Charles's logbook for 2008

1. ("other") An early trip after I got back from Christmas in Florida revealed 'orrible water levels so I walked up Ingleborough from Clapham instead. There was a powerful cold wind blowing at the top, it was sunset. Walking back in the dusk past Gaping Gill.
2. ("cavedive") First cavedive of the new year was with Matt Smith who took his cavern course recently and needs to stay in practise. We went to Holme Bank Chert Mine (on the outskirts of Bakewell, Derbyshire) where we found 3 divers already in situ. One of them had a rebreather complete with trimix cylinder, which is a bit excessive for Holme Bank (max depth 10 feet!). Water levels were not particularly deep in Holme Bank - maybe even slightly shallow - so Matt and I toodled down the main passage which was possibly the only one actually submerged. He was careful about line junctions this time, last time I had ticked him off for not taking note of them with a clothes peg or whatever (in fact, he simply hadn't noticed some of them, which you get away with in Holme Bank - but don't try it in Grand Cenote). Because of the very shallow depths it was good practise at buoyancy control.
3. ("cavedive") Second cavedive of the year was as waterlevels subsided at Joint Hole in the Dales, I went in and did just a short length of passage to the first airbell to make sure that my gear had made it back OK from Florida. Visibility was fair but airspace at the airbell was still only about 9 inches. We need a little less water still before it will really be fun in there.
4. ("dry cave") On a previous caving trip last year I went off to Dow Cave thinking to get to know that end of the Dow Cave/Providence Pot through trip before going through. However there was snow on high ground - the short cut from Ribblehead where I had lunch over the top from Hawes to Kettlewell was impassable - by the time I started it was raining heavily - and the water level was such that the stream flowing from Dow Cave knocked me flat as I tried to cross it, struggling over I said to myself "this does not bode well" and sure enough, airspace at the start of the Dowbergill Passage inside was only 6 inches (under normal conditions the exit from the Dowbergill Passage is billed as a six foot climb out of the water). So I turned my "dive" at that point, just before it would have become one.
5. ("dry cave") Returning in the New Year I still found water levels fairly high (airspace three inches at the Buddhists Temple duck) so I didn't go far and decided I would go back to the Providence Pot end next time, where at least you get a gentle introduction to the local water levels.

[OK that's the end of the early dives, the next ones I should have proper dates for and be writing them up soon after they occur - hopefully more accurately than those above.]

