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This is the conclusion to yesterday's post.  As you may recall, Sheck Exley,
having had his Zepp die, swam from 1500 feet back to deco and had to use two
safety bottles to get there.  "Where was his buddy?" many of you may ask.
Here is the answer.

"(Paul) DeLoach explains:
�After Sheck cut loose the bungy from my prop we proceeded for several hundred
feet before I began to have irregular breathing patterns.  It was like my
chest was having palpitations.  Hard as I tried, I could not seem to control
my breathing, and it was extremely difficult to obtain a complete breath.
Within 200 feet, I began to get a twitching in my eye and nose.  These
symptoms continued to build until I began to fade in and out of consciousness.
Sheck realized my condition at the 1500 foot depot and motioned for me to go
on.  I was in no condition at that time to argue with him.  The twitching
seemed to get longer and the breathing was more of a problem as I continued up
Grander Canyon.  I switched to my safety bottle, hoping it would breathe
easier, but it was worse so I went back to my hundreds.  I arrived at the 190
foot stop and these symptoms continued until I had moved up to about 175 feet.
At that point, I began to get some relief.  Having recovered sufficiently, I
became concerned about Sheck, since I knew he would be slow swimming.  I
motored back down into the cave and caught up with him just as he was
switching to his 50 watt backup light.�

When DeLoach described these reactions the following morning, a set of
calculations were made and it was determined that the partial pressure of
oxygen in the Trimix 19/40 that the two had been using successfully on
previous dives was approximately 2.0 atm at 300 feet depth"

~snip~

"Nonetheless, the unlikely had happened and despite the stress of the moment,
both divers performed flawlessly in their execution of emergency procedures."

Stone, W. C., The Wakulla Springs Project, pg. 128-129, The U.S. Deep Caving
Team, Gaithersburg, MD, 1989
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