Wednesday, July 7, 2010

1.5km and -71m...the cave continues

5/6.07.2009

It was raining all day long on Sunday. In the morning Jim jumped in for half an hour set up dive to stage EAN50 and EAN32 on 21m, which point is around 150m from the entrance. I was supposed to dive right after but all that raining business made me lazy; waiting for some dry spell to get change I stayed in a tent reading Henri Cheriere's Papillion . Only around 7pm when it became obvious that it wasn't going to stop I put a drysuit on and kitted up.

Dive started around 9pm. Visibility was fantastic, 2.5m at least. Poulnacapple turned out to be marvellous underwater cave when I was finally able to see something; during all my previous dives visibility was never better 
than 1m and usually around 0.5m. Water temperature increased to comfortable 15deg compared to 12-13 last week. I couldn't ask for more.
 
Off through the choke, I picked up Jim's EAN32 and staged it half an hour further into the cave at -40m. I reached our previous limit 1.2km at -62m in just over 1h. Last time I left almost full reel there as I experienced some route finding problems ( I simply lost the way on Tongue) and having being seriously soaked at that stage I had opted for retreat. This time, due to good visibility  I could see where I went wrong last time even before I reached my reel so almost immediately I was back on track. 

From -62m cave was sloping up and down in 60s and  after 200m of new line laid I was already on -66m. So far so good.

Another reel with 140m of line attached and I continued. The cave kept descending and while trying to belay the line with a silt screw and a cable tie somewhere around -70m of depth (an eyehole in the cable tie somehow seemed very very tiny  ) I came to realisation that I'd approached very limits of my diluent (END and PPO2 wise). I went for few more meters and dropped almost empty reel (20m left) on -71m. Quick self check, everything seemed to be fine, 300m of cave explored, let's go home! 

200m from the entrance it became obvious that major current developed caused by prolonged rainfall. I was a bit worried how it would be in the choke/squeeze. Damn right. Despite the fact that I approached it carefully I had almost been sucked in by the current.  By pulling myself back along the rocks, scared as a hell, I managed to retreat to the safe distance. I had to pass the squeeze all right but I needed to make myself more streamlined first. Otherwise I could be easily jammed in it for good, with Meg on my back, three 11l tanks and big reel on my hip dring.
I left the reel on the line, removed one of the tanks and holding it in front of me off I went... I can sit and laugh now but it was scary then ( I didn't close my eyes though.. Wink), having being pushed through small opening among the rocks by that great force of water. No control whatsoever...I got stuck briefly in the middle of the choke but after frantic wriggling it eventually let go... Last deco stop and 1h30min later, at 2am on Monday morning I surfaced in the entry pool. It was still raining and water level was 0.5m higer; I guess I got out just in time...Total dive time 5h15min.
I climbed out of the pot, dropped meg on the grass, took off the drysuit and took long overdue piss... 
10 minutes later I was sleeping  in my tent like a child...

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