6. ("cavedive") Hurtle Pot, 30 Jan 08. Cavedive. On this dive I learn that when the British Cave Diving Group's water visibility rating is "Pedigree" (the name of a well known brand of British bitter beer), you need to be within 4 feet of the line at all times, and the CDG's explanation "Acceptable (very)" really refers to the beer rather than the visibility itself. Nonetheless I had a short dive upstream to the bottom of the Hindenburg wall. But before entering the water, descending the muddy slope down to the waterline, I found it seriously slippery and did indeed slip, getting a lot of gear covered in mud. Including the regulators. It is an experimental fact that this sometimes leads to regulator freeflows, and one of my regs did indeed freeflow - I shall have to clean it out. I was experimenting with neoprene gloves only 3mm thick. These are normally too cold, but I was trying covering my hands in grease as well so as to eke out the thermal insulation without restricting my dexterity the way 5-7mm neoprene gloves restrict my dexterity. Didn't work too well; I shall try once again next time, with more grease. Further ambitions to maybe tidy the downstream guideline were therefore abandoned because I was (a) down to 1 fully working reg and (b) down to rather stiff, cold hands. Getting all the gear back UP the muddy slope was quite "interesting" too. Ah well, if one will dive Hurtle in January.... ca. 30 minutes, max 92 feet.
7. ("dry cave")Lathkill Head Cave (via upper entrance) 3 Feb 08. With Pete Wagstaff and Matt Smith. "Dry" caving trip. This was our alternative to Oxlow Cavern which had a party of 8 already in it when we got there. Went down the funny little restriction with which the entrance begins, then down the 2-part 60 foot entrance pitch into the Waiting Room, a fairly big room from which one scrambles down through some boulders for another 20 feet or so to the stream at Lathkiller Hall. If conditions are dry one can follow the streamway upstream for 1000 feet or so to the limit of exploration but today this would have meant crawling in flowing water after the first hundred feet or so so we gave most of it a miss. Similarly there is a downstream continuation which normally connects to other entrances to the system but today was almost completely sumped. Perhaps completely, I'm not sure. So this was in fact quite a short trip. I had trouble getting through the "funny little restriction" on the way out, there being not quite as many footholds available as I would have liked. Late lunch in Monyash at the pub there.
8. ("cavedive") Downstream Hurtle Pot. 10/2/08, circa 8pm. I'm embarrassed about this one. I got in intending to mend the known broken line in Hurtle Pot downstream of the entrance, but I could not find the way on. Deploying my trusty 2mm Florida-style thin line, I got as far as finding some more of the line that got broken some months ago, but it seemed to lead off underneath some rather hefty chunks of breakdown, indicating that the roof may have fallen in on the old way downstream. But I'm not going to report that to the CDG noticeboard until I've had another and a more thorough look for the way on. I left my thin line in, connecting the entrance line with the remains of the continuation. I must get back there and continue the search! A cavalier driver (that is, a driver with a cavalier attitude, NOT NECESSARILY driving a Vauxhall Cavalier) has recently rammed the farmer's fence near the Pot so we are now asked to park away from the entrance (off the grass), which I did. Actually the thin line ain't so bad; if the roof fall was like I think it may have been, no reasonable thickness of line would have been able to withstand the Big Crunch anyway. To be continued. I must clean the mud out of the Yellow Peril (my car). Exercise to the reader. Guess the colour of my car.
9. ("dry cave") Providence Pot, 3/3/08. It hasn't been a good couple of weeks for cavediving, there's been too much rain (plus the odd bit of snow). Once during that time I arrived at Hurtle Pot but took no dive because the water level was high and very muddy - I once went in when it was like that and never again.... So I stuck my nose in Provvie last night. Quite fun, including walking in and out with a sparse hint of snow on the ground.
10. ("dry cave") Providence Pot, 7/3/08. Toodled in again. I wish the visibility would clear up so I can go cavediving! Else my next cavedive might be in Florida at Easter.
11. ("cavedive") Downstream Hurtle Pot. 15/3/08, circa 2pm. Well Praise the Lord, that's better. Visibility pretty good ("lager" on the alcoholic beverage scale favoured by the CDG. It was "brown ale" during the week and I want no part in that). I found the downstream continuation past the point where the old line lies buried inder a ton of assorted debris, along to the point where you have the large pebbly stones ("dinosaur eggs" according to Dave Ryall) and it goes on up (I think) to the OYCFK airbell. I should go back and run some old SRT rope instead of my thin 2mm cavediving line. It might have more of a chance of survival against the rather heavy flow that one gets in the slight restriction at downstream Hurtle. Ran into Dave and also (separately) Martyn Farr and Helen, out for a day's dry caving in Jingle pot et al.

    Well there we are. Based on the weather I would not have guessed that this would be a good visibility day.

