Wonderland and Broken Lines in Aerolito

For my last cave dive of this winter's trip to Cozumel, Glenn and I took a really fascinating tour up the Sulphur Falls line and then down to the Wonderland passage. This is an area I had only once before visited, but this time I penetrated well beyond and into areas of indescribable beauty... places I could not imagine Aerolito possessed!

Our plan today was fairly complex but logical: We would take the main line down to the 4th set of double-arrows and do a jump to the right to the Sulphur Falls line. We would go about 200-300 yards until we hit either a "T" or a jump that I remembered, and then take that to a right-angle right turn down to the Wonderland passageway. Brad and I had visited Wonderland two years ago and I remember having seen a "T" in the line there, but we did not go beyond it. Glenn and I hoped to penetrate one, if not both of those directions off the "T".

I would be lead diver today, running reels and determining when to turn on one of several possible scenarios: Out of Reels, Out of Bottom Time, 3rds, Line Ended, Sidemount Territory, etc.

Our dive went off without a hitch. The jump off the 4th set of double arrows is much shorter than it was two or three years ago, and visibility along Sulphur Falls line was excellent. The halocline here was extremely well defined today, almost hypnotizing to watch. The saltwater (lower) layer we were swimming in was still, clear and warmer. The fresh/brackish layer above us had a noteworthy current and lots of debris. I popped up into it several times to check on visibility but the cold-shock was enough to make me want to go back to the salt water. I kept out of the fresh water for three reasons:

1. it was an upstream current so I would be fighting it all the way up Sulphur Falls;
2. it seemed MUCH colder even though I was wearing two 3-mil wetsuits, and the temperature difference was probably only 2-4 degrees F, it seemed a lot more!
3. passageway height was variable and I would have to go up and down through the halocline layer to avoid it, whereas the floor of the cave was pretty consistent.

In fact, the only possible advantage of swimming in the freshwater was a slight reduction in air consumption, but that would have been cancelled out by having to fight the current.

Sulphur Falls area itself was beautiful to behold. In places where there were ledges just above the halocline, the freshwater rippled in tiny rapids like an inverted brook dancing over pebbles. Our fin-strokes, though optimized to keep from stirring the halocline, left wakes of oily-looking water where visibility went from 50 feet to zero in an instant.

At the turn to Wonderland I found the line was no longer a "T" but hooked the sharp right to Wonderland passage. There was a jump to the left, but I will have to save that one for another day. Almost immediately we descended from 35 feet down to 60 feet into Wonderland. Aaah! Those beautiful stalactites Brad had photographed two years ago were still as I remembered them -- plentiful, but dark and brooding. The "T" was there too, just as I remembered it, so with approval from Glenn I put a cookie on the exit line and went right-wards. The passageway opened up to a glorious large room reminiscent more of caves around Akumal than other parts of Aerolito. Grand stalactite formations covering both walls, but still very dark, almost black.

Then we encountered the first section of broken line. Some repairs (recent?) were notable but there was still a gap where part of the line had broken, the loose section trailing into the canyon. I pulled out my last jump spool and bridged the gap. The line then takes a sharp turn to the left and down deeper, but I also saw a jump here to go straight. Not having another jump spool, the direction was clear. Down we went! Almost immediately I encountered a minor restriction. I squeezed through it quickly, but it gave Glenn several minutes of frustration to get through. I watched him carefully for any signs of panic or needing assistance, but he seemed okay... just stuck. Meanwhile I check my gauge and read "75 feet, 22 minutes remaining no-deco time" though plenty of air time before hitting 3rds. I guess all that practice in minor restrictions at places like Calimba, Blue Abyss and Minotauro paid off -- watching Glenn struggle with what was easy to me made me thankful for all the cave diving and rock climbing experience.

The passageway here changed radically. We were now in a very tight passage only 6-8 feet wide and maybe 4 feet tall. The bottom was covered with a super-fine bright red silt that stirred exceptionally easily. There were stalactite formations here of indesscribable beauty like none I'd ever seen anywhere else on earth. Though the floor and walls were coated with this red dust, the formations were icicles in size, color and appearance. Against the red they virtually reflected green!! And boy, they looked fragile.

