The full easter 2002 Mexico trip was for 2 weeks and contained 24 dives. here are the logs. D1. Friday 19th. 75 minutes. Cenote Temple of Doom. Kit configuration dive. Primary reel is missing its knob for reeling it in. Primary light the battery was loose inside the case, causing it to jump around and knock the bulb out of its holder. Shouldn't really have continued with only 2 lights but did. A hose was leaking. A reg. was breathing a little hard. A fair number of things to fix. Entry to Temple of Doom is difficult, 8 foot jump to enter and steel ladder to exit. Heavy going in doubles + buddy bottle. Fun dive, but didn't more than scratch the surface of this system, which is new to me. D2. Sistema Abejas. 80 minutes. Sat 20th. Found a longish line but nothing gold. A good dive by and large. $60 pesos (US $7) entry fee. The entrance area is rather well equipped with mozzies and biting flies. Entry itself is easy, a short walk over rocks. Several lines still to explore - and that's just the ones I know are there. Total length of the system is a large number, 4 miles if I remember rightly. At one point the water is polluted, obvious sewage intrusion at the roof of the cave. I kept low down! I must get some mozzie rep. D3. Cenote Temple of Doom. 110 minutes inc. deco 7@10. Temple of Doom is worthy of many more dives than these two, but after 60 minutes' penetation you begin to get the feel of the system. Found the originals to a couple of the photos in Gerrard's book, the Madonna formation is close to the entrance, the Fang further in. Max 59 feet, 77F, dive profile 41,46,47,55,58,57,53,45,42,43,47,39, 36,35,37,37,34,34,37,38,34,35,38,37,36,42,49,46,44,55,59,578,56,42,11,11. D4. Aktun Koh. Buddies Erich and Jeff. Up mainline to second arrow after the half way mark. Jumped off to very well decorated side passage. Excellent dive. 87 min, max 43 ft., 75F. Profile 17,28,25,26,21,19,17,29,30,39,38,43,42,22,9, 9,41,39,32,37,39,29,26,20,17,26,29,30,28,6. D5. Downstream Aktun Koh. Wonderland side passage. (so pretty it's not marked with a line arrow; turn left just AFTER the first line arrow on the anticlockwise arm of the main circuit). EXTREMELY pretty. We wound up with 1500 left and went up the dreamworld side passage upstream as well. Max 44'; 144 minutes; 74F. Profile 35,41,40,23,28,23,30,30,30,25,28,21,31,36,35, 32,21, 31,38,35,29,43,43,28,9,0,17,26,40,38,42,44,44,43,40,38,29,20,6. D6. Monday. The Calimba. Buddy Peter Vogt. We went in 2 teams of 2 looking for good offshoots; Brent and marion were the lucky ones. But, the Calimba is beautiful anyway; and I know where the offshoots are for future reference. 79 mins, max 43', 75F. D7. Grand cenote -> Much's maze area. Solo. Brent and Peter Vogt were looking for a sidemount downstream tunnel (goes eventually to Cenote Naval) from Grand cenote but failed to find it. I went solo up Paso de Lagarta and into the Much Maze area. Very pretty. Turned after 72 minutes. 113 mins. Max 40'. 75F. D8. Tuesday. Jailhouse Cenote. Buddy Peter Vogt. Team of 4 with the other pair Erich and Joe. This cenote is a little treasure, part of the Naharon/Mayan Blue system but a 6 minute walk into the jungle from where you can park a car. But its upper (30-40') level is pretty, and its lower (ca. 70') level is awesome, with magnificent limestone columns, and a Mayan skeleton pretty complete, which must date from when the water level was lower, and the cave at least partly dry. An excellent dive. 78 mins, max 74', 76F. The skeleton was found due to Joe's knowledge of the cave. You wouldn't just run into it. D9. Cenote Mayan Blue. 46 mins. max 76'. 76F. We took the B line to where it meets the A line, did a jump to the A line heading out, then jumped off first left into the Death Arrow side passage. Finally returned along the A line, to which Death Arrow returns. A modest second dive so as to keep the deco down in the (for Mexico) unusually deep waters. Note: but not quite modest enough! Jeff got an unearned skin bend in spite of adhering to his computer and keeping the same profile as the rest of us. Not serious but most inconvenient. My rental car came in handy doing a little ferrying hither and thither. They're a decent bunch at the recompression chamber in Playa del Carmen. D10. Wednesday. Grand Cenote to Lithium Sunset area. Buddies: Brent and Joe. We went up the paso de Lagarta and took the first left jump after the right hand one to the Much's Maze. After some time this comes to a T junction, left is the Lithium Sunset area and right is the Cenote Azteca/Cenote Calimba area. At that point we met the other team (Peter, Erich and Marion) coming from Calimba. We headed left down the Lithium Sunset line for a while, then returned to the junction and went up past the Azteca area, turning on thirds about 5 minutes (by later estimation) short of the Calimba jump (which is currently a mauve carabiner forming a snap-and-gap). Returning with the current was much quicker than coming. 