Cave Diving

Devils- Sherwood Split

James Garrett

Dive Time– 96 Minutes Runtime
In Water– 8:19pm
Out Water– 10:16pm
Breathing Gas– 32% Travel / 100% Deco
Max Depth– 99ft
Visibility– 150ft+
Water Temp– 72F.)
Deco Schedule: 1min-50ft / 1min-40ft / 3min-30ft / 13min-20ft(o2)

Notes:
Dove with Jeff Marchand.  Same stage planning as always, 100psi off turn pressure, and half +200psi on the stage.  I placed the jump to Hill 400.  We stopped and placed a jump reel in the Wormhole so we could hit that on the way back, and then I lead to the siphon tunnel jump, installed that, and then installed the jump to double lines.  I then followed Jeff up until the Sherwood split jump, where we only made it about 100ft (not quite to the first T) before I had to call the dive on gas.  We looked around on the way back, dropping cookies around passages that we think might go further, but didn’t explore very far back into there.  On the way back we went down wormhole, and then hurried out of the cave to limit deco, as I had to get home to do some work. First dive with my TLS350 and Weezle undergarments, and I was surprisingly warm!

Devils- Whale Bone and Parallel Lines

James Garrett

Dive Time– 85 Minutes Runtime
In Water– 12:17am
Out Water– 2:08am
Breathing Gas– 32% Travel / 100% Deco
Max Depth– 100ft
Visibility– 150ft+
Water Temp– 72F.)
Deco Schedule: 1min-50ft / 3min-40ft / 3min-30ft / 10min-20ft(o2)

Notes:
Dove with Jeff Marchand.  Same dive plan as usual, reserve 300psi of backgas and a stage to 1/2+200.  I placed all the jumps, and Jeff would run a primary reel once we got in double lines to the whale bone.  The p1000 marker on Hill400 gives the siphon tunnel jump away, and the put in the floor lets you know when to run the primary off to your left towards the whale bone.  Once we saw the Whale Bone, we took the left at the Y nearby, and continued until I turned the dive because it was tighter than I was comfortable with.  On the way back, we hit the p800ft entrance to parallel lines.  After deco, we played with stages and a stage leash (as pictured).

Devils- Mainline to p700(ish)

James Garrett

Dive Time– 55min
Breathing Gas– 32%
Max Depth– 97ft
Visibility– 100ft+
Water Temp– 72(F.)

Notes:
Dove with a basic diver.  Entered the Ear, I ran the line.  Continued along mainline until we hit our turn pressure of 3000psi (started with 3600) just after the marked jump off to the right that goes to the mud tunnels area.  I believe this is around p700.

Ginnie Springs- Ballroom

James Garrett

Dive Time– 31min
Breathing Gas– 32%
Max Depth– 50ft
Visibility– 100ft+
Water Temp– 72(F.)

Notes:
Dove with the UCF Club in the ballroom.  Whitney’s first time diving a bp/w which Rich was nice enough to loan her.  After a few attempts at getting the weighting correct, we were off!  Went all around the ballroom, and finally exited once one of the guys hit 1/3rds.

Devils – To the Insulation Room and Double Domes

James Garrett

Dive Time– 154min
Breathing Gas– 32%
Max Depth– 103ft
Visibility– 100ft+
Water Temp– 72(F.)

Notes:
Dove with Jeff to the insulation rooms.  Plan was simple, single stage 1/2+200, reserve 300psi from backgas to make up for a lost stage.  Swam to the insulation rooms, did the circuit and hit 1/3rds.  Turned the dive, grabbed my jump spool on the way out, and then headed back.  Dropped by double domes on the way back since it was so close.

Ginnie Springs – Siphon Tunnel

James Garrett

Breathing Gas– 32% Travel / 100% Deco
Max Depth– 96ft
Avg Depth– 80ft
Visibility– 150ft+
Water Temp– 72F
Dive Time: 102min + Deco

Notes:
Met up with Adam Gonzales and Bryce Thompson during the NACD Haloween social for a dive.  Got started really late, but it was an excellent dive, as no one was in the system.  This is one of my favorite places in the front part of Ginnie, very pristine compared to the rest of the cave.  Bryce and AJ had been there before and had more experience as a team, so Bryce lead the way, I took the middle, and AJ was in the back.  This was a single stage dive, I dropped my stage just past Hill400 jump, Adam dropped his about 100ft past mine, and Bryce managed to somehow carry a stage to almost 800ft :-o!

