minute surface interval followed by Dive 9] The problem with Peacock springs is that it is a State (not a county) park so there are officious people wandering around asking to see dive cards etc. I dove [as the Americans put it] one of the open water dives (Peacock springs II), still breaking a Rule because I was solo. Then I came away. Temp ~72, air ~80; vis. good, weather good. Cost $7. 4th solo dive. Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 1 3 cave/cavern 3 1 Dive 9. Little River Springs. D8>>____________ ________END. | | | | 62 | 10|@15 | | | | |______________| ~20 [the 10@15 bit indicates a decompression stop of 10 minutes length, at 15 feet below the surface on the way up. This was almost certainly unnecessary, I did it because I had brilliantly forgotten to note the time when I entered the water so the ~20 minutes figure at the bottom of the diagram is only a guess. That said, I heard later of a novice diver successfully bending himself on only 15 mins @100' (US Navy no-deco limit: 25 mins). So my early extreme caution was maybe not a bad idea - there are other examples here. END indicates end of day's diving - after which you needn't worry about repetitive effects on your deco because a 12 hour interval puts everything back to normal, at least according to US Navy tables. Let's get on with the story, this was a good dive!] Temp: air ~90, water ~72. Cost, none. Access, as usual. Weight: 15lbs. Tanks: 2x [Aluminium] 80 [cubic feet], configured as in Dive 7. Buddy, none; solo dive. Max depth 62'. Brilliant idea to use the extra weight. Anchored me nicely to the bottom. I penetrated much further (not having to work so hard) and got to the small room from which a shaft goes down to 100'. Next time I'll go down! A permanent safety line starts here also. Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 1 3 cave/cavern 4 1 Dive 10. Little River Springs - Down to the Serpentine Passage. [The bit about the Serpentine Passage was written in honest error. From reading Underwater Florida, I got the impression that the whole lower passage at the 100' level, leading to the Florida Room, was called the Serpentine Passage. You'd get that idea too if U.F. was all you had to go on. But later I saw detailed maps of Little River, which show the Serpentine Passage as an offshoot from the main tunnel, some way into the system, which I got nowhere near on this first dive down there. Still, if you haven't been in an underwater cave before, the phrase "Serpentine Passage" conveys the feel of the place quite well. Incredibly beautiful white limestone passages twisting and turning for MUCH further than I could safely stretch my air supply!] ____________ ________END. | | | 24|@10 95 | 2|@20 | | | | |______________| 30?? One martini (approx.) [divers reckon very crudely that the narcotic effect of nitrogen on a diver is equivalent to 1 generous martini at 100', and another for every 50' deeper that you go.] I couldn't really feel it. Max depth 95'; the Suwannee river is very low, LR springs is supposed to be 100'. Temp 72F, air ~90F. vis good, weather very good; cost, none. Weight 15lb. Tanks 2x80 as in D7. Solo dive. Went down the chimney to the passage at 95' (Serpentine passage). Wonderful, it's like an underwater cathedral down there. P.T.L. [Praise the Lord] :). ERROR: managed to forget again to check my watch before going down. So I took a high estimate of 30' down time, added 20' to it, for 50' and hence 2 minutes @ 20' and 24 minutes @ 10' deco (US Navy tables). Let's not make this one again! I was freezing at the end of it. But it was wonderful, wouldn't have missed it. [I might also have added, "I am now hooked on cave diving". This became true for me, quite definitely, when I first saw that lower passage below the chimney at Little River.] Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 1 3 cave/cavern 5 1 Dive 11. Little River Springs. 17 Sept '97. 11:55 AM..............12:20...12:30 PM ____________ _____________ H (repetitive dive letter) | | | 0+10|@10 -- 0+10@10 means "no compulsory 92 | | deco, but a 10 minute safety stop". | | So it was all safety in this case, | | according to US Navy tables :) |________________| 25 Time ------- repetitive dive letter 12:30 p.m. H 1:37 F 2:12 E 2:53 D [Repetitive dive letters are used to determine what you're allowed to do on your next dive; the further you go up the alphabet the less you can do without needing to decompress. After you've got out (in this case 12:30 p.m.) the dive letter gradually declines as your tissues lose their excess dissolved Nitrogen. ] Temp 72F, air 84F, weather+vis good, weight 15lb, tanks 2x80, solo dive. This is around the limit (probably not quite the limit) of what I can do without better air discipline (or more air :). 1/3 of 2x80 cylinders [the "Thirds Rule" is a safety regulation that says you reserve at least 2/3 of your air supply for exit] gets me not to the Florida room or the Dome room but (by my estimate) about 2/3 of the way to the Florida room [in fact I was about 1/3 of the way there!]. The air doesn't last very long that far down. But of course I am still a novice at conserving my air supply. Also when I get to the bottom of the cavern part (59') on the return trip I tend to forget how much more buoyant I am than at 92' until the force of the spring trying to push me outwards reminds me. Gently deflate that BC! Another thing to change: hitherto I have used my 2 cylinder rig by using the main supply down to 1000 PSI and then whichever was available for getting out, on the basis that if I use 2000 PSI from 1 tank out of 2 tanks at 3000 each, that is a third of the air supply. ["whichever was available for getting out": in other words, I could usually get out on the remaining 1000 in tank 1, because the water pushes you out with such tremendous force from Little River. This dive I needed tank 2 for the first time]. But it means that on the return trip I MUST use tank 2, vitiating the safety of the extra 1st stage [regulator valve]. Solution: breathe each tank down to 2000 on the outward trip; then you have 2000 left in each for the return trip, preserving full "redundancy". Get pressure gauge for that second tank - or breath 10 breaths tank 1, 10 breaths tank 2 repeatedly - also good practise at changing 2nd stages [the round things you breathe out of]. [Turned out I was quite good at judging the air between the 2 cylinders so the amounts left on exit were within 200 psi of each other]. Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 1 3 cave/cavern 6 1 Dive 12. Royal Spring. ____________ _____________ | | | | 34 | | | | | | |________________| 23 Temp ~75, air ~90; solo; visibility good (water had a blueish tint) Weight 12lb, tanks 1x80; costs none; access - drive up along dirt road. weather very good. A very easy dive after Little River yesterday. Said hello to the humans, said hello to the fish, admired the pool from above and below, relaxed a bit and enjoyed myself. There has to be a misprint in Underwater Florida here, it says the the cavern entrance opens up at 50'; but in fact the whole open water area is only 35' deep, and I don't believe the Suwannee is that low. Should read 30' if you ask me. [I recently realised that these figures in U.F. are based on distance from the top of the cliff, including the above-water bit of the cliff; hence the discrepancy] Visibility good enough to see directly to the bottom of the spring. Sunlight rippling across the sand at the bottom. Plenty of locals use it as a swimmimg hole. The cave has a bad writeup in U.F., so I did not enter **; but it is so inaccurate about this pretty little spring that maybe I will go back and enter it later [see D89]. ** indeed I only took 1 tank, no torches [I had bought a couple by then], no safety line - typical open water setup :) ERROR: when setting up the safe 2nd for open water mode, nearly managed to lose the little metal cap that fits on the regulator. P.T.L. Found it again.. While diving I noticed that there was more threat of pain in my ears when diving between between 0'-35' here at Royal Spring, than when investigating the cave system at Little River (59'-95'). This of course is predicted by Boyle's Law and all that, but interesting to see it happen. However, no real pain in the ears anymore in either place :) [I had suffered a bit during my open water training checkout dives] Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 2 3 cave/cavern 6 1 Dive 13. Rock Bluff Spring (open water only). Depth 28' (so timings not needed, the NDL [NoDecoLimit] is infinity above 30'), Temp ~72, air ~90; solo; visibility good but see below, Weight 12lb, tanks 1x80; costs none; weather very good. Access: drive to C340 bridge over Suwanee and use boat ramp; the run from the spring is 400 yards N on the E side (NOT 150 yards as in Underwater Florida). Testing my boat as a dive boat; worked OK. The cave entrance in the bottom of the cleft in the rock is quite small and the flow quite fierce. Will take determination to get in there. A genuine "constriction" in the flow, like Little River springs but fiercer. The gravel at the bottom is constantly stirred up by the flow, and it is hard not to stir it up further, so this is not quite as clear as crystal as we might wish. The pool, the fish, the underwater plants, make this a pleasant spot just to sunbathe, apart from scuba diving/cave diving. Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 3 3 cave/cavern 6 1 Dive 14. Telford Spring to Telford Sink - cave traverse. 24/9/97 START_______ ________>>D15 (A) | | | | 25 | | | | | | |________________| 25 Temp ~72, air ~90; solo; visibility good but... Weight 12lb, tanks 1x80; costs none; access - down sandy track for a mile or so; no boat needed but the track would be disreputable in bad weather. weather very good. Depth of penetration into the cave system - around 200'. ERROR: managed to drop a torch when clambering out of Telford Sink. Very muddy from clambering. I left it temporarily. I don't know why U.F. (Underwater Florida) rates this as a "dangerous dive, even for trained, experienced cave divers". Must be bits of it I didn't explore. The bit I did had, we concede, a fair amount of sand to kick up, but it cleared quite fast and visibility was always about the same as it would have been anyway. I tied off my safety line [still the same disreputable ball of string] at a convenient point, went into the cavern and found the the permanent safety at the back of it. Led straight-ish to Telford sink. 670lb [i.e. psi] of air well used. Most difficult bit: climbing out of Telford sink. If possible, PLAN A STRATEGY for this when doing a traverse, BEFORE starting out. Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 3 3 cave/cavern 7 1 Dive 15: Charles' spring + brief return to Telford sink. D14>>___ A ____ _____ A _____ ___ A ___END | | | | | | | | 15' | | 25' | | | | | | | | | | |________________| |___________| 15 10 [The letters A above are again repetitive dive letters, as defined in US Navy tables - didn't do enough to get beyond "A" today!] Conditions similar to Telford spring except max. depth only 15'. Access also similar (longish dirt road), including presence of a boat ramp. No penetration into the cave, I only went into the cavern because the cave gets a bad press in U.F. After Telford spring I am beginning to disbelieve bad reports in U.F. and will begin to disregard them. Errors: none (sounds arrogant, that! - at any rate none as obvious as dropping the torch down a muddy 25' hole). :) Afterwards I went back to Telford and retrieved my torch. Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 4 3 cave/cavern 7 1 Dive 16: Little River spring. 26/9/97 ___________ _____ H _____END (I intended to do another | | dive but Bernice, my | | intended buddy, got hen- 97' | 0+10|@15 pecked) | | | | |________________| 23' Solo dive; vis. good; weather wet; weight 15lb; tanks 2x80; cost none; access as usual. [The remark about Bernice getting hen-pecked is probably unfair; at any rate Sharon Constantin is a friend not an enemy, and ought to be given space to voice her own opinions.] Farewell Little River Springs, 'til I return again to the 'States. The last dive of my trip was thoroughly good fun. Went down [what I thought was] the Serpentine passage. Enjoyed it a lot; enjoyed using Lloyd's more powerful torch to illuminate the distant recesses. The current flowing from the spring is noticeably stronger because the drought had ended 24 hours ago with very strong rains. Fighting against it I found that (a) I got through 2000lb of air in 17 minutes and (b) I kicked up more sand than usual. Nothing so serious as to be life-threatening, but worthy of further thought to minimise such effects. To reduce the 'sand effect' I could either (1) pull myself along the permanent safety line instead of kicking the flippers [later I was to learn that this is strictly forbidden because you might break it] or (2) take great care not to go near the bottom or (3) more ambitiously, use one of those "personal underwater craft". To increase air time I need to invent myself the "poor man's rebreather". That will occupy some of my time next term in Cambridge. Lots of smart chemists around to check I've got enough NaOH. [This dive I was full of ideas! Some good, some naff. See later for how they worked out.] Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 4 3 cave/cavern 8 1 Dives 17, 18: Fajardo, Puerto Rico. 3rd April '98. ___________ _____________ ________END | | | | | | | | 30' | | 20' | | | | | | | | | | |________________| |___________| 45 45 Diving in the sea: new experience. Features: abundance of brightly coloured exotic fish. Small yellow+mauve fish, brilliantly coloured. Very slim - cigarette shaped - "trumpet fish", disguised to look like a piece of coral. The coral itself - I managed to avoid the "fire coral". I would have walked into the poisonous "stone fish" if it hadn't been pointed out to me. Also saw large lobster (hiding away in a "cave" in the coral) and v. large (~5' long) barracuda. Plus saw moray eel while snorkelling the previous day. Also notable: schools of black fish with purple outline. [also notable is the fact that I managed to find a coral cave about my size and squeezed through it. Bernice recalls: 'I looked around and suddenly I thought, where's Charles gone? .. and then I saw bubbles coming up from beneath me, coming up through the coral, and I thought, Oh no, he's at it again!..'] Buddies: Bernice, and Pedro Quinones. Air ~85, water ~75, max depth ~30', cost $45 per person for the boat; tanks 1x80, visibility ~20', weather v. good, weight 12lb - not enough, use 15. access: boat from the quay. arranged thru' divers outlet, 38 Fernandez garcia st., luquillo, PR 00773, 1-888-746-DIVE the boatman (future ref) can be contacted 409-3000 (Javier). I was nervous at first (long time since last trip) but recovered and had a good time. Second dive as also good but too shallow. Pedro had problems with dizziness and blacking out - bad air fill? I had slight dizziness on first ascent similar to my first ever checkout dive; or rather the practise ones in the swimming pool beforehand. No problems with my equipment (PTL). I will use the rebreather this trip later on. Must return to the underwater caves (in September?) Dives: Solo | With buddy ================================ open water 4 5 cave/cavern 8 1 =========================The long gap=========================== At this point a long break takes place because I unfortunately lost my diver's logbook, leaving it at a phone booth at Miami airport for goodness' sake. From memory, here are a few details of some of the dives since. (not in order) D19. The Calimba. (Mexico, the Yucatan peninsula near Tulum) This magnificent cave dive is by far the most beautiful I have ever seen, with stalactites and stalagmites underwater (as is common in this part of Mexico), and a beautiful passage about 2000 feet long, not too challenging because of the low flow and the perfect visibility and the shallow depth (circa 40'). 80 minutes well spent. The best dive of my 2 week trip to Mexico. 2 buddies - or was it three - from those involved in that trip. If you ever get a chance to do this one - do it! D20. Cenote Naharone. (Mexico, the Yucatan peninsula near Tulum) This somewhat darker and deeper cave dive (still only a modest 70 feet deep though) gave me my first real experience of haloclines - where the water changes from fresh (on top) to salt (on the bottom because of its greater density), with a boundary region where visibility becomes blurred in a distinctive way, and you can hardly see where you're going until you come through the halocline - whether above or below. The cave sides are distinctively black until you get down to the salt layer, below which they are distinctively bleached by the salt. Not as beautiful as the Calimba, but a most interesting and challenging dive. D21. First full cave sequence certification dive. Devil's Ear cave, Florida. With Brent Booth, instructor that summer and friend too - but it didn't seem so on that first dive! Really he was having a look at me prior to doing the Intro/Apprentice/Full cave sequence with me. He must have nearly given up on the spot. The location was one of my least favourite ones, the initial, wide, high flow area of Devil's ear, (and it's only recently that I have learned to float high enough to save my efforts and keep out of the current - a lesson I learned just this summer from Big Mark). That day, I wasted huge quantities of air and turned back even before the Lips (a modest 400 feet in). Generally, a bad start...... D22. Second full cave sequence certification dive. Devil's Ear cave, Florida. .......but this second dive went much better. Instead of thrashing through the high flow area, Brent had me exploring the narrower, silty passages called the Catacombs. I chose the narrowest passage of the lot, he said afterwards, and though I stirred up a lot of silt, nonetheless I enjoyed myself, and more important, Brent could see that I was enjoying myself (feeling much more at home in the narrow low-flow silt than the wide open spaces). Up until then, I honestly hadn't given him much of a reason to think I'd make a cave diver; but that second dive, I began to give him just a glimmer of a reason. I was clearly incompetent - but I was feeling at home! In the dives that followed, Brent had a lot to teach me about buoyancy, trim, breathing rates; somewhat less about the arrangement of my dive gear, which I more or less got right after the first few dives. Keeping my air consumption down remains a preoccupation to this day. D23. The "lights