:Gledder\’s diving blog…

Just managed to defrost from our two days team training and Fraser is now back on a plane to New York, so I thought I’d do a quick report.

First of all it was f’ing freezing….. I really don’t know how you manage in Norway, Alaska etc. but I’m just not cut out for this and spent most of the time thinking fondly of chocolate, open fires and bed!

Dive 1, I can’t explain why but when I was kitting up for this dive I just didn’t want to get in - I felt hassled and rushed (although there was no need to), was not in the right state of mind to go diving and I essentially thumbed it on the surface. Al managed to talk some sense into me and, like a good buddy would, said that they would wait until I was happy to get in. I still don’t know why I felt this way…. but when I got in to the water knew that he had been right to talk me in to it.

Fraser was trying out Al’s Heisers and we just toured the quarry getting back into the team again. I was carrying two stages and tried swiimng through a few tightish gaps to get an idea of my profile in the water - clunk Nothing much of note happened on the dive until Fraser thumbed it - Al’s set had only 70 bar in it at the start of the dive and he had reached minimum gas.

Then things got a little interesting…. as Fraser has not dived much (well at all really) since he went to the states, we asked him to put up the DSMB. He has an oral inflate bag but after getting it out and attaching it to the spool he found that he could not get it to inflate. Al tried as well, but to no avail. I thought that there was a problem with the mouthpiece (which is oral inflate only) so took it off them to restow it and, while I was doing so, Al deployed a bag. (It turned out that there was nothing wrong with Fraser’s bag but the cold meant that neither of them could actually make a seal round it with their mouth ) This had taken rather too long from start to finish.

We made our way to 12 metres or so and Fraser showed me his gauge. Not able to read it, I decided that he was telling me that he was low on gas and, as I was running the ascent he wanted to get up a.s.a.p. Given that I was cold I had not intended to hang around any longer than necessary so I nodded. Upon which he showed me the gauge again and I went forward to read it - 10 bar So Al took over the bag and we ascended with Fraser on my long hose - nice scenario!

Dive 2 was perhaps more fun for the boys than me - I lent Fraser my Gavin and they towed me out to the far side of the quarry wearing three stages - which, as they buzzed around, I practiced clipping, unclipping, and restowing. I had wanted to work on my back-kick which has vanished since I changed my weighting - I made some progress but the memorable bit of the dive was Al hitting a lone rock with his Gavin - and stopping to kiss it better underwater!

Other members of DIR X were around (the non GUE but geniable Janos and Diving Dude) diving CCR and we made the expected ‘farewell’ statements to them as they left for their dives. Actually felt quite sorry for Howard who does indeed appear to believe that his unit is trying to kill him - but then he stole lots of the chocolate biscuits so I decided that he didn’t deserve my sympathy after all

Janos joined us at our hotel for a drink and a chat about DIR/BSAC differences - and a lot of teasing. He set off for Plymouth and we got the Gavins and torches on charge and had a very pleasant dinner (Talbot Inn - quite pricey but very near Vobster and great food and accomodation).

Day 2.

Hmmm…. it’s a bit of a hint when there is ice on the inside of the windscreen. It’s a bit more obvious when crotch strap is frozen solid, your Din fittings have ice in the threads, your O2 tank appears to be sending out air in chunks rather than a stream and your gloves can’t be turned the right way round as they have frozen solid inside out.

Fraser’s wing inflate was frozen open so was constantly filling - he had to entre the water with his right post off. We agreed that we would not head below 3 metres until we were satisfied that all kit was functioning but as the water was considerably warmer than the surrounding air we had no further problem on the dive.

I was still wanting to work on my trim (boy - and extra pair of socks was making me pay big time) so clipped one of my stages off to Fraser - and Al did the same. This left him with four stages for the first time - and he was very happy to find that he had no problems at all. I ended the dive slightly earlier than I would have wanted as I started to shiver violently - wow - this is not that much fun… and we did what we could to find some warmth between dives.

Dive 2. Fraser was trying my kit to check out the Evolve - so I was wearing his. The backup reg was freeflowing and was not recoverable so, like the first dive, I entered the water with a post off. No problems after the water got over the regs and I was able to turn it back on.

I carried two stages which I was going to pass to Fraser once he had had a chance to get used to the wing but when I handed them to him he found that he was tipped head down and had to hand me back the 80 for the ascent. He hated the wing - hopefully he will post on the thread to give a balance to the reports from us who like it.

