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Hi George and members.
My dive buddy Lane Hermann and I dove Blue Grotto
in Williston Fl yesterday. We went all the way to the bottom of the cavern at
100ft.
Deepest dive I have done so far and it was in a
cavern no less! Not a cave though and we could always see the glow of surface
light above us.
There actually are caves off this cavern but the
ten minute video we watched warned us to stay close to the dive cable going to
the bottom. We
had to sign a release in case we were killed thru
our own stupidity or incompetence. No problems at all. 72 degree water. Did two
seperate tank
dives. No deco. Stayed within P.A.D.I. dive tables.
Nice facility. Cost $40.00 to dive there. Worth it. We found carvings
all over the cavern walls by divers there
previously. I found one dated 1964!
The neat thing that ties this into psubs is you can
get a really good feel for what it would be like
to be inside an ambient submarine by going into the
air bell on one of the cavern's ceiling overhangs
at 30 ft depth. You can get your entire head and
shoulders to about chest level out of the water and
hang inside the bell and watch the goings on of other divers thu the windows, all from 30 ft.
They have a constant air source going into the bell and it simply
overflows any excess air.
The echo and sound are very loud inside this air
bell and the smallest whisper sounds very loud since there is no place
for
the sound to go but to bounce all over inside the
air bell. Gave me a very good idea of what it would be like to be in an ambient
sub. The windows constantly fogged up
and I had to wipe them or splash water on them to
be able to see out very well. A very nice experience for a dive and an insight
to what being in an ambient sub would be like.
Here's one link to the site so you can see the
ambient air bell. http://www.sfdj.com/springs_issue/bgrotto.htm
Bill Akins.
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