SCHEDULE
February, 11 2005
We left Montreal at 11 am. After drviving until 2am the next day, we stoppped at Emporia ( Virginia). February 12, we left at 8.30 am to reach ed Luraville at 7.30 pm. Finally, after 26 hours, 2500km, we are in the cave diving paradise. Luraville is a tiny village in the bible belt
February 12
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WARNING: The infomation on this page is not intended to be used as basics of cave diving. If you are interrested in cavern or cave diving , there are plenty of excellent instructors in the north of Florida or Yucatan who can teach you the art of cave diving and safe practice of this activity. More than 300 persons ( including open water scuba instructor) died in thoses caves. The proper training, right equipment configuration and mind setting will enable you to experiment unforgettable dives that you will tell about to your loves ones. What is the point to go there if you won't be able to come back alive... ( ok ok you know it already, but believe it or not, still each year people don't come back from their vacation because they didn't want to listen to thoses tworules. Please dive within your certification limits, your confort zone with well maintained equipment. |
February 13
 Orange groove |
After an early morning jogging around the town of Mayo( the closest town to the Peacock caves), we headed to Cave excursion ( Bill Rennaker's facility) to take possession of the trailer's key wher we will stary for the next 3 weeks or so. We spent the day unpacking and preparing the diving equipment, filliung up the twin tanks. |
February 14
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In the Peacock cave system, like in most of the cave system, passages can be really different from one to the others. Explorers as Sheck Exley, Lamar Hires gave names to those passage. Other explorers dive there hundreds of time to survey and map thoses systems. With a line and a boussole, just imagine the kind of work done there. Thanks to thoses peoples, new cave divers can now travel trhough thoses systems in a much more safe way. This hole in the rock is located in Orange grove. It is swim on either side of the rock . |
Februray 15 -16
 Cow Spring |
During thoses 2 days, diving to practise drills.... at cow springs, Peacock and Telford springs. 6 dives and more than 220 minutes of bottom time. Each dive is diferent beacuse of the emergency drills but also because of the different topography of each passage, some narrow, some big room. The sediment doesn't always have the same color. The cave diving class is a kind of how to survive underwater cave class. At any moment, you must be aware of where is the line. Despite the 70 farenheint degree water temperature, we dive with dry suit but without gloves in order to facilitate the reel , arrows and cookies manipulation. Some systems can be pretty deep as Eagle nest ( which is a much more advanced level trimix dive ) but here we dive within the 130 feet deep limit. As penetration, it all depends of how much gaz you have and how much gas you need. Normally, we travel at a speed of 50 feet a minute. One of our dive wasa traverse from Peacock to Olsen 1300 feet in more or less 60 feet deep. |
February 17
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Ginnie Springs. From the surface, one can believe that this is just one of our lake. But once you hit the water you have the impression to swin in a pool. The water is just crystal clear. From the surface, there is an orange buoy just on top of the cave main entry. Because of the flow ( which can be strong, like the lock 21) We go down a chain where we attaced your deco stage ( 100% Oxygen) . At 25 feet, the current could take away your stage, so it's better to be shure it is well attached. After the entry, don't even try to kick to go through here, use the pul and glide technique which is much more efficient. We travelled 1000 feet in the system to a depth of 110 feet. After 30 m inutes, we did our turn around as planned and we the flow we just fly to the exit. Lamar Hires was my instructor and Pete was testing the upcoming diverite rebreather. On the second dive, I leaded the team . After a jump we explored an other passage. |
February 18
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The arrows tell use about the directionto the nearest exit. Of course, in the weel maintained system, the main line has arrows every 100 feet like at peacock, but in some other place, it is not so well indicated. With times, the numbers of explorers, the improvment of equipment, what was once concidered a record dive is now a traverse we'll do during the training. Cave diving is much more safier than before, but don't get a fase sense of security.In zero visibility ( due to a bad kick a buoyancy problem) it is easy to loose that line or even after a jump, if you don't mark your direction you might get lost and takethe wrong direction or the wrong exit. |
February 19
 One of cave excursion trailer |
Home sweet home. This is our trailer from Bill Rennaker at Luraville. 400 feet from the fill station, internet access and 5 minutes from the caves. It is what I call: centrally located. In the village, there is just a conveniente resturenat storeon the road 51 , a truck check point. |
February 20
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When divers exhale, the air is going up and get trapped in the ceiling and formed air pockets. Lighting the ceiling, we can see the reflection of the limeston on the airpocket. Some of them are small , but sometimes we can even put the head in it.Near the exit, the bubbles flow along the walls and get to the surface. sometimes air bubulles make their way through the lmestone to the surface, the same way water goes under. Limestone can be fragile and the flow of water changes its shape. Divers who know very well the cave know about the difference. |
February 21
photo Sandra Poucher |
After the topside shoot, we are starting the underwater shoot. Today, I will dive with Sandra Poucher. The first dive at Peacock let me verify the configuration of the equipment with the pdx10 and the second dive, it was the pd150 turn. During thoses 165 minutes underwater, we sas crayfishes, catfishes and deer's bones. Tomorrow, we'll go to Ichetucknee springs and the we'll start the interviews with worldwide known cave divers. |
February 22
photo: Sandra Poucher |
