Madison Blue

 http://www.underwatercavephotography.com/

Madison Blue Spring is a State Park about 1 hour north-east of Peacock Springs.

Peacock to Madison Blue (and a side trip to Pepe's)

Madison Blue Spring pumps its water into the Withlacoochee River, which then joins the Suwannee River a bit further south. Possibly because the spring is not on the Suwannee, it was not as badly affected by tropical storm Debbie as the springs on the Suwannee and Santa Fe rivers. We had heard reports from other divers that the viz was pretty good at Madison although the current was up.

Tim from the Dive Outpost very kindly asked his friend Paul to explain the ins-and-outs of diving at Madison Blue to us before we headed out there. Paul was extremely helpful and informative. He told us all about the Godzilla room and jump, about the Martz offshoot and how to get there either by swimming in the cave or by walking from the parking lot to the sink entrance. He told us about a restriction called the Half Hitch at about 800', and about getting to the Rotorooter and then the end of the main line at about 1700'. And finally about a nice jump to make into the Mount offshoot and on to an area called the Potter's Delight and then the Rocky Horror tunnel which leads to a beautiful section called the Court Yard. Apparently the Rocky Horror tunnel is a 300' section where you are committed to go the whole way through once you've started. They even have a board in the water with a marker which you switch on entry to indicate that you've entered the Rocky Horror passage and the system beyond. If you see that another dive team has entered, then you don't go in because two dive teams meeting head on in the Rocky Horror would be an extremely difficult situation to solve as you cannot turn around in there and one team would have to back out. Paul even drew us a simplified map of everything he explained which made it really easy for us to follow the paths we wanted when we entered the system.

Paul's map of Madison Blue

When we arrived at Madison Blue the park was empty ... perfect :) It is a beautiful spring, right on the river's edge with the spring water visibly pumping into the river with a strong current. It isn't nearly as dense a forest or as remote and wild as Peacock, and it's easy to imagine how busy it must get with swimmers, open water divers, and cave and cavern divers on the weekend.

Madison Blue Spring State Park Entrance Board

Madison Blue Spring with entry platform on the left, cave to the right and Withlacoochee River ahead

Madison Blue Spring, caves are below us, river to the right, see the flow at the steps

Madison Blue Spring from the river

Madison Blue Spring Panorama

Withlacoochee River where Madison Blue pumps water, see the line where the spring water touches the tannic river water

Divers at the Madison Blue platform and spring flow over the rocks into the river

Before carrying our kit from the car park to the platform in Madison Blue, we took a walk to visit Martz Sink. The opening is tiny and down some very steep stairs. This was the smallest sink opening we have seen, it is even smaller than Challenge, although Challenge has no stairs or platform built around it. It would be quite an adventure getting all our kit down and into that tiny entrance and then discovering the line into the cave system.

Pathway from Madison parking lot to Martz Sink

Halfway down the steps leading to Martz Sink

Finally it was time to dive. Kev took the lead and we pushed ourselves forward and into the pumping current coming out of the cavern entrance. This was the strongest flow we have experienced in all our dives so far. It made Ginnie feel like a gentle breeze! At least the floor was rocky and you could swim down and hold on and then kick and pull yourself forward resting every now and then while hanging onto a rock.

The cavern entrance is pretty short, just a couple of meters and we rounded the corner into a large room where we could get out of the current and take a breath. The clay and silt have piled up into the corners of this room and you have to stay off the bottom as soon as you round that corner. The STOP sign was right there with the main line leading off of it to the left.

Cavern entrance into Madison Blue

We followed that main line again just a few meters more and then it ducked left and then right down through a narrow opening in the rocks. The visibility in this section wasn't fantastic, and we were still fighting the strong current so we didn't look around for other options (which would have been smarter), we just headed along the line and through the restriction with all our bulky kit attached. Kev took two attempts to get his positioning right and make it through and I could almost hear him thinking the same thing I was thinking ... "If no one has mentioned this restriction, then what on earth are we headed in for at the restrictions that they have mentioned?!"

I'm smaller and I got to watch Kev, so I managed to angle myself through the restriction more easily and then Kev indicated that I should take the lead. The passage on from that restriction was flat and rocky with little pockets of silt and the current still pumping. I used the pulling technique whenever I could, and slowly frog-finned in the current where I couldn't find any rocks to pull myself along. It was slow going to the Godzilla room jump which is only about 200' from the entrance.

As planned, Kev made the jump with his reel onto the Godzilla line, then I took the lead again. We passed a jump right, and then a jump left, and then, just as Paul had explained, about 600' in I saw the clearly marked jump, with the next line up and to my right. Kev stayed on the line while I made the jump and then returned to continue our swim along the first line. The passages narrowed again and we got to do a little more pulling along gently without disturbing any silty pockets. I was having fun! Then I did a bit of a duck-down and emerged into a humongous room that was crystal clear compared to the passages we'd been in. This was it, the Godzilla Room!