I continued on the passage very slowly, taking note of the condition of the line (it was okay) and trying to minimize how much my actions stirred up the silt. Even with my most delicate motions I knew that we were going to lose visibility. Not far later, maybe another 200 feet, the line simply ended at a wall of stalactites, though I could see the cave continue on, though much smaller than a diver could fit. I turned the dive on "End of Line."

And then it happened. Total silt-out. Glenn's turning around followed by my own in that tiny passageway stirred up so much that I lost all visibility. My bright 10 watt HID light made the water glow red but I wouldn't have been able to see the fingers in front of my eyes! Here again, proper cave training paid off. Anticipating the silt-out, I already had my fingers on the permanent line before I lost sight of it. Remembering where it was positioned relative to the cave just before I turned, it was easy to follow the line gently by touch alone for about 20 feet until the silt-out cleared up almost entirely. I exited this beautiful passage reluctantly, admiring all the delicate formations one last time. But the bottom time clock was ticking and I was down to 7 minutes before facing deco obligations.

Back thru the minor restriction (Glenn got thru much faster this time) and then back up to the 60 foot depth. Whew! We retraced back to the "T" at the beginning of Wonderland. After brief discussion, we agreed to try the other direction of the "T" which was leftwards, for a brief time. This quickly became a very tall and relatively narrow passage with formations mostly in a crevice below us, and then suddenly opened up into an E-n-o-r-m-o-u-s room that I never would have suspected in Aerolito!! It could have been 150 feet across, easily. And maybe 30-40 feet from floor to ceiling in some places. In the center of the room the line was tied to a stalagmite and made a sharp jump to the right. I could see a short jump from this point to a line straight ahead. I turned right and continued as it went to the edge of this huge room.

Shortly after reaching another passage from the room, the line was obviously deteriorating with more sections broken down. I turned the dive on "unsafe line" and we unwound our way, back to the huge room, back to Wonderland, back through Sulphur Falls, back down the main line, and out.

Total time in the cave was 86 minutes, with a maximum depth of 78 feet. I used approximately 1550 psi in my double 80 c.f. steel tanks. Not bad for a long dive where most of my time was spent at or below 60 feet m.s.w!!

Footnotes

I'm writing these footnotes a few hours after having written the above. I realise I may have understated the seriousness of a silt-out event. If you read accident analyses on scuba diving and particularly cave diving accidents, silt-outs are a major contributing factor to underwater fatalities. All too often, divers are either unprepared for, or subject to panic when a silt-out occurs. My cave instructor (as I'm sure all reputable cave instructors do) was strict in teaching "Line Awareness" at all times while cave diving.

When I saw the silt-out happening on this dive, it was practically a second-nature reflex to reach for the line, then gently swim through as if I were on one of my "Lights Out" training drills. Absolutely no panic, or even a concern. It wasn't the first time I've been in a silt-out and it certainly won't be the last time. To me it was just a noteworthy event on the dive. However it truly stresses the point that in order to engage in cave (or wreck) diving, you really REALLY need to get proper training for it.

The only concern that we faced on this dive was the bottom time. Although we were within a few minutes of hitting deco, it was all calculated into the plan, including when I would turn at the 70+ foot depth to avoid deco. Glenn pointed out to me after the dive that deco isn't a big deal, but I had to point out to him that we did not factor deco time into our gas planning and thus it was most prudent to avoid it. That of course was the primary concern and really the predominant limit to how much time we spent in the cave this dive.

Nohoch Nah Chich

Our last dive of the week was in the highly decorated Nohoch Nah Chich ("Giant Bird Cage") named probably because of the rooms separated by walls of stalactites found along Parker's Line, which is not far from the Rancho San Felipe cenote entrance.

Connie usually takes a group up Parker's line to Charlie's Line, then past Drippy Dick and eventually meeting up with the main line for a return back to the cenote. I've seen Parker's and Charlie's a number of times so my desire was to go explore elsewhere. Part of my goal was also to have a longer dive than Connie would likely plan, so partnering with Dusan and/or Bill would mean more air time and possibly new things to see. Dusan opted to go with Connie as he wanted an easy and shorter dive, but Bill was keen to try an adventure.