127 minutes. D11. Wednesday afternoon. Sak Aktun: Cenote calimba to the Cenote Azteca area. Solo. This dive linked up with the same passage as the previous one. I took the conspicuous jump right from the Calimba line (two red arrows within a foot or so) and followed the extremely pretty, pristine side passage to where it meets the paso de los dos pozos at the well known wall. Then down the main line towards the cenote Azteca/Lithium Sunset areas. All very pretty and enjoyable. Left a "hero marker" near the mound just South of the Azteca area. 101 minutes. D12. Thursday. Grand Cenote. Solo. The dive plan for this dive was to find the downstream line that Brent and Peter had not found (see D7). I took 99 minutes and still failed to find it, though I found a couple of other little lines I didn't previously know about. But I finally found it after D13. D13. Grand Cenote. Solo. went up the Ho-Tul/Cuzan-Nah/"Steve Gerrard Photo Shoot" area. Very pretty, not too demanding. Then I made one more attempt at finding the downstream line and hit it almost immediately. Went along it far enough to establish that it really "goes", and returned. 122 minutes, 75F, max 40'. D14. Friday. Cenote Calimba -> Cenote Bosh Chen. Buddies Lazarus (I mean Jeff) and Marion. It was extremely nice to see Jeff diving again, though strictly this was against doctor's orders. We went to the end of the Calimba line, jumped right onto the main (top end of the paso de Lagarta) line for a few feet, then off to the left and the Bosh Chen line. Took also the next left jump that makes a loop via Bosh Chen. Very lovely. Circa 105 minutes. Dive 15. Friday afternoon. Cenote calimba -> Paso de los dos pozos -> Trap Door -> Chicklet Highway. Solo. My cool down dive while the rest were off-gassing in preparation for flying home on Saturday (I don't leave until Thursday). Went right at the end of the Calimba line, following the passage to the jump off (orange marker) to First Hope Passage - at least, I thought it was going to First Hope passage! - in fact I had misunderstood Joe's instructions (he had been here already with the other team while we were doing Calimba to Bosh Chen). I followed the passage for about 300 PSI (when I hit thirds). In fact it was not First Hope passage but the Trap Door passage - that first restriction where you're under the ledge is the "trap door". Then some pretty, sharply curved passageway, "Chicklet Highway". Leads to the remotest part of the upstream section. Lovely! [ I forgot to record the time/depth/temp. for this dive ]. Dive 16. Saturday. Lithium Sunset done properly. 150 minutes, max depth 58', 6@10 deco, 2 stage bottles. 150 minutes of pure joy as I returned to the Lithium Sunset passage and did it properly (we didn't really get far into it on D10). Really well decorated, delicate rooms dwindle into cheesy salt passages. I turned the dive when my computer said "57', deco in 3 minutes" - the map shows the passage continuing a little further, to a max of 60 feet depth, but I had done most of it and didn't want to be hit with too much deco. Besides, I was beginning to feel cold [later long dives I wore my drysuit]. This is a 2-stage-bottle dive, at least if you breathe at my rate and are solo (air management better be on the safe side). I dumped the first one at the T where the more southerly route into Lithium Sunset turns off left. Of course I kept my buddy bottle, which was the second stage. Now the choice of place to dump Bottle One was made as follows: it is impossible to get to that T on one third of a stage bottle. But I dropped it there nonetheless because it is my belief that when a stage bottle hits thirds you should breathe something else, but continue carrying it further into the cave in case you need it in a hurry on the way out; preferably carry it until it would have hit two thirds if you'd been breathing it all that way, so it's at the furthest point from which you can exit using that stage alone if push comes to shove (as we all hope it won't). The Lithium Sunset T about fitted that description. A small point, which I wouldn't insist on if I had a buddy, but feel is important when I'm solo. I don't wish to stir sad memories, but if a certain stage bottle had been 150 feet further in to a certain cave, a very nice man called Steve Birman might be with us to this day. I went up the paso de Lagarta, jumped off left as in D10 circa 300' after the jumpoff to Much's Maze, and then jumped left at the T because that was a route into Lithium Sunset that I hadn't seen before. This goes round and meets the main line into Lithium Sunset where I jumped back onto it (turning left). Once in the Lithium area I turned R. at the first (lines-meet) junction then R. again at the second, turning after 77 minutes, with depth 57' and penetration circa 3400 out of the possible 3723. 