Olsen Sink

Peacock Springs- Olsen Loop

James Garrett

Dive Time– 70 Minutes.
In Water– 3:49pm
Out Water– 4:59pm
Breathing Gas– 32% Travel / 100% Deco
Max Depth– 69ft
Visibility– 30-50ft
Water Temp– 70(F.)

Notes:
This dive was our graduation dive for apprentice…..nice and relaxing with no drills.  I lead the dive, and since we didn’t have a primary (it was on the peanut side), I used a spool to tie into the gold line.  We swam up pothole, stopping at pothole to show Ryan and Brian the bones and sink since they hadn’t been in this cave before.  We then proceeded up stream, where we found our spool about 100ft from Olsen.  Ryan was last, and pulled the spool (since he placed it on the previous dive), and we proceeded down the crossover tunnel, where the viz was still somewhat poor from the breather team earlier.  Once we reached our spool leading to the peanut line, Brian pulled it, and we went back down the peanut line, with a somewhat fast pace so we could get out of the water by 5pm.

Peacock Springs- Peanut to Crossover to Olsen

James Garrett

Dive Time– 118 Minutes.
In Water– 11:29am
Out Water– 1:40pm
Breathing Gas– 32% Travel / 100% Deco
Max Depth– 57ft
Visibility– 50ft+
Water Temp– 69(F.)

Notes:
This dive’s goal was to setup for the circuit on dive 2.  It’s a complex circuit, since it takes more than one dive to complete.  I lead the dive, Brian followed, and Ryan was after him.  I was told to run the primary past the sign before tying in, which is difficult with two gold lines, but I ran under them, and then was off to the sign.  After tying in, I lead the dive until we got past the 1000ft arrow, where we would find double arrows (marked jump) to the crossover tunnel on the left.  I started to install the jump, but Brian flashed me and reminded me that was his job this dive.  he placed the jump, and then Ryan started leading.  We made it down the crossover tunnel, and then to gold line (pothole line), where we took a left and headed to Olsen Sink and surfaced for 10 minutes.  We then exited, I was in the rear to reel in the spool that I had run to open water from the cave.  Ryan was in the lead, Brian followed, I was last.  We weren’t going to pull any reels on this dive.  At the end of the crossover tunnel, we ran into a rebreather team (class), where we had to exit on the line because one was on his knees tying in the jump, one was flutter kicking down from the ceiling, and one was just sitting on the silt.  It was my first no viz exit that wasn’t planned in training. Once we made it back on the peanut line, we each were randomly asked “where’s your buddy” and had to complete a lost buddy drill, where Daniel (who tagged along to assist in these drills) would be waiting….and out of air!  Also, at random times, we were each “airgunned” to simulate a right/left post failure.  After this, we did a lights out exit through the peanut tunnel, and at one point Jeff made Brain go OOA, having to feel to steal my reg (try that stuffing your long hose!).  He only made us do that for a few minutes, before it was back to just plain no lights.  Once in the cavern zone, we got our lights back, and could exit the cavern in peace.

Peacock 1- Goldline to Olsen

James Garrett

Dive Time– 77 Minutes.
In Water– 11:13am
Out Water– 12:30pm
Breathing Gas– 32%
Avg Depth– 39ft
Max Depth– 67ft
Visibility– 50ft
Water Temp– 70(F.)

Notes:
First dive with Mike McAuliff.  Mike had posted on CDF that he wanted to get some practice in on his rebreather, and I had nothing to do that Monday, so we agreed to meet up early at Dive Outpost and then head to Peacock Springs State Park.  Used 700psi penetration gas to get all the way to Olsen, the way Peacock ha such low flow, it’s amazing how far you can get and how long you can stay down on just backgas.  I really liked how the cave looks after pothole, it gets much larger, with dome’ed ceilings, and a few swim throughs.  As usual, there was basically no flow, and most of the cave was very silty.