Help!!!

[ghosch]

A group of us had a trip down to Dive the Oriskany, but as usual, weather sucks, and the charter is better we wont even get out.  Any ideas within a couple of hours of Pensacola?

Looked at East Coast (5 hour + drive) and weather is sketchy there too.  Ginny Springs is 5 hours away, but not being cave or cavern certified, it doesn't sound like there is a whole lot there to keep you occuppied for three days of diving.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[grumpie]

Try vortex springs. thats only a little north and east on I 10.
grumpie.....

[Mark Y]

Thanks  for the tip, I've contacted them.  They need to see if they can accommodate us rebreather divers.   >

Funny, I used the 'spell check' function and 'rebreather' came up, well, as spelled wrong...   ???

[PointsNorth]

You may wish to contact Wakulla Diving near Tallahassee. Gregg Stanton is the local rebreather guru and he may be able to help you out with some ideas.

He's also a rebreather cave instructor, and there are some great systems in the area. If nothing else, you could do a CCR cavern class while you're there, which would open up a few opportunities and not cost too much.

He's in the UK right now at the Ouroboros hatchery, but try his email: g3stanton@aol.com

[MAXFACTOR]

Greg,
CN3  called me earlier.  I wish I would have known that you guys were coming down to FL this week.  I flew in from Phoenix on Monday,  and should have had my worked down here wrapped up by weds. night.  As it turns out, I've got to meet the bank people again on Fri. afternoon. 

I hope the weather breaks for you.  Don't go if you've got 3 -5 ft wave action up there.  It gets worse the farther you go into the ocean.  I believe the Orinsk.  is out 22 miles in the ocean. 

Say hi to all of the guys.

maxfactor

[ScubaAl]

Dove the "O" two weeks ago, very rough. I'm guessing around 6 footers. We used Y-Knot, nice fast boat, but a little small. There where 6 divers with 18tanks. By the time we made it out to the site I was soaked and froze. The plan was to dive Fri and Sat. But the capt canceled Sat due to weather.
Looking forward to getting back, real interesting diving.
                                                          Al

[Mark Y]

Hello Grumpie,

We did make it to Vortex Spring.  I was a fun dive but won't make it a habit.  The open part & cavern had 'low' visibility (not like MN though) as there had been several OW classes previous to our dive.

We did follow the line down to the cave entrance (which was blocked off by a rebar grate, which had an approximate depth of 107 ft.).  I did enjoy the cave portions we did manage to dive (and the holiday lighting that lit the cave).  Now I'm much more interested in caving!   

All-in-all, we did a forty-five minute dive.  I think the water temp. was around 72 and I was comfortable in my 5mm (although Corndogg got cold in his 5mm).

The spring is not very large, although the native and introduced fish-life was interesting: large coy, long eels, and other fishes.

Unless I was into exploring the cave (which you need a key to unlock the entrance - and you need to prove you're properly certified and experience to get that) I wouldn't plan to an extended say.

The spring was a little costly, $32 per diver per day!  :o

[grumpie]

Good Afternoon,
When I was teaching at the EPA  lab in Pensacola I  always stop there on my way home and made a couple of dives just to wash the salt out of my wet suit. Did not want to get the water up here dirty.
grumpie.......

[Mark Y]

Hey Grumpie, you plan on diving Vortex anytime soon?  I have two free-airfill cards I can mail ya... let me know!

[josh b.]

Sounds like a cool dive, I have done a couple freedives over in the orlando area near some of the freshwater springs/caverns.  It was pretty cool, I found some very old shark teeth and a petrified piece of the base of a palm tree.  Very clear water and very few people there because the cracks are so small that you almost have to freedive them, and most people are scared of the current.  Maybe strap on a pair of lungs for the next dive down there?


Glad you at least got some diving in, too bad the big O didn't work out, but it sounded like Chuck had an awsome time.  He penetrated the wreck at 215 ft I think he said?  And, about a 70 + minute dive.  I think I would like to go down there....  ;D



Later GHosch,

Josh at GUDC