out" airshare with the two Marks. Devil's Ear cave, Florida. This was part of the full cave cert. sequence also. It illustrates for me how one must be careful even with good ideas, such as the 2 Marks' idea of floating nice and high so as to be out of the current when getting into Devil's ear. The three of us did a "lights out" airshare back from somewhere around the Lips to the entrance, or rather, Big Mark and Little Mark were sharing and I was proceeding without lights, having already practised the lights out airshare with Mike Schultze. And once again, they gave themselves lots of positive buoyancy in the passageway. But this time thy got too buoyant, lost hold of the guideline (no lights, remember) and floated off to the ceiling. I remember wondering why I could no longer feel them ahead of me. Brent had to do a little assistance there, in real life I wonder if they would have made it out, had it been a real emergency. Of course I am often a dreadful bottom dwelling cave creature; but positive buoyancy has its drawbacks too. D24. The "lights out" airshare with Mike Schultze. This consisted of Brent escorting us to the middle of the narrowish passageways near the Step Room, and then giving us the signal that I was to pretend to be out of air. We then had to work our way back through the narrowish passageways using contact signals to communicate. I felt rather relaxed when I found out I was the guy receiving the air. I was also in the back, so I led out. Pretty smooth and easy really, just the odd signal from Mike to liven things up. D25. Best dive so far at Hurtle Pot, Yorkshire, England. Solo dive. After several attempts, in which I had to improve my insulation against the cold water (52F, compared to Florida's 72F and Mexico's 78F), and generally get used to diving in England - started using sidemount etc. - I made a reasonable dive here at Hurtle Pot, descending to the 92ft level at the bottom of the so-called Hindenburg wall (a steep ramp containing some debris like the odd treetrunk, washed in there during the winter storms), which I ascended to something like the 42ft level, which is not quite the top, but was considerably further than I had been before. I shall get to the top of the H., I think, next time- there's still a little extra to be squeezed out of my third air supply. At the top of the H. the depth is only 30ft, which I didn't go to because you then have to descend a good bit to get out, and I had had slight trouble clearing my ears recently. And also, it's just a little scary compared to Florida - 12 feet of visibility will do that to you. To be continued. D26, D27. The first glimpses of Keld Head and Hurtle Pot. Yorkshire, England. Solo dives. At Keld I did what probably counts as a sneak dive since the local farmer is rumoured not to give permission to dive to anyone except the favoured few from the British Cave Diving Group (CDG). The visibility was atrocious - can't see your feet kind of situation - but the water not too cold. Then at Hurtle Pot I really found out how cold a British cave dive can be, even in summer. 52F water soaking through my modest wetsuit and leaving me freezing. The result of these modest initial forays was the purchase of my first drysuit, second hand, for 100 pounds if I remember rightly. D28. When backmounted doubles just won't fit: Witches' Cave, Cumbria, England. Solo non-dive. Yes, it's just like the cliche about all things American: the standard American rig of back-mounted doubles is TOO BIG to fit in most British caves! Here, I couldn't get past the first restriction so the dive was aborted, after lugging my kit about 1km across the Fells! The main result of this failure was that I got a sidemount rig up and running, which I am now about to test on some places like Witches cave, where it's really needed, having first used it in spacious caves like Hurtle Pot where I don't really need it. D29. First return to Little River. The first dive of the summer trip '99. Not the best Little River trip because I decided to try to combine the virtues of my English sidemount kit and my big American doubles, hitting the water with 2x95 cu. ft. doubles plus 2x Alu 80 stage bottles. I've now done this a few times and have thoroughly enjoyed it, but the first time I tried it I got all the kit fixings confused and ended up unable to find the pressure gauge for my main air supply, the doubles. It had come unstuck from where I had it clipped on and was dangling somewhere behind me. Things got sufficiently confused down there that I decided to turn the dive pretty early. But I returned later on the same trip and had a great time exploring the Florida Room with the extra air supply. I may be wrong but I feel that the way I rig the 2 singles for sidemounting has its advantages even when they are stage bottles, by reducing the drag compared with the "usual" way you attach stage bottles, (which is so dragging that some of the pundits say you shouldn't bother trying to do it with more than 1 stage - definitely not my experience. I quite definitely gained extra time to explore the Florida room by having the extra stage. I've done it on 1 stage and, swimming in against the strongish current, it doesn't quite give time to fully enjoy the scenery). D30. Gently Soloing Devil's Ear. This dive was about my second of the summer '99 trip. I gave the 2 stage bottle setup a rest and toddled gently up the Hill 400 with just the one stage. Interestingly I still wasn't smart enough to organise my breathing so as to get round the whole "Bat Circuit" (a fairly modest round trip for someone with a stage bottle), because I always used to do the Devil's Ear entrance area very inefficiently indeed. It was finally Big Mark who showed me how to dodge the current in that first 400 feet to the Lips, but this dive was before I had the chance to learn from him, and once again, I wasted an awful lot of air. So I toddled up the H400, got to thirds, and gracefully toddled back. D31. The Florida room trip at Little River. This was the one where I finally had my kit sorted out for 2 stage bottles, so I took them up the gold line at Little River and had some fun exploring the Florida room. Used the merry-go-round passage on the way in, the serpentine passage on the way out. Pleasant solo dive, using the usual 33% Nitrox. D32. The Harper tunnel revisited. Little River, diving with Eve. Once again got to the end of the backmount part of this pretty and challenging passage. Took just the one stage bottle (Eve only uses one - she ought to try more than the one some time), and one stage bottle is definitely the minimum for this dive. Between the 2 of us we zeroed the visibility comprehensively on some parts of the return trip. Mostly my fault I would say. But I have an excuse. Unknown to me, a small twig had lodged itself in the exhaust port of the second stage regulator of my stage bottle, with the result that it suddenly started breathing wet - about 60% water, 40% air - inbound towards the Big Dorff. So I fooled around for awhile spitting out a half pint of water with each breath, then gave up and changed over to the backmounted air supply. That is the point at which one should call the dive, and I considered doing so, but decided that if push came to shove, the big steel doubles and the strong outward current would get me out of there. So I continued into the harper tunnel and did it - but my mind was a bit full of air supply calculations, and the mundane business of not stirring up the crud did not receive quite the attention it deserved. One day I am going to figure out a way of doing the sidemount extension of that lovely tunnel. D33, D34. The double trip round the Bat circuit. Devil's Ear, Florida. The first if these dives was with Brent, training for the stage-bottle specialty by doing a dive, with one stage bottle, round the Bat circuit (some wit long ago decided that caves should have bats in them even if they are underwater, so installed a plastic bat around 1200 feet up the Hill 400 line). I nearly didn't make it, because once again I was wasting too much air - much too much - on the initial tunnel up to the "lips". Having the extra stress of an instructor breathing down my neck - mine only, I think the other pupil had dropped out or somthing - I really worked too hard, with "no finesse" as Brent said afterwards, and used up that stage bottle's third air supply by around the Grand Junction. More than this, I was breathing so hard at the Lips that I had to stop and rest, I was almost hyperventilating. At the end of the dive, of course, I had a nice carbon dioxide headache for my pains; and we only got round that fairly modest stage bottle dive by slightly cheating on my thirds. Then, after lunch, Brent suggested I take another dive while he went off and did whatever he had to do. But I had to be in town myself by 5pm or so, - no time to head off to Little River or wherever - so I took the dive at Devil's ear again, having only had about a 2 hour surface interval. I wanted to see if I could handle that stage bottle a bit better, which to a limited extent I may have done, but the thing I remember about the dive was that my CO2 headache returned rather quickly - not enough surface interval - and by the time I got to Thirds (I had gone up the hill 400 again, thinking to repeat the bat circuit dive