"My Soul Needed This..."

It's been an action-packed last three days of Connie's cave tour as we made dives at Temple of Doom (or Calavera as the locals call it), Dos Ojos, and Nohoch na Chich. More on these dives in a bit.

On Thursday evening during dinner, I hadn't heard of any more primary light failures. So I asked the group to raise hands if they had a light failure that day hoping there would be none. Unfortunately two more hands were raised making four days and about ten light failures. Thinking this was beyond uncanny, I asked a second question: "Raise your hand if you have NOT had a primary light failure this week" to which out of 10 people, only Mike 1 and myself raised hands. It has not been a good week for equipment.

Friday night on our last dinner together, I asked people to compress into a single word (or phrase) their feelings on the diving for the week. (I added the stipulation that they could not use the words "primary" or "light.") Some of the responses were "stellar" "satisfying" "invigorating" and "amazing." But the one I liked most was what Simone said: "My soul needed this." In a subtle way this one phrase echoes how I felt about the tour this week.

Have I ever mentioned to you how much I enjoy cave diving?

The picture at right was taken by Connie at Vaca Ha. I had just pulled myself out of the cenote which is why I look like a drowned rat. For those of you who know about scuba diving, look carefully and see if you can find all of these pieces, which total probably over 80 lbs of gear:

Two 3mil wetsuits

Three 2nd stage regulators

Two backup flashlights

My primary light (note: the battery canister can barely be seen; it is on my right hip)

One mask

Two fins

One 3lb weight (in pocket, left hip, to counteract weight of canister)

Two dive computers

Dive tables and writing slate (hidden, in weight pocket)

Tanks, bands, manifold and two first stage regulators (you can only see the two manifold valves in the picture)

Temple of Doom

This was the only cave we visited during the week that I had not previously been to. It is nowhere near the most decorated nor the most interesting cave, but it does have two things going for it. First, a good amount of the cave is at 40-60 feet so there is halocline visible during most of the dive. Second, this cave has a LOT of variety, from very bright passage to extremely wide and dark passage, from small cozy rooms to huge yawning caverns.

There is one room with an enormous stalactite/stalagmite combo that cave divers call "The Fang." (Funny, the Fang I first met was in Chac Mool.) This "Fang" was impressive because it was by itself in a huge room -- the vibe I was getting was leaning towards imposing. Didn't make me nervous but it didn't give me the welcoming feeling that I would want to reach out and touch it.

One long jump off the line past the Fang we came to another huge room with halocline right in the middle of it. The room was ringed with ledges at halocline level, maybe because the salt water is dissolving the rock more rapidly than the fresh water. Some of the ledges had delicate stalactite formations on them and I swear to you that as I popped up from the salt water into the fresh water, I felt like I was a sea monster popping out of a lake heading towards a city of tiny towers. This room really gave me the feeling that the salt water was a lake, and the fresh water above it was air. The passage of divers had ever so gently put ripples on the halocline border. I wish I had the video camera with me at that moment.

Another fascinating effect in Temple of Doom is how the light from our HID and LED primary lights made the halocline reflect green and purple light on the cave walls. I'd seen this a little bit at Minotauro but at Temple of Doom it is much, much more vibrant.

Temple of Doom will be worth further exploration. There are quite a few side passages which seemed like they would be easy to navigate, as long as you don't lose the lines. I can see this happening easily, as with the enormous size of some of the rooms in the cave it could be very dangerous to stray from the line and not be able to find the line through the halocline.

Dos Ojos traverse

In the same plan I did with Connie last year, our team took one of the eyes of Dos Ojos on a downstream cave passage traverse past several cenotes. We surfaced at 42 minutes at Dos Palmas, went past High Voltage, and climbed out at Monolito. (Connie's only variant was that she takes her group up into High Voltage for a 2nd break. Lena had us only going up once at Dos Palmas.)

For this dive I lead the team of 4 which went me-Mark2-Alex1-Lena. There are a lot of side passages off the main line but they all looked to be white line, whereas the main line was gold. Thus it was easy to keep my line awareness (which in non cave diver language "line awareness" translates to: Don't lose the freakin' line or you'll get lost and die!) I'm not sure if Lena put me in lead because I'd been on the tail end of most of the dives all week, or if she were testing me. I didn't ask, I just lead and didn't get lost.

Dos Ojos by contrast to other caves we did this week is pretty dark, less reflective rock and somewhat tinted green water. That is not to say visibility was bad, but our bright primaries have less penetrating power.

Dos Ojos is a frequently visited cave because of its easy access to the highway. As a result, there is quite a bit of damage to the formations especially in narrower passages. It is a sad but true fact: by diving in the caves we can only make them worse, not better.

Nohoch na Chich

I've made many dives in Nohoch; the trip today is not different from other visits I have blogged about so I don't feel it is particularly noteworthy. I will say that our plan was to do something different than Connie's group, to go the side passage (sorry, cannot remember the name of the line) that Glenn and I "discovered by accident" last year. This passage is much smaller than the main line or Charlie's Line. Small is relative in Nohoch; most of the cave is so enormous that when I mean "small" it is still quite generous. This line winds around and eventually connects back to the main line just past the National Geographic platform.

Our plan was to continue away from the Nohoch cenote on the main line until reaching or passing the tiny cenote about 2500 feet further down. Sorry, I cannot remember the name of that cenote. Our pace was really slow in both directions. One of the team members who has been the albatross of our group all week, seemed to run out of steam about 2/3rds of the way towards our goal. We kept slowing down. I tend to be a more vigorous swimmer and don't get tired in a cave dive, so to change pace like this was bothersome. I hope that this individual (who I know reads this blog) will understand that his limitations, or his voluntary choice to be the albatross, has caused frustration and grief to his teammates all week. Maybe he will one day have more consideration for others who are sharing his journey.

Connie has a set tour for Nohoch to take the main line then jump to Charlie's Line, then rejoin the main line near the tiny cenote. Then a little past where there is a large airdome perfect for a surface break and a turn-the-dive point. In Lena's group we neither surfaced at the cenote nor surfaced at the air bell. We were essentially the same distance up the cave when the dive was turned on 3rds at about 52 minutes, but instead of taking a break we just turned and headed out. I would have preferred to take the break, as it seems a more relaxing way to do the dive plan. Lena does seem to be more goal-driven as a guide, less interested in touring the cave for the sake of sightseeing.

On a positive note, our slow pace did give me the opportunity to pull out my slate and take notes on some of the side passage lines I saw. I had an opportunity to discuss them with Lena after the dive and now I have some more ideas where I'd like to go in Nohoch na Chich the future.