7- Mayan Blue By You

19 02 2018

Monday, February 19th, 2018 ~

Steve, Mike, and Frankie were off to do their 57 hour dive (yes, I’m exaggerating), so Mike and Nadine were stuck with me, today.

There were other ZG friends there too, so we were all in good company.

Our plan was to go B-E-F… or as far as we could go towards that route, only using back gas. I was leading the dive, and once we got in, I had forgotten how cool the halocline was. It has been a while since visiting this cave, too.

We came up to the 90 degree turn, and there was only a single arrow. I remembered that the jump had double arrows, but things often change in the cavez, so I opted to try this one. I dropped my cookie, tied into the line, Nadine and Mike dropped their cookies, and away we jumped. I thought to myself, “Self… this passage is really cool, but I don’t think this is E tunnel.” It got a bit narrower, so I signaled to Nadine and Mike, asking if they wanted to go to the next one, or carry on.

Carry on, we shall!

Ooh… it’s gets even more narrow… and even more narrow… oop… we won’t get past that spot. We had reached sidemount territory. We turned back, and once we reached the main line, we were close to turn pressures, so headed back. Being number 3, through halocline is always pretty fun! There were spots that you couldn’t avoid going right through it, so there were swishes of gasoline water, getting in my way. 😛

We seemed to reach the reel much quicker than we swam away from it, but we hadn’t picked-up the pace, much. I picked-up the reel, and we did our minimum deco, on the way up.

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 22 minutes

Max. Depth: 81′

Water Temp.: 78F

Avg. Depth: 40′

Gear: AL80s

Cost: 200 pesos

What a fun dive, with new friends! We didn’t reach our intended destination, but we still had fun, exploring tighter realms. Next time, we’ll know that the correct jump was about 60 seconds further, past the 90!

We surfaced, then went back down for Mike to film the fishies. An excellent day! Thanks for letting me join you, Nadine and Mike!!


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6- Wash It Again

18 02 2018

Sunday, February 18th, 2018 ~

Well, we enjoyed the other day’s dive at Car Wash so much, that we decided to do it again, and bring Frankie. Steve was #1, F was #2, and I was 3.

There were a bunch of other friends from the shop there, too. Very popular spot, today.

Part of my gear…

I guess there really isn’t a whole lot to write, since we did the same dive, and saw the same gorgeous cave. I don’t think I could get tired of seeing it, even if I “had” to do the same dive, for the whole trip. 😀

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Max: Depth: 61′

Water Temp.: 78′

Avg. Depth: 30′


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5- A Pinch Of Salt

17 02 2018

Saturday, February 17th, 2018 ~

Today, we headed to Otoch Ha, with scooters and a stage. I have scootered parts of the upstream section a few times, but had never been on the downstream line.

We packed our little VW Gol (that’s right, Gol… not Golf), and I’m not sure we could have fit much else in it.

Two scooters, two stages, two sets of doubles, and two bins…

It took about 30 minutes to get down the Labna Ha road, since we were weighed down, a bit, and didn’t want to bottom the car out, or get a flat tire.

The bugs were in full force, when we arrived at the cenote. It’s further into the jungle, so we did come prepared (those Avon wipes are the best invention, ever).

We carried our gear down the path, and got ready for Diving Goodness.

With a view of the cave entrance…

We entered, T’d left, jumped right, and reached a crazy restriction. Steve went in, first. He got through. My turn… scooter, then me… oop… oop… oop… regroup… oop… I wasn’t sure that I was going to fit through, and was trying to figure out how the puzzle piece was going to fit. Regroup again, and try to squeeze a different way. I had watched how Steve went through, and thought that I was doing the same thing. Apparently, not. Ooh, ooh… there I go! I’m through! Not the easiest spot to navigate, when you’re half upside-down, and sideways.

We scootered for a bit longer, dropped stages, then scooters, and came up to some absolutely stunning and highly decorated cave. Oh. Em. Gee. Being stuck for 4 minutes was worth absolutely every second, for what we saw. We just hovered there, and couldn’t move. There were decorations from floor to ceiling, big stalactites, a bunch of tiny straw stalagmites, and just pure heaven. I didn’t want to leave! We eventually kept swimming, and went through some narrow, decorated passage. As the line continued, there was a small collapse in the floor, which dipped into the halocline. We had a quick peek, then turned around. Holy smokes, such beauty. Steve did take some video, and I will eventually post it, once it’s edited.