75F. profile 18,36,36,38,37,39, 36,37,38,40,40,38,39,38,39,38,39,39,39,40,38,38,45,55,57,58,50,37,39,39,39,39, 38,39,38,39,38,40,38,37,39,38,38,37,35,20,13,14,8. Dive 17. Downstream Grand Cenote to first of the "Four Doors" cenotes. Sidemount shakedown dive. 54 minutes. LOTS of kit configuration problems. The passage itself is pretty, though the floor of the downstream is dark mud, not limestone fragments. I shall return to this and do more later. Max 20'. 75F. profile 16,19,20,18,17,15,15,13,19,19,19,12,14,13,20,17,18,9,6. Dive 18. Sunday. Cenote calimba to Pabilanny passage loop. 181 minutes including 12@10 deco. Turned at 93 minutes. My longest dive yet, the first over 3 hours. Max 47', 75F. I went through the calimba with 2 stages and turned right into the passage that leads to the trap door area. Deploying a reel to the right, I duly entered the trap door line and passed along the Chicklet Highway to the Y junction where you choose Tum Ben Beh section (right) or Si Bi Beh section (left). I went left and entered the pabilanny passage. Fairly soon you come to a junction of 4 ways; I took the second from the left, which loops round back to the right hand line as I afterwards discovered. I took a right randomly when my line ended at a junction and presently found myself back at the 4 way split (which I had personalised). I called it there on air and retraced my steps, retrieving the reel from further up the passage. At the final end of the dive i had some trouble with positive buoyancy. I need to carry an extra weight to avoid this if I have 4 light aluminium tanks depleted of air. Quite a substantial dive for yours truly, though the record of X. miles from air is not yet about to be challenged by me. A pleasant and an interesting experience. Oh and I wore my drysuit, emerging after 3 hours without a shiver. Helps if one has a stage or two. 24,28,31,38,42,45,42,41,41,43,41,40,40,40,39,40,39,39,41,41,42,42,43,41, 43,47,47,47,43,44,44,43 (turnaround), 46,47,46,43,41,42,42,40,40,40,40,40, 40,41,41,41,43,42,41,42,42,38,30,28,16,13,13,13,13. Dive 19. Monday. grand cenote to entrance to calimba area via paso de Lagarta. In this dive I retrieved a stage bottle i had left at the downstream end of the Calimba line, so as not to bash up the calimba area by going through it twice with 2 stages. I went up the paso de lagarta and got the bottle. pleasant, undemanding dive. 100 minutes, max 41', 75F. 22,34,36,38,37,39,36,32,35,39,40,39,40,41,40,40,40,41,39,40,40,40,40,39,37,37,39, Dive 20. Downstream Sak Aktun. Grand cenote to Door #3 of the 4 Doors Cenotes. Solo. The joy of this little dive is it's sidemount only territory. I had not brought my usual sidemount gear from England, but decided to go in with 2 sidemounted tanks attached to my doubles backplate - which since it has a raised ridge down the middle is not an ideal shape. So I got past a few sidemount-only restrictions, including the "Twister" and "Pickpocket" restrictions on Bill Phillips' map, but I couldn't get through the first Mouler restriction without more trouble than I reckoned wise - after all there's onlt Little Charles to get Little Charles out of trouble if returning turns out to be harder than getting in. And basically, the ridge on my backplate was jamming in the crack; so I knew I was in the wrong kit, and could cure my problem by changing it to something better. The snake cenote and the three "Doors" cenotes that I saw (out of the total of four) are pretty, as is the passage itself. I shall return with proper sidemount gear. Max 19', 83 mins, 76F. Profile 18,18,15,15,14,18,18,17,13,17,17,14,14,14,16,17,15,9,17,16,19,14,15,16,16,18,15,1 The passage is a fairly strong siphon tunnel. I'd recommend more than thirds caution with air supply, except that there are lots of alternative exits to air. Dive 21. Tuesday. Pabilanny setup dive. 83 mins 44' 75F. In this dive I put a stage bottle into the