Today we got Kevin back (it was New Year's Day, so he didn't have to work), and we decided to go back to Emerald and try to find that jump for real this time. We were quite optimistic about finding it this time, since we'd found it on the way out on the previous dive. We slept in a little bit (until 8), because it was still crazy cold out in the morning. This meant that it was pretty late, about 11, by the time we got to the site. I have to admit, the drive to Emerald is pretty horrible. We are on the same boring rural highway for like 90 miles. It would be fine if I were driving or if I could sleep. But instead, I have to stay awake to make sure that Rob doesn't fall asleep and get into a firey crash. And I can't drive stick, so I can't offer to take over for him.
When we got to the site, there were three other cars there already, which was just one team of divers. They were getting ready, but not at a very speedy pace. We ended up getting in the water before them. They said they were going both upstream and downstream, but not very far downstream. We were quite efficient at getting our bottles in the water (on Kevin's patented downline -- and we even optimized the order of the bottles so we only had to pick up our bottom stages and the other bottles were just where they needed to be, woohoo!), and after a slight bit of photograph-related doodling, we got into our suits and into the water.
The previous night, I had found what I was sure was *the cause* of my drysuit leak... a little slash in the aquaseal right in the crotch. So we had fixed that and I was sure today would be the day that I was dry :). We finally got going and with the aid of the new bottle sorting technique (patent pending), we were quite quick to get going. Having just been on the same line a few days ago, and knowing when to expect various waypoints along the dive, I think I had a better chance to take in the cave as we were going. I really like the white scalloped walls and ceilings, when I am not completely absorbed with keeping track of that tiny dark-stained line in the blackness.
We got to the jump in question a little over 10 minutes in, and I think we were all pretty certain we were in the right place. And then we noticed a line from the passage coming towards the mainline. And it turns out it comes like an arms length from the mainline (facepalm emoji). I don't know how we missed this on our previous dive. I'm actually kind of disturbed that we missed a line that came so freakin' close to the mainline both on the way in and out. I think we must have been traveling higher up in the cave on the previous dive. Also, on the way out on the previous dive, when we found the passage, we were a bit further upstream of the arrow that the jump line comes right up to.
Anyhoo, once we found that, Rob put in a very short jump and we were off. The line immediately headed downward and we were in a passage in about 180 feet (seawater... which became a thing later). Rob was leading, with the plan being that he could find good spots for photography and turn around and tell us to pose. Both Kevin and I had our strobes mounted to the backs of our tanks, which simplified things. Rob turned the strobes on once we made the jump and we headed slowly up the line. The passage was not small, but it was very silty on the bottom. I found it kind of taxing to not generate any silt while trying to position for photos. But I think I did a reasonable job of doing that. We were moving along through the passage quite slowly, which of course makes it a bit tricky to decide when to turn to keep on time. I think in the end, we swam in while taking pictures for about 25 minutes and swam out in maybe 8 minutes.
The line kept disappearing into little silt hills and then reappearing on the other side of the hill. I've gotten kind of used to this in Emerald, and as long as it's pretty easy to imagine the line continuing straight and reappearing where it reappears, I can live with that. At one point, we were swimming along and the line disappeared into a silt hilt and maybe 10 feet later, a line appeared at a right angle. There must have been a tie off under that pile of silt, but we were not about to find it. So we pulled the line out of the silt on both ends and connected the two with a double ender (that was Kevin's good idea... I probably would have pulled out a spool :P).
Eventually we came to a T, and Rob chose to go right. Just past the T, the line immediately went up steeply, along a steep silty hill. One of us (ahem, Rob) silted out the hill, and so we abandoned that side of the T and went back to the left. We went to the next room, took some photos, and then turned it. The swim out was uneventful. I was kind of relieved to be off photo modeling duty, since it meant a small amount of silt generation was acceptable :P (to me, probably not to Rob).
The swim out was uneventful. When we got back to the basin, the other team was there, up shallower. I think they must have ascended, hung out on the surface, and then came back down for a dive in the downstream section, because they appeared again when we were around our 40 or 30 foot stop (I'd poked my head into the upstream section at that point). Rob shot a few pictures of us in the open water area. By the time we got to 20 feet, we had run out of ways to amuse ourselves, and I was super bored. I was just leaning on the tree trunk waiting for the time to pass, when another team of divers came down to drop some bottles on the tree. Doh, I was caught being a lazy diver, leaning on the tree :P
Eventually we finished our deco, and Rob asked me to pose at 5 feet on the way up from 10, so he could get some over-unders. At this point, I was not exactly bringing my A-game, because I just wanted to get out of the water at that point!
