Projects
Video Shoot.
I had the remarkable priviledge of diving with Harvey Boyd as lead diver in a video shoot he was doing. Harvey and his wife are what make up Cavex2 Productions.Although Harvey already has a video on the market for Peacock III, he wanted to do a reshoot with a lead diver in it. Having a lead diver gives the viewer a better perspective of the cave, even if it results in an occasional silting a time or two. Being a fan of his videos, I eagerly took his challenge to help.
On 5/20/06, we met up at Peacock III. Our dive plan was to take the main line up to Hendley's Castle jump and then make a descent to the bottom of Hendley's Castle and return via the old main line. In other words, we'd create a circuit. Our second dive was to dive the Spring Tunnel in PIII.
The Ranger, Janet, told us there was a 7 foot alligator in PIII's basin and to be careful. We saw the alligator swimming across the basin over the cave entrance. We suited up and entered at PII to preserve vis in PIII. We saw the alligator perched on a rock across the basin sunbathing.
I was diving 21/30 trimix in backgas. At the start of the dive, I dropped O2 at 30 ft as I ran the reel to the main line. I made a tieoff around the base of the warning sign.
I was swimming particularly slow so that Harvey could have better control of the camera. We passed through Sand Slide Restriction and on towards the Hendley jump. We proceeded to follow the jump line to the bottom at a max depth of 183 ft. Harvey video'd the end of the line and we returned back towards the main line.
Once back on the main line, we proceeded to the back of the old main line jump. In the past, the back of the old main line ended just below the new main line. But it had been changed. Now the back of the old main line is a number of feet away.
Once I found the old line, we crossed over onto this jump and proceeded back via this alternate route. Once we reached the beginning of the old main line, we jumped back to the new main line and completed our exit. We deco'd for about 10 minutes and surfaced. No alligator in sight.
After a refill and surface interval, we re-entered the water and headed up the main line. Once we reached the Spring Tunnel, we made the jump. We proceeded till near thirds and turned. This tunnel is rarely dove. So there was percolation all over the place making video efforts useless on the return trip. So we ended the video efforts at this point.
It turns out to have been a good thing. The second dive did not video well anyway. Harvey said there were jumps in the recording every few seconds. So he will not be releasing efforts on this day's dives until he has a chance to reshoot the Spring Tunnel.
I really enjoyed diving with Harvey and being part of the project. I really hope what we did ends up being usable, especially, the Hendley's jump.
Relining Cow Sink.
Cow Sink is located near Peacock Springs State Park in Mayo, Florida. It's owned by the NSS-CDS. The CDS sanctioned a relining project in the upstream section of Cow on 4/8/06.The project leader, Kelly Jessop, will be doing a formal write-up for the NSS-CDS's "Underwater Speleology" publication. It will either be in this next issue or the following one. So I will not try to give a complete overview of this project here. This report will only entail my involvement in the project.
I was asked if I wanted to help and I eagerly said yes. I got there shortly after 8 AM. Kelly was already there posting No Trespassing signs at the corners of the property.
Jim Womble and myself were the first team ready to dive. We used an electrical cord spool Kelly had rigged up with gold line. Our mission was to lay out all the line on our spool (about 600 ft) and pull the old line from where we stopped and back to the entrance.
Jim went ahead of me. He tied in the new line and started laying line as we penetrated. I entered the cave running a primary reel from open water to the newly laid gold line. The primary reel was to be in place in case our teams for the day silted out the entrance. When I got to the beginning of the old main line, I cut it from its tieoff and left it flapping in the breeze. I then proceeded into the cave to catch up with Jim. I took a few pics on my way in to document some of the action. The flow was up in the system and I really appreciated the "poor man's scooter" (pull rope) that allowed us to use less effort and gas.
When we reached about 600 ft of penetration, we ran out of line. So Jim tied it off to a rock and gave me the empty spool. Jim and I were both thinking the same thing and moved over to the old main line. We weren't watching what the other was doing and both of us cut the old main line at the same time about 30 ft apart. So I had to let the downstream end of the line go and reel up the 30 ft we had just cut. Then we proceeded towards the entrance. Shortly, I found the entrance side of the old main line I had let go. So I connected it to the spool and began wrapping it up. If you've ever ran a primary reel out of a high flow system in the cavern zone, then imagine doing that for 600 ft. It was hard work!! It was hard pulling placements and keeping up with the loose line so you didn't get tangled up in it. But finally, we made it. Jim was making sure placements were down for the newly laid line on the way out.
About this time, another team was entering to lay the second 600 ft section of permanent line. We had just done a 60 minute dive. Max depth was no more than 80 ft.
We hung out on the surface for several hours as a couple of other teams entered the water to measure and lay distance markers and continue line all the way to the end of the old line. Again, rather than discuss all the different teams, who did what, how, etc, I'll leave that to Kelly in his write-up for the UWS.
Late that afternoon, most teams made another dive. Kelly and I made our second dive together. I was staging this dive. Our mission was to go to 900 ft and begin measuring distance where the last team left off and lay more distance markers.
I started this dive out with a headache which got worse and worse as the dive progressed. The more I'd exert myself the more painful the headache got. Once at 900 ft, I held the end of the tape measure while Kelly reeled out 33 ft. He'd place a clothespin on the line, signal me, and we'd move up. I'd then place the end of the tape at the clothespin and we'd repeat the process. When we measured out 99 ft, I'd drop a pre-marked line arrow. Then I'd give Kelly back his pins and we'd start all over again.
The process worked rather well. There were actually times I could not physically see Kelly, but when he'd signal, I could see the glow of his light and I'd move up. We did this from 900 ft out to 1,300 ft. At that point, my headache was killing me and I had to turn the dive. I was disappointed not to be able to contribute more. But I was just happy to get out of the cave without throwing up.
We had hoped to help clean up some more old line on the way out, but I just didn't feel well at all. So we exited. We had about 12 minutes of deco. So our max depth was 105 ft with about an 80 minute run time.
After this dive, I took some tylenol and felt better, but I had to head back home. It will be interesting to read Kelly's full report on the project indicating who all was involved and what got accomplished.
I had never been involved in a project such as this before. It was an opportunity to learn from the veterans. I really enjoyed the day and hope to be able to help again on future projects wherever.
