Tom Falardeau
July 2nd, 2007, 08:42 PM
The Ottawa Sidemount Cave Divers got together again today for another foray into the dark and mysterious caves that wind their way under the Ottawa River "up the line". This time, the target was to be Three Island Cave.
The meet up "chez Jim" went flawlessly this week and we were at our destination, a nice little resort on the River, before 11AM. You see, unlike Gervais Cave, which is shore-diveable, you need a boat to reach one of the many resurgences of Three Island Cave, so named because (ta-da! :D) it snakes its way under three islands! Fortunately, that nice little resort I mentioned two seconds ago rents out aluminum boats big enough and with an engine powerful enough to take 4 divers, 8 cylinders and sundry equipment to their destination.
In no time flat, we were loaded (fully dressed in our drysuits, of course) and on our way upriver, with Jim at the helm. We'd done Three Island Cave last fall and found one of the entrances at the bottom of the river, a mere 20 ft from shore. Today, with my memory still working despite my age, I got us tied up right above that hole.
Diving from a small boat is where sidemount really comes in handy.... we climbed out into the shallows and helped each other get the tanks out of the boat and into the water, where we got kitted out.
Jim, as usual, was the first one down the hole and out of sight in the cave. Marie and I soon followed, sticking to the main line, while Marc was taking his time. The flow in the cave was moderate... until we hit the dogleg a couple of hundred feet in and dropped 10ft deeper. There it was fairly ripping due to another, nearby resurgence which is collapsed but still provides enough of an outlet for the water. The visibility was, Ottawa River style, limited to about 5ft. However, we were able to enjoy the fragile and wonderful limestone formations within that sight radius, competing for room with many fish, including a sturgeon of some size. After about half an hour, I got tired of pulling myself upflow and turned the dive. We were flying until we hit the dogleg - the main concern was not running into rock or each other at that speed. Coming out of the lower tunnel and around the bend, we managed to get out of the flow, and resumed our leisurely swim towards the exit, meeting Marc along the way. The way out took us about half the time spent going in, and soon enough, we saw the dim, blood red glow of the resurgence hole.
Once on the surface, Marie and I hung around our boat, taking a breather. Marc joined us shortly thereafter and we waited for Jim - so as to decide whether or not we would be moving to a different spot, or doing some resurgence hole hunting further upriver. Jim didn't join us all that soon and after a while, we began to walk & swim the riverbed, looking for other holes we knew to be there..... we didn't find out why Jim's dive was taking so long until later - after Marc and I had spent some time exploring a huge resurgence hole about 100ft from shore.
Jim, as seasoned Ottawa River cave explorer, had gone into the cave much deeper than the rest of us went, and even laid down about 70ft of new line in virgin cave! On the way back, he decided to do a trip down a side tunnel halfway between the dogleg and the entrance. We'd done that tunnel last fall and it is pleasant, gets progressively smaller and siltier, and is marked by an old cave line......... which broke under Jim's very eyes, when he was almost 100ft away from the mainline. Both ends vanished into the darkness, leaving Jim to carry out, for the first time in real life, the lost line drills we were taught during training. Training kicked in.
Jim remained stuck against the ceiling so as not to lose his orientation while he pulled out his safety spool. He found a small protrusion on the ceiling which would just suffice to tie in his spool. Now the rock in those caves is very fragile and breaks if you so much as look at it... and Jim had to make sure this one would hold while he found his way back. Once he was tied in, he made a 180 degree turn to face the direction he came and headed out, finding the mainline without many problems. Of course, once the safety spool comes out, the dive is over and once back at the mainline, Jim headed for the entrance and open water. His day of diving was done. Although the training had been ingrained enough to help him get out of a potentially life threatening situation without much more than a tight feeling in his gut, something like that pretty much kills the concentration you need to keep on diving that same day.