Bill and I made our plan to go straight up the main line to about the 4th arrow where there is a jump to the right at a distinctive formation I would recognize. I knew from past dives there were awesome formations on this line but hadn't taken it very far. From there we'd just wing it, deploying and reeling up to 2 more jump spools as air and interest dictated.

It'd been a year since I last led a dive in Nohoch so I was very pleased when my memory of how to find the main line was spot-on. It is in the cavern zone but pretty far from the entrance. Along the main line we went, past the Nat-Geo platform, past Disneyland, past enormous rooms filled ceiling-to-floor with every large and small stalactite/stalagmite combination imaginable. The 3rd arrow was at a reach-gap I remembered well, but continued on to the 4th. I referenced the formation to Bill and then spooled the gap to the right as planned.

Ten minutes later we were passing what looked like a statue garden. Odd-shaped stalagmites in bizarre shapes appeared out of the darkness to awaken the imagination. One looked like an eagle or a hawk, beak forward and wing back. Another looked like a horse and rider. Then... my spiney spines! I'd taken pictures of these last year but there they were in all their glory. These are thin stalactites with spines that stick up and out of them like upside-down pine trees. And yes, the spines actually pointed upwards towards the ceiling!

On we went, and more stalactites had even more unusual bits "growing" on them. The line wound around, and I used both spools jumping to "T"s both times. We investigated all directions but these were all loops or dead-ends. I hit the main line twice. Doing all this back-and forth was totally enjoyable, not monotonous at all in case you were wondering. I could tell Bill was enjoying the maze as well.

Eventually the dive was called on "no more reels" or "no more lines we hadn't visited" and we un-jumped, un-spooled and started heading back. We opted for one last deviation when we hit the 3rd arrow (the reach-gap I mentioned before) but it turned out, as I suspected, to go right back into the same maze a short way in.

Total time on the dive was 97 minutes and Connie's group was already out of the water and mostly finished disassembling their gear. Amazingly I still had 1800 psi in my doubles when I was done! We accomplished all the goals of the dive and had a GREAT time exploring.

Footnotes

On this dive I had my yoke-type regulator on the right post, to replace the regulator I suspect is in need of service. Everything was flawless -- no leaks, no hisses, no problems whatsoever. Now I have to decide whether to have the DIN regulator serviced here in Cozumel or wait until I return home and send it back to the manufacturer.

I wasn't concerned about having one yoke regulator on this dive because Nohoch nah Chich is generally a big cave and I was sure there were no restrictions in the areas we'd be exploring. This was a safe bet, but I wouldn't want to take yoke regulators to Calimba, Blue Abyss, Minotauro or Labna Ha.

The Blue Abyss

Often talked about as one of the most spectacular cave dives a certified full cave diver might do in Mexico, the Blue Abyss is this amazingly HUGE cave room filled with salt water (below 50 feet) with depth ranging from about 15 feet all the way down to 240 feet. The nearest open-air entrance is over 2,500 feet away. Clarity of the water is unbelievable and is what gives Blue Abyss that stunning azure glow in our bright HID lights.

There are many ways to get to this room, but if you don't want to use scooters from the Nohoch nah Chich cenote, then the best way to do it is to go from Pet Cemetery cenote. We followed the Pet Cemetery cavern line then jumped to the main line which I think is initially part of "X"-line. From there we jumped onto Diaz line which took us within one short jump to Blue Abyss. We did this as a stage dive, not because of the distance but as an added safety precaution because of the depth we would encounter in the Abyss itself.

Diaz line has the "King Pong restriction" which although short, does tend to cause some divers more difficulty than one would expect. Even with a stage rig on my left hip, I had no trouble negotiating King Pong in either direction. In fact, I had so much fun doing it that if I were by myself I would've turned around and did it again... several times. I was thoroughly enjoying this dive!

Sometimes when I tell my friends what cave diving is like and describe cave passage restrictions like this in detail, they start looking at me like they're thinking "There's something fundamentally wrong with this guy." Whatever. Some people like watching basketball. Other people like visiting museums. I happen to love negotiating very small holes in a water-filled cave, 1000 feet from the nearest exit to air and sunlight.

