We just returned from two weeks of diving in Florida. Corrine, our friend Marshall, and I got our cavern certification. We arrived Thursday evening, two days before the class. On Friday we went to Troy Springs to fine tune for the class, pick up a season park pass, and just have some fun diving. We headed down to the cave entrance at 70' to check it out, a lot of flow. We hung out here and in the wide open cavern. More of an overhang than a cavern. The water s a clear green, I shot a bag and Corrine got a picture of it sitting on the surface from 60'. On our next dive we headed out to the spring run to check out what is left of the civil war steam ship The Madison. Very shallow, but cool. On Saturday we all met at Ginnie Springs to start the class. Ginnie is great, the vis is phenomenal!! A bright crystal blue. I was a bit over wrought when I found out I would have to dive a single tank, I haven't dove a single tank in a year. Truth be told I was a little worried, I know my rig, but I wasn't sure how different it would be in a single. It turned out ok though. After a bit of huffing on my part. We did land drills, then hit the water. Our first dive was a tour, we went to the grate at the entrance to the cave. You can hold onto the grate and the flow whips you around like a flag in the wind. We did three dives here then moved up river about 200 yards and dove Devils ear, Devils eye, and Little Devil. Devils ear has a high flow, and is a vertical crack leading down to a small cavern. It's a lot of work, but it's worth it. The next day we went to Orange Grove, which is part of the Peacock system. On the way we stopped at Cave Excursions, a local dive shop. We missed it on the way up, and had to turn around. It's easy to miss, it looks like any other house in the area. But, do they have a great set up. You back your vehicle into the driveway, and open the tailgate. They have long whips, and they hook-up all of your tanks in your vehicle!! No lugging heavy tanks. The people at cave ex. are great, they took really good care of us. Orange Grove is covered with duck weed, it looks terrible, but is really great. The vis is great. There are to caverns, and caves here. One at about 60', and one that drops to 90'.
We did the deep cave first, Corrine led in, it is narrow, twisty, and vertical. I led the second dive into the shallow cavern, it is a long straight narrow tunnel. Marshall led the third to the deep cavern. On Monday we went back to Orange Grove as certified cavern divers. Tues day we went back to Ginnie, our first dive we did the grand tour, sort of checked out the entire cavern, and practiced running reels. Corrine tried out the camera, she got some great pics. On the second dive we stayed in the shallow area and took more pictures. Corrine and I then moved over to the Devils system, and did all three. Marshall was having ear problems so he sat this one out. We ran into some other divers coming out of The Ear, doing their deco on the log. We saw saw small juvenile flounder in the run between the ear and the eye. n the evening we took our instructor and dive masters out to eat in High Springs. We had a good meal and a great time. For Marshalls last day we dove Peacock 1. There are two caverns one is Pothole, the other is Peanut. The lines here run all the way to the entrance, so you do not have to run a reel. We spent the next two days at dema. Then on Saturday we drove down to Pompano Beach so I could dive the Hydro Atlantic. Only to discover that seas were at 9', no one diving in these conditions. Of course I should have called before we drove down, with Ida in the area. But, I didn't!! We took a walk on the beach, and drove back up to Kissimee and got a room. We had been camping until now, but didn't feel like setting up camp for one night. We slept in the next morning, then had breakfast, and headed over to Manatee springs to dive Catfish Hole. This is a sink about 400' above Manatee springs. Like Orange Grove it is covered with duck weed. It is really a large opening in the side of the cave. There is a large upper cavern, and a smaller lower cavern. With, of course a lot of catfish. Again, visibility was great. On Sunday night we stayed at the famous Cadillac Motel. An older motel, but well maintained, and clean. On Monday we decided to check out Jug Hole{aka Blue Hole}. It's a ten minute walk in to the spring, but on a very well maintained trail. The spring is beautiful, and you can see the opening of the cavern from the wooden decks they have erected. The water is a crystal blue, very beautiful. The park service provides a four wheel garden cart for carrying your gear in, very handy. To enter this sink you center yourself on the surface boil and dump the air from your bc. Then you drop through the 6' diameter hole into the upper cavern. Then you fight the current into the lower cavern. The cave entrance is side mount only. This is our favorite cavern so far. Our final day we did two dives in at Peacock, both in pothole tunnel. We saw some albino crayfish, some tiny juvenile crayfish, and some catfish. There were a number of divers here today, so t was interesting getting in and out of the cave. We took two days to drive home, all in the heavy rain from Ida.
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