Getting to know Ginnie….
If anyone suggested to me that I should dive the same wreck 17 times in a row, I’d say they were daft. How boring that would be – when there is so much to see.
So why have I done 17 dives in Ginnie Springs over the last two weeks through the same entrance and following the same mainline and, more importantly, why can’t I wait to go back. I’ve dived other sites as well while I’ve been here. But for those of you who don’t get what people find so fascinating in caves, I’m writing this as someone who is just finding out the complex and interactive relationship that a diver can have with a cave, the challenge that diving it can be and the satisfaction that one can get from the experience.
The distance that I covered is a mere scratch on the surface of what can be done experienced cave divers but the journey was, for me, wonderful fun and will always be memorable.
When I arrived in Florida, I knew from the one dive that I did in Devils’ last year that conditions would be very different from the low flow caves where I learned to cave dive in Mexico. Devil’s system in Ginnie Springs is a high flow cave – best explained as trying to dive in a hosepipe with the cave trying to spit you out as you try to get in. Flow is the movement of water from the cave out into the river that it feeds – which is why it is known as a spring. The body of water which moves through the cave is bottlenecked when the cave passage is narrow and the force of a large amount of water trying to fit through a small hole makes it move faster.
For those of you who have tried to swim against a current you will know that it is difficult and pulling on rocks to assist your entry to the cave is necessary. Let go in some tight spots and you can be flung backwards like a tumbleweed in a western movie.
To explain the journey, I should set out a bit more about the cave. When you enter through Devil’s ear you get to the main line quite quickly and enter the Gallery – a long and very tall tunnel with a scalloped roof like the chancel of a church. At the end of the Gallery you get to the Lips which is a series of large wide flat steps – very smooth and quite high flow (with not much to grab hold of).
After the lips you reach the cornflakes, I understand that they used to look like large rusty red flakes – hence the name – but they have degraded. From the cornflakes, you get to navigate the keyhole – which is a very narrow part of the main tunnel and thus particularly high flow. This is around 300 feet in and is where a lot of Cave 1 dives finish so I’ll drop off the guided tour at this point – I’ll return to that later.
My first dive in Ginnie this year was with John Kendall and Ed Gabe – two IE candidates, and Barry Mutch – and ITC candidate. We were to be diving 6ths (35 bar or 500 psi) which is the limit for Cave 1 training. We dropped in and pulled into the cave where the flow is the greatest, tied in the reel and set off – but Barry was uncomfortable in the flow and we headed back out very quickly. A second dive we got to the lips – about 150 ft in I guess. It was fun to be back in the water and we arranged to dive again the following day.
We were joined the next day by Kirril and George, two ITC candidates. George is Cave 2 so dived with Ed whilst John, Kirril and I dived together. Similar experience to before – fun diving and nice to meet new people who we can dive with easily and comfortably as they share the same training that we enjoy. It was the following day that things were going to change. Kirril, George and I went back to Devil’s and George – who knows the cave well offered to lead the dive. He dropped vertically over the side of the entrance – avoiding much of the flow, put the reel in and then headed right up into the ceiling but off to the side, hiding in the domes on the left of the gallery. Following him, ducking right in and and out of the shelter that could be found, I discovered that I could get completely out of the flow and relax. Not only did this mean that I could make progresswithout burning through my air – it was much more fun.
We dived three times that night and I found myself studying George and the way that he read the cave. We got steadily further in, through the keyhole and out the other side where the cave changes to what could almost be a river bed – running wide with a clay bottom in parts. We got past the Park Bench to a jump in the line – which I now know to be Hill 400 and thumbed it. I had gas to spare but my comfort level had been reached. Couldn’t wait to go back though!
The next few dives we relaxed and got further and further each time. Kirril and I found that when we dived together a combination of him putting the reel in and me leading the dive made the best combination. By now we were getting very comfortable and were reaching 600 feet back, various jumps off to other passages. The cave was changing too. The undercut river bed style floor was replaced with a broader passage with a traditional tunnel shape which meanders up and down over a clay/mud floor. I preferred it here and we both relaxed into the dive reaching 800 feet within our gas limits – the same limits with which we had reached a bare 150 feet on that first dive.
Each subsequent dive allowed us to learn that little bit more about the cave. Where the flow was greatest – and where protection from it could be sought. Which rocks made good pulling holds, and when to put that little extra effort in to permit a smooth passage through higher flow areas. I’ll stress again that Devil’s is not a difficult dive – in cave diving circles it is barely kindergarten and we were doing nothing that hasn’t been done by thousands before us but our journey was individual and fun for us to undertake. Our 15th dive in the system was just Kirril and I and we decided to make a separate dive to put the reel in before we ascend and recalculate sixths at that point.
We did this and I led us back in after ten minutes or so on the surface. We flew past features which had previously made our live tough in the cave – through the keyhole, on to the 800 foot marker, then the 900 foot one and with a little gas to spare on again to the Maple Leaf, a very distinct rock formation which comes down from the ceiling and has been created by the flow in the middle of a very wide part of the passage. The line carried on – round a left hand turn in the passage and I thought I could see another marker coming up which I guess would have been 1,000 feet – but we had hit turn pressure and it was time to go home. With plenty of gas we cruised out slowly – riding the flow like a gentle rollercoaster, taking time to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the beauty of the cave. We played around in the gallery and then I took the reel and we made our way out.
Like every other dive we had done, I felt that Ginnie had enough of our presence and she spat us out through the ear once more – deco is quite interesting when you are being blown out backwards digging your fins and elbows in the sides of the cave to stop the flow shooting you up to the surface. We sheltered in the cover of a large tree trunk which has been put over the opening to allow divers to find somewhere to rest on deco at 6 meters and grinned at each other making those double OK signals which you only use when you so want to say ‘Wow, that was good’.
We went back that night and did two more dives. We didn’t get to 800 feet let alone 1,000 but somehow it didn’t matter anymore Hope you enjoyed the report and that it makes you stop and think about the wonderful world of caves.
Btw, the photos are not of Ginnie - they are of me in Little River - yet another beautiful and utterly unique system - photos taken by George Bouloukos.