We turned, picked-up scooters, stages, then reached the restriction. I guess I figured out the puzzle, as I didn’t have any trouble, getting through, from the back side. w0000000t!!

We surfaced, and I was giggling like a school girl. I’m sure I had a shit-eating grin on my face, too!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 49 minutes

Max. Depth: 41′

Water Temp.: 77F

Avg. Depth: 32′

Once packed, we realized that we had so much gas left over, we could have done another swimming dive. I guess we were so happy with our dive, that it never even occurred to us. 🤓

Very silty entry…

We finished off our day with a presentation of the Hoyo Negro project, some food at The Pub, and a free shot of tequila. Such an exceptional day!


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4- Always Room For Tears

16 02 2018

Friday, February 16th, 2018 ~

Today’s planned dive didn’t quite pan out as we had hoped. We couldn’t go to the cenote that we wanted to, so we ended up going to Car Wash, instead. We hadn’t been there since 2010, when we had a big group of us visiting. When we did our C2, in 2008, our Room of Tears dive didn’t quite happen, on the upstream side. There was a whole thing about, “You said the jump was 30 feet,” and, “No, I said 30 meters,” and a safety spool, and… well… we never did make it to that room… until today!

Entry…

There were a few other groups in the cave, but only one other jump line down the rabbit hole. We could see their lights coming back, so we waited for them to come through, then made our jump.

Hmm… this little passage doesn’t appear as tight as it did in 2008. I guess your perception of a tight space changes, as you gain more cave time. 😆

w00000t! Room of Tears! After all this time. Pretty cave goodness.

We continued along the line, up and down a couple of crevices, until we got to a spot, where it didn’t look like the line continued. It was up against a wall, and seemed to end. Oh, wait… Steve is in front, and he’s eying up a crevice, going down. I’m thinking, “Oh, hell, no.” As I’m thinking that, Steve went head-first, down the hole, and slithered down. As I watched his fins disappeared, I neared it. “Ohhh… hell, yes!” Definitely doable. Down, I go, head over tea kettle, down the hole. Freakin’ awesome little restriction! I may or may not have giggled, a little.

We swam a little more, then turned back. What a freakin’ fun dive!

Upon returning to the basin, we practiced a bunch of skills, and recorded them, with the Go Pro.

BT: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Max. Depth: 61′

Water Temp.: 78F

Avg. Depth: 28′

Tanks: Back gas, only – AL80s

<<<<
ur day didn’t quite go as planned, but we still had a fun dive, and got to practice skills. A day of Cave Diving Goodness, is a good day. When I was exiting the water, a girl was recording me, with her phone. She said to me, “You look happy!” I replied, “I am! It’s beautiful, down there!” CAVEZZZZZZZ!

<<<<
we unpacked at the shop, we met Oren and Rasa for dinner. The band at Latitude 20 was AWESOME! I had to use that word – it was the word of the night! Of course, we had to top off the night with some gelato! We walked by Cafe Ole, where I saw my new friend, Gaylita. I promised her that I would g back to karaoke, on Monday! 🎤🎼

We will see what tomorrow’s adventure brings!


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3- I Can’t Tell You…

15 02 2018

Thursday, February 15th, 2018 ~

Today’s dive was at a site that we had never been to before, and cannot really disclose info on. It was a good distance into the jungle, and not very well-known. The land owners were pretty friendly, and showed us the direction in. We parked, then went to look around, to find the entry, and brought our tanks down. The stairs weren’t bad, but there were a few steep steps that I knew that I would need an arm to climb up, with my tanks on!

We looked down another path, that another cenote was, but didn’t want to venture too far, wearing only flip flops and shorts. We tried to narrow our chances of getting invested with ticks.

Second path…

As we were prepping gear, another couple unloaded, to dive the other cenote.

Looking down, to the large cenote…

Steve went in without gear on, to locate the line, so we didn’t silt up the area, looking around, with gear on (very silty bottom). We did find it, so we got ready to dive!

What. An. Awesome. Cave. This place has just about everything: decorations, big passage, small passage, restrictions, up and down crevices, chocolate sauce decorations, and just freaking amazing. We will definitely go back to this place!

Gear: AL 80s ~ Back gas, only

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 11 minutes

Max. Depth: 44′

Water Temp.: 77F

Avg. Depth: 32′

After our dive, we met up with some other folks that were swimming in the cenote. One was a local, and the other two were from the US.

Definitely some happy cavezzzz faces!!!


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