12. ("cavedive") Downstream Hurtle Pot. 16/3/08, circa 1.30 p.m. So I went back today and had some more of the unusually good visibility at Hurtle. I also went back with designs on connecting up the downstream line with some chunky ex-SRT rope that Matt Smith gave me yonks back (thanks Matt!). But the two lengths available were not quite enough to make it from where the in situ line ends to the airbell, so I should return with some polypropylene rope - about equally thick at 10mm - to finish it off. I was wearing more clothing today as I found out yesterday that drysuit over thinnish sweater and thinnish trousers is not enough to keep one warm in water at British March temperature, global warming or no. Stayed nice and warm in 2 sweaters and a caving undersuit below the drysuit, except for the bit of face next to the regulator that gets exposed to the water. Only solution to that last problem is a full face mask of some sort. Tomorrow I go walking in the hills with Esther Owen (was Giles), also a graduate of Trinity College Cambridge, whom I haven't seen for yonks, on the Stiperstones in Shropshire, where I haven't been for even longer. So, no more cavediving for a day or two. That makes 2 reasons for hoping it won't rain too much.....
13. ("other") 17/3/08. Wenlock Edge and the Wrekin Hill. In the end we didn't do the Stiperstones but Wenlock Edge and then (after an excellent lunch in Much Wenlock) the Wrekin, two well known walks in Shropshire that are closer to Esther's than the Long Mynd and the Stiperstones. Wenlock Edge is beautiful in one direction, an ugly limestone quarry in the other. I'm glad I'm a Christian on Wenlock Edge; the poet Housman wrote of "the blue remembered hills" there with much sadness and nostalgia at their gradual disappearance about a century ago - if he had seen the ugly quarry today I'm sure he would have had such fits of rage he wouldn't even have been able to enjoy the place. And yet it is a still lovely place. And if Housman had by a miracle seen a century or two before Housman the "blue remembered hills" as they really used to be, I'm sure they wouldn't have satisfied him. If you believe the commentators, what Housman thought he needed to cure the nostalgia was a homosexual relationship with one Moses Jackson, a friend from undergraduate days. Not that such nostalgia only affects homosexuals - Wordsworth was het., and a close rival to Housman in the nostalgia stakes.... So Wordsworth took hard drugs to try to regain his feelings about the beautiful English scenery, and Housman daydreamed of Moses Jackson. What a sad world it is. I'm glad I'm a Christian on Wenlock Edge.

    It did not rain! Hope for good visibility when I take a dive on Wednesday, maybe even drag Matt Smith (cavediving newbie) along to Hurtle Pot at the weekend....

