Category — Cave Diving Sites, Cenotes and Systems

A CCR DPV cave dive to the back of Jill's Chamber by Patrick and Hans.

Since the last dive, there was nothing on my mind then that bloody restriction at the end of BMB. If you don’t believe me, then talk to anybody who spent time with me. One thing was clear, I had to go back there again, with more time to really look at it and make sure that it is too small to fit with my Meg and two stages. Hans came up with the idea to sidemount our two Megalodons, which I really like, but it will take a lot of time and effort to make that rig work and giving my work schedule at the moment, well that will have to wait a little.

With me working every day and Hans going on several trips to the states we had exactly one day to do the dive. The night before the dive, I managed to be back at the shop at about 6PM which gave us 2-3 hours to blend and rig stuff.  We got to work and finished around 8:30PM, mainly due to Hans’ effort.  He put all the stages together and bubble checked them at the pool while I assembled my Meg; going through all of the points in my checklist.

Back home it was time to run the different scenarios that we had discussed earlier through V-Planner and see what was possible. The major difference for this dive was that we added a DPV to the equation.  This enabled me to take a third stage with bottom mix.  The main idea was to have as much time as possible to check out the two chimneys in the BMB that ascend into Jill’s Chamber. I wanted to get a good picture of the two restrictions so I could make a decision on which one and how I was going to pass.

Since our last dive, I had learned that there is still a 1000ft of line waiting on the other side before I would reach virgin cave. So the keyword is contingency. I created these plans:

• X1 fails
• Bailout
• DPV fail with CCR ok
• DPV fail CCR fail
• Entanglement
• Etc etc etc…

After what-if-ing many scenarios and running them through V-Planner, I hit the bed at like 1:00AM.

The alarm rang at 6:00 AM, but I was already awake. After loading the truck and getting stuff to eat and drink, we were headed to Tulum. At Dos Ojos Hans helped me maneuver my truck on the primitive road towards The Pit.  We got there without once scraping the bottom of the truck, how cool is that! The day started awesome.

After we lowered the 7 80cf tanks, the 3 40cf tanks, the DPV and the two Megalodon CCRs we climbed down at the platform to get ready. Hans prepared for his first of two deep dives that day. On the first dive he placed the bailout tanks and connected the descent line to the permanent cave line.  On the second dive he will picked up my deep tanks and fetch the reel. 30 minutes after he left, I was submerged.

I put the dpv in third gear and made my way down towards the start of the line.  I was carrying 3 80cf tanks with deep bail out and a 19cf with air for suit inflation. Arriving at the start of the cave line I dropped the 19cf tank and plugged one of the bail out tanks in my suit. I used this short brake to put the scooter in 5th gear and switch set point on the Meg. After that I made my way down the Cardea passage, visibility was even worse than last time so I Ok’ed the line while driving.  The whole time I was in the milky fog, I was worrying a bit about crashing into some rock. It felt like driving very fast in dense fog with the headlights on.

As I arrive at 65M (213FT) I turned down towards the bypass at 85M (278FT). Who would have thought that the Po2 could spike that fast when you scooter at depth . I quickly stopped and did a dil flush to get the Po2 back under control and checked my gauges.

I realized that I was really kind of late, so I decided to drive through the Bypass. Maybe it sounds a bit irresponsible but in 5th gear (of 9) you are really not moving so fast.  My head was ducked behind the propeller and I was cannonballing through the bedding plane at 85M (278FT).  I was loving it!  I got the feeling it was getting too tight, so I let go of the trigger.  Five seconds later the handle of my Meg hit the ceiling!  Luckily, I had slowed down enough to minimize the impact.  I smiled and took a mental note to not do that again.

Out of the bypass, now I was driving to the end of the Wakulla Room. I arrived there at minute 8 which was really super slow. Call me a coward, but it was the first time I scootered at this depth and didn’t want to go full speed.

I hooked the scooter to the line and let go. Hey, who would have thought, going with a perfectly neutral scooter to 90M (295FT) and it is positive like hell. I didn’t consider the density of the saltwater down there. It was kind of funny, I clipped the scooter off and started to remove one of my stages to leave it there with the scooter.  When I looked towards the line, the line and scooter were gone. I look up and there they are, the DPV pulling the line towards the ceiling. I attached the tank to the line and this pulled everything back in place.

Swimming down towards BMB felt different, I was way more relaxed than last time, maybe because I had more Helium in my diluent or just because I had been there before. I came to the T again where the line is touching the ceiling, this time I stopped and pulled the line down to the floor to pin it under a tiny rock which turned out to be a bad idea.  The line cut through the rock like a hot knife through butter and a nice cloud of zero visibility covered my hands. Second try with a bigger rock was more successful.

I can’t say why but again I ignored the chimney to the left thinking that I will check it out on the way back, after I had looked at the other one. Swimming back towards the other restriction I felt really confident, the dive went very well and I still had a lot of the 20 minutes I had planned at 105M (344FT). Also, I started to look around more to get a feeling for the cave and its flow rather then just following a line.

As I arrive at the restriction, where I had turned my last dive, I looked up through the chimney and thought well it looks tight but if I would be in 15M (49FT) I wouldn’t hesitate a second. I can do it. So I did. It actually went way smoother and I had less contact than anticipated but still quite a lot. The chimney ascents from 105M (344FT) to 96M (301FT) where the tight hole spits you out in yet another gigantic borehole style tunnel, Jill’s Chamber.

