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Coming back after one year of blacked out caves from the most
rigorous training and preparation ever done for this sport, WKPP divers
executed their longest rebreather dive ever in Wakulla Springs on
Friday. Having set in the safety bottles two weeks ago, a team of
Armentrout , Rose and Mee carried drive bottles and long range scooters
out a mile before themselves continuing on to add line in M Tunnel, a
monster Spring which begins at the one mile marker off of A Tunnel.
The next morning at 8:30, Jablonski, Scarabin and Irvine began a
three hour and forty minute dive ( bottom time at 285 ) to the end of O
Tunnel, where they thought they found a better split that the one that
hits Cherokee Sink. This was a tidal sypon which had pulled the dark
water in only to turn North and into a beautiful clear spring which
continued for 1730 more feet of giant white tunnel before t-boning M
Tunnel right near the end of that line.
With our main drive scooters and all of our safties along the other
route, we of course had to go back the way we came, a distance of 12,730
feet at 285 on the roof. Interestingly, the M Tunnel route is only 300
feet shorter than the A/O combination, and the tunnel is not as large,
and it has frequent duckunders, so makes for trickier travel, although
the water is clear, a big visual plus in the entertainment column for a
long ride to get to the end of the line. Brent ran out of line ten feet
shy of the connection, and JJ pulled it back to tie in. I took the shots
along the M line to fix the survey, and we began the 12,730 foot ride
back two hours into the dive. Just think about scootering two hours into
a cave to start exploration - you better have some serious preparation
for that one.
We left safeties for the next dive every 1200 feet all the way to
11,000, so are well positioned to do a big job on the next trip to do
what we intended to do on this dive - find out where the O Tunnel goes
if it goes around Cherokee, and find the Leon Sinks shunt. The problem
with this cave is that as soon as we think we have it figured out, it
opens up a whole new section and dynamic. We now have teams that will be
able to simultaneously set up another team and themselves explore cave
en route, while not jeopardizing other operations going on. Ther are now
THREE separate routes to the old end of the cave, each of which plays a
signifcant role on the mystery of how the water there operates. We
started out to find where the cave goes, and came up with an alternate
way to do just that no matter what the conditions - bad water we go M,
good water we go A/O. We know the cave so well that under most
conditions we can easily get that far. We will now be able to sample
water from anywhere.
This dive was done on the Halcyon rebreather, so only took about 105
cubic feet of bottom gas ( 11/60), plus break and inflation gas from the
back tanks ( as well as "reality" check gas"), 40 cubic feet of 19/35
trimix deep deco and break gas, 80 cubic feet of 35% nitrox, 40 cubes of
50/50, and 100 cubic feet of oxygen. 3:40 bottom time, 9:50 deco. We
stayed on the rebreather up to 50 feet to stay warm, and the scrubber
never broke through. I went to releasing every third breath at 50 to be
sure, since I had used a calcuation that said I was packed for 8-11
hours, but it was not necessary - I could not tell the difference
between open and closed circuit . I have four bottles to fill to dive
again.
The scooters had 70 minutes left on the last one, 100 minutes on the
main one, and 110 minutes on the first one. The light had 45 minuters
left after staying white through five hours. The new motors develop
exactly the right efficiency and speed with the rebreathers and safety
tanks, and the new rebreathers give us our surface breathing rate
independent of depth. The workout regimen and diets we are on mean zero
cold, tired, or bent, with minumal decompression. The deco technique is
now producing a fast get out without the usual sequence or time.
From 295 on 11% oxygen 60% helium, it went like this: 240 for 5 on
19/35, then by tens, 2, 4, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8,10,10,10,10, then from 120 on
35%, 20,13,13,13,20, then from 70 on 50/50 20, 30, ( all 20 on, 5 off to
back gas with out changing the stops ), then 20 at 50 on 19/35 ( cleanup
break), and 50 at 50 on 35%, then 50 at 35 on 50%, then 230 at 28 on
oxygen with breaks to 19/35 every twenty for five, and then 15 at 28 on
19/35 and straight up to the surface for a 13.5 hour run time, and a
little less than 10 hour deco.
This produced the cleanest deco I have felt yet for one of these long
dives by eliminating the severe oxygen pounding and the oxygen bends, as
well as the need to decompress from the intermediate stops or the
oxygen. The helium-based deco gases make a huge difference, as does the
extreme conditioning , and I will find out in the morning what my time
is in the five mile ( swim ) to see if there was any loss of vital
capacity, and then again Monday in an 18,000 meter swim. I discovered a
few dives ago that by not using the oxygen towards the end of the deco
and not decompressing up from 30 feet, the need for the one foot per
minute wind down is eliminated, and you can get straight out, and it is
safer since the risk of in water tox is not anywhere near as high that
much later. For no habitat, I would shift everything up ten feet .
Mixing up the high and low ppo2's and gas mixes as well as using the
pure oxygen in doses seems to make a world of difference.
When we got back, the cleanup team went to get the gear which we
left in order to get more speed for the last leg. Tyler ("Walk"), Ted
("Chew Gum") Cole, Scott( "Lotion Boy" ) Landon, and Chris "Skippy"
Werner retrieved the safety scooters, drive scooters, drive bottles, and
old safeties from the back of the cave.
We had massive help with this one, all kinds of technicians, and all
kinds of support. Dawn and Robert ran the dives, then Bill Mee took over
for the late shift. The rest of the team also dove Sally Ward and
Indian, but we will hear from them as to what else went on - I was in
the water all day and then went home.
All I can tell you is that I have the two best dive partners in
diving ( Scrabin and Jablonski ), and that having dove wtih several
members of this team lately, I am really impressed at the tremendous
pool of raw as well as refined talent that we now have, and am impressed
with the attitude and commmittment of these guys. This is perfect
timing, since we now have a drought and access to everything in the
Woodville Karst Plain, and all of the equipment to do it right now.
The other guys can explain their dives.
--
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