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WKPP will be conducting exploration dives in Wakulla this
weekend. Two dives will be done either in B or in A, depending on
the vis. We won't know until we are in the water.
The leadoff team of Irving, Mee , and Hagler will go in
carrying stages and make the call at the A/B junction. They will
then either place them at A/D, or the Monolith Room.
The next team of Berman, Sankey and Scarabin will go in with
stages, take the plan from Irving, and go either to the A/J junction,
where they will drop stages and push J Tunnel with full hundreds,
or will go to the "AJ" (end of the Wakulla One line in B) where they
will drop stages and push the "River Tunnel", which we believe to be
a second entrance to Wakulla.
The third team of Irvine, Jablonski and McKinlay will go in
using all of these stages either to the end of B and push it, or to
a certain spot in A at which point we will work our way back on the
walls looking for the incoming Leon Sinks tunnel, which could be
either J, or one of three other incoming tunnels out further.
Next weekend will be all A, and thereafter will be A and
Leon sinks, as we have very little left to explore in the clear
tunnels, and can get that on the each of the Sunday cleanup dives.
When we go in to pick up the empty bottles, the crews first explore
the side spring tunnels and then pull the empties on the way out.
This gets these crews ready to work into the dark water crews. Either
Steve Irving or George Irvine run these dives to work with the "newer"
guys or the ones who want to only go limited distances into some great
diving and learn our methods. Water testing and other collections take
place on all dives, and only take a couple of minutes to execute.
One big misconception about WKPP is that we only do exploration,
amd we only do Wakulla. This is not the case. Very few of our Wakulla
dives are for exploration. Lately, in fact for most of 1995, we have
concentrated on Sally Ward and Indian Springs. In 1993 and 1994, we mostly
worked Leon Sinks, with only a handful of dives in Wakulla. For the next
two years, we will be working more of Leon than Wakulla, as that system
has many more sinks to work from, and our objectives are better met by
rotating through the systems according to what is most diveable. It is
always nice to dive the Big One (Wakulla), but we must hit Leon when
it allows, as Wakulla is not going away, and Leon can go down for months
at a time.
We also have other committments in Shepard Springs, St Marks,
Big Dismal, the Forest, and several private sinks in between. We are
waiting for some more grants to come in for special equipment, and are
getting ready to install habitats to meet the deco requirements of the
longer dives. Right now we are still working in the 100 minute at 300
profile range, so this deco is easily done in water. When we get to
the 120-150 minute dives , we will need the habitats at 20,30,and 40
feet. Right now it only takes us a little more than 80 minutes to
roundtrip 6000 feet, and from doing longer dives in Leon Sinks we know
it takes less than 100 to roundtrip 8000 feet. We are also coming
donwstream from above, so the chances are we will not need to go
much more than 10000 from any one entrance. If we do, it just means
more deco.
George Irvine
Director, WKPP (The Woodville Karst Plain Project)
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