14. ("cavedive") Downstream Hurtle Pot. 21/3/08, circa 12:00. I finally re-connected the guideline all the way to the OYCFK airbell (at least I assume I hit the right airbell, I have not explored some grotty and tattered lines there further in the downstream direction). Total of ropes involved is : 1 length of old SRT rope that someone put in the entrance area to be used (thanks!); 2 lengths of old SRT rope provided by Matt Smith (thanks Matt!) and one length of 10mm polyproplylene rope of my own. If you look right at the 40 foot level bit when you come in, you can see ends belonging to the old guideline peeking out from under about 10 tons of rubble. Apart from that I've tried to remove the old line from the cave. A good dive, but the visibility has gone down since the rains of yesterday.
15. ("cavedive, but only just....") Columbia Spring, Florida.. 27/3/08. Here begins the record of my Easter trip to Florida. Columbia spring is 100 yards or so up a run on the N. bank of the Santa Fe river, 200 yards downstream from the bridge just N. of High Springs where US 41/441 crosses the river. There is a boat ramp on the S. side just W. of the bridge, and the whole trek from there to the spring involves no more than thigh deep water, mostly no more than knee deep. So I arrived and optimistically prepared for a dive; but the flooding which had caused poor visibility in many of my usual cavedives had also reduced this spring to 1 foot visibility (if I held my hand a reasonable distance from my face, I could only just tell it from the general background; I could not tell whether I was swimming on rocks or sand once inside the cave. So I only went far enough in to verify that things were really that bad, and came out again. Max deep 10 feet!!! Not the brightest of starts.
16. ("Open water dive") Trying to find Wilson Spring in all that murk..... I failed to even find the entrance. This cavediving vacation needs some new ideas.....
17. ("cavedive") Goat sink, near Gainesville. This was the first reasonable dive of the trip; diving a sinkhole not (obviously) connected to the flooded rivers was a good idea. Found my guideline from last time heavy with vegetation but still there. Quite a relief to get a real cavedive done. Did not do the really silty part of the dive so max depth was 82 feet.
18. ("cavedive") Ellaville Spring. 29 March 08. My theory with this dive was that a nice strong spring on the Suwannee might be less dark than the smaller springs of a couple of days ago. This was true but only just. With visibility as far as my feet but not much further I forced my way down the entrance shaft by sheer stubbornness, having to feel my way past various branches which I don't think were there before the flooding. At 94 feet the guideline went round a rocky protrusion and then started going up instead of down, which was explained by the fact that it was broken a few feet further on. I decided against tying to repair it until the murk was less murky.
19. ("cavedive") "If you want clear water, you go deep or you go South", someone said to me in the dive shop. So here I am sticking my nose into the Eagles Nest sinkhole, which is both deep (up to 300'+) and South, being a few miles S. of Homosassa Springs. It's also a famous must-do cavedive site which I had indeed intended to do some time, but not particularly this trip. I decided to stick my nose in on air before bringing some Trimix along for the main dive next time (Trimix, a brew involving Oxygen, Nitrogen and Helium, is essential for going seriously deep but expensive). Being on air I gave myself a depth limit of 190' (PO2=1.42). You don't see much of the cave proper with a limit of 190, but at least you see the entrance chamber (spectacular large underground "ballroom" below solution tubes with sunlight streaming down them) and how the guidelines start. Lat/Long coordinates: Eagles Nest = ( 28:33.325'N, 82:36.563 'W ); the place where you enter the Chassahowitzka wildlife management area to get to it from Highway 19 is ( 28:39.490'N, 82:33.147'W ) and the place 100 yards in where you feed the Iron Ranger your 3 dollars and turn left onto the track which takes you eventually to the Nest is at ( 28:39.461'N, 82:33.280'W ).
20. ("cavedive") April 1st. Buford Sinkhole. I lost my dive mask and had to go and buy another one. Once into Buford it was very nice, with clear visibility in the beautiful cavern area and an interesting little passage at the bottom. I only explored one of the two lines at the bottom because my computer was giving me a lot of deco by the time I'd finished exploring on and around the first one. Lat/Long coordinates: Buford Sink is at ( 28:38.011'N, 82:35.417'W ), and the place where you park for it before walking down the long track followed by the muddy swamp, is at ( 28:37.985'N, 82:35.060'W ).
21. ("cavedive") Devil's Ear. April 2nd. Water's clear in here; I'm out of practise at using backmounted doubles. Went off towards July Spring. My cheap replacement facemask fogs much too easily, I could hardly see the cave. Use the other spare at Jackson Blue tomorrow.
22. ("cavedive") Jackson Blue spring, near Marianna, Florida. Buddy, Brent. April 3rd. Very inefficient with the backmounted doubles again (also a drysuit has more water resistance han a wetsuit!). Did not get far against the strongish current. far enough, though, to se that it is a beautiful cave, and the visibility was fantastic. Water 68F, a little cooler than at Ginnie.
