Beyond 1km

21.06.2009

Divers: Artur Kozlowski, Brendan O'Brien

I headed to Gort on Saturday morning hoping for an easy push in 20-30m range of depth with end of the line 500m inside the cave. However by Saturday evening situation looked quite different. In two consecutive dives Jim pushed the cave to staggering 1km from the entrance and the depth of -47m at the end of the line. So much for an easy push...

I took off and all I can say that going through squeezes between 60-80m from the entrance, with Meg and two Alus 80 was not fun. Being less streamlined than Jim I had to move couple of boulders to finally get through. I knew the cave up to 360m from the entrance from last year and I always considered it as sidemounted cave. Jim proved different. Later was somehow easier but again quite low (I'd say no more than 1m) around 800m in. I managed to explore another 200m of low but 3-4m wide passage and tied off the line at -62m. I had plenty of line on my reel to go but at this stage my left arm was well soaked as I must have cut my wrist seal while wriggling through squeezes. In fairness, I should have turned the dive much earlier, well... 

Jim Warny's Report Part II

Last weekend saw more success at Poulnacappel

19/06/09

Upon arrival I noted the water level was up from last week and the visibility went down to 0,5m.

Progress thru the cave was considerably slower than last week.

I had planed to bring an extra stage bottle but abandoned it fairly soon into the dive.

Despite the slow progress I managed to add an other 230m still heading E reaching a new deep point of -43m.

Deco was a bit cold due to a minor leak (p-valve problem).

Max depth: 43M

Total BT: 164min

20/06/09

Joined by Artur we setup for another few dives.

I continued the exploration and was able to add 210m and reach a depth of -47m.

This time I brought 3 stage bottles and dropped one of them on the way (400m in).

These dives are starting to cover a long distance and considerable depth so next time I thing more gas will have to be staged to push further.

Artur did a dive on 21/06/09 but I let him report that one.

Jim Warny

Jim Warny's Report Part I

After a year of waiting and being busy with other projects I finally got a chance to go for a few dives in Poulnacapple.

29/05/09

Reconnaissance dive.

On arrival I found that the water level in the pot was low but there was still some flow noticeable on the surface.

I opted for two side mount 7's for this dive as I had no intention in pushing far beyond the boulder choke.

As I started to follow the line from the entrance I noticed a strong current coming out of the cave.

After +/-10m I found the main line broken so I tied in with my reel. I laid 40m of line from there to reach a deep point of 12m where the flow was barely noticeable. Finally after a while of searching I found the mainline again along with a strong flow.

I tied in there and headed into the current only to find the line to be broken again, at that point I turned the dive.

Analyzing the survey I could saw I was within 10m of the start of the boulder choke.

Max depth: 12M

BT: 40min

13/06/09

After meeting the lads at Poltuphill I headed to Polnacapple for an other dive.

This time i took the twin 7's and an extra AL80.

The water level was even lower than last time, with no flow noticeable at all on the surface.

I got to where I stopped the other day fairly fast and tied in with a full reel. 

Searching around I ended up squeezing between boulders and the ceiling, that small I had to remove 2 cylinders to retreat.

Retracing my steps I was getting frustrated and was getting ready to leave as it seemed very tight and unstable.