Huge boulders split the room in half and oh my god it felt so good to be there and see it. I forced myself not to look down where I was sure the restriction was silted out completely and that was a pretty scary thought. So I just started to swim forward into the room, first slowly looking around then a bit more confident. Coming out of the restriction, I saw another line paralleling the one I was on coming from behind me. The lines stay side by side until the moment I turned some 5 minutes after the restriction. I found the end of a line with a new line tied on to, so somebody furthered exploration from that point. I figure that it is the end of Jill’s Chamber and the beginning of the Next Generation Tunnel also due to the fact that the room starts to pinch back down into a smaller tunnel.

On the way back I was super stocked and happy enjoying every second of looking around in this marvelous place. Coming back to the restriction I noticed two things: one the tunnel actually continues and is the source of the line that is parallel and two a zero visibility cloud comes out of the restriction making it look like a volcano that blows out tons of smoke.

Just on top of the restriction I invert one hand on the line, one hand in front of my head for protection. Basically I look like a Padi Instructor demonstrating a proper 5 point ascent just instead of swimming up I swim down. Squeezing through the restriction I arrive at its bottom, now I just need to arch my back to get under the ceiling. As I read the tie off at the start of the restriction I am relieved, I made it, I am on the other side.

Swimming back I passed the T that I had put back where it belongs down on the floor and I am heading out of the BMB. Because of the tension I had created placing the line some parts of it now had disappeared in the rock. It is unbelievable how soft the rock is there.

Ascending along the line back to the scooter and my stage, I have to admit it felt good when I pulled the trigger and the thing worked. On the way back to the bypass my X1 lets me know that time to surface now is 2h20min, not so bad, thank god Jill’s chamber is shallower then the BMB.

At the bypass I thought that maybe it is smarter to push it through rather then driving which worked just fine. From the bypass coming back was easy and the very first time I ever decompressed while driving a DPV. My first stop was at 71M (232FT) driving through that white cloud back towards the ascent line.

After a couple of short stops I arrived at the start of the permanent line and the reel Hans had installed. I dropped two of the deep bailout and took the Triox that was staged prior to the dive.  I also took the 19cf air tank and hooked it to my suit. After a couple of flushes my suit was filled with nice warm air rather then cold damn Trimix which felt fantastic. (I will get a smaller suit inflation bottle when Hans comes back from his next trip to the states).

Being bored during deco I took the scooter and was driving around a bit in the huge dome admiring the intense and spiritual beauty of this place.  Finally up at the 12M (40FT) stop, I got rid of all tanks except a 40cf bailout with Nitrox. Hans came back to bring me something to drink and a second hood because my head started to get cold. When he looked at me he could read it in my eyes and immediately mimicked the: did you go through the restriction? When I nodded it was big smiles and hand shaking. What a great day.

Only some 50min of deco left which I spent swimming around to warm up, thinking about future dives, drinking and waiting for Hans who dropped back down to retrieve the tanks and the reel.

Let me say something loud and clear, there is NO WAY I would have been able to do these dives without the constant support of my friend and dive partner Hans. Thank you!  We are a true team and I am looking forward to the day where I will support his first dive to the Wakulla Room and beyond.

I also would like to thank Pro Tec Advanced Training Facility for providing us with tanks and the scooter as well as Margaret at Liquivision for some of the best customer support and a great product.

If you are waiting for the next story you need to be patient, Hans is gone and I am loaded with work but starting from mid September we should be back in business.  Next plan being two more tanks and a scooter through the restriction starting to depo gas in Jill’s chamber and maybe finding the end of the line!?!

This is my story of The Pit and it is to be continued…

Just a quick update. Patrick and I just got home and unpacked. Today, he reached the end of Jill's Chamber, we think. The passage started to pinch down again. He scootered to the end of Wakulla and then swam the rest. Which I believe was 5 minutes past the restriction.

Our plans are to find the end of the line, which we believe is 1000ft past Jill's Chamber. This will most likely require pushing a scooter through the nasty restriction at the end of BMB. What happens from there is up to the cave gods.

Today's dive went with out a hitch and I would like to thank my teammate for another awesome experience!

I think the next dive will happen near the end of September. I have to go back to the states to do some diving in the St. Lawrence! I expect Patrick to write up his experience as soon as his has a free moment. Looks like he will be teaching a lot in the coming weeks.

Great work Patrick!

Hans

The story of my odyssey to making my first 350ffw cave dive.

In September 2005, I arrived on the peninsula to do my Cave Course with Matt at Protec. I will never forget the first time I entered the classroom and saw the map of The Pit. Part of Sistema Dos Ojos, The Pit is almost 400ft deep and has 1300ft of horizontal distance ending in the Next Generation Tunnel. How cool does that sound?

From that day on, I spent about 15 minutes everyday just staring at the map and planning; getting upset about how far I was from even attempting a dive like that. I did have experience doing deep, mixed gas, ocean dives in the Egyptian Red Sea, including Wreck Penetration. However, travelling this kind of distance, at such a depth, inside a cave, was an entirely different ball game.

In September 2006, I returned to the Yucatan to do a crossover course from the Inspiration CCR to the Megalodon CCR, which I just had bought, and to get certified in CCR Normoxic Trimix and CCR Cave diving. Yet again, I was fixated on the same map, planning and dreaming about how to do such a dive.