23. ("cavedive") Jackson Blue spring, sidemount. That's better! Quite fun, not as exhausting, out of the main current exploring side passages near the entrance area for the most part. there are some nice little offshoot passages from the huge main one. Afterwards, Brent showed me the locations of some other caves in the Milpond area, and I also heard some more from Greg Stanton (well known cave instructor) whom I met at JB. Brent declares my sidemount gear "too radical" because it uses a wing rather than a conventional BC. That criticism I reject because the wing was mighty useful on my deeper dive in the Nest, and very comfortable, far more comfortable than any BC I've yet tried; but I accept his criticism that helmet mounted lights dazzle your buddy if you have one, and will do something about it before i next dive with Brent.
24. ("cavedive") Columbia Spring. Returning to Columbia Spring I found its visibility had improved from 1' to 2' so I jolly well did the dive. There's a newish line in there at the entrance (starts 10' deep in the middle of the cave) but at around 30' deep it gets mixed up, confusingly, with an older line which goes the same direction and is covered in gunge. Then continues upstream for (guess) about 500', with most of the passage at 52' deep, until it rises and loses the main current to finish at 35' deep. There must be another way on in there but I decided not to go exploring for it in 2' visibility.
25. ("cavedive") Eagles' Nest sinkhole. See eagle.html for a description of this dive, the last, deepest, and probably finest of the trip, though the dive at Buford rivals it for this title.
26. ("dry cave") 17/4/08. Living in interesting times: removing a scuba tank from Waterways Swallet. I decided that the time had come to remove a scuba tank & reg from the bottom of WS, where it got left after a not too successful dive in the terminal sump (I aborted after I got tangled in old guideline, hose, and the visibility dropped to zilch.). So off I went last night getting there at about 8. Descending to the bottom didn't take too long but getting back up lugging a tank was a hassle. My water bottle was empty by about 1/3 of the way back up the boulder choke. On arrival back at the car, a can of Pepsi was consumed in record time, rendering your humble servant in baby burp mode for some time after. Eventually drove off from WS at around 1AM, back in Leeds at 3. I feel I know that tank like a lover, or more like a mortal enemy. On the whole I don't recommend transporting tanks on your own up 100m deep vertical boulder chokes (not sure of the exact depth - the total depth of Waterways is ca. 130m including a limited amount of more open passageway - but the boulder choke at WS has the reputation of being the longest in the country. All credit to those who dug it out)! I want the tank to be my oxygen bottle on my homemade rebreather, which I want to start using more. Now I understand why you sometimes see abandoned tanks at the bottom of caves. It isn't always true that someone will return and use them - sometimes they stay for years because noone has the energy to remove them. The Lost Tank in the Pothole of Oblivion. Well, at least my O2 bottle won't be that.
27. ("dry cave") Oops, there goes my new year resolution. There have been a few trips not recorded since 17/4, contrary to my resolution to record all of them, but here's one I got around to. Oxlow Cavern, 29/6/08. With Matt Smith. We decided to get a little SRT practice in; Matt had to repair a car before setting off so we were too late to get rope from his club hut and used mine. 40m is more than enough for the entrance pitch (P1 and the short 4m deep P1b pitch in the guides), then pitch 2 was done with a 25m rope, leaving my 30m rope for pitch 3. I used some of it to handline the approach to the pitch but had enough left to descend to the shoulder between East Chamber and the westward passage towards West Chamber. However once on the pitch I could not find the "essential deviation" mentioned in the guides so went cautiously down past the rub point anyway. In doing so I noticed unmistakable score marks in the limestone, left there by countless other cavers who couldn't find the deviation either. Perhaps it doesn't really exist, but I'll have another look for it next time. Matt decided not to descend this last-pitch-for-which-we-had-rope so I didn't explore further once down it. Going back up, I was careful to be extremely gentle with my prusiking, to avoid rubbing the rope. Getting off the pitch head is awkward, I was glad of my continuous chain of handline reaching back up where I wanted to go. I had used figure 8 knots to secure the handline, Matt argued for Alpine butterflies. Pro figure 8: stronger (55% of full rope strength instead of 45% when normally loaded), and you need to know the knot anyway (I'm shaky about butterfly knots). Pro butterfly knots: use less rope, will take a 3 way loading. Back up the main shaft and got out just in time to catch the rope washer machine in Matt's club hut, which did an excellent job; then just in time to get a huge meal at a local pub. A good trip, especially considering the late start.
28. ("dry cave") Maskhill Mine, 6/7/08. With Matt Smith. Deciding we definitely needed some rebelay practice, we took a 65m rope and had some fun on the first pitch (and first 4 rebelays) of Maskhill Mine. The fourth of these, in particular, seems to have been placed by someone with a sense of humour. It took me quite a while to figure out how to rig it because the rigging points are about ten or 15 feet under a ledge, rather difficult to get at - at first I couldn't swing across to them (the rub point is too close - and it rather spoils the point of the rebelay if you rub it too hard) nor could I find a way of scrambling up to them. Eventually I scrambled up and got a cowstail into the lower one. At the end of the trip I decided next time I would wear only one wooly undersuit rather than two - (I am normally generous with cave clothing because of a previous brush with hypothermia when a pitch had turned into a waterfall on return and I got gallons of ice cold water down my thin undersuit) - because I had sweated gallons during our little exercise.