paso de los dos Pozos from cenote calimba, in preparation for the dive which follows. Dive 22. Cenote Calimba -> Cenote Pabilanny round trip. 209 mins, max 44 feet, 75F. Solo. Note: this dive can, and with a team of divers probably should, be done with 2 stages; but I, totally unfamiliar with the far upstream end and solo, allowed myself three for a 209 minute dive including 21@10 deco (The dive was preceded by an 83 minute setup dive in which the third stage bottle was placed at a suitable point in the paso de los Dos Pozos upstream of the Calimba snap-and-gap. I placed it when my doubles had been breathed to Thirds so the stage was well forward in the system, which is where I believe a stage should be, so it's closer to hand if there's trouble at the remote far end) This dive begins with the beautiful Calimba, which however you can only partly spend your time on because you must pay attention to your two stage bottles (or stage and buddy bottle if you prefer - one will get dropped shortly). Coming out of the brilliantly decorated Calimba, into the more normal Paso de los dos Pozos, one presently catches up with the stage bottle dropped on the previous dive and one makes a swap, the dropped bottle having been breathed to thirds. Continuing down the varied passage, some plain, some decorated, some minor restrictions, one comes first to a junction involving two red arrows a foot apart; then, a very short while later, to the single orange arrow which marks the one and only jump in this long dive. Deploying a (primary!) reel one proceeds into the restricted area called the trap Door which leads to the far upstream section. Good job it's undecorated, there was plenty of clanging of tanks as I went through it. One follows the line until one comes to an all-lines-meet Y junction where one takes the left branch that leads into the Pabilanny passage. Then another three-lines-meet Y with a fourth line a foot away on the left, and one takes the right branch of the Y (that's where I made a navigation error on a previous attempt at this dive plan). All quite open, unrestricted passageway. A little while later I judged that with 2000 PSI left in my doubles it was now safe to drop a second stage bottle (with 2400 PSI left in it) and continue until I had 1200 PSI left in my doubles (the buddy bottle having already been breathed down to 2400 PSI). [ my air planning for the dive was to have 1200 in my doubles = 2400 in the buddy bottle = 2400 in the second dropped stage at turnaround; any two of these would very comfortably get me back to the first dropped stage, and with the favourable tail wind would in fact have got me right out of there. This is a variant of the thing I do when solo of breathing the doubles down to halves and taking nothing from the buddy bottle, so either of them will get me out.] A little further ahead and - what a joy! - the line arrows change direction, indicating that I'm now close to Cenote Pabilanny. And as if to reward a long dive, the passage becomes superlatively decorated - the decorations really a feast to the eye - I was glad I was down to one buddy bottle so as not to damage the decorations - and then the ascent begins, you find yourself going up a nearly vertical wall, and at the top you're among tree roots, still with fine decorations around you. Finally you see daylight and surface at the cenote - you are at the bottom of a 12 foot chimney with sunlight at the top. There are ropes in the chimney so plainly some of the exploration of this section was done from cenote Pabilanny [In fact not so! Bill Phillips says he set the ropes up but didn't in fact use them] In fact I got to Cenote Pabilanny with about 1500 left in my doubles. Thus, there was plenty of air for the exit. Good job too, because I got back to the first dropped stage, all prepared to do a nice cool swap with the now-down-to-500-PSI second one - & found it was missing an O ring (I was swapping regulators from stage to stage because the whole dive had to be accomplished with only three regs). Not only that but I discovered this after I had removed the reg from Stage Two, and in the heat of the moment I couldn't get it to fit back on to Stage Two without leaking. So, I was minus 2500 PSI of a single from total air supply unless I paused and fixed something. Not too threatening, the safety margin in my air supply could handle it comfortably; but enough to set me thinking and convince me not to play that game of swapping the regs except in emergency. Buy an extra couple of regs, Charles! You know it makes sense!! I carried