It had been too long but the wait was finally over .. I was returning to cave country ! This time though I was not going solo, I was meeting up with Chris McCandlish in Orlando. Chris is a good friend who used to work in the Turks & Caicos but had 'grown up' and decided to get a proper job back in the UK (as always the whole story involved a girl). We had decided to take advantage of the cave diving trip by combining our diving with the TDI Trimix Course (who said men can't multitask and to hell with task loading). It would mean we could do some of the less travelled cave systems in Northern Florida.
Arriving in Miami I retrieved my hire car, programmed in the trusty GPS and headed to Orlando. The journey highlight was spotting an alligator basking itself in a flood conduit by the side of the highway. It was great to catch up with Chris again, it had been 6 months since he had left, but we slipped straight back into the old banter and piss taking and the final leg of the journey to High Springs flew by. Once unpacked we headed out to eat, so began a seperate 8 day adventure, a deep fried adventure courtesy of the good ole US of A diet. A burger with all the toppings later and we returned to our abode to chill for the evening.
We were up bright and early the next morning and ready for a hearty breakfast, one that was large enough to feed a small family in any other country. I had one of the best corned beef hash's ever, whilst Chris ate a small cow.
Richard (www.superiortraining.com) arrived promptly at 9am along with Sue Smith (www.divegirlscuba.com) who had joined us to see how Richard taught trimix in a cave environment. The morning was dedicated to academics concerning diving on trimix and became a blur of equations, calculations and dive planning. Pre-study helped, but it was a poignant reminder of the steep learning curve that my own students must encounter when learning to dive. Luckily for us Richard is a very patient instructor as well as having a real ability to get the information across (hence why I had chosen to work with him again). A short break for lunch and then onto equipment configuration, not too bad for me as I had prepared all my equipment prior to arrival, however I don't think Chris knew what had hit him as everything he owned was stripped down, adapted and rebuilt.
A trip to Extreme (www.extreme-exposure.com) allowed us to get our tanks filled for the following day; our twin 110ltr tanks had 21/35 trimix, whilst our 80ltr deco bottles were filled with 50% nitrox. Next stop-off was Amigos (www.amigosdivecentre.com) for the final few missing dive items, then a final stint in the classroom to work out our dive plan for the following day. This involved calcuating whether we had sufficient gas for an uneventful dive (my preferred choice), as well as one that would exceed our planned dive time by 5 minutes and a further plan should we have a complete loss of our deco gas. Thankfully we had V-Planner software (www.hhssoftware.com/v-planner/) on the laptop so it was a case of plugging in all the variables and up pops the dive plan, including all required deco stops. We all had different dive computers so it was decided that we would run off the V planner dive plan, meaning all the information had to be transferred to our slates. It was supposed to be a holiday, but having started at 9am, it was gone 5pm by the time we wrapped up for the day.
That evening we joined up with Richard, his wife and inlaws, as well as Sue wherby we indulged in a generous half rack of ribs each.
I had a healthy case of nerves the next morning - it had been a while since I had been in a drysuit or dived with a twinset, combine that with an overhead environment; gas switching and ensuring all deco stops were carried out etc. That said I was comfortable with my abilities and wise enough to know that I was not biting off more than I could chew - then there's the golden rule of technical diving - any diver can call any dive for any reason at any time, without recriminations. I would not do this sort of diving with anyone who didn't adhere to this philosophy. We drove to Amigos, meeting up with Richard and Sue, before continuing onto Peacock Springs State Park which has 2 major springs, a spring run and 6 sinkholes.
Our first day of diving was to be at Peacock 3, a cave system which is very different from the rest of Peacock. Its infrequently dived because it is a siphon, often experiencing poor visibility; additionally the cave itself is very silty, providing further challenges.
Walking down to our point of entry I was confronted with a duckweed covered pond, its edges strewn with big boulders which had become exposed due to an ongoing drought. 'Good joke', I thought to myself as I remembered the handy steps which lead you gently into the waters at Ginnie Springs, apparently though this really was were we were diving, Richard assured us there was a cave entrance under there somewhere.
The plan was rediscussed and then the slow process of setting up the gear began and along with it every conceivable problem (despite a thorough testing of everything yesterday). We had leaking regulators, blown hoses, split 'O' rings, even a seized P-valve. By the time all the problems had been addressed I had forgotten all my nerves and just wanted to go diving !
We staggered down to the pond then clambered over the boulders before entering waist deep water. Attaching our deco bottles we surface swam to deeper water. Despite our care the bottom had been stirred up reducing visibility to a few feet. We waited a few minutes then Richard descended, reeling out our primary line to join to the permanant gold line. Descending next I located Richards line and entered the cave entrance and was relieved to find drastically improved visibility. Fine tunning my buoyancy I followed along; this was an ideal first dive, the system itself was none too challenging, big enough for easy movement and allowing you to keep well clear of the silt. There was only one low bedding plane to contend with in the first 1300 ft, additionally visibility was a healthy 40 ft. I had plenty of time to reacclimatize and soon began to enjoy being back in a cave, the topography was captivating, I even encountered albio crayfish propelling themselves through midwater.