without cheating on thirds), still maybe a little bit shy of the right place - it was close - for doing the circuit, the headache was making me feel a little nauseous too. Now headache and nausea are two of the lesser of the CONVENTID symptoms of possible oxygen toxicity (which is, you guessed it, of course made worse by overexertion and consequent CO2 buildup in the tissues). So, I did not proceed further with the circuit. I gently turned around, letting the current take me out, with hardly any exertion on my part. Gracefully exiting. Discretion the better part of valour and all that. But as I approached the exit I found I had another problem. I had forgotten - or not bothered - to set my dive computer, under the impression that it always went back to 79% Nitrogen (as in the air we breathe) if you left it alone between dives. This time it did not do so, it had stayed on 33% Nitrox (with only 67% Nitrogen), and since my tanks had been topped off with air by this stage (they'd be somewhere around 28% Nitrox, 72% Nitrogen), my dive computer's decompression calculations would be wrong for the actual mix of gases I was breathing, and moreover, wrong in the direction of more danger, not excessive caution as you would get by setting it to air when breathing around 28%. And I knew I needed a considerable mount of deco, because (a) I had done 2 substantial dives with an inadequate surface interval between them and (b) even on 33% deco, my computer wanted a couple of minutes at 20 feet plus a longish stop at 10 feet. So I had to guess my decompression requirements. I stopped for 5 minutes at 30 feet just in case, then did 15 minutes at 20' and 15 minutes more than the computer originally said to do at 10 feet. No doubt the little machine ended up wondering why it took me so long to get out of the water. But I avoided decompression sickness. D35. Leading Big Mark round the Serpentine passage. This dive, one of the ones from the '99 Florida trip, I remember because it was Big Mark's first dive since who knows when, and because he was out of practise he suggested I should go in front so he could learn from me. We did the merry-go-round circuit at Little River, which I just managed with the steel 95s and no stage. I remember feeling slightly pressured because he was "watching" me - a solo diver's feeling that, I am the only cave diver I know who feels slightly more comfortable diving solo. But all divers (says Brent) use more air when they lead a dive, so in some sense they must share my feelings. There's no objective reason why following should use less air - you can't really use the lead guy to shield yourself from the current the way you might when driving a car behind a truck - but all sorts of convincing psychological reasons. I wish to record I don't believe Big Mark learned anything so useful from me as I did from him (the efficient entry into Devil's Ear, for example). D36. The Big Room circuit with Big Mark. This is a dive I first did with Brent, who was taking a scooter class, clinging to his ankles to hitch a ride on his scooter. Then Mike and I did it as the last dive of my trip after the Full Cave certification sequence was complete. The two Marks had never done it, sadly Little Mark didn't arrive in time to join us this weekend, so off we went with Big Mark leading and me following. The true half way point on the circuit dive is 800 feet into the Big Room. Got there comfortably on thirds, indeed I got just back to the gold line before hitting thirds. The advantage of not having to lead rather plain to see. We both enjoyed the dive, first of the day, 33% Nitrox, very little deco. A lot of fun. D40, D41. The cavern certification dives, with "Top Cat" as instructor. TC is not my favourite diving instructor, because he seems to feel that making the student feel inadequate is part of the teaching process. Not a doctrine that I subscribe to, though as a Teaching Fellow of a Cambridge college I'd say my right to do so was at least as good as his. And even if he didn't succeed in making me feel small, he surely came close enough to get me good and mad at him. We hit Ginnie Spring for the first cavern dive, and for me the interesting thing was that I managed to hit the water with my tank valve only partly turned on. The second stage was mysteriously difficult to breathe, so I gave it the thumbs up and asked TC what he thought might be going on. He gave me the typical response "if-you- will-use-those-cheapie-Sea-Elite-regs..". We then went back down again and it's only by the grace of God that the safety drill didn't become for real because we did the entire dive with my tank valve only half-a-turn turned on. Finally I noticed when checking my gauge that the pressure was dropping from 1500 to 750 every time I inhaled, so I called it again and that time we worked out what had been happening. I can't remember how it was that I only turned it on half a turn. I've never made such a mistake before or since! It was something to do with all the buddy-buddy safety drills, I'd never done them before - or never nearly as many, we were crawling around the open water with my mask off my face at one point - and somehow the all important business of switching on the tap got only half done. As I often think, solo diving is much safer. With a buddy, you tend to make the set-theory union of TWO peoples' mistakes - and with the herd instinct giving you a false sense of security into the bargain! ** if I had been solo, doing my accustomed routine, the tap would have been on. ** if TC had checked me thoroughly he would have caught the half open valve, either immediately or when I complained of a hard breathing reg. ** between the two of us, we messed it up properly! That's the buddy system for you! Beware of false security! For the second dive we hit Devil's Ear. The air was cold - Florida can be at Easter - the water slightly warmer. We went down the high flow entrance and of course it took me forever to get down there against the current. Having got down, I wanted to adjust my buoyancy and for a few seconds couldn't find the power inflator valve. TC then abandoned the rest of the dive in favour of giving me a lecture on how it should be second nature to find my inflator valve. I never did get a C card out of him, even when Brent had fully cave certified me. He thought my "attitude" was "dangerous". If I hadn't hit upon Brent I would have permanently dropped out of cave certification - but would have gone on making more ambitious cave dives, mostly solo. And indeed I have done exactly that, so I guess TC didn't succeed in changing the dear old attitudes all that much. When all's said and done, a cave diver is a cave diver and you're not going to stop him - or her - that easily. To be fair, that's what was bothering TC. Example: They won't fill linked "doubles" tanks in Florida unless you are a certified cave diver; I had foolishly explained to TC that my first action on hearing this was to rig up a set of INDEPENDENT doubles tied together with big hose clamps. [I used it to make my early explorations of Little River's lower level. But to this day, the idea lives on when I use independent sidemounted doubles to explore England's relatively narrow passages.] I heard later on that TC's own instructor's C-card has since been suspended due to "infractions that we won't go into". Poor old TC. His attitudes had some of them become "dangerous"! It must have hurt. I would have meted out a lesser punishment if it had been up to me. Not no punishment. But a lesser one. D42. Non-dive at Ilam Main Rising, England. Solo. This one happened a long while ago, shortly after my cavern certification. Beautiful clear spring water, coming out of an entrance that no way could I get into wearing my doubles, or indeed anything on my back - the initial entry under a lip of rock is only about 9" high. I would not record it here except that I made a successful comeback with sidemount, see D43. ========================after the long gap=================================== At this point I start recording the dives as they happened again. D37-39. The weekend trip 10/9/99-12/9/99. D37. Hurtle Pot, Yorkshire, England. 10/9/99. Solo. Max depth 55' Water temp 52F, air temp ~65F. Weather good. Access, just drive up. Costs none. Visibility good, very good for England. Tanks 2x12 litre sidemounted (12 litre tank is roughly the European equivalent of the American Alu 80). Breathing gas: air. Dive profile, depths in feet at 3 minute intervals: 0 24 43 53 55 46 33 18 17 0 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxx Visibility bad even by usual standards of Northern England. Gave up at the Eastwall Outlet turnoff. Really low vis. D38. Joint Hole, Yorkshire, England. 10/9/99. Solo. Max depth 36' Water temp 52F, air temp ~65F. Weather good. Access, just drive up. Costs none. Visibility poor, red with tannic. Tanks 2x12 litre sidemounted (12 litre tank is roughly the European equivalent of the American Alu 80). Breathing gas: air. Dive profile, depths in feet at 3 minute intervals: 0 23 32 36 36 36 36 32 16 0 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Visibility equally bad but I persevered longer because it was a new dive I had never done. Different in that the entrance is down a fairly narrow downward slanting crack in the riverbed - presumably that gives the dive its name - and the passageway continues narrower than Hurtle Pot. So, though it wasn't essential, I was happy to be wearing sidemounted cylinders, with which I am becoming increasingly comfortable. Without them I don't think I would have got stuck, but probably would have bashed up the cave walls a bit. The red, peaty light reminded me of Myrtle's Fissure in Florida long ago (see Dive 6). This dive is going to be fun. D39. Wastwater, Lake District, Cumbria, England. 