On Monday, our first day of diving without Kevin :(, we decided to sleep in and go to Ginnie. Rob brought his camera, and we planned to go to Mainland to shoot some pics, and possibly get some pics on the way out on the Hill 400 line.
We got there a little after 9 and it was pretty dead, for once. Rob inexplicably parked in a non-ideal spot anyway. We unloaded our bottles and scooters, and got into our suits. As we were putting the gear into the water, we found that the water level was super low. Standing at the bottom of the stairs, the water cam up to below my waste. Definitely more annoying for moving bottles around and getting fins on.
As we were heading up the run, we passed some divers coming down the run at the end of their dive. Rob stopped to get some pictures, and then got some pictures of me in the run too. Once we were finished with that, we continued to the ear, and in we went. The flow was about typical for Ginnie. We made good time getting to the jump for Mainland.
We dropped our gear and headed into the tunnel to Mainland. We had passed a couple of exiting teams on the way to the jump, and once we got into some of the narrower areas, it was clear someone had been there before us. It was kind of milky, but not like the viz was blitzed. Before you know it, we were at the low silty section, which I think Rob found slightly annoying to negotiate with the camera. Though as the diver behind him, he definitely did not harm the viz.
Once we were through the delicate areas, Rob started trucking. Man was he trucking, I told him to slow down and still could barely keep up! Finally, we came to the T, and (thank god) Rob decided to set up for some shots just past the T on the left side. I had noticed when Rob mounted the strobe on my rig that the coil on the cord was halfway up to my D-ring where the sensor was clipped, rather than right at the D-ring like yesterday. Like yesterday, the coil had kind of become a knotted coil of cable, which was a pain to get un-knotted. I tried to reach back to where it was and unknot it without seeing it. I quickly gave up and asked Rob to do this for me, since he could see it. There was a lot of gesticulating and sounds coming from Rob due to his frustration with undoing the knot. I have to admit that I was pretty amused by this, since I'd had to go through the same thing yesterday!
We got a bunch of pictures in that area just to the left of the T. I have to admit, it was kind of exhausting to play the model. Lots of back-kicking! After getting photos in that spot, we turned around, picked up our cookies, and continued a bit before stopping for some more photos. We drifted along a bit, stopping here and there for photos. Eventually, when we got back to about 3500', Rob said he was going to stow the camera and we'd head out. The original plan had been to stop on the mainline, somewhere near the Sweet Surprise jump for a few photos. But when we decided to get going, and I insisted on leading, Rob said we should skip that. The swim out of Mainland was uneventful, aside like it feeling like I was waiting for Rob to come out of the low passage forever. But it was probably just a minute. When we got back to bottles and scooters, I started to second guess whether Rob had really said to skip the mainline photo shoot, so I asked him and he confirmed it.
So, I led us back to the jump to the double domes. I was sure we were at the jump, but couldn't see the line, when Rob signaled to point out the line. Then he headed into the passage and I followed, so he could pick where to stop for pictures. We got to the second dome, and Rob said he wanted to get some pictures. (For the record, I had suggested this before the dive, and he said he didn't think it would be a good spot for pics, but in the end, I think these were among the best pics of the day!). I managed to pretty much silt out the entrance to the second room while I was getting the light sensor out, doh. But luckily the silty cloud was localized to the entrance and didn't impact photos.
After getting a few photos, we headed back to the Hillier tunnel and then the Hill 400 tunnel. We were pretty much going all out on the trigger until maybe 200 or 300 feet before we came back to the mainline, when Rob stopped us to get some photos. I think this section of the Hill 400 tunnel, and the mainline just after the Hill 400 jump is one of the more photogenic areas of Ginnie. Rob got some nice shots here. From there, we headed out. I spent the ride out debating with myself whether to plan the deco based on an 85 foot or 80 foot average depth. I decided that since our 80 foot rule is ridiculously conservative for this length of dive (we got back to our O2 bottles around 140 minutes), I would just go with 80 feet. One other notable accomplishment of the ride out is that I finally managed to take the keyhole bypass, which Rob always takes and I have never managed to find before :P. It is indeed a superior experience compared to going out through the keyhole.
We paused in the 50 foot room for a minute and then Rob headed through the eye first. I like to watch him go through so I don't get hung up on the spots he does :P. We hung out in the 30 foot room for a few minutes, and then I was happy to find that the ledge at 20 feet was empty, so I hunkered down there for deco. Before you know it, it was time to drift out of the cavern and head back up the spring run.
After the dive, I was pretty wet. I'd been wet the previous two days, but only from the waste down, and now I was wet further up too, and quite a bit more wet. So after the dive, we flipped the suit inside out and found and repaired 4 different spots where there was aquaseal that was peeling. Doh!
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