the extra stage all the way back to the Calimba entrance just in case something else happened and I was forced to get fixing. Just inside the Calimba I know 800 PSI in doubles or 1600 in a stage gets me out comfortably; now my doubles had 1000 and my buddy bottle 1750. Stage One was gratefully clipped to the line and left at that point. My 100% redundancy was mercifully restored without it, or the 500 PSI in Stage Two either. The return trip through the Calimba was uneventful, though by the end of the 21@10 deco my primary light was dimming. Leaving it on as I climbed out, I saw it dim to a glowworm thread within the next 20 minutes or so. I tried again to get Stage Two to fit properly; and of course, with the pressure now off, it worked. * My most challenging dive yet. * One of my best dives yet - perhaps the best. * beautiful at the start (Calimba) and finish (Pabilanny). * my longest single dive (209 minutes) and longest total day's diving (292 minutes). * Certainly my furthest penetration yet - how far I'm not exactly sure, I might ask Bill Phillips, one of the original explorers, who lives just down the road. [But in fact I forgot to do so]. * I retrieved the first stage bottle (minus its O ring) the following day, just before Dive 24 in fact. I had dropped it again just inside the Calimba passage. Dive 23. Wednesday. stage bottle retrieval. Went in at Cenote Calimba and recovered my stage. 46 mins, max 42', 75F. One of the shoulder straps on my backplate worked its way loose. Most uncomfortable. I couldn't figure out why the weight of my backplate had shifted to the right. I'm glad it didn't happen during the previous dive. Dive 24 (and last of trip). All the "Four Doors" cenotes. Cracking the sidemount restrictions immediately downstream of Grand Cenote. 94 minutes, max 33 feet, 75F, solo. A good dive for last dive of trip, nice and shallow so not to prejudice chances of avoiding DCI during plane flight home the next day. The classic parts of the Sak Aktun cave system all lie upstream of the main entrance point, the Grand Cenote. Nestling in an odd spot around the walls of Grand Cenote, though, is a downstream continuation which for many years was undiscovered. Recently it has been explored by Bill Phillips, Dan Lins and others, and has been connected to Cenote Naval, just under 2 miles downstream. Much of that 2 miles of passageway is open passageway perfectly suitable for backmounted doubles. But at the Grand Cenote end (and also, from the map, nearer the Cenote Naval end) there is a sidemount only passage. In fact, a passage of about 1000' involving not one but several no-kidding sidemount-only restrictions. "About as tight as it gets" - I quote Bill Phillips, cavediving instructor, explorer and cartographer. To this thousand feet of passageway, therefore, I turned my attention for the last dive of the trip. I donned my drysuit, which is my buoyancy control when sidemounting, attached my tanks to my weightbelt at the bottom ends and some bits of nylon string at the top ends; I clipped safety reel, backup lights and backup regulator to the same bits of string, and headed for the entrance. This ultra-crude sidemount gear has one definite advantage. It keeps me very slim in the restrictions, no Transpack, and no butt- or side-mounted battery canister to jam in the rocks (Brent has a story or two along those lines and yes, I was listening carefully when he told them!). My divelight has its battery in with the light head. Chance rather than design! I picked it up - a British wreckdiver's light - for 50 pounds, on general bargain-hunting principles. And to cut a long story short, I aced the whole section!! - passing all four major restrictions, visiting all five intermediate cenotes, and finally breezing down a little of the more open, backmountable passageway before calling the dive a little ahead of thirds - after all, this is a siphon passage with flow and restrictions, even if there is a profusion of alternative exits to air. Boy was I pleased.... here are the details. It begins with a backmountable section for a few hundred feet, from Grand cenote to Snake Cenote. There's a T (the lines meet) with the main passage going right. Leaving Snake Cenote along the main passage towards Four Doors Cenote #1, one encounters the first restriction that's marked sidemount-only on the map. I think, though, that one could pass that one in backmount, at the expense of wallowing in mud and silting out the passage. Then one gets to the pretty little Four Doors cenote #1, and turning to pass towards Four Doors