After a long swim you arrive at Blue Abyss from a passageway at a shallow 15 feet or so. There is tannic fresh water there which somewhat limits visibility, but then you float over the precipice and ... whoa! The edge of the world drops off and there is this gorgeous blue water below you.

The dive to Blue Abyss is now in hot competition for being Best Dive of the Week -- it was way cool. As agreed before we started the dive, Bill and I were to partner together once we got to Blue Abyss since we were the only two using non-enriched air. (For those who don't understand, if you use an enriched oxygen mixture in your tanks a.k.a. "nitrox", it limits the depth you can dive. On regular air, you can "safely" dive to about 210 feet -- with nitrox, it is less depending on how much oxygen has been added.) Bill stated only that "we can go down deep, but if there is nothing more to see when I reach a certain depth, I'm going to stop descending." Seemed sensible to me, so that is what we did. So on arrival, all six of us went to different parts of this enormous sinkhole knowne as Blue Abyss. Bill and I sunk down to a depth of 117 feet at which point he signaled that was enough. Up we went slowly, back to the only entrance at the top.

Apparently the bright lights from all of us touring around was a spectacular sight for anyone who was on the upper levels. The cave is very, very dark and the walls not so reflective but with that many bright lights it apparently looked like a disco. I didn't get to see that spectacle from my point of view, or not exactly, because I was on the bottom level. Still, I couldn't help but be in awe of the sheer size of this place, and admire that there could be a place on land over 100 feet wide and 240 feet tall, all filled with water.

I would have been happy to stay longer, but everyone started heading out as if the dive had been called (I don't know if it actually was); we just started shuffling out slowly like the curtain had been closed and it was time to leave the theater.

Total dive time was 97 minutes and because of the time it took to drive to and from Pet Cemetery, it was the only dive we did today.

Blue Abyss is a "must dive" for any full cave diver. Five Stars. I will be back.

Footnotes

When I said I was diving on non-enriched air, it wasn't exactly true. I picked up my set of doubles from the standard air pile, not from the nitrox stack. Because I anticipated diving as deep as 200 feet, I decided to test the air with my nitrox tester "just to be sure" and GOOD THING I DID! Turns out that I had a 26% mix in there! It could have been a fatal error if I'd only assumed the tanks contained 21% and dove to 200 feet on that mix. According to the tables, the 26% is only safe to 138 feet on PO₂=1.4 or 156 feet on PO₂=1.6. I usually dive 1.6.

My right post regulator apparently has been going bad for some time now. My first clue was that it "hisses" (almost imperceptibly) when you first open the valve but it does it only for 15 seconds then never again the whole dive. However, my 2nd stage/inflator was leaking a little bit (only when 10 feet depth or shallower) and I'd always thought it was the inflator that was just being finicky. On my way in to Blue Abyss my 2nd stage was leaking ever so slightly more than it usually does and down to 19 feet. Well, after some diagnosis tonight I determined it was the 1st stage which is probably over-pressurizing the low pressure side. My 2nd stage/inflator worked fine on another 1st stage regulator. Tonight I'm going to swap out the questionable 1st stage and replace it with the one on my open water regulator, which I'd been using for my stage bottle. Today was the last day for stage dives so I don't need 3 regulators anymore this trip.

Even though Blue Abyss and cenote Pet Cemetery are part of Nohoch nah Chich (which is, effectively, part of Sistema Sac Aktun now) the cavern is accessed from the Dos Ojos main entrance from highway 307. It's a l-o-n-g way into the jungle on a rough road. I sat on both my towel and my wetsuit to cushion the bumpy ride, which probably saved my backbone from a trip to the chiropractor.

The fees to visit Pet Cemetery may be the highest of all cenotes in the region at a whopping 200 pesos. Fortunately with the current 14:1 exchange rate that means it is only about US $14. However that's still pricey compared to Grand Cenote (120 pesos), Dos Ojos (120 pesos) and Nohoch nah Chich (150 pesos). However the new facilities there are excellent and very cleanly maintained. They were still under construction when we visited today and the electric lights didn't work yet, but hey, the toilets flushed and they even had a high quality toilet paper in the stalls. Sure beats a hole in the floor of a palapa with four see-through walls and a can of sawdust!

