Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
Well, we had an interesting weekend. JJ and I participated in a real good
Water Quality Working Group Meeting, where much was accomplished towards
coordinating efforts to get our caves cleaned up, and get more access for cave
divers. WKPP set up Wakulla on Friday, and Channel Six news did a real nice
story on what we are trying to accomplish.
Wayne Head, Jess Armentrout, and (young) Ed Padgett dropped 9 bottles at
2200, while Bill Mee, John Rose, Steve Berman and Derek Hagler dropped nine at
3500. Rick Sankey, Barry (Rat) Miller and Casey (the Chief) McKinlay dropped
six
at 5000 (the truth comes out). A crew of Jody Everett, Bob Weiss, Steve
Dittner, Scott Landon, Peter Wallace, Dawn Kernagis, Keither Suderman, John
Chluski, Mke Tennant, John Renfro, Jeff Carson, Sue Harvey, and to many others
to count, even Tom and Patti Mount helped set up and support these divers.
In the afternoon, JJ and I cam back and took over, as Brent had to leave,
and we began getting the stuff in for the Saturday dive, and the shit hit the
fan. One of our divers went in thinking he had gas in his tanks, and the
pressure guage was stuck. As he dropped past the 120 bottles to drop his load
of
air bottles, he ran out of gas. Being sure he had gas, he tried to make his rig
breath, rather than go for his buddy , or the full bottles he was carrying.
JJ saw the hands fumbling with the regs and moved in pasing off his own
reg, but the diver breathed water, blacked out , and drowned. JJ grabbed him in
the position not to emoblize, and went for the door, while Scott Landon and
Tony
Matitinez moved in to assist getting the diver up. JJ got him right to the
surface, stripped the gear that was in the way, and revived him right on the
surface with the help of the other two, then quickly got him to the beach,
where
the rest of us got to him. Jody got the oxygen, Bill Mee pulled a pickup to the
beach, we called Life Flite and the ambulance, and this all as he hit the
beach.
He came around right there and woke up, and one of the doctors was right
on him, along with one of the paramedics. We loaded him and moved him to the
parking lot just as the ambulance pulled up, and we cancelled the helicopter.
We had been afraid of an embolism , as he had actually been momentarily
dead, but he had no damage. They took him in, checked him, found no problems,
and he was at Lucy Ho's for dinner at 7:00, and diving the next day.
This is an example of why you want guys like JJ as your buddy - he never
even thought about whether he would get bent or hurt, only about saving this
guy, and he pulled him from four hundred feet in to the surface and saved him -
this is EXTREME skill. Landon , Dittner, and Martinez did the same, not worring
about their own lack of decompression - these are the kind of guys we like on
our team - take care of the problem and worry about it later.
This is why we insist opn the rules, and why we will not listen to the
weenies howl about personal preference - we can't breath water.
Saturday , JJ, Brent Scarabin and I went in for a six stage double
scooter dive to "O" Tunnel,the big split in A Tunnel that Rick Sankey, Brent
and
I started from 6,300 two weeks ago by adding 850 feet. We had looked at a few
other tunnels at that time, but this time we got there in 4 stages, and were
actualy able to get past the end of our own line and laying line on the fifth
stage, still towing the other scooters (we used the long range scooters for
this). We added a full reel (1100 feet) and dropped the other two bottles as
we
used them. We then dropped the big scooters and went to the little nicads and
the Kahuna Reel, and emptied that (1700 feet) for a grand total of the 2800
hundred feet on top of 7100, to put us just shy of 10,000 feet, our furthest
penetration into Wakulla so far, and our deepest. This tunnel is 260 to 290 on
the roof, where we laid the line. The width is at least 100 feet, and more in
most places, and several times we could not see the floor at all, hanging the
stages and scooters from the walls.
This is some seriously beautiful Tallhassee Power Cave. We turned the
dive
after 80 minutes , and it took us another 75 to get out, putting us at our
first
deco stop with a 155 minute bottom time, our longest yet at 285 feet. Steve
Irving was running the greet team, and had been waiting with Julius for us at
250 for a long time. We had expected a 130 minute time at least, and were ready
for 140, but had not really thought it would take that long. We had two of each
deco gas in the water, and three oxygens, so we had enough to easily make it,
as
long as we did not get too active .
One amazing thing about this dive is that we were in the water four
hours before we even got to 120 feet, but were out in a total of 11 hours - 2.5
dive, and 8.5 deco. This is the same amount of deco Bill Gavin and I did for a
95 minute bottom time in the tunnel next to "O" three years ago, before we
really figured out what works for this kind of exposure. All of us felt great.
Today, Bill Mee and Barry Miller retrieved the safeties from 3500
feet, and John Rose, Wayne Head , and Jess Armentrout retrieved the empties
form
2200 feet, where I left all of mine for the trip out. Rat and Bill breathed the
short safeties in to get the long ones. We also go a lot of stull pictures and
vieo done today and yesterday.
Thanks to everyone for making it happen again , and thanks for the
heads up ball when the shit hit the fan - you guys are the best. We wil
schedule
again this week and I wil let you know when we can go back, and when we are
doing Turner, Cheryl and Big D ( we need less rain for these).
Oh, Yeah - tripple this. (right) - G
George M. Irvine III
DIR WKPP
1400 SE 11 ST Ft Lauderdale, FL 33316
954-493-6655 FAX 6698
Email gmiiii@in*.co*
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