An other wonderfull one hour dive in the Ichetucknee caver. Here, Catfishes are in numbers, as turtle and many other fishes in the open water area. The cavern area is about 50 feet deep and the cave area needs to be done in sidemount. The worst part is the walk near half a mile with something like 100 pounds on the shouders, without talking of the housing and lights. But it is worth it abd specially the view from the bottom. |
February 23
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With Lamar, Stéphane Hugh et Carol, two dives at Peacock. It was time to film a full cave course with lamar Hires. The picture was taken yesterday on the way back at Ichetucknee spring. Luckily , Sandra had a troley to carry the video equipment. Having the twin on our back was muche more better than pushing the weels in the sand with more than 225 pounds of weight. |
February 24
cave excursion: station de remplissage |
Ce drapeau de plongée marque le ''domaine'' de Bill Rennaker, plongeur sidemount qui opère cette station de remplissage et boutique. Cet endroit est bien plus qu'un stop pour remplir les cylindres avec 32% (air enrichi) ou du trimix; c'est un endroit d'échange et de rencontre où les plongeurs exploreurs croisent les étudiants plongeurs de cavernes. La fin de semaine, cela resemble à un rassemblement annuel du plongeurs. Les voitures font la file pour remplir avant de retourner dans les profondeurs de cavernes. Le système de Peacock couvre près de 22 000 pieds de corridors et ce n'est qu'un des nombreux systèmes. Aujourd'hui, nous avons suivi Lamar Hires lors d'un cours d full cave et plongé le passage plus étroit de Peacock III |
February 25
 Ginnie Spring |
Retour à Ginnie Spring. Plannification pour emmener la caméra et les lumières indépendantes dans le courant. La profondeur atteint 110 pieds. Ce qui nous emmenera à faire de la déco à 20 pieds sur l'oxygène pure. La pénétration de la caverne se fera sur 700 pieds contre le courant. La technique de ''pull and glide'' ( sorte d'escalade sous-marine) doit être utilisée sur l'allée. Nous pourrons donc filmer sur le retour profitant du flow nous poussant vers l'extérieure de la caverne. Les deux entrées de ce système s'appelle devil's ear et devil's eye. Difficile d'imaginer un système si complexe sous la surface juste au dessous de la bouée. Cet endroit à été nommé du nom de la belle jeune fille qui venait laver son linge ici ( comme beaucoup de gens le faisaient à une époque maintenant révolue). |
February 26
 Little river |
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February 27
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Dernières plongées pour Hugh et Carole. Ce soir, ils seront de nouveaux plongeurs certifiés full cave. L'équipement pour plonger en caverne est sesiblement différent de celui utilisé en plongée récréative. Le maitre mot est sans doute la redondance et c'est surtout par la plongée de caverne que l'équipement de plongée en général a évolué. En effet, l'utilisation d'une veste de flottaison, d'un deuxième régulateur, de lampe plus compacte, de deux cylindres avec barre isolatrice est obligatoire. Sans compter les moulinets, les flèches, le carnet ''wetnotes'', les marqueurs ''cookies'', les clips, les lampes de rechange. L'équipement doit être le plus profilé possible. Il va sans dire que chaque pièce est extrèmement importante puisqu'il y va de la survie en cas de défaillance technique. La plupart du temps nous plongeons avec un double cylindre. Le cylindre de décompression ( oxygène pure) est laissé à 20 pieds (où dans les envirrons) puisque nous ne pouvons pas respirer d'oxygène pure à des profondeurs plus importante sans risque d'intoxication. Pour les plongées plus longues, nous transportons un cylindre ou plus sur le côté que nous laissons le long du parcours et récupérons à notre retour. |
March 1
cow spring :sous la surface |
Semaine de tournage dans les différentes cavernes de Peacock, cow spring... Aujourd'hui 1 mars, nous avions plannifié deux plongées d'une heure dans la caverne de cow spring: caverne exigue où les crevasses font concurrences à la texture gruyère du plafond. Après la seconde plongée, juste au moment de quitter le site, nous nous sommes rendus compte que nous avions perdu l'appareil photo. Ni une ni deux: on déballe, replonge dans les dry suit et nous voici à nouveau dans le système à tater chaque poche d'air et renfoncement sur 300 pieds de long et sans doute 40 pieds de large. Après 35 minutes, Stéphane localisa l'appareil. Le seul problème est, qu'étant positif dans l'eau, l'appareil était allé se loger dans une crevasse. Je tenta de mis glisser ,mais elle est trop étroite pour que je puisse passer et trop haute pour que nous puissions atteindre l'appareil du bout des doigts. Stéphane utilisa son détendeur principal et le fit fonctionner en débit continu pour provoquer suffisemment de turbulences et augmenter la poche d'air pour faire redescendre l'appareil. Au bout de quelques secondes: mission accomplie, j'attrape la chose au vol et direction la surface, plus de 2H40 sous l'eau en une seule matinée... de quoi, mériter un repos. L'après midi fut consacré à l'entrevue de Bill Rennaker : monsieur sidemount. |
March 2
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In the Orange grove passage, there is a lot of fossils. The color of the rocks is interresting. Les sédiments peuvent être de différentes natures et couvrir le sol de texture blanchâtre à noir. |
March 3
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One of peacock passage. the line on the left is like a life line. We have to keep an eyeon the permanaent main line. The arrow shows us the direction to the closest exit. In the passage buoyancy and kick technique is something you need to performe easily if you don't want to loose your visibility. |
March 4
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Last dive at Peacock. more than 12 minutes. We now have to clean and pack the equipment. A 24 hours break before flying. After 3 weeks of intense diving, the body is pretty saturated. |
March 6
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Crystal River.One of the best place for manatees observation. They are endangered. In fact, they used be be hunt for meat and oil from 1500 by the spanish explorers until 1893. During the high season, there is about 350 manatees around here in the fresh water. But the number is about 4000. Unfortnately, the boats hit them to often which can arm them badly, even kill them sometimes. |
End of the shoot. It's time to head back Montreal and start the postproduction.