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George I was interested in reading your latest news about Wooddville Karst Plain as i have read much about your exporations there with great interest. I have one question regarding something you mention in the first chapter. >Our drive bottles and > safeties are still in there, but it will require taking newer bottles with > us and checking all the existing ones out 17,000 feet to be prepared to add > line in the new tunnel. Are the bottles you have left their ready for your next dive or bottles that have been partially used or not needed on the last dive ? Andre De La Mare ----- Original Message ----- From: George Irvine <girvine@be*.ne*> To: Techdiver@Aquanaut.Com <techdiver@aquanaut.com>; Cavers@Ca*.Co* <cavers@ca*.co*>; Quest@Gu*. Com <quest@gu*.co*> Sent: Saturday, June 29, 2002 2:22 AM Subject: WKPP Diving Updates > > I am getting asked what is going on at WKPP since we have not been writing > up any dive reports. Our diving in the caves of the Woodville Karst Plain > was cut short last year by hurricanes after we got a few dives done which > culminated with a 19,000 foot penetration at Wakulla Springs. On that dive, > JJ and I set ourselves up for another dive to a lead we found at 17,000 > feet which we believe has a good chance of hooking into the Leon Sinks Cave > System. Currently, the bottom of the Leon main conduit tunnel is level with > the beginning of the Wakulla Cave and is heading towards the outbound main > tunnel, while that tunnel named O Tunnel in Wakulla is angling > towards Leon. The two are about a mile apart laterally and 3-4 miles from > each other's ends, depending on how the caves run. Our drive bottles and > safeties are still in there, but it will require taking newer bottles with > us and checking all the existing ones out 17,000 feet to be prepared to add > line in the new tunnel. > > This could conceivably be done in one day given our strong team, but we > will likely break it up into dives that set us up while exploring side > tunnels along the way, and will coincide with diving Leon both from the > bottom of the system and from the mid sections of the system which have > gone largely unexplored. The cave splits in several places and needs a lot > more looking. We have a large team and can get a lot of these dives done > simultaneously in the brief window of decent weather that normally can be > expected in that part of the country, which could be further shortened by > El Nino and any hurricanes that form in the Gulf of Mexico. > > Since the last really long dive, Jarrod and myself, and more recently > several other team divers, have been working with the newer Halcyon > rebreather, the RB 80. Gaining confidence and proficiency with this system, > as well as beefing up our long range scooter fleet , and testing all of > this out on a regular basis while doing lesser dives has been our priority. > We can shave considerable time off of what was a seven hour roundtrip to > the end of the line, and can basically get quite a bit further now in the > same amount of time. This is more of a stamina thing than a deco thing, as > we are already at effective saturation and have developed tables that speed > this process down to amazingly short times. Our lights burn anywhere from > 13-20 hours, depending on whether we run the nicad packs or the nickel > metal, and the rest of our gear and techniques are such that cold and other > problems are not an issue. > > We have all been diving regularly. In fact there was one stretch > last month where I did 17 dives, and we are all constantly cross training > and perfecting the gear. Our team is currently operating in smaller groups > at several exploration sights, both in and out of the Woodville Karst > Plain. At this time, we choose to keep the particulars quiet, as we seem to > have a vocal and persistent opposition to everything we do, which expresses > itself in attacks on GUE , DIR and WKPP, complaints about us to anyone who > will listen, and we do not want to jeopardize our access by drawing any > more attention than we have to to the Project. At some point, we will > release reports on a delayed basis to avoid this, as the nonsense will > then be moot and appear as foolish as it genuinely is by those who > perpetrate it. > > I'd love to share what I have been doing, as it is some of the most severe > dives that we have ever done, and has resulted in Casey, JJ and I > putting our heads together and coming up with even higher levels of > attention to detail and procedure that could benefit all divers, but these > stories will be released on a lag in their entirety. I can say that our > methods work in places that nobody else could even guess at how to handle, > and I will say that we are also conducting scientific experiments that will > lead to a vastly greater understanding of cave dynamics, and be some of the > most useful information ever developed in this region. > > All of our teams are sharpening up and getting ready to go, so we should > have a good season when we combine forces for further extending the > exploration of the conduit systems under the WKP. > > -- > Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. > Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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