Cavern Day 2

On the second day of Cavern, we went right into our three dives. That meant I had to suit up into my wet suit bright and early in the morning. Normally it wouldn't be a problem. But imagine this: The wet suit was still wet, although not dripping wet, from the previous day's dives. The temperature of the previous night was close to 0. The wet suit was hung in the unheated bathroom. And I had to put that on! It wasn't an appealing thought at all despite me being notoriously fond of the cold. Fortunately, my instructor had a full nylon suit that he could loan me. It felt much better having an intermediate skin separating the freezing wet suit. My toes almost froze wearing the wet booties, but at least it was bearable.

We had three dives in the Peacock I. We did more line work and air sharing in the first two dives. We also had a taste of the different propulsion techniques (which I have been practicing on already prior to this course). Then on the last dive, we went fun diving. My instructor saw that I had good air management so he took me out on a longer fun dive. It was during this third dive that I decided to go on with the Intro to Cave course although I'd be tired the following day driving. I was taken into a tunnel, and areas where the ceiling was low although it was still wide horizontally (since minor restrictions -- areas not wide enough to accommodate two people side by side -- are not permitted for cavern divers). That's when I knew I had to go into the caves! I liked the spacial tightness and the narrowness. It took the bore out of me! The day-and-a-half cavern course was interesting, but I felt that it wasn't enough for me. Most of the materials covered in the classroom was not new to me. And most of the skills we did underwater were very manageable. So I told Mike my instructor that I wanted to go on with Intro to Cave that afternoon. That meant I had to be out of the water by 3pm the next day because I need an 18-hour break between diving and flying, which I would be doing at 9am the following day.

We began our Intro to Cave classroom session immediately after lunch. The materials were finally getting more interesting. I was finally learning more stuff I never knew of before. I could tell that Mike got serious as well. We did more land drills after the textbook stuff -- the lost line drill and the lost buddy drill. I originally thought I'd have a relaxed evening to do my own stuff and I could sleep in on the third morning before a slow, touristy drive back to Orlando. Now I was left with more reading, and one Cavern quiz and one Intro to Cave quiz to write, in addition to reviewing the land drills for the real practices in the caves the following day.

I was very, very tired. I tried to write my two quizzes in bed while my new roommate dashed in and out of the room. I didn't like this new roommate for he never bothered to say hi and I didn't feel like saying hi to him, either. Turned out that he snored really loudly in his sleep too!! I felt like complaining to the dive shop owner that she should do snore tests to her bunk room users before admitting! That was the night I needed my sleep most and had the least. I was waken by the snores at 3am and couldn't go back to sleep. I got up at 5am to finish writing my quizzes and get ready for the third day's dives, the real, Intro to Cave dives!

For above-water photos of the trip, click here.