Cave ideas

[DeepDiverBob]

I am headed to Florida in 2 weeks, and plan on getting in some cave dives. I am looking to expand my limits a little bit, and am thinking of a few dives, but cant find enough info in my research. Well, not enough info that I trust.

I know I want to do the Orange Grove to Peacock swim, I am pretty confident I can do that one.

I would like to go to the Florida room in Little River. Does that stay right about 100-110 foot, or does it continue to go deeper?

I would like to try and go to the Hienkle (sp?) at Ginnie, but I cant find it on a map. Best I have found is that is a good 1 or 2 stage dive. What are the depths for that dive as well?

I have ruled out Eagles Nest. I am not ready for that dive, or hike. Any other ideas or suggestions, and I would be more than happy to listen.

Maybe a good trimix dive somewhere? Lower Orange Grove? Is that worth seeing?

[MgicTwnger]

A buddy of mine is a former Chi wreck diver who moved to FL and is and advanced cave diver. Give him a shout, "netmage" on DS.

[DeepDiverBob]

much appreciated, however, I like getting my answers from the few cave divers on here I have dove with. They know me, they know what I have done, and also have a pretty good idea what I am ready for. And if I start to bite off more than I can chew, I know they will tell me that as well.

[theskull]

Little River does stay at about 110 ft. all the way to the end.

Peacock has a number of excellent dives in addition to the Grand Traverse -- The Crypt and The Distance Tunnel for sure, and P3 (siphon). For a trimix dive, you could do Hendley's Castle (in P3). I personally don't think Lower Orange Grove is worth the effort, except maybe for a sidemount diver.

Madison Blue is beautiful, and good for several dives into the different tunnels, all at 110 ft. or less.

Cow Springs downstream (siphon) is also beautiful, but only good for 1 dive. The upstream side starts with a very serious restriction that I elected not to go through.

That's a start, I'm sure others will add.

theskull

[SLIM]

All the dives that Skull mentioned are great dives.

TO truly learn how to cave dive, take your time. Do what you know. Hang out at Peacock or at Cathy's and hook up with other divers.

There are so many places to dive. Only thing the great places you have to be taken to. Meet up and let your self be seen and dive around there.

If you get tiered of Peacok, then you need to rethink how fast you are moveing. Don't foget COW if you are CDS.

The FLorida room in LR is not easy to get to if you don't want to do a stage dive even when the flow is as down as you can still get some deco going.

Need to try Madison, Jackson and a list of others thta maybe one day I will take you to if you can ever get down on a regular trip.

SLIM

[steve2281]

Our group of three will be there starting 12/2; when you going?, where you staying??

We'll dive all the regular dives, Madison for sure, a full day at Ginnie, might go down to Manatee, Little River for sure, always do the Grande Traverse at least once, and maybe off the beaten path at Peacock/Orange Grove (I ain't lost nothing at the Crypt though, probably pass on that one).

River entrance for Telford????? We'll see.

Might run into you???

[DeepDiverBob]

I will be heading down on Nov 30, and staying down there for a week. I am working a cavenr class for the shop the first few days, but then it will be time to play and have fun. We are staying in one of the double wides that Cave Excursions offers. Great deals on them, so I cant pass that up. I'm sure we will run into you somewhere down there.

[greenwave32]

I was at LR a month ago. Flow is down so much these days that a back gas only dive is very easy to get to the Florida Room. A month ago, we made it to the hard left that I think is about 300 ft from the well casing on a single stage dive and we wern't really trying very hard to get that far.

I went to Madison a week ago and conditions are very good with low flow. It's definitely a great dive right now. We swam of the Rotor Rooter tunnel just past an arrow marked Sutton (IIRC that puts us out around 1800, but I'm not positive) and then came back and jumped to Martz and ascended till we could see the sink opening and then made a couple more jumps closer to the entrance. That was a single stage dive that lasted about 2 hours. Average depth for the most of the dive was 65 ft with only about 10 minutes at 75 feet. We didn't even use our O2 and opted for deco on our 32% back gas because we could technically fall under NDL. I have only done three dives at Madison. I have only hit a max of around 85 ft in that time, but I don't know enough about the areas that are a little deeper.

Flow in Devil's last weekend wasn't too bad, so getting some distance up the mainline is fairly easy. Our dives there last weekend wern't for distance but seeing places I hadn't been before like double arrows, skid row, July springs, Lips and Keyhole bypasses and a few other places. Up the mailine we only went a little past roller coaster this trip because we were doing a lot of jumps along the way. Vis was pretty cloudy at times along the mainline with all the people who were there.

Jackson is worth diving any time.



The FLorida room in LR is not easy to get to if you don't want to do a stage dive even when the flow is as down as you can still get some deco going.

Need to try Madison, Jackson and a list of others thta maybe one day I will take you to if you can ever get down on a regular trip.

SLIM

[DeepDiverBob]

thanks for the info. Much appreciated.