153 Minutes, 9000 Feet

Today's dive was a stage dive starting at Dos Ojos, to cenote Tikim Chi. I won't say a lot about this dive because most of the details are extremely technical. Stage diving is when you carry one (or more) extra bottle of air with you, to the left of your torso. The reason for "staging" on this dive was to extend our dive time beyond what we'd normally have in our two back-mounted air tanks. There are other reasons to stage, but this one was for the distance.

Tikim Chi is a whopping 4500 feet away from Dos Ojos. That may not seem like a lot to you, but try swimming that distance underwater with 130-150 lbs of gear! And I should mention there was a slight, but noticeable upstream current pushing against us.

I didn't realise the distance when we were first told of the dive, and didn't know it until I passed by two opposing line arrows which read as follows: "Dos Ojos - 3250 feet" "Tikim Chi - 1250 feet" Fortunately we had a break each way at a not-quite-halfway point, an air dome right on the main line. It was at this air dome that we stashed our stage rigs before the final push to Tikim Chi.

Of the six divers on the team, four made it to Tikim Chi. Two others who knew they may not have enough air before they started, called thirds and turned although they were a scant 150 feet or so from the goal. Normally we don't break up a team when a dive is called, but this had been discussed before we left the air dome and we were in effect two teams heading in the same direction. After a few minutes of quiet reflection at the Mayan Temple at Tikim Chi, we swam back. All six reconvened at the air dome before taking the 45 minute swim back to Dos Ojos.

When we initially arrived at Dos Ojos for our dive at 8:30am the place was deserted. We were the only ones there. When we returned on the dive to the West Eye three hours later, the place was packed with divers and snorkelers. There was even another team of three going in with double stages. Dos Ojos is a diver's playground. A bit expensive to visit, but well maintained and good facilities.

The majesty of Calimba

Calimba (sometimes spelled Kalimba or Kolimba) is a tiny entrance to Sistema Sac Aktun, the same cave system that Grand Cenote is part of. Calimba has had its run of bad luck recently: a collapse of the entrance (due to natural causes or landowner carelessness I am not sure) and subsequent problems with the quality of the water have made it a questionable place to dive. Although it is easily accessible from the highway, the landowner is not usually there and special arrangements must be made in advance if you want to do any diving. Fortunately, Connie has this down with military precision and our plan to do Calimba to cenote Bosh Chen on Wednesday went off without a hitch.

Now, those of you who have read my blog from last month and last year will note that this was my 4th time into Calimba, and my 3rd attempt at getting to cenote Bosh Chen. The other two times I ended up in groups that turned the dive far short of the goal. Today... YES... Today, I saw Bosh Chen for the first time and it was absolutely glorious -- not to see it, but to have finally accomplished that goal. And there are two large rooms full of the most beautiful stalactite formations I hadn't seen before that... well... gasp... were truly breathtaking.

On this dive there were only four on the team. The other two opted to do a land tour which left (in this team order) Connie, myself, Dusan and Bill. As seems to be the case with me, the smaller the team the more fun I have on the dive. I think with very little question even though the week is not finished, this will be my Best Cave Dive of the Week.

Not only that, I have spectacular VIDEO of the dive!! What a fantastic souvenir to take home after the trip. Almost 30 minutes of digital video, mostly from the jump from main line to Bosh Chen and arriving at Bosh Chen itself, and then a good deal on the way back. I know most of my friends reading this probably aren't into this Cave Diving thing, but if you're at all interested to see it, it's quite good footage. Really gives you a feel for what Cave Diving is like. Dusan watched it today and wants a copy. I will probably edit out the part when I got impaled on a stalagmite because I was distracted filming. :-)



This little blip of video shows us going down the Bosh Chen line back to the Paso de Lagarto line. Although it is difficult to tell in the video, I am making a drop from about 25 feet to 40 feet here.

