Wednesday,  June 12th.     Fifth of Exploration.   
Everyone is starting to show signs of "fatigue".   Spirits are still up but it's
obvious that many of the people helping us out just can't keep up with the pace
and are "burning out" early.
Bill Renaker added another 50 feet of line today before his ran out of reel.  
He
was working the "DOS PENDEJOS" section of the system.   He's found another
tunnel
which he's named "MARY KOHN" (pronounced "marecon").    He says it's going good
and wide and keeps going like a locomotive.
Buddy Quattlbaum is still working on setting up base camp.   The project is just
about half way finished and he's still not done setting up the camp.   However,
he is still showing us exactly what he's made of.
Rosemary got more map data.   We had the problem with SMAPS all figured out and
we found out that the missing data had been sitting in a notebook all along.   I
should apologize to the people I wrongly accused of holding out.   Of course, it
would have probably taken us less time to just go back and resurvey that section
rather then complaining about it for the past several years.
Rosemary says that as of yesterday we have put in 24,350 feet of line.   We
added a lot of line on Wednesday.
Bill Dooley once again was working his "magic" on the cave.   This guys new
nickname is "energizer" because he's just like that little rabbit that keeps
going and going and going.   He pushed out to 4600 feet on a TRIPLE STAGE with
a scooter!
How this guy keeps going is amazing and inspirational to the whole project!   We
are just astonished at what he is doing!
Ed Grossenbacher of Austin, Texas is still out of it.  He's an ex-student of 
Jim Bowdens, what more needs to be said?
"Frontierland" was hit by Paul Heinerth and Jill Rabjohn.    They went to the
end of the line and pushed hoping to find a new "cenote".   We've noticed that
this whole area is just littered with "cenotes" and we keep finding them within
5500 feet of each other.    Paul and Jill kept pushing and pushing.    We wound
up having them recalculate their tanks which was a unique feat because they
were working the same tunnel and not checking other tunnels out on the way out.
But these two are real pro's who have been my friends since my college years
where we used to go to the keg parties.
Brian Kukak acted.    He's a reel pro now.
We hope to find another Cenote there,  our Mayan workers are ready to cut 
the trail for us!
One team of divers quit because last night when we were having our debriefing
I "popped off".   I don't really remember too much about the incident because
we had all been drinking a little bit but going by what everyone else said
I really made a jerk out of myself.   I'm starting to really act like a
drunken scumbag like these central florida cave divers.   Well I hope they
don't let the door hit them in the ass on their way out.
Things are going great!    We are now at 140,500 feet approximate total
for DOS OJOS (systema el jido jacinto grande juevos pat).  You never now
whats going to happen next.  That's the game of exploration - You never
know until you go.
Tomorrow I will post another report.   Thank you for all of the kind email
I've been receiving.   This email thing is truly wonderful.
Special thanks have to go to Tom & Patti Mount (IANTD), NACD, Dive Rite,
Dive Outpost, American Underwater Lighting, Oceanic, and all of our other
sponsers.

Be Safe,
STEVE GERRARD

Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]