Tom Falardeau
April 1st, 2007, 06:47 PM
Today, Marie and I joined Ralph DiPanfilo (who taught most of us how to cave dive) and one of his buddies Jesse for a long, relaxed dive at Manatee Springs
http://www.floridastateparks.org/manateesprings/.
All of us except Jesse were diving sidemount. We had an invigorating session of hauling cylinders (side, stage, deco) to Catfish Hotel, a sink a few hundred feet upstream from Manatee Spring proper, i.e. where the cave system ends and flows into the Suwannee river. For some good maps of the cave system, go to http://www.floridacaves.com/manatee.htm
The Manatee cave system has several sinks along its route, the most popular being said Catfish Hotel, which is the most accessible, followed, in order of position as one goes upstream in the cave, by Sue Sink which is 737ft upstream from Catfish and Freidman Sink, which is 975ft upstream from Sue Sink, or 1712ft upstream from Catfish. The average depth of the cave is between 60-80 ft.
After the usual gear checks, we entered the cave, Ralph taking the lead and me as tail-end-charlie. The first bit, up to Sue Sink was an interesting fight against some strong flow. Think Lock 21 in parts. Crossing Sue Sink was like going through the sluice gates at Lock 21. But after that, the judicious cave diver can find plenty of spots high up in the cave (which is huge - the kind even the most orthodox backmount-configured divers can do safely :wink: ) where the flow is much reduced. We made it to Friedman Sink with Jesse turning the dive on thirds - the rest of us sidemounters still had enough to go on. On the return trip, we let the flow take us gently back towards the head of the cave, stopping once to strengthen some fraying line and another time to pick up our stages, which we had dropped just downstream of Sue Sink. Four 21w HID lights in concert provided enough light to really appreciate the cave, dark though it is.
Back in the cavern zone of Catfish Hotel, we picked up our deco bottles and turned towards the downstream section to pick up the mainline leading to the headspring, Manatee itself. It is 467ft from Catfish to the headspring, most of it huge cave with a gentle flow, but the last few dozen feet is like being spat out of a high pressure hose. Those who have exited at Ginnie through Devil's Ear would have a sense of it, only the flow is even stronger. We went through the exit restriction one at a time, each of us fighting to grab onto a log in the sink and avoid being blown to the surface - we were 80 minutes into the dive by then and had racked up some decompression obligation. The openwater divers kneeling in the sand watching us shoot out of the cave looked seriously bemused. After 10 minutes of deco we surfaced to an audience of non-divers who had the funniest questions.
We only did one dive today, considering that by the time we sat down for lunch it was already 2PM, and we'd met at Cave Excursions East that morning at 8:30AM. But what a quality dive! Worth every minute of hauling cylinders over the long distance from the parking lot to the entry & exit points. And we were the only cave divers in the system, on a day where the popular spots like Devil's and Pea**** were overrun.
http://www.floridastateparks.org/manateesprings/.
All of us except Jesse were diving sidemount. We had an invigorating session of hauling cylinders (side, stage, deco) to Catfish Hotel, a sink a few hundred feet upstream from Manatee Spring proper, i.e. where the cave system ends and flows into the Suwannee river. For some good maps of the cave system, go to http://www.floridacaves.com/manatee.htm
The Manatee cave system has several sinks along its route, the most popular being said Catfish Hotel, which is the most accessible, followed, in order of position as one goes upstream in the cave, by Sue Sink which is 737ft upstream from Catfish and Freidman Sink, which is 975ft upstream from Sue Sink, or 1712ft upstream from Catfish. The average depth of the cave is between 60-80 ft.
After the usual gear checks, we entered the cave, Ralph taking the lead and me as tail-end-charlie. The first bit, up to Sue Sink was an interesting fight against some strong flow. Think Lock 21 in parts. Crossing Sue Sink was like going through the sluice gates at Lock 21. But after that, the judicious cave diver can find plenty of spots high up in the cave (which is huge - the kind even the most orthodox backmount-configured divers can do safely :wink: ) where the flow is much reduced. We made it to Friedman Sink with Jesse turning the dive on thirds - the rest of us sidemounters still had enough to go on. On the return trip, we let the flow take us gently back towards the head of the cave, stopping once to strengthen some fraying line and another time to pick up our stages, which we had dropped just downstream of Sue Sink. Four 21w HID lights in concert provided enough light to really appreciate the cave, dark though it is.
Back in the cavern zone of Catfish Hotel, we picked up our deco bottles and turned towards the downstream section to pick up the mainline leading to the headspring, Manatee itself. It is 467ft from Catfish to the headspring, most of it huge cave with a gentle flow, but the last few dozen feet is like being spat out of a high pressure hose. Those who have exited at Ginnie through Devil's Ear would have a sense of it, only the flow is even stronger. We went through the exit restriction one at a time, each of us fighting to grab onto a log in the sink and avoid being blown to the surface - we were 80 minutes into the dive by then and had racked up some decompression obligation. The openwater divers kneeling in the sand watching us shoot out of the cave looked seriously bemused. After 10 minutes of deco we surfaced to an audience of non-divers who had the funniest questions.
We only did one dive today, considering that by the time we sat down for lunch it was already 2PM, and we'd met at Cave Excursions East that morning at 8:30AM. But what a quality dive! Worth every minute of hauling cylinders over the long distance from the parking lot to the entry & exit points. And we were the only cave divers in the system, on a day where the popular spots like Devil's and Pea**** were overrun.