11/9/99. Solo. Coldest and deepest dive yet. Max depth 150' Water temp 46F, air temp ~65F. Weather cloudy but dry. Access, just drive up. Costs none. Visibility good, very good for England. Tanks 2x12 litre sidemounted (12 litre tank is roughly the European equivalent of the American Alu 80). Breathing gas: air. Dive profile, depths in feet at 3 minute intervals: 0 29 43 62 70 63 45 27 0 17 42 65 102 134 150 126 66 45 45 47 23 0 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxx xxx Rivals D38 for best dive of trip. Only open water but very interesting. It is the deepest lake in England. They used to reckon its depth at 258 feet, but divers report that in the right places the bottom is more like 110m, i.e. 365 feet. I went to 150 feet, quite deep enough to be a personal best and to give rise to a hitherto unexperienced complication. This arose on the way up. I ascended at what seemed like a normal speed from 150' to 100', but arriving at the 100' mark I felt a definite tendency to hyperventilate. Carbon dioxide being freed from my tissues I don't doubt; but it took a few seconds to get it under control (N.B. the water was also very cold, which no doubt exaggerates the tendency to hyperventilation. It was, naturally, colder the deeper I had gone). I must ascend slower from depth. That of course means planning extra air supply for the ascent, quite definitely a good idea because by the time I had done the full ascent from 150 and the deco had disappeared from my computer I was down to 200PSI in one cylinder and 400 PSI in the other (13 bar and 27 bar). Closer than one ought to cut it, "open water" dive or no. Trouble was I hadn't refilled my modest (2x12litre) tanks all weekend and was determined to get the most out of the last dive. I succeeded, but the experience should not be repeated or I might get bent. And of course "nice round number" syndrome set in when I was close to 150', but not quite there, at my planned turnaround. Had some trouble with buoyancy, that automatic dump cuff on my drysuit playing up again. A friendly diver at the dive site recommended attaching a plastic washing up sponge to the inside, so as to prevent the air getting trapped inside the suit. After leaving clouds of silt behind me on the first foray to 70', did better on the main dive. I'll try the plastic sponge trick next trip. Note that the dive computer log shows an average ascent rate of 20'/min between 126 and 66 feet. I was nonetheless going too fast some of the time and hence the hyperventilation. That "average" rate includes a gasping halt for breath around 100'! +++++++++++ at this point we interrupt for a brief letter, that I sent to my Floridian dive buddy from England +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dear Bernice, I have some fairly good and one outstanding photo of you all from the holiday. I am sending you that photo. My mother also enjoyed herself and got some good snaps. I finally got to go diving only the weekend before last - first trip since I got back - but it was a good one, I explored a spring I had never been in before, and on the open water side I went to England's deepest lake (depending on who you talk to it goes to somewhere between 208' and 365' deep), called Wastwater, and dived it to 150', which is a personal best depth for me. Also personal "best" (?) temperature, the average was 46F. My second cousin (daughter of my cousin Julia, about whom I spoke) Diane has decided - having heard various tales from me, and being definitely a water baby in her own right - that she wants to be a cave diver. The result of this is that tomorrow she and I will toddle along to the local scuba club and she will take a very safe, warm dive in a swimming pool. I have found something most unusual, an English cave dive where the water is very clear! That was last Saturday. It is also my first true sidemount dive - no way is it large enough to fit in wearing backmounted doubles, but sidemounts fit OK. Another little personal achievement! God Bless you, brother, I thank God for you I really do. With much love, Charles. D43. Ilam Main Rising, England. Solo dive. My first true sidemount dive - no way is it large enough to fit in wearing backmounted doubles, but sidemounts fit OK.. Max depth 30' Water temp 52F, air temp ~60F. Weather cloudy but dry. Access, sign in at the National Trust shop at nearby Ilam Hall. Costs none. Visibility good, best yet in English spring. Tanks 2x12 litre sidemounted. Breathing gas: air. Dive profile, depths in feet at 3 minute intervals: 19 20 0 5 16 30 28 5 xxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xx xxxxx xx To one used to Florida sized springs, the entrance chimney to this cave system is seriously small. As you can see from the profile, I went down the chimney, turned around and came out again, just to make sure I could - then went back down and along the higher level passage a little way (Ilam also has a deep passage that I didn't get to). Distance of penetration very slight, but extremely educational because of the pretty, narrow passages. Squeezing and twisting my sidemounted tanks to get into the entrance, then more delicate stuff to get down the chimney! To be returned to. The viz. on exit was NOT so good - difficult not to stir up the mud. D44. Ilam Main Rising, England. Solo dive. 25/9/99. This dive didn't really come off because the entrance to the already narrow passage had got some very fast water coming out of it and fair number of stones blocking it. Since the visibility was also well down, I decided to retire after messing around in the entrance for a few minutes. D45. Criccieth Beach, Wales. Solo dive 26/9/99. This beach dive came with rave reviews from "Dive", one of the British dive mags. I found it typically British, with atrocious visibility, not enough depth and the flora and fauna not really all that good looking. Dive profile roughly trapezoidal from 0 to 17 feet to 0 in about 40 minutes. Together with D44 this means the weekend trip was not wildly sucessful. Ah well. D46. Wastwater, 3/10/99. Solo. Max depth 117' Water temp 52F, air temp ~60F. Weather cloudy with some sun. Visibility good. Tanks 2x12 litre sidemounted. Breathing gas: air. 51 minutes downtime. Dive profile, depths in feet at 3 minute intervals: 32 50 53 54 57 76 10810078 56 92 11797 51 49 42 31 13 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxx xxx 3429 min feet+ 1734 surface =5163 min feet 151.9 minute atmospheres. 3050 PSI used out of 12l tanks (3050 left) 2440 liters. 2.44 m^3.*35.3147= 84.61 cubic feet SCR=0.557 Good dive. Relaxing - showed in air consumption which is not usually that low. D47. Joint Hole (on remains of tanks so not too far in). 4/10/99. Solo. Max depth 41' Water temp 50F, air temp ~60F. Weather sunny. Visibility good for Joint Hole, i.e. 10 feet. Tanks 2x12 litre sidemounted. Breathing gas: air. 26 minutes downtime. Dive profile, depths in feet at 3 minute intervals: 24 33 38 40 40 30 38 41 32 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxx 916 ft minutes plus 884 for the atmosphere. 1800 ft min. 52.94 atm. min. final pressures 800PSI and 1000PSI so 1250 PSI used from 12l tanks 1000l 1m^3 35.31 ft^3 SCR 0.67, more than the previous dive because there was still a fair flow once inside the Hole. The flood at Joint Hole seems to have left it fairly clean, I could see further than usual. A fun use for those 1500 PSI left in the tanks. JH is still quite high from all the rain - don't usually have 41' on the clock in the initial section. May have been a few feet further than I went before, even with the low air supply. The view as you come up the cavern entrance is really atmospheric, the sunlight above heavily reddened by the tannic acid in the water. Weekend overall SCR 119.92ft^3 for 0.59 ft^3/min SCR. D48. Hurtle Pot, 9/10/99. Solo. The Pot was no longer so high, but visibility was poor at circa 4 feet, and the muddy slope down to the entrance pool was Interesting in the persistent drizzle, especially with tanks on ones back. There was a perceptible increase in the flow as one got deeper in. I turned the dive at the base of the Hindenburg wall, rather early, because of the poor vis. One of the lines down there is in poor condition, two of the three strands of the poly rope having come adrift, leaving just one. I will repair that on my next dive there if nobody else has. Max depth 98' Water temp 50F, air temp ~60F. Weather drizzly. Visibility poor, ~4 feet. Tanks 2x12 litre sidemounted. Breathing gas: air. 31 minutes downtime. Dive profile, depths in feet at 3 minute intervals: 24 45 52 67 92 93 98 95 67 46 22 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx Air used: 3000+2900 before, 1500+2100 after so 2300 PSI used. 1840 liters used, 64.98 cubic feet. 2125 min feet+ 1054 surface = 3179 min feet 96.3 min atm. Surface Consumption Rate accordingly 64.98/96.3 = 0.67 cubic feet per minute. That seems like about the standard for a CAVE dive - open water, more relaxing so the SCR goes down a bit. D49. Hurtle Pot. 14/10/99. Solo. Max depth 93' Water temp 50F, air temp ~60F. Weather good. Visibility good, ~12 feet. Tanks 2x12 litre sidemounted. Breathing gas: air. 38 minutes downtime. Dive profile, depths in feet at 3 minute intervals: 17 40 58 87 93 75 36 40 63 93 87 50 32 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxx xxx This was a dive made much more fun by the improved vis. I went to the base of the Hindenburg wall (93'), then up it (36') and a little along the passageway that continues on; then came back, resulting in the W shaped dive profile you can see above. Extended the max distance I've been in here; this was pretty much the dive I wanted to do for D48, but I didn't then fancy extending the penetration in 4' vis. Good, fun dive. SCR calcs, 30+29->18+19, 12 liter tanks so 1760 litres, 62.15 ft^3. 