In March 2007, I finally decided that my love and passion for cave diving left me no other choice than to move to Playa del Carmen. Another five months past and it wasn’t until July that I finally saw the beauty that is The Pit. I was part of the support team for two divers who planed to dive to the end of the Wakulla Room. Being only certified as a Normoxic CCR Trimix Diver, and not having enough money to do the dive OC, I limited my dive to 50M (165ft) and immediately fell in love with the place. When you see the sun beams hitting the water surface at the small opening and firing down to the hydrogen sulfide layer at 40m (120ft) your jaw drops.

A couple of days later, I went there to join Steve Bogaerts on an exploration dive in the shallow cave passage. There is an upstream and downstream cave at about 12m (40ft). I was there to see his surveying technique and learn from one of the best. This was the last time we parked the cars about 300m (1000ft) away and carried the equipment. Now, with a lot of patience and carelessness towards our vehicles, we can actually park so close to the opening, that we could back roll from the side of the truck.

To get our rebreathers and tanks into the water, we use a rope and pulley to lower the equipment down a 4m (15ft) deep rock face to the water’s surface. Once everything is staged, we JUMP!

July 2008, the day finally arrived when I headed off to do my first deep dive in The Pit. Having passed a CCR Hypoxic Trimix class, executed some deeper CCR dives, and completed long CCR cave dives requiring multiple bailout tanks, I considered myself ready and prepared. I had also just received a Liquivision X1 computer and after test dives, I was ready to use it for its purpose! Last but not least, Hans, a driven guy who is up for everything no matter what, didn’t mind coming along and helping with the equipment load. Without him, what would I do?

Since I had very little, to no, knowledge about the lines, depths or times between levels, the first dive was to get a general idea about the place. I had one AL80 tank on either side with deep bailout and trailed a third AL80 with Triox that was staged along the way. Another AL80 was staged prior to the dive at 12m (40ft). I traversed the cavern zone, which is a huge dome, then descended the yellow polypropylene line to 34M (112ft) and deployed my primary reel to look for the main cave line. Passing by 40m (120ft), I staged the Triox and proceeded to connect the reel with the main line. After switching my set point on the Megalodon and the X1, it was cruising time. Visibility was quite limited due to what I think is bacteria. The line slowly descents from 46M (152ft) to 65M (215ft) leading through a huge tunnel called the Cardea Passage. At the end, it turns left and descends to a T at about 80M (264ft), where you can decide to either dive the shallower Bypass Tunnel (85M / 280ft) or the deeper section, which I still haven’t seen.

The Bypass Tunnel is a pretty cool place because the cave goes from a gigantic power passage to a 1M (3ft) tall & 8M (24ft) wide bedding plane. On the other side, the cave opens up again into a huge room known as the Wakulla room. There you find a second T that reconnects the two lines that had split before the Bypass, and an additional line that runs to Alpha and Skid Row at almost 400ft, the deep sections of the Wakulla Room. Swimming along the line at 85M (264ft), through the intensely huge room, my 10W HID barely managed to light up the far walls. I had already passed 2 Haloclines and due to the salinity the water had this beautiful blue reflection.

Sixteen minutes into the dive I arrived at another T at the end of the Wakulla Room. Thinking that the T to the right would lead me to the BMB passage, I didn’t hesitate to turn right. I found out that the line ends in a dead end at 92M (303ft). Feeling happy about my accomplishment and wondering what waits at the other side of that T, I decided to turn the dive after 18 minutes. I met Hans at the ascent line in 33M (100ft). We celebrated the dive during our uneventful deco. I couldn’t wait to tell him about it.

Four days later, we returned with a better plan, more tanks, and another diver, Victor. This time Hans took the role of support diver, staging the tanks and connecting the lines so I could go full throttle from the start.

Hans and Victor kicked off the dive and I impatiently waited 30 minutes for my planned departure time. When my start time arrived, I swam with a constant kick pretty much till the end of the Wakulla Room, where I stopped for a minute to calm my breathing and chill out a bit before heading further down into the BMB passage (100M/330ft). I met Victor in the Bypass as he made his way out, returning from his dive to 100M/330ft at the back of the Wakulla Room.

The BMB Passage is way smaller than the rooms before it and has quite a low ceiling and slopes slightly deeper. The stone in the BMB is really soft and the slightest contact immediately results in silting. After about 50m (150ft) there is yet another T. The line there is on the ceiling and is pretty hard to follow. The T to the left immediately ascends through a crack in the ceiling that looked really narrow, so I decided to take the T to the right. The tunnel got smaller and smaller and I was feeling confident I would soon reach the end of the line. As minute 21 arrived, I had to hurry. I thought I could see the end of the line, and I started smiling and a felt super happy about another accomplishment.

Just before I turned, I realized that the line didn’t end. Instead, it ascends through a restriction, a super narrow chimney that gave me the shivers just looking at it. I examined the restriction for a moment and turned the dive at minute 22. I was at 105M (346ft) wondering how in the world somebody managed to lay a line through there. It is really a credit to the original explorers.