I had sent the bag up on this dive, and the outside of it had frozen solid by the time we surfaced Mugs of hot choclate weren’t enough to touch the cold and we shivered all the way home. But from a team perspective we had a great couple of days, finalised what we hope to do next year and confrmed that the one thng we can do is keep each other sane

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Day started early for me when I left to pick Frase up from Heathrow airport. Wow they really know how to screw you with car park charges there in the short stay car park… scary :o)

His flight was late (Fraser late - no shit!) but we still got off for Stoney in good time - where we met Mal Bridgeman and Al. Al and Frase were going to go in on teh Gavins while Mal and I did a skills dive in preparation for his trimix course with Frank.

We had a good dive - accompanied in the first few minutes by the pike - and a chat on the surface over what Mal can do to improve a few areas which he believes need a bit of work before the course.

We then joined Al and Frase (who was bouncing from the Gavin encounter) for a dive. I took three stages on the dive but when Al suggested that we swim through the Stanegarth I handed one off to Frase - tbh I think I’d have got stuck if I hadn’t!!!

When we exited the boat, Al swam off a bit quick, and me being me decided to emphasise this by going OOA - yup, I know - bitch :o) A good dive followed by a comfortable ascent - nice to have the team together again.

Merry Christmas :oD

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Al, Frase and I dived the Salsette a few weeks ago. It was the day after Frase and I had got back from the Red Sea and I think I’m right in saying we didn’t manage to speak to Al until we got to Weymouth.

We didn’t need to discuss what gas we would be diving, what deco we would be doing, what the minumum gas was for safety. We didn’t need to run through each others kit, what signals would be, etc. We did agree, on the way out, who would run deco, who would lead the dive and who would bag up - but this took about half a minute and we went back to teasing Al about looking green.

On the way down the shot we were in light contact with each other the whole way down, ready to stop the descent if anyone had a problem. On the bottom, we gave our first signals to each other, that we were all ok and which way we were going to go. On the dive, I relaxed and, whilst keeping an eye on Fraser’s light to check he was OK, had a good look round.

All too soon I reached minimum gas and flashed my light for attention to the “thumb” This was the first non-passive signal on the dive, since we reached the bottom. Immediately, Al and Frase responded, and within only a matter of seconds we were on our way to the first deep stop.

We dive without written plans or runtimes, but each of us will have a pretty good idea based on the dive of where the stops will be and how long for, and Fraser called a stop bang on where I was expecting it. He managed the ascent to 24 meters, on leaving this stop we each started to deploy our stages ready for the switch at 21.

As soon as Frase gave me the signal to switch I did so in order that I could then concentrate on putting the bag up. I kept an eye on Al whilst I was doing this as I knew he would keep his depth for me to use as a visual reference.

We settled down into the classic triangle, close enough to monitor each other, back-kicking if necessary to keep the triangle even, and chilled.

The stops took Fraser’s preferred pattern but neither Al nor I would have varied this by more than a minute here or there so all was well. Until he tried to play silly buggers and called very shallow extra stops - when we both told him to sod off and surfaced.

Back on the boat we nattered about a fun dive. Just like 1,000s of other divers. Only difference is I could do this dive in this exact same way with a DIR diver I’ve not met before the dive.

Kit? I hope I’ve just shown you, it’s about so much more than that

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We’ve lost our last five dives.

As we got nearer to the day, the weather looked OK but I then came down with a heavy cold on Wednesday, and got really depressed. As Bob was diving with us, I didn’t have to decide until the day as Al would still be able to dive if I dropped out, so I crossed my fingers and upped the vitamin C.

5:30 this morning freezing fog greeted us. Hmm… said Al, well at least if we are told that we have to get back up the shot line we have a cave diver with us who shoud be happy laying line but as we neared Brighton it cleared and the sun even (eventually) came out too.

It is a long ride out to the Moldavia - about two hours - so lots of time to catch up with people. Howard produced a bar of low carb chocolate which I promptly stole off him - he fought me for it and won

Mark Chase told me and Al that a diver was swept off the Moldavia a while ago by the prop wash from a large oil tanker (thanks Mark!!) and to listen out for engines….

Al and I haven’t really dived with Bob before so ran through a few bits on the boat. We agreed that I would lead off down the shot to see how my sinuses were - and thankfully no problem at all The vis was good about 4 - 6 metres) and when we got to the bottom of the shot we reordered so Bob could lead off - as he has dived the wreck before.

I was feeling OK before we jumped in but quite prepared to thumb it at 6 metres if I had problems equalising. I was very pleased to find that by equalising every half a meter, all the way down the shotline, I had no problems getting down to the wreck. And there is was - the Moldavia - a wreck I have wanted to dive pretty much since i first heard of it - and before I was qualified to dive it - our maximum dive depth today was 47 metres.

