11–20 of 320 posts
There should be a law against bringing in and leaving nylon ropes in the cave. If this continues, all the caves are going to be filled with nylons ropes left by previous divers. Do we want these caves, too, to eventually become a garbage dumping ground?
There should be a law against bringing in and leaving nylon ropes in the cave. If this continues, all the caves are going to be filled with nylons ropes left by previous divers. Do we want these caves, too, to eventually become a garbage dumping ground?
Much like the IT community adopt coding-standards for a project, the cave-diving community has line-placement standards. Whilst the standards vary from location to location (and are in general localised to the requirements of the location's environment), they are generally well "policed" and exceptions are addressed.
There should be a law against bringing in and leaving nylon ropes in the cave. If this continues, all the caves are going to be filled with nylons ropes left by previous divers. Do we want these caves, too, to eventually become a garbage dumping ground?
In some higher traffic caves these lines are replaced regularly, however with most caves it's an every couple of year type situation and done by volunteer teams.
As a cave is explored & mapped, line is tied on to the end from the explorer's reels - adding multiple knots and failure points. Once there's sufficient traffic or need usually caretakers will go through and attach more resilient line (usually a spectra or dyneema line) and take out the original line, only leaving the exploration markers (name, date, expedition, etc). These teams also find more permanent attachment points or add them (using silt anchors and sometimes bolts) so that the lines aren't secured to cave features wherever possible.
Adding & removing lines on each dive would actually cause more damage to cave features than keeping a permanent or semi-permanent line in place, and there'd be a much higher risk of line movement and entrapment as the connections would be fewer and further between.
I wonder - did they take steps to replenish the cave's oxygen? If not, it's useless for the next person... I guess this is kind of silly and naive, but it's what I would do.
I'm a little surprised there aren't caches of emergency supplies for situations like these.
The issue was that they lost their guide-line leading to the exit, rather than running out of gas. In such a scenario, no amount of reserve caches could really solve that problem.
I wonder - did they take steps to replenish the cave's oxygen? If not, it's useless for the next person... I guess this is kind of silly and naive, but it's what I would do.
I'm a little surprised there aren't caches of emergency supplies for situations like these.
Cave diving is one of those things that I am happy to only experience vicariously through the stories of others.
Cave diving is one of those things that I am happy to only experience vicariously through the stories of others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtlwoX1YEmg
This has got to be the scariest video on Youtube in which no harm comes to anyone.
Most of the training focuses on systems, skills repetition, and understanding and using redundant systems - folks getting into cave diving typically are already extremely experienced divers who if anything need only some minor skill tweaks - most cave instructors will not take on students who don't already have significant open water technical diving experience (multiple tanks, mixed gas, rebreathers, decompression, wreck, etc).
A running joke is that the lost line drill (where you're placed intentionally off of the guide line and have to find it without a mask/light/visibility) is the most punctual cave task you'll ever do - you have the rest of your life to get it right.
Here's a few good books on it (non-affiliate links):
Caverns Measureless to Man by Sheck Exley (the father of cave diving): https://www.amazon.com/Caverns-Measureless-Man-Sheck-Exley/d...
The Darkness Beckons by Martyn Farr: https://www.amazon.com/Darkness-Beckons-History-Development-...
Beyond the Deep by Bill Stone (the Tony Stark of cave diving): https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Deep-Deadly-Descent-Treacherou...
The Cenotes of the Riviera Maya by Steve Gerrard (patron saint / mapper of Yucatan caves): https://www.amazon.com/Cenotes-Riviera-Maya-2016/dp/16821340... This is more of a map and explanatory notes but gives great insight into the complexity of it. Currently there are 2 systems that almost all cenotes are part of in the Yucatan, and there's some really interesting work going on trying to link the two. Current work is going on at about 180m depth through a number of rooms at the back of "The Pit", and there are multi-day expeditions going on trying to find the linkage.
Can someone explain this phenomena? How can the water in a sea-cave become potable?
> He realised the water at the surface of the lake was drinkable Can someone explain this phenomena? How can the water in a sea-cave become potable?
they mention the caves where flooded 60000 years ago, which is long time ago to replace all the original sea water with fresh water from other sources
or maybe it's condensated water from walls of cave creating layer on top, though not sure how would that work