Passageways in this cave tend to be VERY narrow and quite often we have to squeeze between two stalactite pillars barely a shoulder width apart, all while trying not to touch either one, the floor, or the ceiling. (There are special techniques you learn in cave training for this kind of thing.) While I am in this cave, my attention is first and foremost on my body movement and maintaining perfect buoyancy. Filming and attention to the camera is always, always secondary. The quality of the video suffers because of this, but it is very important for the preservation of the cave.

Footnotes

• Cave Diving is dangerous! Please don't dive into a cave without proper training. Or at least make sure there is water in the cave before you dive into it.
  
• Cave Diving involves encounters of Spectacular Beauty. Please remember to breathe while you are underwater.
  
• Don't get impaled on a stalactite or stalagmite. It can hurt. (Fortunately I was only mildly surprised, not hurt in the least. The stalagmite is OK too.)
  
• If you plan to take a camera into a cave, I strongly recommend two things: (1) get familiar with your camera/video gear in open water FIRST -- if you can manage your gear in coral caves with no problem you are probably good enough to do it in a cave; (2) don't take a camera on your first visit to a cave. Tour the cave first to know what to expect, then take the gear on the 2nd visit.
  
• I want to add this advice: (3) If you want to take good pictures in a cave, practice your photography / videography on night dives first. The conditions on a night dive are much closer than daytime diving in terms of exposure, lighting and dealing with switches/knobs/bells/whistles on your housing in the dark.

Statistics and Facts

• The dive time was 92 minutes. Calimba to Bosh Chen was 44 minutes, Bosh Chen to Calimba was 48 minutes which included a 3 minute safety stop.
  
• Maximum depth was 45 feet
  
• There is a section we passed on the Calimba line just before the Lagarto main line called the "Boa Constriction" and as you can imagine, it is a series of minor restrictions. They are quite fun to negotiate. Remember playing "limbo" where you cannot touch the bar? Imagine doing that in 100 lbs of scuba gear while cave diving.
  
• There have been two deaths in Calimba that I know of, and photography was a contributing factor. This fact is consciously on my mind every time I dive here.
  
• There was one primary light failure on this dive. Dusan's quit probably because of a low battery.
  
• I now carry TWO primaries after learning from last month's fiasco.
  

Does Cave Diving make your hair shiny?

It could all be my imagination, but my hair seems to be shinier than it has in many, many months. Is it something about the high mineral content in the water? Does it have to do with spending hours at a time diving in a cave? Have I been blessed by the god Chac Mool? Dunno. But I wish it would look this good all the time!

Labna-Ha revisited

Second day of cave diving and my third visit to the famed Labna-Ha. The owners are expanding their development of the land for tourists so someday soon I might have to call it "Labna-Ha Resort and Spa." For now they do mostly snorkeling, jungle tours and a Zip line. I'm not sure exactly what else they are planning but it does look enterprising. They're currently building a welcome center and 20-car parking lot on the main highway.

Their property is 3-4 miles back on a very bumpy Mexican road. Its more like a limestone trail that cars can ride on, but I suspect as Labna Ha and Nohoch nah Chich (which shares the same road) gain popularity/prosperity, the road will improve. It sure beats the donkey rides through the jungle that the first cave divers had to do. That was a few years before my first visit to Nohoch.

Anyway.

This week being a small-ish group of only six divers, Connie took us in one group down the main line. Dive was called predictably on 3rds, by the same diver who always does, exactly 60 minutes into the dive. And according to Connie, called only 15 feet short of our goal which was a "T" in the line, though I didn't see it myself. It was a fun dive and long at 119 minutes, but wasn't as enjoyable as having gone with Micael with Sergio leading last month. Smaller teams just make better cave dives.

We did lunch made by Labna-Ha staff, which was good as always; then the zip line into a dry cave cenote which was fun (but short) as always; and a tour of the dry cave led by Sergio. It amazes me that I have been on his tour of the dry cave three times now, and each time he talks about completely different aspects of cave geology and history.

Footnotes

Footnote 1: Hmm... I was off by my estimation of this week's median age. Everyone else is well into their 60's. Being decades younger in a sport predominated by an older crowd, my ability to estimate age has been thrown off somehow.

