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December 29,
1998
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Remember yesterday's hydrilla and
elodea pulling? Well today, Evon, the hydrilla man (hired by
the park to do a job that even Tarzan couldn't do
alone--remove the weeds with a scuba tank, machete, and
pitchfork) began to load up the weeds we pulled yesterday.
He spent all day and got a little more than half way through
the removal process. In the morning, Evon showed Barbara am
Ende the scenic features in the basin with a request to
prioritize those places for weed pulling first. Evon, man, I
feel your pain! [photo ©1998 Barbara Anne am
Ende].
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Jill Heinerth does her pre-dive
check immediately before entering the water [photo
©1998 Barbara Anne am Ende].
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A flurry of activity occurred at
the water's edge in prepartion for today's mission. On the
right, Jill Heinerth in her MK5 is tended to by Alan
Willett. In the background, Bill Stone (left) is on open
circuit and will photograph Brian Kakuk (center rear) and
Jill. In the foreground, Justin Wilson (left) and Richie
Hudson (center) maneuver a Fatman scooter into the water for
the rebreather divers [photo ©1998 Barbara Anne am
Ende].
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Richie Hudson rode the transfer
capsule down in preparation for the return of the divers on
today's main mission [photo ©1998 Barbara Anne am
Ende].
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Open circuit support diver, Alan
Willett descends on the scene while lead divers ingress into
the personnel transfer capsule (PTC). The lock-in depth
(bottom of the PTC) is 26 m (84 ft) [photo ©1998 US
Deep Caving Team, Inc.].
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B tunnel mission 12-29-98
Divers: Jill Heinerth & Brian Kakuk
Our mission for the day was to deploy two
magnetic coils and four waypoint markers in B Tunnel. At around 1:00
p.m. our support crew helped Brian and I get ready for our dive. We
were feeling really excited about our dive; the team is working so
well as a unit, we were thankful that they gave us the opportunity to
experience such an incredible cave system. We couldn't manage to
conduct the dive without the dedication of all the support
personnel.
There has not been traffic in B tunnel for
quite some time, and we found the guideline broken and absent in
places. Much of our dive was spent repairing the gaps, one of which
required about a 200 ft long patch.
Deploying the magnetic coils took quite a
bit of time. The coils need to be properly located and leveled in
order to get an accurate reading from the surface. Once all of the
rest of the beacons are deployed, we will be able to make much
greater penetrations with the digital wall mapper.
One of our coils was set to start producing
a signal after a five minute time delay. By the time were exiting the
cave, Brian Pease had already located the point on the surface
directly above the beacon in front of the Wakulla Springs Lodge. That
beacon was placed on top of the rock pile in the Monolith
Room.
Brian and I had a really good dive. As well
as getting our mission goals accomplished in less than the planned
time, we had a chance to look around a little and get better
acquainted with the cave.
On our way out, we checked some gas bottles
previously stashed in the cave for emergencies. Also, we tested the
deep Marks Products camera with some new visual cue cards for
communicating with the surface (this stop is farther inside the cave
than the DiveComm gear reaches so no voice communication is
possible). Personnel in Mission Control were watching us well below
our deepest stop on closed circuit video. As we parked ourselves on
our stops, we noticed the water quality deteriorating slightly with a
greater amount of particulate matter. It seems that the impact of
recent rains is now reaching Wakulla, but the overall visibility is
still excellent.
Brian and I enjoyed a very comfortable stay
in the "Deco Hilton." Recently installed external heaters and
insulation have brought the temperature up to a cozy 72-80° F.
While we relaxed in comfort, the team kept a close watch on us. John
Zumrick locked in a plate of hot pizza for us through the medical
lockout door in the evening (thanks John!). The pizza arrived while
we were wearing bib masks breathing pure oxygen. The only difficulty
I had was wolfing down three big pieces during my five minute air
break when I could take the mask off. I had to watch the rest of the
pizza call to me while I waited for the next opportunity to eat (a
half hour later). Once I had my chance, I had thought it all out. I
dove for the personnel transfer capsule (PTC), took a quick pee,
slipped back in the chamber and stuffed my face with pizza and water.
I sat back in jubilant comfort with a full belly and pizza stained
t-shirt for the rest of the decompression.
Brian and I emerged from the Hilton late in
the evening (10:30pm EST). Our lasting impressions of the dive were
the tremendous support and teamwork and the beauty of the tunnels.
Jill Heinerth&emdash;December 30,
1998
Click here
for O2 usage vs time, ppO2 vs time, and depth
vs time graphs
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Jim King (left) and Matt Matthes
(right) download the decompression data from a MK5 that was
brought back to the surface by support divers after the lead
divers doffed their gear and entered the transfer capsule.
This is a crucial part of every dive we do: the
decompression status of the divers when they enter the PTC
is stored in the onboard MK5 computer. We then download that
on the surface (the MK5 code decompression engine does not
"get bent" when brought straight to the surface due to
special code modifications for Wakulla 2). We then reload
this into the laptop computer at the chamber control hut and
produce a new table for the chamber portion of the
decompression [photo ©1998 Barbara Anne am
Ende].
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Brian Pease (crouching) and Todd
Bryan (standing) conduct a precision survey of the locations
of the radio beacon locations on the surface. They finished
the survey just before dusk, and the flash from the camera
caught the distance measurement retroreflector of the
surveying instrument. Many on the team were amazed to see
where on the surface the Monolith Room is located and how
close to the lodge it really is. Click here
to see the 1987 map that indicates where the Monolith Room
is located with respect to the cave entrance [photo
©1998 Barbara Anne am Ende].
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Ed Marks slaved away all day
constructing the "cradle" in which the digital wall mapper
will rest at the beginning of each mapping mission. The
mapper will think of this cradle as "home" and be a
reference point for the start of all digital measurements at
Wakulla Spring. A Down Mode Align" tells the inertial
guidance system that it is at rest and to recalibrate the
ring laser gyros and accelerometers. The cradle will be
fixed to the USGS grid using the total station and GPS
(working from a retroreflector mounted on a float directly
above the cradle. [photo ©1998 Barbara Anne am
Ende].
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This page was last updated
on December 30, 1998 (directional buttons modified December 27,
1999).
Copyright ©1998, U.S. Deep Caving Team,
Inc. All rights reserved. No portion of these pages may be used for
any reason without prior written authorization.