While this drama unfolded, Marc and I found the deep resurgence and looked for some permanent line. With the limited visibility and the sheer size of the hole in the bottom of the river, it got spooky fast. Marc didn't have a primary reel with him and headed back to shore after exploring the perimeter of the resurgence. I, on the other hand, had my primary reel, and I found a place to tie it in open water - as it turned out not on the most solid of rocks. Running my own line, I entered the cave going into the flow, did my secondary tie off and headed in. I spend a good 10-15 minutes looking for a permanent line, sweeping the width of the cave as I headed deeper in. Except for the visibility, it reminded me much of the front part of Devil's in Florida: large rocks, cracks, strong flow and lots of fish, including another sturgeon. I found a fragment of the old line, but eventually gave up, heading back out. Being alone in such a huge cave with very few visual points of reference and no permanent line, I will confess to having gotten a tad spooked. I do prefer the tighter tunnels.
Reeling in my line, I soon found my secondary tie off solid and within sight of the dull red glow of the hole, but my primary tie off had eaten through the rock! It was nearly totally loose - a good lesson about the geology around there, and the importance of a solid secondary tie off in the cavern zone (such as it is around here). Next time, I will have to search further afield for some granite to tie on, rather than the limestone - which is much more fragile here than in Florida, it seems.
I found my three companions hanging around the boat, waiting for me as I swam back to shore on the surface, and that's when I heard about Jim's adventures. No one was up for another dive (we had plenty of breathing gas left, however) and thus we headed back to the dock in our rented boat, but not before noting the landmarks and bearings that would allow us to find that mid-river hole again next time.
Back on shore, we spent some time studying the map, and clearly Marc had found several more resurgence holes further upstream from the huge one I explored. Three Island Cave remains fertile ground for exploration, and if we so desire, ground for laying permanent line for future explorers. We will surely be back this summer - perhaps even with our scooters so we can more easily access those cave entrances distant from shore. The current in the Ottawa River is nothing to sneeze at (and sneezing in one's mask is unpleasant, but that's another story).
Today's expedition was definitely more "interesting" than last Sunday's. We know this cave less than Gervais, and it reminded us that cave diving isn't for the faint of heart - after all, it is considered an extreme sport even for divers. It is comforting, however, to know that training will out in a problematic situation.
As they say on TV, don't try this at home, kids.
The meet up "chez Jim" went flawlessly this week and we were at our destination, a nice little resort on the River, before 11AM. You see, unlike Gervais Cave, which is shore-diveable, you need a boat to reach one of the many resurgences of Three Island Cave, so named because (ta-da! :D) it snakes its way under three islands! Fortunately, that nice little resort I mentioned two seconds ago rents out aluminum boats big enough and with an engine powerful enough to take 4 divers, 8 cylinders and sundry equipment to their destination.
In no time flat, we were loaded (fully dressed in our drysuits, of course) and on our way upriver, with Jim at the helm. We'd done Three Island Cave last fall and found one of the entrances at the bottom of the river, a mere 20 ft from shore. Today, with my memory still working despite my age, I got us tied up right above that hole.
Diving from a small boat is where sidemount really comes in handy.... we climbed out into the shallows and helped each other get the tanks out of the boat and into the water, where we got kitted out.
Jim, as usual, was the first one down the hole and out of sight in the cave. Marie and I soon followed, sticking to the main line, while Marc was taking his time. The flow in the cave was moderate... until we hit the dogleg a couple of hundred feet in and dropped 10ft deeper. There it was fairly ripping due to another, nearby resurgence which is collapsed but still provides enough of an outlet for the water. The visibility was, Ottawa River style, limited to about 5ft. However, we were able to enjoy the fragile and wonderful limestone formations within that sight radius, competing for room with many fish, including a sturgeon of some size. After about half an hour, I got tired of pulling myself upflow and turned the dive. We were flying until we hit the dogleg - the main concern was not running into rock or each other at that speed. Coming out of the lower tunnel and around the bend, we managed to get out of the flow, and resumed our leisurely swim towards the exit, meeting Marc along the way. The way out took us about half the time spent going in, and soon enough, we saw the dim, blood red glow of the resurgence hole.
