Day Five of our Course:
So on day five of our course, it is back to the pool of pain, the Eden Cenote. Today I wrote "L" and "R" on my hands. I may get this tattooed on, as it seems to help me. Matt is in a very jolly mood today, but don't let that allow you to drop your guard, he is still hard as nails. The minute both Andy and I saw him, we had butterflies.
First dive, I am team leader, so I am to go in, laying the lines till I find the permanent line, or the "golden line" as it is called. We are doing circuits today. This means going into one entrance on the first dive, and on the second, go in another and meet the place you left off on the first dive.
In I go, I have to jump to another line, even though you can see this line, we still put a reel on it, so that if we have a complete blackout (when the torch fails), viz out (when the silt stirs up), or problem, we can still get out fast. I come out of this dive buzzing. I was worried about doing these jumps but it was cool. Not perfect, but cool.
Next dive, Andy leads us into the other entrance. We find our marker, which I had laid telling us how far we came on our first dive. At this point we need to recalculate air and time.
With cave diving we work on a rule of thirds. A third in, a third out and a third reserve for problems. So we have to make sure we have enough gas to get out on the other side. You can only do this by knowing what you did on the first dive. We made it out with no major problems. That criticism list is shortening. I never thought it would, but we are actually getting somewhere. I think. Hooray!!
Next dive Matt says we are going to do a drill. No viz, out of air.
We go back to the first cave and go for a dive. I have mentioned haloclines before, but it is hard to explain how weird but beautiful they are. When you come up to one, you can see it before you go through. It looks like a shimmering mirror. And on this dive we had some above us on the roof. It kind of looks like the surface, as though you could pop through and breathe, but at the same time, you can see the ceiling of the cave above you, completely submerged. I watched Matt swim through one, side on to me, he looked like a cartoon character, the black of his suit looked vivid and his fins left a smoke-like trail. Jimmy said last night, that when he is behind someone it reminds him of the water having hands and grabbing the diver, pulling him in. That makes it sound frightening, but once you have been through one, and see it you can see it's beauty. It is more like a mother taking a child into her arms and protecting it. (I later read back on this, and with hindsight think that Jimmy's description is actually more realistic!)
Back to the dive. We turn around and get the out of air, no lights drill. Eyes closed to be sure we have no viz, I pass my reg to Andy and blind him with my lights (lights are still on at this point). This time we remember to ask if everything is OK, and thumb the dive (cancel it) hold the line, turn off lights and swim like mad. Andy forgets to put his hand up, so gets a bash on the head (by Matt's torch). I feel my light hose come loose, so stop us for a second. I am supposed to hold on to Andy's arm, and if I let go this means he has to stop. But when I try to find his arm again, I can only find his hand, no arm! He is all drysuited up, so everything feels strange and too big to be an arm. Once sorted, off we go again and make it out!
The last dive, Matt says is just going to be a quick dive. Just before we drop down, he says some people ask him if there is going to be a drill. He says you won't get told in real life. True, and it keeps us on our toes.
Fab dive! We go to a big room again with Haloclines above us. It is just beautiful down there. I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy cave diving (especially with my love of the dark… not), but in my true competitive spirit, Jimmy wasn't going to have something I didn't. And I wasn't about to let him go off on holiday doing this without me. Plus that feeling I had on the Jackfish Alley cave project, when I was support team and all the others were inside, I soooo wanted to know what was in there. I like exploring, and love formations, so from being worried, to being where I am now is great. I love it. Let's see if I still do tomorrow. Both Andy and I have had up and down days emotionally and physically. Emotionally the stress is big. Physically it's the humping twinsets up and down a lot of steps. But I think we have passed the half-way point of the course. Matt says the first few days are the worst. We still mess up at the moment but that's why we are still on a course and not set free into the big bad, dark world yet. So far though, it has been worth it.
Back to DAY SIX:
DAY EIGHT:
Back to the beginning:
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