Manatee Spring was the first place we dove in Florida into the Catfish Hotel entrance which was covered in duckweed. That day the water underneath the duckweed had been crystal clear, the flow across the sink had been minimal, and the mosquitoes above ground had been ravenous and plentiful. Unfortunately, we hadn't managed to make any penetration into the cave system because one of our torch switches had broken in transit from SA. This time we were armed with working 35 watt HID lights, scooters and a plan to beat the mozzies and the long walk from the parking lot to the Catfish Hotel entrance.
Manatee Springs didn't seem nearly as rough and rugged and deserted as the last time we'd visited, just after the flooding. The guard at the entrance didn't seem alarmed to see divers arriving, and there wasn't as much wild life. Thankfully, that included the mosquitoes. Catfish Hotel Sink was just as covered in duckweed though, but we had a plan for beating this too :)
The water level was at least 0.75 - 1 meter lower than our last visit 6 weeks ago. You could see all the wooden steps of the platform and the ladder that went into the water, but the lowest step and ladder were still underwater.
This time our machines were ready and prepped in the back of the car. All we had carry down were the stages and scooters (3 trips) and then our fins and mosquito spray for after the dive. We used the fins to push back the duckweed and lay the stages and scooters into the water, and then we went back to the car to kit up.
It was much easier to carry the machines on our backs than to lug them to the site and then put them on. So our "beat the walk" strategy worked perfectly. We also managed to clip on our stages and scooters without any duckweed touching us by constantly pushing out a circle of water as we got ready. Then we descended.
The plan was for Kev to lay line from the large tree log laying outside the cave entrances and then head th1700' upstream to Friedman Sink.
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| Planned dive from Catfish Hotel to Friedman Sink |
The water wasn't as clear as the last time, but there was a storm brewing with thunder and lightening, so the darkness could be attributed to the lack of sunshine. As we got to the log which was lying at about 10m, Kev indicated hat his solenoid wasn't firing. He has had so many problems with his handsets turning off and freezing underwater that we both thought that maybe the electronics on his handset had frozen again. But then I saw bubbles slowly streaming out from the quick disconnect to the solenoid on the head and realized that the problem was that the hose wasn't connected. I tried to connect it down there but couldn't get it to click in, so we ascended to fix it above water, which was better anyway because it gave Kev a chance to check if any water had gotten into the head. I kept the duckweed at bay while Kev got out and checked his machine. Then back down to the log to start our dive into Manatee Spring.
I wish I'd had a video camera for this next part of the dive. The current was pumping out of the upstream entrance. Kev made one tie off around another dead tree at about 13m and then tried to take the line at 90 degrees to the right into the entrance. He managed to push through with the scooter and tied off on a rock, but when he turned to signal me if the tie-off was OK, I signaled no because the reel was tied directly in our path across the middle of the entrance across the pumping flow. So he reeled back, and I was trying to indicate that I would take the scooter from him to remove some of the clutter, when I saw him turn around and charge the entrance with the reel in the right hand and the scooter at full tilt in the left. He had a crazy maniacal determined look on his face, and he made it through with the perfect tie-off through all that current! Awesome! Or as they would say here "Good Job" :)
The cave was really dark and silty and there were lots of particles in the water. We made the steep descent to about 22m and then followed the line a bit and descended again to 27m. The scooters were a huge help pulling us along in the current, but it was never nearly as tight and fast as it had been at the entrance which is the narrowest section. But it remained dark and silty and we couldn't really see what the cave looked like other than the mounds of silt we were swimming over. Not far in (about 200-300'), we decided to can the dive. Neither of us really wanted to follow some dark silty tunnel for another 1500' to Friedman Sink, there were much better dives we could do. So we headed out making sure to slow our ascent as the current pushed us up the steep rock faces. Our total dive time was just 30min.
As we approached the surface I went open circuit and Kev used his scooter to bubble away the duckweed on the surface. Then we used our circular water pushing technique and managed to get out duckweed free, woohoo! Back at the car we rushed out of our wet kit and donned mosquito repellant. Then back for our cylinders and out the park.
It was still early, and we'd planned for 2 dives, so we decided we may as well head back to Ginnie for a bit more explorative scootering ...
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