Hill 400

Devil’s – Hill 400

James Garrett

Breathing Gas– 32% Backgas / 100% Deco
Max Depth–
Avg Depth–
Visibility– 150+ft
Water Temp– 72F
Dive Time:

Notes:
After diving with Brian in the AM, I had a surface interval and then met Ryan and Sam to do a quick run down Hill400.  This was Sam’s first time off mainline Ginnie, so we covered the dive plan and were in the water.  Sam ran the primary, and had an interesting time due to the fact that the NACD conference visitors had left 5 primaries already in the system, which left very few good tie off spots.  The two of them would lead, and I would scooter along behind them, as I’m still trying to gain scooter hours.  I had a stage bottle that I would breathe, and reserved all of my back gas to ensure that I had enough gas to swim out sharing gas, since scootering out wasn’t an option with only 1 scooter between the 3 of us.

Ginnie Springs -- Devils Ear to Hill 400

Devil’s – To the Heinkle and then Hill400

James Garrett

Breathing Gas– 32% Backgas / 100% Deco
Max Depth– 106ft
Avg Depth– 85ft
Visibility– 150+ft
Water Temp– 72F
Dive Time:

Notes:
Met up with Jeff Marchand after he got off work and finally got to take the new Gavin Standard into a cave after spending several hours with it in open water.  We had decided to go somewhere that was very open, and the mainline section of Ginnie fit the bill, with the added bonus that we had already swam this entire area of cave, most of it multiple times, so we had a solid idea on how much gas is needed to swim out from that far back.  The first thing I noticed is how fast the cave comes at you on a scooter.  It’s VERY task loading keeping up with a buddy, the scooter and the line….and also enjoy the cave.  Getting through the lips on the throttle scared me, so I decided to swim it…WOW does the flow really catch a scooter in this area of the cave, and with the safety bottle on the other side of me, getting through the lips was no fun!  Once through the lips, we established communication again and got back on the throttle.  I found myself constantly on and off the throttle, as I’m paranoid of getting too high and hitting cave.  We made it to the Heinkle in about 27 minutes, and turned the dive there, not wanting to stretch gas for the first cave/dpv dive.  On exit, we stopped at Hill400 since we had built up reserves, recalculated our gas math, and tied in a spool.  The cruise down Hill400 went quickly, and we were at the p1000ft arrow before we knew it.  Since Whitney was waiting on the surface, we decided to turn here before deco got too long and left her bored out of her mind.  Deco was < 10 minutes, which was awesome seeing as how we had just covered 3700ft of Ginnie, a dive that would have required about 40 minutes had we been swimming!

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).

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- 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.

Devils- To the Hill 400

James Garrett

Dive Time– 43min
Breathing Gas– 32%
Max Depth– 96ft
Visibility– 60-70ft
Water Temp– 71(F.)

Notes:
The line was already in the ear from a previous dive, so we entered there.  This was my first time carrying a stage in a cave.  I was following AJ, and we were to go slightly down the Hill 400 and drop the stage for AJ and Bryce’s dive the following day.  We used 700psi for penetration gas.