107.12 surface minutes, so SCR=62.15/107.121=0.5801 I must fix that poly rope at the base of the H. wall sometime. One strand out of three will presumably not last the winter. D50. Joint Hole. 15/10/99. Solo. Max depth 38' Water temp 50F, air temp ~60F. Weather good. Visibility good, ~10 feet. Tanks 2x12 litre sidemounted. Breathing gas: air. 25 minutes downtime. Dive profile, depths in feet at 3 minute intervals: 30 36 38 19 24 38 36 23 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx This dive was to use up some of the air left over in my tanks from D49. The ascent to 19' was, I understand, the approach to the first airbell. SCR calcs, 18+19->13+13.5, 12 liter tanks so 840 litres, *.0353147= 29.66 ft^3. 47.87 surface minutes, so SCR=62.15/107.121=0.6196. D51. Keld Head. 16/10/99. Solo. Max depth 25' Water temp 49F, air temp ~60F. Weather good. Visibility fair, ~8 feet. Tanks 2x12 litre sidemounted. Breathing gas: air. 61 minutes downtime. Dive profile, depths in feet at 3 minute intervals: 13 13 18 21 21 21 21 21 21 20 19 24 25 23 20 21 21 21 21 17 13 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx A long, shallow dive. Could have been longer; I turned it because I was cold, not because thirds demanded it, at around 37 minutes downtime. Fascinating trying to fit what I saw to the map of the cave system. This being my first real trip into KH, the largest cave system in the UK, I was naturally sticking to the main line as far as I could, and the CDG have arranged the ropes (thicker than Florida "guidelines") so that it's easy to see which the main line is, it's the one, usually with thicker rope, that winds continuously through the junction, the other lines being knotted to it. In Keld Head, rather than using Dorff markers, they have rectangular metal markers exit side of every junction, that just say OUT. There were one or two critters in there, a fish that just sat there as I swam over the top of it, and a sort of small crawly shrimplike thing. It would be a bit like Peacock - long, slow, not very deep - except the temp and vis remind you you're in jolly England. As far as I can see from the map, I followed the main route from the entrance to about 200m inside, 200m (660 feet) in 37 minutes is extremely gentle finning, probably about right for a first intro to the system. I turned the dive somewhat after the thin line went up to the 182m airbell, but before the route gets complicated around the 220m airbell. Fun. I want to go back and do some more! One "technical" innovation: I used an extra line connecting the 2 sidemounted tanks together behind my back. It keeps them from dragging in the dirt. Worked rather well. I'll have the line a little bit tighter next time though. SCR calcs, 31+29->20+18, 12 liter tanks 1760 litres, 62.15 ft^3. 97.303 surface minutes, so SCR (Surface Consumption Rate) =62.15/97.303=0.6387 cubic feet per minute. D52 Hodge Close Quarry, Lake District, England. 16/1/00. This dive was very short but is worth mentioning because it was the first back in action after a longish break. I retired after 17 minutes because my lips were numb round the mouthpiece, with the cold. Didn't get as far as the cave dive part, just explored the quarry proper, but I will next time. Average water temp 45F. Max depth 75'. Had a nice weekend with Alan and Fiona Dix. Haggis and whisky for supper on Saturday. D53 Hurtle Pot. 30/1/99. Solo. Applied insanity this one with vis. down to under 2' due to the very heavy rain. The inline sinkhole had risen to occupy half of the 25' deep basin it usually sits in, and the muddy slope down to the waterline was extremely slippery. Water levels at 11' deeper than normal when I got deep enough to measure. The muddy slope has a permanent heavy line so you can climb in and out; it got used as a preliminary underwater guideline on THIS trip. A short jump reel was used to get from there to the usual guideline, normally this transition is done in air, today as I said at 11'. I shone my light along the main line and could see about 18 inches of it. I followed it, of course OKed on the line, down to the bottom of the scree slope that is normally the cavern - this time pitch black at the bottom of it - where I found a point where a recent modest fall of stones had covered enough of the guideline that I couldn't see where it continued. At this point I decided honour was satisfied and made an exit. I will come and play with removing the stones another time. Making the exit revealed the following deficiencies in my kit: my jump reel didn't have a plastic bobble on the end of its line so I couldn't get it off the heavy line without taking my right glove off. No big deal, except that by the time that had been done my right hand had become colder than any hand of C.J. Read has ever been in my life. Then it was impossible to climb the muddy slope in full drysuit and sidemounts so the tanks had to come off at the waterline; their clips that hold them on are not perfectly convenient either so this took some time, especially because I was determined not to get that right hand cold again so I did it one handed with the right hand holding the guideline. Everything absolutely covered in mud, I shall strip the regs before reuse. So I toddled off to tea at the Hollifields and spent a nice warm rest of the weekend in the Wirral. To my annoyance though, I think I left a backup light at the dive site. D54. Hurtle Pot. Preparing to go to Mexico. Did a few minutes at Hurtle Pot wearing "mixed doubles", unconnected but back mounted double 12 litre cylinders. First time I'd back mounted since last in Florida. Time to get used to it again! (I removed the stones from on top of the guideline, that I mentioned in D53). D55. Crystal Cenote. Mexico! 20/3/00 The one with the shallow entrance pool with the "swim hole" locals using it. Just off the main road beyond Tulum. Max 65', done on air. Circa 90 minutes including short deco stop. We were attempting 2 groups of three people each, splitting off from the initial team of 6. A shambles. Ended up with exactly the wrong teams under each dive leader. Rick, our "traffic cop", was blamed for this, but I was partly guilty of suspecting what was happening but not protesting vigorously enough to stop it. Shy little Englishman and all that. But also, we've only just got back to Mexico after a year's break, it has to take a little time for the teamwork to happen. D56. Mayan Blue Cenote. 20/3/00 Going along the "A" line, I had to call the dive on Brent (not something I do lightly on my seriously respected instructor) when down to halves plus 250 PSI. Ended with 850 PSI so I managed to gain 350 PSI on the return journey. D57. Grand Cenote. 21/3/00 Did the same route Steve Gerrard uses for photography trips. Extremely pretty, fairly easy. Getting in and out is an interesting challenge - rather vertical wooden staircase. Erich did a good job of setting the reels and finding the right jumps. D58. Cenote Carwash. 21/3/00 This is the one with the pretty, easy entrance pool; I had forgotten how pretty the main line is in there. Erich again did well finding the jump off to the room of tears - pretty, and a nice, slightly restricted jump off passage. D59, D60. 22/3/00. Sistema Nohoch Nah Chich. Enormous cave system 1 mile off the beaten track; access for scuba tanks by donkey. System fantastically beautiful and large scale - 52 miles long and counting. We did 2 dives of circa 90 minutes each. Superb. Not quite as petite as the Calimba, but gorgeous. Gorgeous. Visibility superb. Temp ~76F. Max depth 26'. We did ~180 minutes of diving on ~2100 PSI of air from the double Alu 80s. I am recovering from the cold I had at the beginning of the trip. Tylenol helped (thanks, Kim!). So I reckon did the Lord. My drysuit is helpful also because it keeps me very warm in these waters even though it leaks a bit. One of Brent's bright ideas, this particular dive. D61, D62. 