Devils- Double Domes via Roller Coaster and Hillier Tunnel

James Garrett

Dive Time– 130 Minutes.
In Water– 12:57pm
Out Water– 3:07pm
Breathing Gas– 32% Travel / 100% Deco
Max Depth– 104ft
Visibility– 150ft in front of cave, slightly under 100 near Double Domes
Water Temp– 72(F.)

Notes:
After not getting to bed until 5am due to our Ice Room Dive, we got off to a late start. We headed to Cave Excursions East to fill our Doubles, Stages, and Deco Gas up.  After a quick fill, we were off to Ginnie.  I was really excited about this dive, as our previous stage dive had gone so well.

Our plan was simple, I ran the reel in, and we dropped our deco gas at the sign.  Then we breathed the stage to 1700psi (half+200) and dropped it in the area of the mud flats where there’s some really nice rock to avoid damaging the clay in that area.  From there, I installed the Roller Coaster jump, and lead until we got to the short cut tunnel, where Daniel placed the jump and lead the rest of the way.  From there, we got to the bats, installed a jump, and took a right towards the Hillier tunnel.  The Hillier tunnel spits you out on the Dome Room line, but the line ends about 1ft away from the Dome Room.  Visual jumps just don’t seem like a great idea to me at this time, so we installed the jump reel, even though it’s only 1ft.  From there, we took a left, and that puts us in the Dome Rooms.  We quickly flushed the dome with air, and got up to talk to each other for a second or two, where we both exclaimed THIS IS AWESOME!  The Dome Rooms are my favorite part of Ginnie to date!  We picked up the pace on the way back, but still had about 20-25minutes of o2 deco.

Devils- To the Ice Room!

James Garrett

Dive Time– 126 Minutes.
In Water– 12:58am
Out Water– 3:04am
Breathing Gas– 32% Travel / 100% Deco
Max Depth– 101ft
Visibility– 150+ft (lower near the Ice Room due to silting
Water Temp– 71(F.)

Notes:
I was planning a weekend of diving with Daniel Jimenez, who I had met while he was helping with drills and such during my Apprentice class with Jeff Bauer.  I got off work at 6pm, had forgotten my computer, and had to run back to the house through heavy traffic to get it.  We didn’t leave Orlando until almost 7:45pm, then we had to head to Ginnie to check in, and Wayne’s (Amigo’s) to get fills.  We both had our doubles and one stage filled with 32% nitrox, and a single AL40 deco bottle of 100% o2.

We then met up with Jeff Marchand at Ginnie, and reviewed our dive plan (that we had discussed via phone several times in detail).  We would go into the Ear, drop our deco gas on our line where we tied in, and then breathe the stage until we hit 1700psi.  We had reserved 100psi out of backgas to ensure we had enough gas to cover a lost stage (or if a buddies stage failed).  The stage lasted until about 100ft into the Hill 400, where there’s a nice rock to set stage bottles on. We all 3 dropped ours, and proceeded down the Hill 400 to the first jump beyond p1000.  We took that jump, and knew that the line would make a sharp left, which meant the ice room line was streight ahead.  We would tie in, and go streight, which would lead us up a little to a ledge, where the line would be just out of sight past the ledge.  From there, the Ice Room is just two T’s away, and to make it easy, you go right at both T’s.  The final 50-100ft of the Ice Room is VERY silty, and you really need to make sure you have the gas to go really slow to avoid a siltout, or damaging the cave.

Dive run time was around 105minutes, and roughly 15 minutes of deco (I lost my wet notes sheet that we calculated deco on).  We had reserved 50% extra deco gas so that any of us could have a failure and share our o2 to deco a buddy out.