Emerald Sink — February 2-3, 2013: Dive Summary

Dive Date: February 2-3, 2013

Location: Emerald Sink, Florida

Objective:
The objectives for the weekend were to setup, explore and survey the downstream Emerald Darkwater tunnel (DWT) trending west towards Black Hole and Fisher Creek.. Physical connection of these surface features and confirming the specific location of the Black Hole and Fisher Creek conduit junction have been WKPP objectives since the dye trace confirmation many years ago. Conditions were favorable at Emerald Sink but unknown inside the cave conduit.

Project Baseline Observations:
Weather Conditions: Sunny
Air Temp (F): 60
Water Temp (F): 68

Avg Depth (ft): 190
Max Depth (ft): 201
Total Run Time: 3hrs

Basin Observations at Depth (ft): 40
Basin Visibility (high, medium, low): medium
Basin Turbidity (high, medium, low): medium

Dive Observations at Depth (ft): 5
Dive Visibility (high, medium, low): low
Dive Turbidity (high, medium, low): medium
Water Current Speed (high, medium, low): low
Water Current Direction: out

Notable Flora: minimal
Notable Fauna: shrimp, catfish, eels, albino crayfish, isopods and shrimp
Comments: lower visibility in the basin and downstream to DWT. Less than wall to wall. Very poor visibility in the DWT

Activities:
1. Check safeties in the Darkwater tunnel – COMPLETED
2. Deliver two stages each for the exploration team – COMPLETED
3. Fix the line break discovered by Steve and Gideon – COMPLETED
4. Assess conditions in cave – COMPLETED
5. Explore new cave – NOT COMPLETED
6. Photographs – COMPLETED


Summary:
WKPP divers entered the Darkwater tunnel and quickly encountered extremely adverse conditions. Visibility was improved from last time but still not ready for primetime. Steve and Gideon encountered a broken line. They tied off the loose end on a rock and dropped two stages each for Blake and Brian. The next day Blake and Brian entered the DWT. They tied in to the break and quickly found the other end with safety tanks still attached. They repaired the line and checked the bottles finding they were both still full. The team then motored out to the end of the line and verified that the line is in great shape. No line laid.

Comments:
Conditions in the DWT are still not good enough for exploration. 5ft of visibility just won’t cut it. It’s significantly better than last time but still worse than previous exploration dives. Line is good and safeties are full. Cave is ready when the visibility improves.

Dive Team and Coordinator Observations:

Saturday-February 1
Objective—check conditions in the DWT, drop two stages each for Blake and Brian and move the safeties to the end of the line.

Steve and Gideon made good and delivered stages to the DWT but encountered and sorted out a broken line. Report was that visibility was 5ft to 10ft at best.

Team members present: Cox, Liew, McKinlay, Wilson, Richardson

Sunday- February 2
Blake and Brian entered the DWT where they quickly found their stages. They dropped all of their gear and switched to a full stage. They tied in to the line and started making their way forward in the poor visibility and muck. Remembering the line crossed the cave to the left wall, they headed across the passage and in short order ran right into the safeties. The safeties are currently covered in about an inch of muck and fuzz but are both full of gas. Blake and Brian made quick work of the line repair. Solid team.

After repairing the line they swam back to the gear depot, dropped the spent stage, grabbed fresh stages and scooters and slowly scootered out to the current end of the line.

Brian’s comments:
Cave is just how I remembered it. Mostly big. Some really cool clay banks if you look closely through the goo on exit. Line is in great shape, if a little fuzzy. Stopped just shy of the end of the line as that last tie off was a little squirrely for the two of us with our payload of gear and the current conditions.

Reports from Cal indicate Fisher Creek and Black Hole swallet are not taking on water. This is curious because there is a very noticeable outflow of cold tannic water. Perhaps there is another swallet feeding in here we hadn’t considered before. Hopefully we can push past it to the clear black hole swallet spring water. Abundance of life in the cave was amazing.

Team members present: Cox, Liew, McKinlay, Wilson, Browne, Hagberg, Richardson


Surface and In-Water Support
In-water support:
Support Team: Casey McKinlay, Gideon Liew, Ken Browne, Steve Cox, Andreas Hagberg
Everyone made quick work of all the support objectives as usual. The exploration team was relieved of gear almost immediately at 70ft and all the trucks were packed up before Blake and Brian got out of their drysuits. Great photography work by Hagberg and Browne.



Photos by Andreas Hagberg and Casey McKinlay