The whole BMB passage was quite silty, even though I had almost no direct contact to the cave. On the way back I tried to focus, but could only think about this restriction and how horrible it will be to try and negotiate it. The swim back was uneventful. The 2.5 hour deco obligation is a small price to pay for a beautiful dive like that. I met Hans in 12M (40ft) of water where he took all my unneeded tanks and provided me with Gatorade and a Milky Way to re-hydrate and eat a little.

After the dive the three of us hung out on the platform eating lunch and talking about our experiences on the dive and the diving industry. Two hours later it was time to hoist all the equipment back up and load the trucks. The last adventure of the day was getting the Ford Rangers back to the Highway without getting stuck or scratching the bottom.

That’s my story of The Pit and it is to be continued…

This weekend brought two more days of wonderful diving.  On Saturday, I dropped Allie off at Xpu Ha Beach and got an opportunity to explore the down stream section of Minotauro.

To access the down stream section, you swim to the back of the Cenote to the duck under.  At the T you make a right.  This section of cave is definitely sidemount.  There are lines everywhere.  If you make the first jump to the right, you have to pass a fun restriction.  After a couple of minutes you will reach a T.  If you go right, you go through a sidemount restriction and end up under the steps in the cenote.  If you go left, the line ends and you can jump back onto the main down stream line.

If you skip the first jump, you will pass serveral others.  At 30 minutes or less, depending on how much jumping you do, you will reach a 4 way T.  I decided to continue straight ahead.  The cave pinches down and starts to turn back on it self and really snakes around.  It is low and silty.  After another 10 minutes, I could feel the distance pressure building and I turned around.  I had plenty of gas, I just felt like I had gone far enough.  Plus, down stream is a noticeable siphon and when the cave gets smaller the water velocity climbs, making the return trip slower and labor intensive.

When I reached the 4 way again, I had plenty of gas so I decided to check out the branch to the right as you are exiting.  The first thing you come to is a very entertaining restriction.  I decided to remove one tank and was rewarded by passing it cleanly.  The branch was a lot of fun.  The passage was never straight for more than a  couple of meters and really twisted and turned.  There were plenty of minor challenges along the way.  I reached the end of that line in less then 10 minutes.  There are some jumps back there that need to be checked out. I turned and decided to check out the other branch.

The left branch, as you are exiting, was much of the same.  Just great sidemount sized cave passage, beautiful tannic stained decorations and plenty of opportunities to hone my skills.

Total run time was 122 minutes and  my max depth was 20feet. This is really one of those caves you can loose an entire afternoon in.   After I cleaned up, I jumped in the Toyota and crossed the highway to Xpu Ha beach.  I met Allie and Sophia and we had a nice dinner on the beach.  I did some swimming and headed home.   What a great Saturday!

Sunday delivered another excellent dive.  I headed down to Nohoch Na Chich with Patrick, Katy, Alain, Alian's friend and Sonny. Sonny is diving with Protec for the week and is an excellent diver.

Until today, I thought there were only two ways up to Heaven's Gate.   I discovered is there is a third line up there.   It never ceases to amaze me how much line has been laid in Nohoch.   The third line is just to the right of the main line.   The swim from Nohoch to Heaven's Gate took about 30minutes.  When we reached Heaven's Gate we T into another line, made a right and swam for another 30 minutes.  As we approached our turn time of 60 minutes, I could see a small very strong green light in the distance.  I couldn't tell if it was a dive computer or a cenote.  I was really drawn to it, it seemed so out of place.  We reached it at the 59 minute mark, just shy of our turn time.  It turned out to be a very thin shaft of light from either a solution tube or a very small cenote.  I didn't have time to really investigate it.  The swim back was uneventful but fast.  We covered the same distance in 13 minutes less.  We were really huffing it.  Our total run time was 114 minutes and max depth was about 30feet.

When we got back to PlayaDel Carmen, we decided to go to dinner together.  Hannah,  Sonny, John, Patrick, Katy, Allie and I went to Pummarola restaurant on 1st avenue and 40th street.  We had an excellent Italian meal and shared some of our war stories.  There was plenty of laughter and we really had a wonderful time!  If you are interested in the food in Playa Del Carmen, you should check out http://www.PlayaEats.com.  It is a restaurant and food review website.

And a fitness update, for those of you following my weight.  I was down to 234lbs this morning.  I have been bouncing between 235 and 239 for a while.  It has been frustrating.  However, I am starting to spend more time around 234 instead of 239.

Allie, Sol and I committed to a Jeff Galloway running program for a half marathon.   This past week I ran 3.5 miles twice and 4 miles once.  I think this is good progress!  Just a couple of months ago a mile was a challenge.  We are targeting the half marathon distance for December 2008.  I will keep you posted.

After seven months of living in Playa Del Carmen and asking Nando to go cave diving, he finally complied!  Nando had a clear day in his teaching schedule and he could get away from the new baby.  We knew we wanted to go side mounting in some tight passage.  Nando doesn’t pleasure dive in anything but.  We talked about Grand Cenote Down Stream, down stream at Xunaan Ha and the shallow cave at The Pit.  After some negotiation, we decided to go down stream at Car Wash.

Car Wash Cenote is about 7km out Coba Road from Tulum.  It got its name because the taxi drivers used to wash their cars there.  Luckily, they no longer do.  Today, it is a beautiful site with bathrooms, changing rooms and a very nice land manager.  Entrance is $100 Pesos per diver and they close at 5PM.