Once on the surface, Marie and I hung around our boat, taking a breather. Marc joined us shortly thereafter and we waited for Jim - so as to decide whether or not we would be moving to a different spot, or doing some resurgence hole hunting further upriver. Jim didn't join us all that soon and after a while, we began to walk & swim the riverbed, looking for other holes we knew to be there..... we didn't find out why Jim's dive was taking so long until later - after Marc and I had spent some time exploring a huge resurgence hole about 100ft from shore.
Jim, as seasoned Ottawa River cave explorer, had gone into the cave much deeper than the rest of us went, and even laid down about 70ft of new line in virgin cave! On the way back, he decided to do a trip down a side tunnel halfway between the dogleg and the entrance. We'd done that tunnel last fall and it is pleasant, gets progressively smaller and siltier, and is marked by an old cave line......... which broke under Jim's very eyes, when he was almost 100ft away from the mainline. Both ends vanished into the darkness, leaving Jim to carry out, for the first time in real life, the lost line drills we were taught during training. Training kicked in.
Jim remained stuck against the ceiling so as not to lose his orientation while he pulled out his safety spool. He found a small protrusion on the ceiling which would just suffice to tie in his spool. Now the rock in those caves is very fragile and breaks if you so much as look at it... and Jim had to make sure this one would hold while he found his way back. Once he was tied in, he made a 180 degree turn to face the direction he came and headed out, finding the mainline without many problems. Of course, once the safety spool comes out, the dive is over and once back at the mainline, Jim headed for the entrance and open water. His day of diving was done. Although the training had been ingrained enough to help him get out of a potentially life threatening situation without much more than a tight feeling in his gut, something like that pretty much kills the concentration you need to keep on diving that same day.
While this drama unfolded, Marc and I found the deep resurgence and looked for some permanent line. With the limited visibility and the sheer size of the hole in the bottom of the river, it got spooky fast. Marc didn't have a primary reel with him and headed back to shore after exploring the perimeter of the resurgence. I, on the other hand, had my primary reel, and I found a place to tie it in open water - as it turned out not on the most solid of rocks. Running my own line, I entered the cave going into the flow, did my secondary tie off and headed in. I spend a good 10-15 minutes looking for a permanent line, sweeping the width of the cave as I headed deeper in. Except for the visibility, it reminded me much of the front part of Devil's in Florida: large rocks, cracks, strong flow and lots of fish, including another sturgeon. I found a fragment of the old line, but eventually gave up, heading back out. Being alone in such a huge cave with very few visual points of reference and no permanent line, I will confess to having gotten a tad spooked. I do prefer the tighter tunnels.
Reeling in my line, I soon found my secondary tie off solid and within sight of the dull red glow of the hole, but my primary tie off had eaten through the rock! It was nearly totally loose - a good lesson about the geology around there, and the importance of a solid secondary tie off in the cavern zone (such as it is around here). Next time, I will have to search further afield for some granite to tie on, rather than the limestone - which is much more fragile here than in Florida, it seems.
I found my three companions hanging around the boat, waiting for me as I swam back to shore on the surface, and that's when I heard about Jim's adventures. No one was up for another dive (we had plenty of breathing gas left, however) and thus we headed back to the dock in our rented boat, but not before noting the landmarks and bearings that would allow us to find that mid-river hole again next time.
Back on shore, we spent some time studying the map, and clearly Marc had found several more resurgence holes further upstream from the huge one I explored. Three Island Cave remains fertile ground for exploration, and if we so desire, ground for laying permanent line for future explorers. We will surely be back this summer - perhaps even with our scooters so we can more easily access those cave entrances distant from shore. The current in the Ottawa River is nothing to sneeze at (and sneezing in one's mask is unpleasant, but that's another story).
Today's expedition was definitely more "interesting" than last Sunday's. We know this cave less than Gervais, and it reminded us that cave diving isn't for the faint of heart - after all, it is considered an extreme sport even for divers. It is comforting, however, to know that training will out in a problematic situation.
As they say on TV, don't try this at home, kids.