Footnote 2: I played with the Dive Rite LED 500 some more in this cave. Yes indeed, the light does not penetrate through the water as cleanly as my HID. I am pretty sure the reason is the colour temperature difference! HID is a broad spectrum light with strong output in blue and near-ultraviolet. As these are colours that water filters out last with distance, HID simply goes further. However I should note that not all LED's run at the same colour temperature and there are some LED that are more blue-ish. But my initial impressions of the Dive Rite LED 500 are: It makes a truly excellent back-up primary or primary substitute but it can't replace a 10 Watt HID.

Cave Diving Wow!

I am delighted, and very privileged to be on a 2nd week of cave diving with Connie LoRe during my vacation. It is my 3rd trip with her so far. This trip was sort of a last minute arrangement which involved changing my plane tickets, extending stay in Cozumel and working logistics of getting to and from Akumal without renting a car. I *hate* renting cars in Mexico, and hopefully will never do it again. But that's another story for another day, and I really don't want to spout a bunch of negative energy after having such a positive day.

On this trip there are five of us plus Connie. Thus it is the smallest group I've done on one of Connie's weeks. There's Lori and Ken whom I met last year, and Dusan (pronounced Doo-shAN) and Bill. Everyone except me appears to be in their 50's. Unlike the other groups I've been on, this one seems to be pretty good on air consumption which means longer dives and more complicated plans. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Also staying in the same hotel is Rick Rowett, a cave diver I'd met two years ago on a different trip (not with Connie) who is the general manager at Dolphin Scuba, and a really personable diver. He'd just finished hosting a week of open-water scuba diving for 30 people with his store and was taking a few extra days to cave dive in Akumal. I've just gotten back from catching up with him and two of his friends, talking of cave this-and-that and where to cave dive tomorrow. I think I've sold them on the idea of visiting Nohoch nah Chich (tomorrow is their last day diving) so I wish them an enjoyable dive. Hopefully we'll get some cave diving arranged for next year.

My cave week with Connie just started yesterday, with first cave dives today in Grand Cenote. Our first dive was up Paso de Lagarto. On my last trip there the dive was called due to light failure (not mine). This time we got all the way to the Bosh Chen jump before dive was called on 1/3rds. Yay! I was enthused because it showed our group had much better air time than average. I still had 300 psi penetration gas or so. (In Layman's terms, that means with my double 80 cubic foot tanks I could have gone about 30% longer before having to call the dive myself.)

And best of all.... No primary light failures!! ** (See Footnotes, below)

The second dive, however, was the cat's meow. Connie decides during lunch that because our group seems to be good on air, she will take us beyond Cuzan Nah to a side passage that leads to cenote La Boca. This was apparently the line that Lena wanted to take us to, on my last visit, but she couldn't find the jump point.

This trip was a complex series of jumps involving one primary reel and six jump spools. I did a nearly identical dive with Glenn last year here to the same passageway but only had five spools and a primary. In my log book the dive would be listed like this:

* Grand cenote cavern line, then guideline to main (permanent) line
* Left jump to shortcut towards Ho-Tul
* Jump off shortcut back onto main line, towards Ho-Tul
* Cross Ho-Tul gap with a long jump reel (80+ feet)
* Right jump to close gap to Cuzan Nah loop (circuit)
* Right jump off far end of Cuzan Nah loop to unnamed passage (Really Beautiful Section!)
* Left jump to passage towards La Boca
* Dive called halfway to La Boca on 3rds

The same person keeps calling the dive on 3rds. Hmmm...

The passageway towards La Boca was small, tight, pristine, and very highly decorated. At one point we reached a small room that had all the effects of a halocline layer and when I asked Connie about it she confirmed that is what it was. Now, how you can get a halocline at 20 feet depth in a cave that is fresh water... I don't understand! But sure enough I was in it and saw it. Visiting this new section of Sac Aktun was really exciting for me and really accentuates what Cave Diving is all about. It is a feast for the eyes, a challenge for the mind, and joy for the soul.


Tomorrow we are off to Labna Ha at Cenote Caracol. This was my favourite dive of the trip last month, so we'll see how it goes this time. Can lightning strike the same place twice?