23/3/00. Cenote Aktun Koh. D61: Brent, Jerry, CJR, Rick. In D61 we attempted to do the main upstream circuit, a loop of gold line shaped like a letter "q". However this did not work out because we lost a team member due to a misunderstanding in communication - he thought he and his buddy would turn the dive on their own because the buddy had reached thirds. We had discussed the possibility of splitting the 4 of us into 2+2 in this way. But we should NOT have ended with the team split 3+1. When Brent noticed this situation he turned the dive. Annoying, because we had just got to the half way point - to go on was no further than to go back. But with the risk that somebody was missing... Rather chaotic, and the subject of some serious debates when we all got back to base. D62: we returned to try to do it properly. And so we did, taking the loop clockwise this time; it is a very pretty dive. There are many side passages to explore, plus the downstream circuit which I haven't yet seen. D63. Grand Cenote, 26/3/00. Erich Brockard and CJR. In 9:55; Out 12:05; 2 hours 10 minutes. We did quite an ambitious dive, taking a stage bottle plus a plethora of reels. Jumped off the cavern line onto the main line, then off the main line towards the Cuisinart area (twice), then took the jump to the Northern passages, and in that northern passage found a pretty side tunnel that Erich had looked for before but missed. It is pretty, there was still more of it when we turned on thirds. D64, D65, D66: further into Aktun Koh. Erich Brockard + CJR. 27/3/00. D64: we went up the gold line and up the second jump to the north beyond the half way point. Very pretty. Some percolation problems on the way back, but nothing serious. Good dive. Erich turned on thirds. I had taken a stage so had a few PSI left at that point. (99 minutes, no deco). D65: (44 minutes) Aktun Koh downstream circuit. We did this on air left from the previous dive. Nice how in Mexico one can do 99 minutes and still have most of ones air supply left. D66: (82 minutes, if I remember correctly). "Wonderland" side passage at Aktun Koh. Erich B. + CJR This dive slightly strained the relationship between the dive buddies, and also strained the torch batteries - mine failed about 1/3 into the dive, Erich's about 2/3. Our problems began with Erich telling me to `hold' when we were some way up the first side passage in upstream AK. He wandered up to the ceiling looking for the gold line (which wasn't there). I inflated my BC and rose vertically above the line we were on to see what he was doing. ACCORDING TO ME: vertically above the line is in any case the correct place to be if one is stationary for any reason in a dive. ACCORDING TO HIM: I had MOVED from where he left me, he was terrified we would never find the line again, etc., etc. So we went on, Erich turning the dive at a fairly tight restriction. Back towards the main line we had another little incident where Erich didn't like the amount of silt I stirred up pulling and kicking myself through an awkward restriction. My `well you've got to expect some zero vis. in restricted passageways' did not go down well afterwards. I think Erich is slightly afraid of the silty dark. He isn't afraid of tight passages per se, but when it's obvious there has to be silt, he gets nervous. He actually refused to take the second side passage we had planned, instead going for a rather tame run up the gold line (which we had both done before). Mutual trust about zero, I'm afraid. I think I might return and `dive this plan' solo. It would be quite interesting [I did not in fact have time to do so! But it would still be interesting - next time]. D67. 28/3/00. Erich B. + CJR. Grand Cenote, northern passages beyond the Cuisinart area. 121 minutes (1 stage bottle). We did considerably more of the northern side passage at Grand Cenote. Very small and pretty and delightful, I've got to hand ot to Erich here, he chose an excellent dive. There was one very pretty point that I think I've seen in a photo somewhere, where the speleothems look like 2 parallel ladders with the line threading its way between them. Excellent. D68. 28/3/00. Cenote Calimba!! 71 minutes, buddy Erich. Yes!! I made it back to the Calimba! Glorious, glorious diving. It's petite, it's beautiful, not to be missed. Wonderful. (We went in and out at the C., travelling leisurely along the line to where it T's with the line from Grand Cenote.) (One gets the key - and permission to dive - from Don Armando at the Pollo Azteca shop in Tulum). D69. 29/3/00. Cenote Chac Mool (Jaguar Cave). Solo. So, back to solo diving (Erich flew back to Germany this morning). Nobody to blame me; nobody except me to blame if things go wrong. Nobody but the Lord to thank if things go well. Friendships are wonderful, but in some ways this kind of diving is still somehow the centre of it all for me. 119 minutes, max depth 46'. It is difficult to find the gold lines at this site. When I had done so the upstream passage wound into the darkness, (I never did find the downstream gold line) wandering along the line of the halocline, relatively undecorated compared to Cenote Calimba! But not a bad dive. D70. 29/3/00. Cenote Chac Mool (Jaguar Cave). Solo. 80 minutes, max depth 46'. Went a similar route to D69 but did find one very pretty decorated room near the entrance. Not my favourite cave but not a bad day's diving. D71. 30/3/00. Solo. Cenote Cristalino -> Cenote Azul -> Cenote Cristalino. 90 minutes. After some messing around finding the lines, I took the route marked (1) on my sketch map (sorry this is not yet on the web). Very few decorations, but a pretty, brackish-water cave. Brightly coloured fish swim in Cristalino's entrance pool. D72. 30/3/00. Solo. Cenote Cristalino -> Cenote Kantun Chi -> Cenote Azul -> Cenote Cristalino. 127 minutes. Took the route marked (2) on the sketch map. Again, a pretty cave but no decorations. At this point my dive times for the last 4 days were 217 mins, 199 mins, 192 mins, 225 mins. I was exhausted, so next day I took the morning off. D73. 31/3/00. Cenote Dos Ojos; a good bit of the River Run. 122 minutes. Solo. Cenote Dos Ojos Cavern is huge with brilliant decorations. Once I had explored it I returned to the entrance pool and recalculated thirds with 2600 in my doubles and 2000 in the stage. But I only allowed sixths for penetration down the "river run" downstream line because it is a significant siphon. So, 600 PSI for penetration ***. Enough to get me most of the way to Cenote Dos Palmas, I had seen 3 arrows pointing forwards when I turned. I used 833 PSI on the return trip, so leaving an extra factor of 2 was on the safe side of reasonable. *** 2600 + (2000 in stage) = 2600+1000=3600 in doubles; 3600/6=600 PSI to breathe from my doubles before turning on sixths. These doubles are EXACTLY twice the size of the stage. The river run is very well decorated, though most of the decorations are covered in tannic. The flow is not impossible to swim against, though a traverse would clearly be preferable. [NB I think there has been little rain recently so flow rate is probably low by usual standards] A pretty cave well worth the visit. Cavern area the most impressive I have ever seen. My first significant siphon cave except under the tuition of Uncle Brent! Incidentally, skipping a dive was probably right, I am wide awake as I write this log. Last night I could barely stand up. D74. 1/4/00. The `river run' circuit at Cenote Ponderosa (completely different `river run' to the Dos Ojos system in the previous dive). Solo. 80 mins, max depth 51'. As indicated on the diagram (sorry, not yet on the Net) I did the river run circuit clockwise, covering the ?? 2250 feet - if I remember correctly - on 1650 PSI from my doubles, the stage being untouched. Since the route is almost always in sight of air after Cenote Zacil (about 3/4 of the way around), I did not think this a threat to health, though it is a little more than 1/3 of my total air supply (1/3 of my total air supply being 1500 PSI from my doubles, roughly). The `river run' is a pretty cave, though with few decorations (as with the bits at Cenote Cristalino, same system, in D71-2). I was tempted to divert to the `needles room' at the obvious junction at the half way point, but that would have made it a little naughty to go on and finish the circuit. One shouldn't try to do everything on the first trip into a new cave. D75. 1/4/00. Cenote Ponderosa -> The Chapel -> Cenote Ponderosa. 111 minutes. Solo. 46' max depth. This dive also worked very nicely. I got to the Chapel (recognizable because the ceiling - in air, and then underwater - becomes quite suddenly studded with thousands upon thousands of stalactites, just as in the photo in Steve Gerrard's book). The Chapel is the shallow bit of the dive - one has to surface because gap from floor to water surface is about 2 feet, then a further 3 feet to the ceiling. The deeper bit is, as usual in these parts, below the halocline. I was comfortably inside thirds at the Chapel, and might have gone on to Cenote Kantun Chi, but upon leaving the air dome of the Chapel, I had difficulty clearing my right ear and so decided to turn. A further minute in the chapel - admiring the decorations - and I was able to clear it as I descended for the return journey. 4832' round trip. Irritation: one of my fins has a break in its plastic just where it gets most stressed when swimming. I will get some more. D76. 2/4/00. Cenote Tortuga. 