We found portholes with the glass still intact, the gun which was quite impressive, a huge lobster and loads of fish. One fish was caught in a line on the wreck and Bob went over, got out his knife and started to free it. Only problem with this was he then started getting tangled in the line himself. Al went in and started getting the line of Bob and, frightened that he would turn and make things worse, I told him to hold but he carried on cutting the fish free. Hmm… free fish - caught Bob - not a good exchange. Turns out, back on the surface, that Bob knew he was caught up but figured that while we got him out he might as well carry on freeing the fish. For those of you who are interested - the fish made it

The current picked up and carried us back down the wreck which was cool. Bob thumbed it and deco was uneventful apart from the fact that all of us felt that we were too far apart - Al and I thinking that Bob prefered it that way - and Bob thinking the same of us

We got up to calm seas, but a skipper who informed us that there had been an incident and the chopper was on its way. We stowed the kit and did what we could to help pack stuff away. Seeing the rescue helicopter come in was stunning - the skill of the skipper and the pilot evident. The casualty was taken away, symptomatic but reasonably OK, and the boat then returned for the divers still in the water - not perhaps surprisingly including Chasey.

What was very funny (well apt ) is that Mark heard the chopper and, given his story to us earlier, thought that a large ship was bearing down on him. Can’t have been nice for Mark but rather apt given his tales earlier in the day.

Mince pies and hot choccy afterwards. Howard resisted the mince pies - for about 10 minutes

And that was that… a good day out - always satisfying to sneak one in when you least expect it.

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Well, I go diving every weekend, so what made this one different?

It was inland, in fresh water - so running to type there

The two particular sites I dived in though were, however, 4,000 miles from my normal haunts, underground in Florida. Welcome to Ginny and Peacock Springs.

I admit, it was a crazy idea, fly to Florida for a weekend - meeting Frank who is out there for a month and Fraser who was flying down from his temporary base in New York, but it was worth every memory rich moment (and the appalling jetlag I am sitting here with now on the way in to work).

Since I joined GUE, I’ve heard so much about these caves, and of High Springs, home of GUE, Extreme Explorers and Salvo. Yet sitting on the plane on the way out on Friday, I realised that I had no idea what to expect. That’s why I’m going to write this trip report in quite some detail - in case anyone reading it would like to known more too (that, and it’s a long train journey and I need to stay awake).

Me at Peacock.

Fraser and I met up at Orlando to face the ultimate potential disaster at the start of a dive weekend - his dive bag didn’t make it on to the plane from New York. A tense couple of hours went by until it turned up on a later flight - leaving us heading off behind schedule. We headed out on what should have been a three hour journey but got utterly lost - thinking that we would find the Dive Outpost we were staying at in Live Oak when it was actually 30 odd miles from the town - distances in cave country are huge. We finally arrived at 2.30 am - I had been on the road for well over 24 hours.

Morning came all too soon until I came too enough to realise where I was - and then waking up was easy. I headed out to find coffee and found little Britain instead - Martin Robson, Ritchie Stevenson, Frank Bruce, Angie and Paul Brown were there.

We were offered a choice of twinsets, Fraser opted for 95s and I took a set of 80s which were pumped to 260 bar - I was told that “You know the dive is over in cave when your tanks drop to merely full!”

After breakfast at the Luraville County Store (established 1840 - pelts, mules, horses and whiskey sold here) we headed off for our first look at Peacock Springs.

I don’t quite know what I expected, but whatever it was, it wasn’t what I found. Peacock is, quite simply, beautiful above and below the water. I was stunned by the tranquility of the place (and quite stunned by the signs saying “Warning - Alligators” too. *eek* )

Peacock Springs

Frank gave us a surface tour and breifing, we walked past a plaque in memory of Shek Exley and got kitted up ready to jump in and find out what cave diving is like.

Our first dive was to be just a fun dive, in Peacock Spring itself. Frank was going to run the reel in and I would tidy up behind him. When we met up with the permanent guideline, Fraser would then take the lead.

Heading down, into the mouth of the cave was a particularly intense moment for me, I had no idea how I would feel but have heard that the overhead environment is not for everyone.

As our eyes adjusted to the gloom the cavern area (the bit of the cave which gets natural light) was a nice transitional area and I relaxed slightly, following Frank in past the sign of the grim reaper which set out how many people have died in the caves (I think it was forty odd) and reminding people of the need for training.

I had expected it to be dark but with three HIDs there was not only light in the beams but quite a bit of reflected light around, certainly enough to see the beauty of the caves.

We were diving 6ths so only went in about 800 feet - but this was enough to see various different tunnels, narrow areas where we had to travel single file, low sections where we had to pull through, wide areas with silty bottoms and scalloped ceilings which caught the bubbles we exhaled which then shone like mirrors in the ceiling. The water was incredibly clear, vis at least 20 metres and the cave walls were white. It really is a beautiful environment. In total our dive time was 50 minutes - it seemed like half that and was over far too soon.