Car Wash Cenote has two systems connected to it: Car Wash Down Steam and Car Wash Upstream.  Until recently I thought it was one system because you could swim from one to the other.  Well, I was wrong, it is actually two systems.  For the two segments to be considered part of the same system, you must be able to swim between them without being in open water.

The QRSS FAQ on measuring caves lengths states:

"Authentic underwater cave systems must allow a diver to swim to any point in the system without passing through an open water (direct access to the surface) environment. Avoiding an open water portion by swimming underneath a drip line (a rock overhang) to connect two caves is permitted."

Nando and I had both dove portions of Car Wash Down Stream in the past.  In February, after a dive at Naharon and Car Wash Upstream, my buddy Paul and I did a quick dive in the down stream section.  We hadn’t been there before and hadn’t received any guidance, so we were exploring.  We ended up finding the Chamber of the Ancients section.  That section drops down to 90ft and we did the small circuit in the back. When we returned to the entrance, we discovered earned a deco obligation on our Sunnto computers.  Opps…. Neither of us ever considered we might end up with an obligation.  The lesson is when you do repetitive dives with consistent depth; you really need some awareness and watch your no stop time or plan better.

On this day, Nando and I agreed to make a dive to the Lower White Room first and then if we had enough gas, return the sign, recalculate thirds, and head towards Satin’s Silt Hole.  We reached the end of the line in the Lower White Room in a little under 18 minutes.  A good part of this dive is sidemount only.  The cave goes up into a tight bedding plane full of tanic water.  Then turns left and drops through a restriction and you bust into clear water.  The cave in this section is in excellent condition.  It is highly decorated and stark white.  I guess  its good condition is the result of needing to be in sidemount to reach it.  Unless you go tanks off, you can not reach it in backmount.

On the return we checked out the jump marked by a red arrow just prior to the restriction.  A couple of minutes of hunting and we didn’t find the jump.  I believe it is there, it is on the map, just another opportunity to go searching.

We followed the plan and reached the sign with 1800psi in each tank.  We recalculated and went towards Satin’s Silt Hole.  Looking at the map, I don’t think we entered it.  We swam down the larger passage to the left, tied into the line and found the end, which was another opportunity to jump.

We turned the dive and discovered an unmarked jump.  We had plenty of gas so we elected to check it out.  The line was covered in some super soft floaty silt.  The kind that when you swim by it, it just jumps up at you.  That whole section of the cave is covered in that stuff and it was sidemount cave.  I am sure you can image the result. As the number two man, I got to navigate the cave in limited and zero visibility.  There was at least one restriction that required the removal of a tank.  We turned the dive on thirds as the cave came up to about 10feet.  The exit trip was a little nicer, the silt had settled and I could see where I was going.  It always seems like you have traveled so much further then you really did in the silt out.

Car Wash Down Stream was an excellent sidemount cave dive.  There were tight spaces, restrictions, silt, tanic water, beautiful formations and some inviting no mount leads.  I think it is worth at least one more visit.

Thursday brought the return to more normal diving for me.  I met up with Alain, a swiss tech instructor, helped him through some issues with his Nomad Sidemount rig and drove down to Minotauro for a leisurely cave dive.  Minotauro is nestled in the jungle near the Zero Gravity Dive shop.  The landowners are super nice people and there is always a laugh when we meet with them.

Which brings me to another related topic.  There is a rumored connection between Minotauro and Taj Ma Hal.  I haven't found it if there is.  Maybe it is like the swimming pool at my grammar school.  You know, the one in the basement.   Every once in a while we get the feeling like we should go looking for it.  The entrance to Taj Ma Hal and Minotauro are less then 2000 apart.  I need to make a general survey of each system and see if they trend toward each other and how far apart they might be.  Could be an interesting project if I were bored.  If you have any information on this rumor, let me know?  Might save me some heartache.

Back to the dive!  Alain and I suited up in our side mount rigs and got in the water.  Alian asked me to look at his rig and check it out.  It looked pretty good, there are some danglely issues like his pressure gauge, his crotch ring and his regulator.

If you are wondering what sidemounting looks like, here is a little video.  The first part of the video is Alian in his Nomad Side Mount rig.  The second part of the video is me in my Steve Bogaerts' Razor Sidemount Harness.

The primary complaint with the Nomad is that it is a recreational side mount harness.  It is very general purpose.  It takes a lot of work to get the configuration correct and in the end you may not ever get it.   This complaint is handled completely with the Razor.  The Razor harness is a custom side mount/no mount harness worn under an open water bcd.  I was fitted for my harness when I took my basic side mount class with Steve Bogearts.

Taking the class and getting a custom harness provides two huge benefits.  First, the harness and the bcd fit me perfectly and put me in very good trim and my gear in the right places.   I made two adjustments after I left class.  The first was to add more give in the bcd for more lift.  The second was to add more weight when I got a 9MM suite.

Second, Steve very closely analyzed my configuration and diving for a couple of days providing constant feed back including video.  This feedback accelerated my adjustment to sidemount by 10-15x.  In 5 dives, I was more comfortable then many people I know with 50-100 sidemount dives.  Side mounting just takes a lot of tweaking, and people would rather dive then spend time in open water analyzing and tweaking.  Taking the class enforces a little discipline and starts you off on the right vector.

