The Russian from Moscow and his guide Kevin were just setting up to dive Twin, but they seemed less unhappy that we would be diving into the same cave as them. Kevin (the guide) even offered to point out the entrance to us before they descended. So we waited while they kitted up and once they'd disappeared under the still water we started to kit up ourselves.
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| Moored at Twin Caves |
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| Kevin, the guide from Alabama |
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| Me and the Russian from Moscow kitting up to dive Twin Caves |
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| Twin Caves above water, Merritt's Mill Pond |
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| Me on Twin Caves Platform |
We had been warned that there are two entrances. The first is a narrow side-mount entrance which apparently silts up very badly and shouldn't be attempted. The next entrance is also quite narrow but shaped more like a keyhole. We examined both to be sure we were heading in to the right one, then I led the dive into the keyhole.
I tried to fit myself through the narrow entrance without scraping in the mucky silty bed of moss-like plants at the bottom, but I was unsuccessful and the silt and plants billowed out behind me with some of it filtering forward into the cave. The start of the line is right at the entrance on the left hand side so there is no reason to lay your own line. The first room is flat and wide (about 1.5m high), and the line stretched directly in and then took a right turn towards a huge chimney. As I looked backwards and to my right I could see the other entrance. The floor was very silty with a fine mud that disturbs and disburses easily, causing the visibility to diminish and the cave to become cloudy.
Our timing wasn't great because as we were going in, the other two were coming out, and that's not the sort of room one wants to have a traffic jam in. I was so worried about that silty floor that I allowed myself to go to the roof, but I need my feet to extend above my head otherwise they drop down and my head pops up, and once you're in that position it's difficult to get back horizontal without using your fins and making a mess. So I'm afraid I made a bit of a mess right there at the entrance waiting for the other two to come out, but Kev says that they also silted a bit picking up a camera on the way out.
Once the path was clear we continued in and went to clip off our scooters. Then we followed the line to the large shaft and dropped down into Twin Caves.
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| Twin Caves Map |
After about 400' we passed the jump right to a side-mount passage which we'd been warned not to try. Then at about 1000' we flew over a beautiful chasm and came to the T where the line splits to make a circuit. The right line led down into the chasm and the left continued over it. We followed the left line and I got to just before where I could see the line head down into another chasm to the right. At this point it was about 1200' and 35min, so we turned the dive without trying to make the circuit.
It was a long slow swim back. On the way back up the shaft I was preparing myself to be on the line and expecting a very cloudy and silty entrance, but the mess had all cleared away and it was beautiful peaking up from out of the shaft into the flat room with the blue-green light pouring in from the two entrances.
We quickly took the scooters back to Cave Adventurers and Frank kindly said he'd fix the trigger wire on Kev's scooter while we went back out diving.
Hole In The Wall was next ... Woohoo! I'd been looking forward to this dive since the last time. Unfortunately, on the Twin dive, Kev's primary handset had switched off twice which was the same problem we had experienced before the service. So we decided that I would reel in this time so he could keep an eye on the handsets. When we arrived at Hole, the GUI guys were still in the cave, so we ate some yoghurt and waited for them to finish up. Watching them swim out was something else. They each had about 5 or 6 cylinders on them, as well as humongous scooters (at least twice the size of my Minnus), and the lead guy was towing a spare scooter. I thought I had a lot of gear!
Just before we started the dive, Kevin and the Russian arrived. Last time, as we reeled in, we'd really disturbed the sandy floor. This time I was determined not to. Knowing that divers were coming in directly behind me was added incentive. I tied off on the log and then floated in, allowing my face to be cm from the sandy floor so that I didn't hit the roof, and finning only slightly with my feet against the ceiling. Once I hit the chimney / shaft, I turned around and looked up and it was perfectly clear above me through the entrance ... Success! :)
I hovered there at about 14m looking for a place to tie off before descending, and also taking the time to switch my primary to 1.2 PO2. I run the machine manually while reeling at shallow depths so that the solenoid doesn't inject oxygen randomly, causing me unexpected buoyancy issues. So I hadn't noticed that at some point during my reel in, the primary handset had switched off - Murphy's Law that when I reeled in, my handset instead of Kev's would switch off! Our machines are both definitely not fixed! I switched the handset back on and continued down to find the main line leading upstream, which was down and to the right.
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| Hole In The Wall Caves |
The drop is about 8m down to 20m where the line is tied off against the ceiling, although the floor is lower. Then we started to follow the main line with Kev leading this time so that I could see if he had any problems with his machine.
Hole In The Wall is magnificent! The rooms are huge and you pretty much pass from room to room to room through wide passages. The bottom is brown and silty and some of the walls are also brown, but the roof is mostly white limestone, so it reflects back at you. I felt like we were swimming through massive cathedrals with arches and turrets all over the show. The water is not crystal clear though, apparently there is always silt clouding the visibility a little. If it were clear it would be absolutely amazing. At one point we swam up and over a big saddle and at another I noticed a one meter diameter peephole at the ceiling. I thought this dive was exquisite!
At about 600' I took the lead, and at 800' we discussed whether or not to go further but decided against it and turned around. You can see from the map above that we hardly even scratched the surface, and there is still the downstream passage to explore!