Footnotes

Last month's trip with Connie had something like 14 primary light failures. Read my earlier blog on the subject to see what that was about. That week, though I did not experience a failure myself, really made me think twice about how to prepare. And so I decided to buy one of those new fangled LED lights, but one bright enough to not only serve as a backup, but a primary as well. Thanks to Connie who arranged the purchase, I now have a Dive Rite LED 500 lumen primary, which is supposedly as bright as my 10 Watt HID. In the cave it isn't quite as strong, but that may have more to do with color temperature than actual brightness.

It is small enough that I can mount it right next to my HID primary's battery canister. On my first dive today I carried both lights and tried them out against each other. Later this week I may write up a report. But for now I feel very comfortable carrying TWO primaries in addition to the two backups. Now, if my HID primary were to fail, I could pull out the LED primary and keep going, without having to call the dive. Awesome!

Teasing Toadfish

OK, swimming with Wild Dolphins wasn't the only fun thing I did on Sunday. During the 3rd tank dive at Paradise Reef I also got to tease a Splendid Toadfish out of its hole. You've probably seen my pictures of these ugly/beautiful fish in my photo albums and what you usually see is only the head with its chin tentacles. I'd heard from friends and divemasters that you can tease them out by wiggling something yellow'ish in front of them.

So... today when I came across one and had the video with me, I unhooked my safety sausage (it was the only loose object I had at the time except for my video housing!) and squirmed it in the sand in front of the toadfish. At first it came out a little bit, but then stopped. So, while holding the camera as steady as I could with one hand, grabbed the sausage and teased some more. What you see on the video is the thing coming out of its hole about 3/4 of the way! What great fun!

If you want to see what the whole Splendid Toadfish looks like, just do an image search on that name.

Swimming with Wild Dolphins

This week has been filled with small miracles. First, I went a whole week without getting a single mosquito bite. Then, my video housing which had been broken for over a month... started working again! (Much to my relief, I found that the irreplaceable electronics are fine, the main connector just had some corrosion on it.) And then a new gym opened up nearby so I could resume a work-out schedule while in Cozumel. Now, today, I got to swim with WILD DOLPHINS. I am not making this up.

Even better, I had the (now working perfectly) video housing with me on this trip, so I got in-water video while I was snorkeling. No, unfortunately I wasn't in scuba gear at the time we came across this pod of 5 adult dolphins, but what I got on video still looks pretty good. These were B-I-G dolphins. Easily thrice my body weight. The story played out like this:

We had just finished our 3rd tank dive on Paradise reef and were heading back to the dock. It's about a 15 minute boat ride. Suddenly the divemaster shouts "Dolphins!" and everyone scrambles out to the bow of the boat. I grab my video on the way there and sure enough, el capitan has set the boat right on their tails. Or they swam up to under the bow of the boat... I'm not sure which. So there I am on the forward pulpit over the bow, shooting video straight down of these lovely creatures as they pace the boat, leaping out every now and then. They soon wandered off in a different direction.

That wasn't all. We were then told el capitan was going to race ahead of them and we could jump in the water with snorkel gear. Nemecio was extremely generous to loan me his snorkel since I don't have one. So - In the water we go! I get a few distance shots of them and then suddenly the whole pod swims right underneath me. What a great experience!!! The moment is over all to quick, but thankfully captured on video.

We went two more times to jump in and snorkel with them but the first encounter was the best. This was such an amazing trip! The capitan and crew of Aqua Safari's "Ocean III" were incredibly generous with their time and accommodating to the five of us divers who enjoyed this trip beyond words. We all tipped well today.

About the Video

I just learned today that Blogger allows me to post video. This is my first attempt doing a blog with a video snippet. All told I have about eight minutes of video, most of it above water as they danced among the three boats that were there at the time. Trying to handle the camera while snorkeling is much harder and much more restrictive than while scuba diving as I quickly learned, but for a spur-of-the-moment encounter I am pretty happy with it.

Some still shots

Here are a few stills extricated from the video using Pinnacle Studio. They are grainy but the best I can do with what I've got. If you see me in person anytime in the next few months be sure to ask to see the whole video.


The image above was captured from the video when I was on the bow of the boat, as the dolphins paced us this one turned to "look" at me as I was filming it.

The following pictures are excerpts from the video above.