At 1300ft we left our deco bottes, then entered a deeper section of the cave known at Henleys castle. Its a vertical pit that drops to about 130ft and the sight of the line dropping vertically into the abyss is somewhat ominous. At the bottom of the pit we entered a second bedding plane which extended about 50ft. The bottom was very silty and despite my best efforts it was impossible not to kick it up a little, in addition I managed to catch my tank a few times on the roof. Exiting the bedding plane the line dropped down into another pit, dropping to 180ft. Although a little less vertical it was still very impressive, reaching the bottom and our planned destination I touched the end tie off of the line, just to tell myself that I had been there. I always enjoy the journey out of a cave the most as I now know what to expect and can sit back and take it all in, enjoying the uniqueness of the diving environment in which I find myself. This was no exception, the deco bottles were retrieved, switching over to them at 1300ft we effectively carried out most of our decompression as we exited the system. A few additional stops were required, then looking up out the the cave mouth I could see daylight, the odd freshwater fish and an enticing carpet of duckweed. Exiting we packed away the gear and headed back to High Springs chatting about the dive. Once again I was hooked on cave diving and vowed that I would not wait so long again before making a return trip. We planned the dive for the following day, wrote up the slates and arranged to meet at Amigos the following day.
MAX DEPTH: 170FT, DIVE TIME: 94 MINS
That evening we got takeaway from a deep fried heaven known as 'Gator Q'. The owner was a wonderful lady, one who clearly enjoyed her own cooking. Chris had 12 wings (6 hot and 6 punishment), whilst I opted for the pulled pork and 5 wings (hot) platter. Oh and it would have been rude not to have the deep fried chocolate brownies !!!
Next morning it was back to Peacock, this time we were diving at Orange Grove which is a large terminal sink northeast of Peacock I. Two winding tunnels extend from the sink hole called Lower Orange Grove and Upper Orange Grove. Lower Orange Grove is a deeper tunnel extending down to 180 feet (55 m) and was our planned location for the day. A raised walkway and stairs leading into the sink hole should have made access much easier than yesterday, however, the low water level meant that usually submerged rocks were now above water making any exit a little challenging; another constant was the now familiar carpet of duckweed.
Giant striding into the water I looked down to see a crystal clear basin and the entrance to the cave. Alot of training occurs here as it is also an ideal location for the cavern course, I could see a couple of guys on rebreathers carrying out line drills around the entrance.
Dropping down we left our deco bottles before working our way into Lower Orange Grove. The entrance is at the bottom of the basin at about 110ft and is quite hard to find, it corkscrews through a jumble of boulders and is quite restrictive in places (I managed to get momentarily stuck at one point). As a little dived system it is in pristine condition, visibility was great and the unusual black silt gave the whole cave a really cool dilapidated feel. The main passage was wide, continuing back to a boulder field which dropped down to a depth of about 150ft before climbing back to a shallower depth; everything was covered in a coating of black silt, even the main gold line had a fine dusting of it, showing how infrequently this system is dived. Continuing, we reached what I can only describe as a cliff before dropping down again at a really wierd and steep angle before finally reaching the end of the system at a depth of 165ft. This is a much shorter system than Peacock 3 going back about 500ft and so all too soon we were heading back, carrying out our final deco steps in the open basin. Upon surfacing we discussed and then carried out a number of drills including an out of air no mask swim and deploying and using lift bags before finally exiting the water. This was a fantastic dive and by far my favourite of the trip.
MAX DEPTH: 165FT, DIVE TIME: 85 MINS
Back in High Springs we filled our main tanks and deco bottles before planning for our final 2 dives at Eagles Nest the following day.
In the evening we met up with Sue and Wayne (Amigos) at Kazbors Grille for 'all you can eat wings', rounded off nicely with deep fried cheesecake - Oh my poor abused body, I could almost feel my blood thickening and slowing on its torturous journey around my much abused body! As we pulled into the house at the end of the evening we just got to see a raccoon race into the bushes.
Final cave diving day and we were heading to Eagles Nest, it was a couple of hours drive but not too far from Crystal River, which was a bonus as it was our next port of call. The journey to the park was uneventful, except for the sighting of a Bald Eagle perched in a tree. Once in the park it was a half hours bouncy drive along a hard packed dirt track before finally arriving at the sink hole. Eagles nest is considered one of the most dangerous caves to dive, with at least 6 deaths since 1981. Its often called the Mount Everest of cave diving, due to its remoteness and depths, that said our dives were probably no more than the equivalent of reaching base camp, but there was certainly an air of expectation.