    Absent mindedly left a 30m rope and bag behind at the club hut after washing the main rope. Oops.

29. ("dry cave") Oxlow Cavern. With Matt Smith. Toodled down to the pitchhead of pitch 4. Forgot to record it in the log.
30. ("dry cave") Eldon Hole. With Matt Smith. I thought the entrance pitch needed rope protectors the way we were supposed to rig it. Since I hadn't brought any, we aborted this one......
31. ("dry cave") Oxlow Cavern. Solo. ........so I went back to Oxlow on my own just to stay in practice. Went the same distance as last time with Matt. Cave is basically dry but little bits of water here and there tend to soak ones fleece. I got caught with a pint or two when setting the deviation for pitch 3.
32. ("dry cave") Oxlow Cavern. With Matt Smith. Sunday July 20th. Matt had unfortunately had a sleepless night the night before so we only got to pitch 2 before he "turned the dive"......
33. ("dry cave") Oxlow Cavern. Solo. Tuesday July 22nd. ...... so I went back on my own and got down to the sump at the bottom.

    Started by testing out, on the entrance pitch, a new 9mm rope I had bought. I've never used 9mm rope before so wanted to check out that my ascenders really gripped it properly and that the rate of descent on the brand new rope was not too exciting. All was satisfactory so re-rigged the entrance pitch with the usual 10mm x 40m rope and went down. Rigged pitch 2 with my 10mm x 30m and at the bottom of it the fact that things had been quite wet recently was evident: there was water flowing all over the growing, beautiful stalagmite that sits on the right of the passage as you descend towards pitch 3.

    Which water of course tried to get inside my undersuit while I was on pitch 3 (I rigged this with a 10mm x 65m rope which also handlines the whole of the steepish slope down to the head of pitch 4, rendering the pre-installed bit of tat unnecessary). But I stayed dry inside because I was wearing, between oversuit and undersuit, the remains of what was once a thin membrane drysuit on my top half and waterproof trousers on the bottom. Drysuit no longer good for diving, but fine for this purpose. At the pitch head of pitch 4 I used in earnest the 9mm x 20m rope I had tested at the entrance pitch. And then I was in the West ante-chamber admiring the pre-rigged-for-pull-through-with-cordelette climb up to the Pilgrims' way route to Giants Hole. (Anyone who does that through trip has my serious admiration, seems it combines the "nylon highway" challenges of Oxlow with the crawly-squeezy-ducky challenges of the more horizontal Giants.) I switched on my third and most powerful light for the new bit of cave that I hadn't seen before. This one draws half an amp out of dinky AAA nickel metal hydrides, so it only lasts an hour or two and I don't use it all the time. Stooping down to enter the main West Chamber I was liking what I saw, which included a nylon rope descending from the far-off roof and (I think) the traverse route up towards the Maskhill Mine entrance to the system.

    By Pitch 5 (which I rigged with the first rope I ever bought, a 10mm x 25m) I was clearly about to get wet again but the pitch itself stayed sensibly away from most of the water flowing down from Maskhill. But there was no escaping a cool shower as I clambered in to the ongoing passage which descends to the sump. From the lump of angle iron which crosses the passage one is supposed to need a 6m handline to get down to the sump, but with the water a little high right now 2-3m would have been about right. Beautiful clear water in the sump, my cavediver's eye was attracted even though I know it's blocked with rubble.... But I turned round at that point, since thus far my undersuit was wet only with sweat and that's the way I wanted to keep it.

    Talking of sweat..... Weighing myself before drinking afterwards I was 86.3 kg. Since I am normally more like 89-90, and I drank half a litre while in there, I reckon I sweated about 3-4 litres of water in the cave. Penalties for wrapping up warm and dry!

34. ("dry cave") Oxlow Cavern. With Matt. Monday July 28th. Matt got over his exhaustion from the previous weekend and came down Oxlow with me as far as West Chamber. I toodled down the last pitch and the handline to the sump, splashing around down there - I had a wetsuit on. Good time was had by all.

    	Matt Smith, a.k.a. "MDS"
    	your humble servant Charles Read, a.k.a. "solocavediver"
    	Matt sets off down Oxlow Pitch 1
    	Matt rigs pitch 1b at Oxlow
    	Matt descends the ramp into West Antechamber. Due to lighting conditions all you see of him is his light and a cloud of steam illuminated thereby.