Peacock to Challenge to Orange Grove

[Clare Gledhill]

We managed to fit in a bit of fun diving during our trip to Florida too. Having been told that we would be joined by Steve Shultz on our RB80 course, we arranged to meet Steve the day before at Peacock Springs.

The jouney there was interesting. I knew the route but Al had brough Sat Nav and it wanted us to go a different way. We set off after it, me reluctant to say anything in case it was quicker or I had rememered the route incorrectly but it got stranger and stranger leading eventually to dust bowl roads and much cursing from me that the next time I'd navigate rather than let the computer do it! Poor Steve was trying to follow us in a cloud of dust.

Steve had not dived in Peacock before so we grabbed a map and I suggested a couple of dives that the team could consider. Al and I were intending to do the Grand Traverse the following weekend so we settled on a plan to do a stage dive from Peacock 1, along the peanut line, through the peanut restriction, jumping on to the Olsen Challenge line and heading to Challenge sink.



When we hit gas limits we would drop a marker as the first part of the set up for making the return journey the following week. We prepared a note to put by the marker which stated that if we had not removed it before 19 February it could be removed from the cave as we would have returned to the UK that day. Nice not to leave too much rubbish in the caves if unforeseen circumstances mean that you cannot return as planned.



We dropped O2 near the sign, and set off at a leisurely pace with me leading out, Steve two and Al bringing up the rear. The dive was uneventful with all of us relaxing into the steady pace that Peacock means you can enjoy – flow was imperceptible.

I like the peanut tunnel. The low shallow section at the start is fun to finger walk through rather than swimming as it lends itself to much smoother passage. I had double wrapped my stage leash so that it held it up tightly and away from the cave floor as it was still heavy with Nitrox 32.

It was nice to see that even though we had not dived with Steve before communication was excellent within the team and it was a very relaxing swim out. I had described the tunnel, the restriction and the jump to the guys as they had not done this dive before and I was relatively pleased to see that my recollections were correct as we continued our journey.

We reached the restriction which is not much more that a silt bank rising up to almost fill a very wide tunnel. Heading slightly to the right gets you more room and disturbs the viz less so I did this and popped out just before the jump which I started to lay once the guys had joined me.

We headed off to the left, dropped stages where we found a suitable spot, and continued our swim. I know this section of cave quite well and know that it’s not far to Challenge so I got to thinking. We had loads of gas left, we had only just dropped the stages and I have done the dive from Challenge to Orangegrove on sixths.



I decided to change the plan a little so we could have a discussion as to whether we would change it a lot more. I tied in a spool to the end of the mainline and asked Al to drop our team marker here together with the note we had prepared. I then used the spool to take us up to the surface where we could chat.

Thirds on this dive was 70 bar having deducted for the stage. The most any of us had used was 20 bar of this and I knew that Orange Grove was roughly 35-40 bar away which would complete the Grand Traverse within thirds – without the need to recalculate gas. We could carry on if we wished and there was a reasonable chance of making it to Orange Grove – but if not we would simply be able to swim all the way back to Peacock 1 on our gas.

There was one problem, we would not be able to do what people normally do when they traverse and get out. We had dropped our stages in by the Peanut restriction and would need to go clean up so we would have to swim back out again. This would be a dive of around 9000 feet in total although never really more than a couple of thousand from any potential exit.



Al and Steve were enthusiastic to press on so we dropped back down and I tied the spool in to the other mainline to ensure that we had a continuous line back to Peacock. We set off down the Orange Grove line which is markedly different in character to the Olsen/Challenge line. It has a clay bed, is a much smaller tunnel and it undulates quite a bit with the occasional switchback. I had warned the guys that halfway along the tunnel there would be a change in direction in the line arrows although I had incorrectly recalled this to be at 700 feet when it was in fact at 900 meaning that we had 1800 rather than 1400 feet of tunnel to swim.



We were reaching the end of the mainline when I realised that we would not have a reel in place if we wished to swim out far enough to see the glow of daylight so I pulled a long spool from my pocket and in doing so dropped the double ender. Stopping or turning back to pick it up would have slowed the flow of the team so I highlighted it in my torch beam for Steve to get.

When I got to a slightly wider place I turned slightly to hold out my hand for it but he hadn’t got it. Damn – he must have either missed it or thought it was someone else’s and just picked it up – oh well I’ll get it back later.
We reached the mainline end and there was a reel in place. I turned to Steve to check that he was happy for me to tie in to it but at this stage, Al thumbed the dive. We had reached the end of the mainline and our objective and Al, recalling that the cavern area was slightly narrow in places, had chosen to thumb it at this point rather than at some stage nearer the exit as he was reaching gas limits.

We set off back and passing the place where I dropped the double ender it was not in sight so Steve clearly had misunderstood. I figured I’d have a laugh and stole first one and then a second of his so that when I asked for it on the surface he’d wonder what he’d done with it.

It was about 900 feet in when I realised that I was getting tired. Only another 3500 feet or so to go then! The swim back was as uneventful as any cave exit should be. We cleaned up all our markers as having done the dive we would go somewhere else the following weekend and made our way out.

My feet hurt quite a bit on a swim which is just shy of two miles and I longed for my scooter but I found that taking my spring straps off my ankles helped. Every few hundred feet I had to snug up my fins again but stopping the straps rubbing on my heels helped a lot.

We had been in the water well over three hours when we reached Peacock, far over the amount of time we had originally thought we would be on the dive and I was desperate for the bathroom so left reasonably quickly. The beauty of Peacock is that the dives are shallow and deco is negligible, especially given the profile of the exit. Good job too!

A great dive.

On the surface it turned out that Steve had missed my double ender so I had stolen two of his. Al had picked it up instead

[Madfish]

Theftery duly noted I shall be nailing my gear down

Thanks for the report & photos,

Di