Entry into the water is made easy with wooden steps descending below the waterline, ropes for clipping deco bottles are also handily positioned on the railings. The sink was clear, tranquil, devoid of duckweed and very inviting.
Once in the water, we attached our deco bottles (1 x 50% nitrox, 1 x 100% O2) and descended into the waters. We deposited our O2 bottles by a submerged tree stump at 15ft and continued to the cave entrance. The descent into the cave is through a near vertical 8ft diameter chimney, which you enter headfirst at about 40ft and exit into a huge ballroom at about 70ft. The cavern room is enormous and swallows even the brightest light, whilst the gold-line gives the impression of disappearing vertically into nothingness. Free descending with no visual reference other than the line we reached a breakdown mound at about 130ft where we left our 2nd deco bottles. Two tunnels lead off in different directions from this point, one heads upstream and one heads downstream, though the directions are more cursory than direction of water flow as there is negligible flow in this huge system. We had planned to go upstream on the first dive, continuing until we reached a maximum depth of 200 ft, a depth which we arrived at way too soon. It was such a strange dive in comparison to all my other cave dives as you really could get no perspective on the overall size of the cave. Whist you could illuminate the floor beneath you the blackness all around seemed to suck the life out of the torch. Back at the mound we retreived our first deco bottle and then began a series of stops, all carried out in the nothingness of the ballroom with the solitary gold line as a referrence - it really was a little disorientating. It was even more bizarre doing stops in the chimney as we were literaly stacked on top of each other, as my stop cleared I tapped Sue ( who was below me) on the head then proceeded up to the next stop. Once in the basin we switched to our O2 bottles for the final few minutes before exiting.
After a surface interval it was time to head back, this time I would be leading the dive. O2 bottles were left in the same place as on the previous dive, then I headed back through the chimney and into the ballroom, descending down we deposited our 2nd deco bottles and this time I lead us downstream. This had more of a familiar feel about it, especially when at about 180ft we passed through restriction and then a low bedding plane - no danger of not seeing the floor or ceiling here. Watching my depth I reached the planned maximum of 200ft, there were still a few minutes of dive time left and I looked longingly ahead before turning. Deco bottles were reattached, deco stops carried out and soon we were back on the surface. This dive had been in complete contrast to the previous dive despite minor differences to the dive itself. Second time around it had seemed a lot less intimidating and I had had the opportunity to spend more time looking around and soaking in the unique atmosphere.
DIVE 1 - MAX DEPTH: 191FT, DIVE TIME: 47 MINS
DIVE 2 - MAX DEPTH: 196FT, DIVE TIME: 50 MINS
Dive gear was disassembled and packed away and it was time to head back to Crystal River. The cave diving was over for at least another year, not only had I had the opportunity to dive 3 systems that were completely new to me, I had also managed to complete my TDI trimix course. RESULT.
We had a final team meal (ribs !!!), then Chris and I checked into our hotel before heading off to the cinema to see Underworld 3D - Kate Beckinsale in 3D wearing a black PVC catsuit and crawling down a ventilation shaft - Nuff said I think.
Awoke at the ungodly (and surely illegal) hour of 5am for the early morning manatee snorkel trip. We had both done this before but not for a few years, ridiculous start time apart, $40 is not much to be able to be in the water with these magnificent creatures. Last time I did this it was May - there were only 3 of us on the boat and noone else was out manatee watching, we only saw a couple of manatees and the waters were murky. In contrast this time (and on the positive side) the water was clearer and there were at least 40 - 50 manatees around. The downside was that although there were only 8 of us on the boat, by the time we reached our destination there were already about 50 people in the water and at least the same number arrived whilst we were there. The manatees seemed to take all this in their stride, interacting if they wanted to, then retreating to the safety of a 'no go' zone when wanting peace and quiet. Chris and I hung away from the crowds and were rewarded with a number of unique one on one experiences with both juvenille and adult manatees. It had been worth the early start.
Leaving Crystal River we headed to Orlando, where we spent the afternoon shopping, before eating in one of those fixed price Brazilian restaurants where you gorge yourself on an endless array of meats - this whole eating thing was now become a little tedious but we soldiered on.
Sunday saw our inner child(s) being let loose at Universal Studios/Island of Advenute, ticking off 'Rock It', 'The Mummy', 'Simpsons', and the 'Incredible Hulk' in quick succession. Harry Potter world was new to both of us, the rides were average but the 'world' was absolutely incredible. A quick Big Mac meal and it was time for Chris to head back to the airport. It had been a truly action packed week and plans were already afoot to do something the following year.
The next day I drove back to Miami in the pouring rain, and returned home to the sunny Turks & Caicos :)