The room looked like it was at least 6 stories up and down and about 8-10m wide, sort of like a huge diamond. We had been told that people put dummy Godzilla dolls in here for fun, and we counted 3 of them hanging about as we swam around this amazing room. Then I headed out the other side and up an enormous bank of silt which the current was trying to push me directly into. I tried hard to make sure that I didn't touch the silt or fin at all on that slope and when we got to the top, I turned and had a look and we hadn't done badly at all. Any silt we had disturbed was flowing passed me in the current.

From the top of the silt bed we immediately saw the jump reel I'd laid which allowed us to complete the circuit and then pick our easy way back, pushed along by the current. We quickly reached Kev's reel that joined us back to the main line.

The Godzilla Circuit

Our time here was 50min. We had planned that if we had time and were comfortable we would try get to the Martz jump on the main line after doing the Godzilla loop. I was having a great time, and I checked with Kev and he indicated he was good to continue too, woohoo! The average depth in Madison is only about 16m although it goes up and down like Peacock and our depth in Godzilla was about 26m. Before the dive started we had 100min left on our scrubber. So I calculated we could swim out from this point for about 30min before we had to turn around, and then the current would push us out and we'd be fine on our scrubber time. So we set off.

From 200' to the Martz offshoot the passages open up and the rocks are amazing. The walls and ceiling have huge scars on them, probably from the water current rushing passed. The visibility was better than we'd seen in a while. Sometimes we hit sections where part of the ceiling looked like it had collapsed and lay scattered on the floor.

Madison Blue opening up

Madison Blue passages before Martz

Madison Blue just before the duck down to Martz

Ceiling looks almost like a huge talon clawed through it

Duck-under the clawed ceiling to Martz jump

I made the duck-under the scarred ceiling and saw the Martz jump ahead with a string with white polystyrene markers hanging on the left, and then the line leading to Martz sink on the right with a little gate you could use to close the jump instead of laying a reel (this makes it quicker for divers entering from Martz to get onto the main line). As I swam over to investigate the gate, the water cleared completely. Suddenly we were in crystal clear, blue water with infinite visibility. It was amazing and beautiful.

Martz jump - polystyrene to the left of me, gold beneath, and jump to the right

Passage after Martz

Passage after Martz

Crystal waters after Martz, see how it looks like flakes from the ceiling have fallen down

As we continued onward the floor looked like a river of rippled white beach sand and the passages became more like solution tubes but with limestone pockets and structures in the walls. Just after 800' we got to the Half Hitch which is a restriction where you have to angle up and left and then down and right.

Me approaching the Half Hitch

Me disappearing into the Half Hitch

Kev appearing out of the Half Hitch

Me leaving the Half Hitch

The restriction wasn't tough. We emerged and checked our dive time. It was 70min, but we both wanted to try and push to 1000' and see a little more.

After Half Hitch the passages were much more silty, and we were still working hard against the flow. But the passages were simply beautiful.

Stunning passages in Madison Blue after Half Hitch

Rock formations and beautiful white rippled clay

Just as I saw the 1000' marker, the passage narrowed upward around a bend with lots of silt. It was 78 min run-time and definitely time for us to leave.

Map from the Godzilla jump to 1000' on the main line in Madison Blue

We turned and were literally flying along at a really nice pace. At Half Hitch we had to hold ourselves back from being pushed into the side walls and getting stuck at a strange angle. Then we were flying onward again.

Unfortunately as I tried to make one duck-under, my left ear got pressure stuck and wouldn't clear. Not again! This time we were deep in the system with not much space for me to manoeuvre upward and clear the pressure, and I didn't have much time left on my scrubber (although I think I could do 8 hours on this scrubber instead of 6, and I still had lots of open circuit gas to breathe). To make matters worse Kev had already disappeared with the strong flow, so I couldn't signal him. I felt a nervous flutter in my tummy.

In the strong current I went to the wall on my left, closest to the line, and let my head go up as far as it could in the passage, I felt it click open and turned right to go back down to the line but it immediately stuck again. I turned again and this time followed the ceiling back a few meters. Once again it cleared but as I turned right and swam back down it got stuck.

Now I was getting really nervous, and Kev still hadn't appeared. I took a deep, steadying breath, and decided to swim back along the line until the last shallow bend. I swam back against the current about 15-20m and managed to go up 2m and clear both ears hard and properly. Then instead of turning down and right I turned left, clearing continuously but losing sight of the line as I turned. This worked and I managed to keep my left ear clear as I returned to the line and then flew with the current down and out.

There was still no sign of Kev and the water was no longer crystal clear, but instead a silty mess from all my moving to and fro, and from our earlier passage. At another bend the water got really silty, and I got quite concerned that maybe Kev had come back looking for me and gone off-line. Luckily, just after that, I found him returning. I signaled that my ear had been the problem and all was ok now, and we quickly flew back passed Martz and through the cave to the outside. This incident gave me quite a scare, but Madison Blue remains one of my favourite dives. It was very different to the other caves, beautiful, epic and a lot of fun.

Hanging in the current on deco in Madison Blue

Kev in all his kit, with camera, emerging from Madison Blue

After the dive we went for a well deserved afternoon dinner at Pepe's, a top-notch Mexican restaurant in Live Oak. Topping off a brilliant dive with a magnificent meal :)

Pepe's ...yummy!