Friday Evening, June 14th.

Diving day #7.    Weather is hot, sunny and humid.  Everything is starting
to get moldy from the humidity.
Everyone is still in "the zone".
Way ahead of our planned pace.
This cave system just keeps giving and giving.   Incredible!
Today Buddy Quattlbaum gave up on working on basecamp and decided to
go diving.    He went to Macco's Marvels area and produced 52 feet on
top of the previous 26,500 feet.    He's still a professional.
We sent "energizer" over to Cenote Kentucky Castle to see what he can
produce.    Amazingly he went 5300 feet on a single push!    It took him
three stage bottles and two scooters to get there at an average depth of
15 feet.   He really is indeed our "secret weapon" and his abilities from
years of teaching are shining through.
Bill Renaker was still working on Hilario's Well and Mary Kohn.   He says
that Mary Kohn is the best he has ever had and that he thinks this is
the way to go.
Rich Chapski missed diving this day because he was still hung over from the
celebration party we had for him last night.
Jim Bowden's ex-student is still gone.
Bob Griffith went solo with his #1 lead since his buddy was not in diving
condition.   He produced another 26,500 feet.    We think there may be
something wrong with the survey data he provided us, but he swears it's all
correct.
I went ahead and with Donn Ellerbrock run a reel on the surface from Cenote
Taj Aktun to Cenote Grand Marnier.   We will try to work on the underground
connection later.
Connie and Travis LoRe of  Florida add 400 feet from a new sinkhole.   We had
them double stage DPV's in order to reach this distance.
Steve Keene worked over The Well and added some more line.  Sue Sharples helped
him with his dive by doing support.
Buddy and Bill Philips went back to their new cenote (M2) and added an
additional
500 feet of line!     They hit a maximum depth of 50 feet so wound up with
45 minutes of deco (yes we do have decompression here in Mexico).
Paul Heinerth went back to the "Conch Republic" with Brian Kukak.    This time
they decided it was better to go north instead of south.   Unfortunatly they
didn't
find anything that produced.   
Jill Rabjohn and Gary Lemme are taking pictures and threatening to hold them as
blackmail.
We still haven't heard a word about Sandro Mateo and Chris Pyle.    We sent
them into the cave yesterday with Megareels and haven't seen them since.   I'm 
quite sure they are being very productive for us.
The PBS Crew arrived today.   We went ahead and sent them into the water
and told them how to recalculate thirds so they can get more distance.
And Michael Menduno arrives at
5:45 P.M. for a few days to witness the spirit, the team and all the preparation
going into this project.   Michael will return in July and will spend most of
the summer helping  write the book on the expedition.  (Footnote:  For those who
had a paid subcription
to AquaCorps Journal. Michael has made the arrangements with Ocean Realm to take
over the subscription.  Very nice thing to do!)
Saturday, Steve Berman of High Springs,  Steve Irving of Tallahassee (Go
Noles!),
Pat Watson and Keith Kinard of Montgomery, Alabama along with David Minor of
Tampa arrive,.  All accomplished side mount explorers.    We plan to put three
of them in the LSD area of Dos Ojos and take no prisoners.  The other two will
help to establish a hopeful connection with Sistema Ek Be.  Ed Grossenbacher is
now in the EK BE cave system becoming oriented with it and start pushing it west
towards Dos Ojos.
Definitely things are in the groove!
Things are going better here rather then with other projects because we are all
allowed our own personal preferences for gear configuration.   Besides we don't
have to deal with these other cocksuckers who have to cheat on air rules or use
special scooters and think they are the "elite divers".    Those guys are
dangerous and have a bad attitude.    Anyone could do the dives they do if they
had all the time in the world to work out and build special equipment.   
Besides
there's no way that a certain scum bag from Boca Raton could have gotten so far
in the caves without cheating on gas rules and it would be much safer to start
at another sink hole a mile in.

Tonight Gary Waltens and Dan Lins promised to show us a special event.  They
said
it would be something akin to "taking a walk on the wild side".   Living out
here
in the Jungle does strange things.

Saturday afternoon at 4:00 P.M.. we have the Team Photo shoot at the La Terrazza
Rooftop bar of Villas DeRosa.    Saturday night we have our Team Dinner at the
Buena Vista Restaurant in Akumal.  Kay Pozda Walten has been a tremendous help
setting this up.  Thank you Kay.
Resume the exploring on Sunday.

Have received an incredible amount of positive feedback and comments.   We
really Appreciate the support and enthusiasm from everyone.  Thank you.

Well, this concludes Report #7.   Any feedback is welcomed.     The biggest
satisfaction from this expedition is the "bond" and totally hard, dedicated
effort by all.

And,  thank you to our Sponsors and individuals who made contributions. We
here in the Systema El Jacinto Juevos Grande Pat appreciate the support!
                                                                               
Maintain. Se safe.                               Steve Gerrard       

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