Inside Peacock

After a comfort break, a snack (and an oggle at men in red DUI drysuits) we went back in for another dive where Frank was going to take us through some skills. Shutdowns in the cavern area were not fun - my manifold had metal valve knobs and getting a good grip was dificult. In adition, I had settled in quite a restricted bit of the cave and when I breathed in I headed up to the roof, whilst exhalling took me on to the floor.

We then ran the line in and started out into the cave to be hit with various scenarios, OOAs, valve and primary light failures etc. Skills were necessary, Caves are an environment which must be taken seriously - but I have to admit that at this point I just wanted to enjoy the dives.

Boy, this is long, are you still awake

Day two and we’re off to Ginny Springs. There had been little perceptible flow in Peacock, but John Kendall had warned me that diving in Ginny was akin to being spat out by a hose pipe - and he was right.

The idea was to warm up slowly, do our first dive and drills in Ginny Springs itself, but when we got to the site it was far too busy. So the plan was adapted and we were told that we would go in through the Devils Eye. I was to line in.

We approached the Eye by swimming along a shallow river, perhaps 50 yards about two meters deep - with fish and even some swimmers (Ginny is a State Park). The river water was green ish (good vis perhaps 10 or so meters) but suddenly ahead I could see blue clear water, full of bubbles. We had reached the Eye and could clearly see the spring water coming out, mixing with the brown tanic river water.

Devils Eye

I found a primary tie off point easily (a very convenient log) and went in - what a squeeze!!! A secondary proved a little more difficult and I had to scout around a bit before I found a suitable rock. I then checked that Fraser and Frank were there and headed in - or tried too.

Imagine swimming against the strongest current, trying to run a light and a reel. I fought my way along forr no more than 50 feet but found myself unable to manage it all and stopped and signalled to Frank for help.
Freed of the reel, and now able to copy Frank, I was able to kick and pull my way forward - just. We got to the permanent line where Frank tied off the reel, and headed in on the permanent line.

At this point I took the lead again. Concentrating on pulling, I followed the left hand wall, only to have Fraser flash me - I had strayed away from the line - which was on the right of the tunnel - and had, without realising it, started down a side tunnel.

Back on track, slither slither, pull pull, - Wow!!!!!

We exited the restriction (where understandably the water flow is very strong) and entered a room with scalloped walls and a high roof - Frank gestured to us both to swim higher - up in the roof where the flow was weaker. This is my abiding memory of the weekend - it was truely spectcular. For those who know Ginny, we got to the cornflakes when we had to turn the dive.

Riding the flow out was like a mad drift - Fraser’s manifold took a belt on the ceiling - and took less that a third the time of our entry. We left the reel in place and exited - it was like being spat out as unwelcome intruders - I exited into the pool to find Fraser mopping his brow

Dive two was led by Frank, who had a treat for us (as this would be the last dive we did) We entered in the Devil’s Ear this time, which is a case of swimming almost vertically into a split in the ground, against a flow which is trying to push you out again.

Devils Ear

You push and pull, kick and pull, down and down, hugging the walls wherever possible to keep out of the flow. Suddenly you round a corner and the flow goes away - and you go SPLAT! The flow has been keeping you up - inspite of the loss of buoyancy from the increased depth - when it goes away you hit the bottom

We make our way through the tunnel keeping as high as possible, and my manifold takes a big hit on the roof this time. I listen for bubbles.
Suddenly, I see my reel - we have crossed to the entrance point which we used on dive 1. Someone has tied into it and staged deco bottles on their line - Frank takes a few minutes to free our line and tidy things up for the exiting team.

So - all too soon - it’s over. Fraser heads off to the airport and I head back with Frank to Dive Outpost. We stop off at Little River for a look and drop by on Andy Kerslake’s lodgings to pick up some Gavins.

Monday morning I pack up and hit the road with Paul, Angie Simon and Ken who are heading home as well. They want to do some shopping on the way and when I discover that this will involve visiting Salvo, Extreme Explorers and GUE I happily go along.

I was very pleased to meet Barry Miller (Salvo) who upgraded my torch for me there and then and, then we headed off to EE where we pulled in and Frank said “Oh look, JJ’s here”

So, my Florida weekend ended with quite a long chat with JJ who asked about what we were doing as a team. He asked about diving in England and expressed an interest in coming on one trip we have planned. Now that would be fun

Was it worth a 8,000 mile round trip to do four dives. You bet. Next time, I’ll do it for longer to avoid the mean case of jetlag I had (and still have).

If you made it this far - congratulations on your tenacity - and I hope you have a slightly better picture of what is over in Florida.

If you get the chance - go - you won’t regret it.

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