Waynesville

[DeepDiverBob]

Any status on the diving down there? I am thinking I want to start getting some cavern dives in.

[theskull]

Bob,

I dived there Monday. It was perfect. The flow is way down, almost imperceptible, and the visibility was at least 50 feet!

theskull

[DeepDiverBob]

I wish I could have made it down for that. I wont be able to get there for a few more weeks, and by then, I'm sure the rains will come through again and ruin everything for me. Oh well. I'll see it one of these days.

[theskull]

Let me know when you are available. I can get current conditions for you and suggest a buddy if I am not available that weekend.

theskull

[DeepDiverBob]

I appreciate that, but if you arent available, I will try and find someone else I have dove with before, and am comfotable with. I dont like the idea of diving with someone I have never dive with before in an environment like that. They could be the best diver in the world, but I am still not familair with them, and they arent familar with me.

[theskull]

Understood. I use the same principle when diving near the boundaries of my training.

theskull

[DeepDiverBob]

Does anyone know if this rain lately has caused Ruby-do to ve unaccessible? I probably wont get to get down there until I get back from vacatio anyway.

[theskull]

Dived it Friday and Sunday. Flow is way down, but so is viz--at approximately 8-10 feet.

By most definitions, this pretty much rules it out as a Cavern dive, since you lose the primary source of light almost as soon as you enter.

Viz is slowly but surely improving. Will let you know when it is acceptable conditions for Cavern diving again.

We got a nice surprise when we were 145 ft. deep and 550 ft. into the lower tunnel--the main guideline had shredded and was lying broken and limp on the floor of the cave. Didn't have enough extra gas at that time to do a line search and make repairs so that we could go further, so we called the dive. Made our additional dives in the upper tunnel since we didn't have enough additional trimix with us to make another forage into the lower tunnel to attempt to repair the line.

theskull

[DeepDiverBob]

wow...i guess it is better to find that kind of problem on the way in instead of on the way out. Any idea what would have caused that to happen?

[theskull]

wow...i guess it is better to find that kind of problem on the way in instead of on the way out. Any idea what would have caused that to happen?

Yep. The incredible abrasion from high flow with a lot of particulate. Just like sand-blasting it. We had some extremely high flow rates after the last couple rains for a couple weeks.

theskull

[Atlaua]

Yep. The incredible abrasion from high flow with a lot of particulate. Just like sand-blasting it. We had some extremely high flow rates after the last couple rains for a couple weeks.

theskull

Gosh, sounds like the remains of a hurricane might have come through!

:D

[theskull]

Gosh, sounds like the remains of a hurricane might have come through!

:D

Yeah, the wreck in the lower tunnel now stands upright!

And the cave sharks have had their feeding patterns upset.

Now cave diving is REALLY dangerous.

theskull