160 minutes, max depth 85'. Solo. I went to this (to me) new cave system, which has 2 levels, the fresh water level around 45' with many striking decorations (but it walls out after 1200'), and the saltwater level around 80' which has passages that continue unexplored. I did the deep bit first for decompression reasons, following one of several lines in the lower level until it came to an end and I was nearly at thirds. Returning to the jump I recalculated my air supply, knowing I needed only 300 PSI to get out from there. And I followed the freshwater passage until it forked, and followed one fork until almost walled out and too narrow for me in doubles + buddy bottle. Returning to the entrance at 110 minutes, Rick's dive computer then stung me for 50 minutes deco at 10'. It doesn't tell you how long in advance! Both halves of Tortuga are worth a visit, the upper level well decorated and the lower level rather like bits of Devil's Ear in Florida - long passages with a cross section like a large inverted keyhole. A good dive. D77. 2/4/00. Final dive of trip. Cenote Calimba. 82 minutes. Solo. Max depth around 45'. I kept this one shorter than I originally intended because of the big dive in Tortuga in the morning. My tissues were quite well loaded and I have to fly at midday tomorrow. I was originally going to make for Cenote Bosh Chen, but instead I turned right at the end of the Calimba line and explored a bit of the Sak Actun system that was unfamiliar to me. But before I had done much of that, my computer was saying `time elapsed 39 minutes, no deco limit 42 minutes' so I turned, not wanting to do a second deco dive. A beautiful finish to a beautiful trip. Note: a decompression symptom after D76. A couple of days previously I had fallen on my right hand and quite severely bruised the pad of muscle under my right thumb. After D76, as I got out, the right thumb felt numb, a feeling that went away quite suddenly after a few minutes had passed. In the absence of any other symptom, it would be paranoia to call this `decompression sickness', but it is, I reckon, decompression related. The muscles were swollen by the bruising, reducing blood supply to the thumb. On ascent, microbubbles reduced circulation still further, producing the symptom described. They cleared up after a few minutes (as good bubbles do!). No symptoms whatever during the return flights home - I was on the alert. Praise the Lord, end of story. 3 "Technical" points that worked well during the Mexico trip. (1) Wearing my old, leaky British 8mm drysuit. Kept me warm as toast when those around me were getting cold in their 3-4mm wetsuits. Plus the advantages of redundant buoyancy, especially useful to a solo diver such as I. (2) Relaxing the tightness of my fin straps. They still don't fall off, and I no longer get pain in my feet when I do lots of kicking, especially lots of frog kick. So I do more frog kick; which is definitely `cave friendly'. (3) Returning against the current in Dos Ojos, I caught myself overexerting just as I have done many times in Devil's Ear; noticed the problem; stopped; took several deep slow breaths; continued at a more moderate level of exertion. Very much more comfortable and air-efficient. Do this EVERY time the situation arises. D78-80. First dives involving the EP (Engineering Project - a homemade rebreather). Wastwater, Sun 18 June & Mon 19 June. I started with a short open circuit dive to make sure all that stuff was working - after all I hadn't done any diving since Mexico. Then I got out the rebreather and tried to dive with it. Well, no leaks. That's the good news. Bad news though was I was so positive with the RB under my chest that I couldn't submerge! The EP is about 17 pounds positive when its counterlung is inflated. On the Monday morning I returned with every pound of extra weight I could dig out of the car, and was just able to get under. I went down to the mighty depth of 10 feet. But to quote my article in alt.sport.dive.rebreather: "noting that it still didn't leak and was still breathable (I refilled manually with fresh air one breath in two), nonetheless it is very cumbersome and gets in the way of nearly every other piece of kit I want to reach. (this was the simplest design I could find on the Net, the TP2000 (see http://www.nwdesigns.com/rebreathers/TP2000/Default.htm), which mounts at the front not the back). I shall rethink the layout and fit an O2 sensor before returning to the water." There we go , another little challenge for me! D81. "Sidemount Follies" at Ilam Rising. I had dinner with a delightful Florida cavediver called Devin Mackenzie, who I promised to take round some of the rather unimpressive British cavedives (this guy has dived with the wkpp!). Having done so I decided it would be a good idea to have another look at Ilam Rising myself before taking someone else there. Good job I did. Since my last dive there quite a large number of stones have fallen into - or further into - the entrance, and I had to excavate somewhat. Then there was a little squeeze getting under the lip, where the gravel was just a little more than last year, and then I made the probably wrong decision that since things were more cramped than before, I would play it safe and go in backwards. Forgive me I am still learning sidemount diving! Of course this meant going in by Braille, vis variable 0 to 6 inches. And backwards is MUCH harder than forwards. So I descended the entrance in an absolute cloud of filth. I had changed the clips on my sidemount bottles to make them easier to get on and off. And so they were, worked very well indeed. So well in fact that my right hand bottle made a successful bid for freedom half way down the chimney - it was clipped on with a "double D" clamp (perhaps not a good idea) half of which had come undone. Fortunately I had a second clamp holding the bottle at the neck so it couldn't float away (besides there was nowhere to go!) but all the same I decided to come back out and sort my kit out. Having ascended in an even bigger cloud of filth I got to the top and was assailed by extreme laziness; I "blew off" all further diving in favour of an enormous mid-afternoon lunch. To be continued. For D82-D101 see the file "mexico.txt" in the same directory. D102-104. Testing out the DDR-1. Ever since the very early days of my interest in diving, it has been my view that I should construct a home made rebreather for diving in caves. Indeed, one of the reasons why TC and I did not see quite eye to eye when he was teaching me my cavern class, was that my BC was partly covered in calcium hydroxide dust from an early attempt to use it as a counterlung, a situation which he mysteriously felt inappropriate in a diver with only a few dozen dives under his belt. I can't think why.... even now of course the number of dives I've done is miniscule compared to a Floridian like him, but.. ..Having now made a more serious attempt at construction, I wandered down to Wast Water to try it out. The first time I tried this it promptly flooded. The second time, the main rebreather did not flood but the PO2 display - a digital multimeter attached to the valves in front of my nose - did flood over a period of a few minutes. Having blown 10 pounds on a new multimeter, and having protected it rather better from the water, I returned to the lake and tried again. This time it worked, and I dared to take my creation to a depth of positively six feet. At this point I noted that every weight I had was barely enough to sink me with the buoyant rebreather in tow (achieving negative buoyancy depended on slightly starving the counterlung of air) so I retired. But since I made the first real dive in it, I have decided to give my little creation a name, to wit the "DDR-1" or "Darwin Defying Rebreather (Mark One)". On the subject of Darwinian (i.e. dangerous) activity, one may ask what has my little rebreather got by way of safety features that others don't. Well, not all rebreathers have their main PO2 displays mounted on top of and back of the mouthpiece, where they are hardest to ignore. This position has (as you read) cost me a 10 pound multimeter, but it might save my life. Others put the display in a pod on your wrist, so that you can ignore it until hypoxia or hyperoxia knocks you unconscious. I also heard of a near-death experience on a computerised rebreather, which had a sequence of questions to which you have to answer YES by pressing a button, before it would switch on (Q. Are you sitting comfortably? YES.. Q. Have you notified the local morgue just in case?? YES.. and so on). Only problem is, if you answer yes to N-1 of the N questions asked, forgetting to press the YES button the last time, your rebreather is left in a state where the sensors are giving a reading, and the unit seems superficially to be working, but it won't supply you with any oxygen - the solenoid won't fire. My friend made this mistake, and some minutes later noticed he wasn't feeling too good. Looking down at his gauges he saw they were quite unanimous - 0.12 atmospheres on all three. He was in my view a bit lucky to survive (would his buddy have responded fast enough if he'd lost consciousness? One of those ifs of history...). That was his view as well. He doesn't intend a repeat. The DDR-1 is being designed with that sort of thing in mind, and at present its display is switched on by 2 switches, and it is immediately obvious (display blank or reading around zero) if this hasn't been done properly. When I feel more confident that it's really working, I'll stick the design somewhere on this webpage.