cenote #2, one gets the first no-kidding restriction, the Twister restriction. First one gets a winding area between bedding planes where the gap drops to maybe 12 to 18 inches; then a narrow triangular hole with the base at the bottom tapering to a point at the top. One wriggles the sidemount cylinders towards the two bottom corners and wriggles through oneself. It is a bit harder on return, though, because the flow is concentrated in the narrow space and it's a bit like getting out of the July Spring passage in Florida, the flow not as great but the passage much more restricted. One pulls and wriggles ones way back. Emerging at Four Doors Cenote #2, there is an unrestricted passage to Four Doors Cenote #3. Then, betweeen Cenotes 3 and 4, one hits the hardest restrictions of all, the two Mouler restrictions (the one I tentatively identified as the pickpocket restriction is relatively easy, you just avoid damaging the decorations). It was Mouler #1 that stopped me when I attempted this dive with the sidemount cylinders attached to a solid backplate. The backplate jammed in the crack. Mouler #1. I think, the hardest of them all. A narrow slot between bedding planes, maybe 15 inches high at the left hand end, tapering to 9 inches or less at the right end, with odd bumps in the floor at just the right places to obstruct the natural way of hacking it sidemounted. So, squeeze over to the left a bit and let that bump lie between my body and Cylinder Right. Push/Pull the body through, body moving OK, both cylinders jam on bumps in the rock. Where's my spare regulator in this blizzard? I just might need it if something happens to Reg One, such as being forcibly ripped out of its first stage by excessive wriggling in the restriction. Touch the spare reg; nice and reassuring, but got to let it go, I need the right hand to grab the neck of Cylinder Right and pull it away from the bump that's causing the jam. Still jammed... moving a little... wriggle a little... got it! What's happened to Cylinder Left? Much the same I suppose, comes free with a bit of twisting, rather less than with Cylinder Right. Move forward again. I'm through! And the cylinders, yes, they can pass more easily now they're sharing the crack with my legs rather than my torso. Done it! Now where's the guideline gone? It must be within 2 feet but is totally invisible in the silt-out. Wait 30 seconds. A glowing thread of guideline on my right becomes dimly illuminated. 30 seconds more and a rock or two becomes visible, also a couple of feet away. Thank God we've got significant flow in here! Slowly move on. The passage becomes clearer. A couple of twists and turns and (just as you thought it was safe to go back into the water??) you come to Mouler Restriction #2. At this point I nearly gave up because Mouler #2 looks even worse than Mouler #1. I can believe that the average height between the bedding planes is less than for Mouler #1. BUT the height is CONSTANT, the bedding planes are PARALLEL, the gap doesn't taper to one end as it does in Mouler #1; and also the bumps in the floor are much less. So when I tried it, I in fact wriggled through Mouler #2 with no trouble at all. Four Doors #4 cenote is a few more twists and turns down the passage. Glorious greens and blues and sunlight. Below Door #4 the passage is initially lowish from floor to ceiling, but widens out and becomes pretty, moderately decorated with dark silt floor, and eminently backmountable. As mentioned before, I turned the dive a little early, 2000/3000 in one tank and 2200/3000 in the other, because the restrictions were over, the battle was won - and just in case one of the previous restrictions took 25 minutes to pass on the way back. They didn't! I even passed back quickly through Mouler #1. Visibility clear ahead because on RETURN it is a quite-swift UPSTREAM passage. Slight squeezy hassle passing the triangular bit of the Twister against the flow. No real problem. Back past Snake cenote. Back into the sunlight at Grand Cenote. Victory!! Dump the cylinders at the surface. Say Hi to some Latino tourists. Empty 4 pints of water out of "dry" suit. It was non-leaking earlier on but swiftly began leaking when I started dragging it through sidemount restrictions. Still working as a BC though; and I wear a 4mm wetsuit under the drysuit which can cope with 4 pints of warm Mexican water very nicely, thanks very much. Who cares? Done it!!! Final exit pressures, 1000/3000 and 1300/3000 PSI. * My first really ace sidemount dive. * In a different sense from Dive 22, a new kind of challenge.