Ok, back to the dive now.   The entrance to the 'other upstream' is at the back of the cenote under a duck under.  I have dove about 60% of this section in backmount, however, it is tight and hard to not have some impact in that configuration. In sidemount it is much more enjoyable.  This dive includes a very cool carousel formation.  The line passes around the carousel and up into a highly decorated air dome.  After the carousel, it is easy diving until you pass the second T.  The two T's are actually of two circuits of the main line, sort of.  If you go left at each T and then swim to the end of the line, you end up a the second T.  Just prior to getting back to the main line there is a jump to the left.  That is the end of the line from the first T.  it all sounds very confusing and the first time I was up there it was a little confusing.  But now I have a pretty good mental picture of the area.

I should warn you that after the second T it becomes sidemount sized passage and the chance for zero or no visibility, if you are careless, is pretty high.  Please tread lightly and stop when you hit your limit.

I do have one question, there is a mystery arrow at the back of the loop of the main line.  Alian and I searched for the jump for a couple of minutes and couldn't find it.  If you know where to look, email me at: hans@quietdiver.com.

When we reached the cenote again, we had plenty of gas remaining.  This dive has a max depth of 20feet (6 meters).  So, we decided to recalculate and extend the dive again.  Near the duck under there is a line arrow, the jump is 50-60feet and hidden.  That line leads to a very silty side mount section.  This isn't the down stream section.   The line and its branches are pretty short but a lot of fun.  When we arrived the line was in bad shape.  It was loose and the rock it was tied to was broken in lots of places.  Someone trashed the line and left it.  I guess they were a little freaked out.  It goes to zero visibility pretty fast.  In any event, we took some time and restored the line.  It was a good exercise to work on the line in reduced visibility.

The dive was 110 minutes long and we had a great time.  Minotauro is still one of my favorite places to dive!

A traverse from Naharon to Mayan Blue on rebreathers.

This past week has been very busy for Patrick and me.  With the arrival of "Slow Season" here in Playa Del Carmen, we have found more time and more opportunities to get ourselves into some serious dives.  We have made two trips to The Pit and one trip to Sistema Naranjal with our Megalodons.  Luckily, the dives at The Pit were relatively excitement free, other then Patrick reaching the restriction at Jill's Chamber at 105 meters.  However, the dive at Naranjal was anything but boring.

Patrick had finished up a full cave class at Mayan Blue on Sunday.  Unfortunately, the student didn’t complete the A Tunnel / Death Arrow circuit, so we had to retrieve the remaining gear, one spool.  We decided the only reasonable way to do the clean up dive was to traverse from Cenote Cristal (Cenote Naharon) down to the Death Arrow jump, pick up the spool, and swim back.  The swim from Naharon to Mayan Blue typically takes about 2 hours.  We decided to cut the swim a little short by only going to the end of the Death Arrow passage.

When we were planning our bailout gas, I was worried about having enough.  I hadn’t swum this distance and I wasn’t sure of the depths.  Patrick and I agreed to take 2 Aluminum 80’s each.  We ran some calculations and it was enough to get us out if we needed it.  Patrick’s calculations showed that two 80’s would last him 4 hours at this depth.  My SAC is higher, so I didn’t have same cushion.

When it came time to decide on our gas mixes, I asked Patrick what he was taking?  He told me Air.  And then we got into a discussion about bailout.  He very sternly explained to me that the choice of bailout gas didn’t really matter.  He didn’t believe he would ever have to bailout.  However, if he did he would only be punished with deco time.  He explained that he follows a checklist and is meticulous about assembling his unit.  I told him I was going to take 32% regardless of his feelings on the topic and I was going to drop a tank of O2 in the cavern for good measure.  You really never know when something unexpected is going to happen.  Isn't that the definition of unexpected?   We agreed, or I decided in my head, I can’t remember, that if someone bailed out, they would get the 32% and the Air would be the gas of last resort.  At this point, Patrick’s attitude really concerned me and I decided that I was going to have a sit down with him, but I was going to wait until after our dive, as to not mess with his head.

Wednesday arrived and we got on our way.  The dive was going according to plan.  We passed the restrictions heading for Mayan Blue.  At the T, I wanted to "drop" a cookie.  As I got my markers out of my pocket, I dropped my safety spool. I reached for the safety and lost control of my buoyancy and started to fall.  I reached for the inflator, but no luck!  I ended up rolling down the windows saving myself from crashing into the mud, but creating some silting.  I could hear Patrick laughing as he watched this comedy of errors.  I finally got my act together, marked the T and proceeded.  I am sure it looked hysterical, you know how things happen in super slow motion, I know I was laughing about it.

We arrived at the spool at 80 minutes.  He retrieved the spool and we rested briefly.  When we finally got going on the return trip I was in the lead.  We were singing into the DSVs and just enjoying the dive.  After about 10 minutes we settled into a decent rhythm and pace.