Kev kept our positions at the turn around, so once again I got the beautiful view from behind :) I spent a lot of time swimming about 2-3m higher than Kev just enjoying the view above and below. When we passed the peephole again, I swam all the way up and looked through it down to Kev and the passageway below. Very cool. Definitely a favourite dive for me.
10 days after I wrote this post, Edd Sorenson saved a young girl from Twin Caves. Apparently a father and his two children entered the cave although they were only open-water trained. While entering they silted the cave out so badly that you couldn't even find the entrance to the cave. The father and son made it out but the daughter got lost inside that entrance. She luckily found air pockets to breathe against the roof. Edd was called and managed to find the entrance to the cave and the girl in a complete black-out about 35min after she'd become lost. Edd is a real hero. Here is a link with all the information:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cavediver.net/forum/showthread.php/20437-Edd-Sorenson-saves-the-day-again!!
and a first person account of the incident:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cavediver.net/forum/showthread.php/20437-Edd-Sorenson-saves-the-day-again!!/page6
"First, let me say that I know this is a novel, but I think the details are important….
My husband, one of our dive buddies, and I were just finishing our first dive into twin when these three divers entered. I was on my last minute of a safety stop when I saw a girl enter flutter kicking with a single tank and a pistol grip light. We were up as high as we could get to avoid silting and our lights were off so I’m not even sure if she saw us when she came in. Her father followed her in and then her brother. Their flutter kicks were stirring up so much silt that at that point I swam to the gold line before the vis went to zero. My husband followed me to the line and was behind me, both of us facing the exit. Almost immediately after grabbing the line the visibility was zeroed. I think the girl had continued on back towards the signs and the chimney with her father behind her. While I was on the line only a few feet from the keyhole exit, I felt the fins and arms of her brother and saw his light in my face. He felt me; I gave him the thumbs up to get out of the cave. There was a lot of fumbling; I could feel him in front of me for what felt like minutes and then I think he exited. The wife of our dive buddy was driving the pontoon boat and said she saw the son surface first.
I could feel our reel tied into the gold line, but could see nothing. When I followed the reel, I thought in all of the chaos it had come loose because it felt so short. I traced it back up to the gold line where I felt my husband’s hand. I knew it was him by his dry suit cuff. He grabbed my arm and we exited the cave by touch contact. My husband came up before me and I was seconds to the surface after him. Our friend exited through the smaller opening that is visible to the left of the keyhole exit when you are inside the cavern. The son was on the surface alone. When we surfaced my husband was asking him if they were open water divers and we were both asking him what the hell they were doing in a cave. His reply was that it was okay, the other diver, his father, was an instructor. When his dad surfaced without his sister his demeanor and understanding of the situation was beginning to change.
When she did not surface immediately, we began looking for the entrance, but with the silt-out it was impossible to see and this was our first time in twin. There were bubbles, but we didn’t think they were coming from the larger opening. It was incredibly obvious that this situation was dire. We told our friend’s wife on the pontoon boat to call Edd. She found the number and called the shop within minutes. Edd was teaching a class, but Frank was able to catch him probably minutes before he got in the water. From the time we called to the time Edd and Frank got there it was probably between 16 and 20 minutes.
While we were waiting for Edd, we got out of the water to try to let the silt clear and finally got the son out. The girl’s father was frantically looking for the entrance and understandably ignoring our attempts to get him out. He finally submitted when he realized he was not going to be able to do anything to help her and that Edd was on his way.
When Edd got there the father told him where he had seen her last and Edd jumped in. Time was so jumbled, but what I believe was about 5 to 10 minutes Edd surfaced with her alive. When we saw the two them surface alive everyone on the dock cheered with relief.
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"... She was surprisingly calm but shaking from cold and fatigue. She had found one of the permanent air pockets in the cave and was actually able to get up in it and breathe. I think the pocket she was in was somewhere near the chimney. She said she was so cold that she just kept kicking to stay warm. She said she had left the air pocket twice to try and find the exit. When Edd found her he was able to go up and talk to her before taking her out. I can’t imagine the relief she must have felt when she saw his face pop up in that pocket.
ReplyDeleteEdd is a true hero. The stars aligned for that girl to live. If we had not been there to call Edd and if he had not been nearby, this would have been a very different outcome. None of us on site knew the cave well enough to find someone in a zero vis situation. Thank you Edd, you are extraordinary. I have never witnessed bravery like that before. We all owe you a debt of gratitude for what you do.
This was the second group to approach twin while we were diving. The first were snorkelers in canoes that were going to snorkel into the cave without any tanks. Thankfully they changed their minds; our friend on the boat heard them talking about how much colder the water was there. The second group was this group/family of three. Our partner’s wife told them we were down and were coming up in the next 10 to 20 minutes or so, yet they still entered. They were also told earlier in the day about the silt potential of twin, yet they still entered. This man was an OW instructor diving with his two college age children, yet they still entered. To say that this instructor and his children made a phenomenally stupid mistake is the understatement of the year. Needless to say, they received a very stern lecture from the sheriff when he arrived on site with his team.
There were so many lessons learned that day. I’m so grateful that they were learned the easy way thanks to Edd and the incredibly quick actions of his operation."