At about 20 minutes, I saw a quick flash of the light head of me.  I instinctively turned and started to swim to Patrick.  We were about 50feet apart.  It took me a second to process the situation.  What I saw was one of the breathing hoses from the KISS Classic just floating in the water and I saw Patrick deploying a bailout reg.  My first thought was, ‘Oh shit, what do I do?  My bailout regulators are really secured and are not quickly accessible.’  Before I was close enough to help, he got his regulator out.  I arrived and assessed the situation.  The exhale breathing hose had disconnected from the canister.  At Patrick’s request, I reattached the hose.  We thumbed the dive, changed positions and started swimming.  This is when my heart rate finally picked up and I became aware of the gravity of the situation.  This was a real live catastrophic loop failure way back in a cave.  This is the exact type of unexpected situation we train and prepare for.  I knew we had enough gas, but I still got hit with some adrenalin.  I had to stop and think about my breathing and heart rate for a second.  My heart rate really isn’t under my control sometimes.  The base of the brain just reacts.

As we swam, I stayed near to Patrick in case something else went wrong.  I checked my computer and marked the time.  We had 60 minutes of swimming up stream to exit the cave.  Patrick cleaned up his hose routing and attempted to go back on the loop.  As I watched him attempt this, I just kept thinking, "You can’t recover a KISS from a total flood.  Don’t try."  He found out in short order it was a done deal.  Then I offered him my 32%.  He waved it off, and he started to play with his X1.  Patrick later told me he thought he would be fine on air.  However, a couple of minutes later when we reached the T, he realized he was running out of no stop time and asked me for some 32%.

He asked at the worst time for me.  I was about to pick up my cookie and had too many things going on at once.  I struggled with my tank for a minute and finally told him to start swimming.  It would be easier to make the switch underway instead of hovering.  At this point I made a mistake, I think I was a bit overloaded and my brain was fried.  Instead of doing one thing at a time, I had the tank neck out of the bungee in the left hand.  I reached down to get the cookie with my right.  Now I was swimming with both hands full trying to get my tank completely off.  Ug! What a nightmare!

I finally stopped and stowed the cookie.  Then I passed the tank to Patrick.  He reached down to pull the regulator off the tank and the mouth piece came off!  The irony is that Patrick recently told me it was stupid to put the bungee necklace under the same zip tie as the mouth piece and that the mouth piece would come off at the worst time.  I defended my choice and didn’t change my configuration.  The bungee was wrapped around the tank neck and under the single zip tie.  When he showed me the regulator without the mouth piece, I could hear his voice in my head and I laughed.  I have since changed my configuration for CCR diving.  I removed my 120 degree swivel and the necklace on the bailout regulators.  I want them to be as accessible as possible.  Now, I believe that I will need them at the worst possible time.  He replaced the mouth piece and started to enjoy the joy that is 32% EAN.

Patrick swam off and I struggled with his tank.  This dive taught me my sidemount bungees are too short to be useful in an emergency.  As I struggled with the tank, I swam into the ceiling with my rebreather.  It got a little hung up so I jerked my head down.  I immediately realized my head was way heavy and I was heading for the floor!   A huge rock had broken loose and was on its way to pinning me.  I rolled to the right and the rock fell off my head before I hit the ground.

Again, I laughed.  I couldn’t believe how many things had happened to us on a single dive.  We have been diving for seven months together and all of those dives had been incident free.  A series of walks in the park, including cave dives to 300ffw.  The type of diving that breeds complacency.

I caught up to Patrick and we continued to exit.  We decided to pull our gear.  As I pulled my spool from the jump between Southern Sacbe and Southwestern Sacbe, I created a nasty knot around the main guideline.  I ended up cutting the spool free from the guideline.  It was the last in a row of incidents.  We exited safely with a total run time of 180 minutes.  I estimate the total distance at around 8000 feet.

Patrick and I agreed that we handled all of the situations acceptably.  We did a serious review of the dive and have both made changes to our rigs and attitudes.  As I mentioned, I changed my regulators and I lengthened the sidemount bungee.  Patrick also made some changes to his regulators to ensure they are accessible.  We adjusted our bailout gas attitudes.  And we agreed to take better care to avoid team separation.

Once the stress started to pile on, it made simple tasks like a tank swap more difficult.  A task he and I normally can handle in a minute or less took a couple of minutes.  My overall awareness decreased and we got a good distance apart more then once after the main failure.

I feel it was an excellent dive!  We both returned and no one was hurt.  We tested our abilities as a team, and as individuals in a stressful situation.  We both stayed calm and controlled our breathing.  We reacted instinctively and completed the tasks at hand.  We realized our performance wasn’t perfect but it was acceptable. The whole dive confirmed to me the following idea.  Bailout is for unexpected situations and it does matter.  No matter how bullet proof you might think you are or your procedures, unexpected shit happens and it will happen at the worst time.  And these situations never happen alone, they are always compounded by other events.

Patrick used just over 2000PSI from one Aluminum 80 to exit from 60 minutes into the cave.  I hope you learn a little from this, I know I have learned a lot.

As always, your comments and criticisms are welcome here.  If you want to know more about the incident, leave a comment and one of us will respond.

The no cave diving streak is officially over.  For the second day in a row I went cave diving!  I wasn't sure where to dive, then I spoke to Nando and Patrick and found out they would be at Taj.  That was all the convincing I needed.  As independent as I would like to believe I am, I do really enjoy the social nature of diving.  Just being at the same Cenote with friends, even if I am not diving with them, is good enough for me.

The plan was to revisit an area of Taj Ma Ha that I hadn't been to in 3-4 months.  This time in sidemount with the idea of looking for sidemount sized passage.  I went down stream on the white line.  The white line runs from Cenote Taj Ma Ha to Cenote Scarada.  The swim time for that traverse is about 30 minutes.  I think the average depth is about 25 feet.

In any event, I swam to the double arrows and jumped to the right.  This jump is just a minute or two short of Cenote Scarada.  A minute or so after the jump, I came to another line arrow.  I tied my reel in and started to poke around looking for the jump.  My first attempt netted me a dead end with zero visibility that required me to navigate turned 90'.  Once I backed out of that mess, I found the jump.  It isn't really in a logical place compared to the arrow.  The jump is beyond the arrow to the left.  There isn't a straight shot from the arrow to the jump, I guess they want to hide the jump a little.  The end of the line has a big red arrow and is hard to miss once you see it.

That line is the sidemount passage I was looking for.  It could be done in backmount, but it would be a big mess.  The cave is complete swiss cheese and there is a lot of really fine white silt and little bits of cave falling down everywhere.  Just my percolation made a real mess of the first part of the passage.  The passage continues to twist and turn and takes you up through a lot more swiss cheese.  It was a lot of fun to dive.  The line continued where I turned.  Not sure if I am going to go back, it seems really unstable back there.  All that swiss cheese rock just gives me the jitters.

I am grateful for the explorers that came before me, however, sometimes the line I find is in the weirdest/worst places.  It is almost like they weren't thinking when they ran it.  This line was particularly bad.   I can't really imagine how they surveyed it.

During most my training with Steve he has stressed one major topic: "line laying and placement".  We spend a lot of time discussing how and where to place the line, what type of tie-offs to use and why.   The idea is that a well placed line will be enjoyable and efficient to survey as well swim.  He told me that the more line I put in and the more I look at line, I will start to notice good line and poorly laid line.  Well, he is right.  I saw some poorly laid line today.  It wasn't dangerous, but it wasn't the cleanest either. End of rant.

After I turned the first part of the dive, I spent some time exploring the rest of the area.  The line I originally jumped onto looped  back the same starting point.  There is another line arrow out there, but I couldn't find the jump.

Sometimes I think, "Nahhh... don't go to Taj.  It is so boring."  Then I go and find out there was another section I hadn't been too.  It is amazing how mch diving can be done at one site and still not see all of it, or experience all of its personalities.

Today, Allie and I finally got out cave diving.  It had been 15 days since my last dive and I felt really wonky!  The original plan was for Patrick, Katie, Allie and I to go to the Cenote off the dirt road past Chemuyil.  Unfortunately, Patrick came down with a bacterial infection, so that left just Allie and I, which turned out to be a real blessing.  I love to dive with my wife and it is nice to go some place new with her.

The site is called Cenote Xunaan Ha, which the Cenote keeper translated to Water Goddess.  To find it, take the first right down the dirt road after Chemuyil. You will pass what looks like a nuclear test site housing development gone wrong on the left and a fork in the road.  The turn in will be on your left.  Drive down the nicely maintained road to the parking area.  Don’t worry there are plenty of signs advertising it on the highway and on the road.

The fee for entrance is 40 Pesos per diver.  The walk from the car to the water is about 150feet.  The Cenote is gorgeous.  One side is all rock and the opposite side is a peat swamp.  The water is clear and the people are super nice.

It took us longer then normal to gear up and once I was in the water, I found that my HID didn’t ignite.  I was bummed, but we had additional lights in the car.  I got another light and we finally got the dive going.  The upstream entrance is pretty obvious.  The main cave line is in the day light zone.  At first I looks like it is going to be a challenge to find the line, but after a minute it appears in the open, plain as day.

The striking thing about this dive is the beauty and the number of options.  There were lines and line arrows everywhere.  It is just right to backmount and Allie and I really enjoyed it.  Max depth was 30 feet; average was around 25.  We turned the dive after 900psi and about 40 minutes.  There was definitely some flow exiting the cave which sped things up a little on exit.

The cave is in good shape.  It is sort of like Minotauro upstream.  I am going to make a couple of more trips back.

When we got back to open water Allie exited and I stayed in to take a look at down stream.  Down stream looks like it is going to be a serious challenge.  It starts out as a cave through the peat swamp.  The bottom and right hand wall are lime stone.  The ceiling and left wall are mud/peat.  There are roots everywhere and it is silty! Kind of scary, I kept wondering when it was going to collapse on me.  The cave looked like it terminates, but there is A LOT of water moving through there.  On my second inspection, I saw that it doubles back on itself and then drops down through a very serious restriction.  It is a siphon so all the percolation and my lack of skills blew it out pretty quick.  I stuck my head in the hole a couple of times and it looks like it is going.  I heard that it is a no-mount restriction but do-able.    We will see.  Maybe I will send the super skinny Patrick ahead of me to inspect it.

Overall it is a lovely new site that is cheap and will require a handful of trips.  It offers plenty of side-mount and backmount opportunities.

I came across some videos of Steve scootering and side-mounting while I was working on my daily cyber diving fix.  If you ever wondered why you might want a DPV, watch the first video below.  It is seriously like flying an X-Wing fighter through the Death Star!   The videos including scootering, surveying and side-mounting.

Mom & Dad, if you are reading this or watching these, they will give you a good idea of what is going on underground.

A Day in the Life of a Cave Diver: Part 1

A Day in the Life of a Cave Diver: Part 2

A Day in the Life of a Cave Diver: Part 3