Camillo, yes we actually dove today

We have had a couple of set backs the last few days. Last I posted, I made the comment that our doubles were filled......I was wrong. So on Tuesday we were all set to dive, but again around 9:45 am when our doubles were not filled, we had to reconsider. Since we are diving the rebreathers we need 40% and not just air....plus some O2 would be nice since the cave runs about 62-65 ft. We have become a little more patient with life in the land of manana...so we decided to put the remaining boards on the platform and get everything all ready and loaded for the following day so we could dive. One more day...no worries.

So we head out to the ranch intending to complete the platform and we met the guard, who informed us ..."Son practicando". That meant the police were practicing shooting. So we decided we didn't want to disturb them. I also told him that we would be returning tomorrow to dive. He said they would be practicing then too....but I told him it didn't matter we were returning and we had permission.

Fernando also informed us that Connie Laroe would be bringing in a group (7 divers...aahhhh) on Thursday to dive Camillo....so that day may be out too.

So today we got there at 8:45 (which is really early down here) and were happy to see that the police people were taking down the targets. Maybe because the rain made them flimsy or they were just shot to hell and needed to be replaced. There were also some guys washing their clothes near the cenote. They were funny in that they started saying the A, B, C's when we arrived and I thing they were showing off their English. Anyway, I offered them cokes (I had brought them for the police, just in case), which they took as they left the cenote.

The dive plan was to go to the end of one of the Cambrian lines and see if it was just left in open running cave or if it walled out. If it was running we would lay more line. We scootered as far as we could and swam the rest. It was silty, mostly clay, and got really small.....dare I say nasty...because it was. It also walled out, although some sidemount person may be able to keep it running be we could not fit through. So we called the dive.

I thought we may want to scooter to cenote Camillo since we had time and tons of gas, but John said we were heading out. Once we surfaced, I would find out why. John had a huge hole in both wrist seals and his drysuit no longer could be used for bouyancy....he said his feet were so heavy throughout the whole dive he could barely swim. When he exited the cenote, I had to laugh. His legs were totally filled with water and the lower half of his body looked like the Michelin man. Completely filled with water....Oh my!!! He almost couldn't go up the ladder.

On another side note, this is the second dive I have had a total roll off. I caught it on the last dive right after it happenend, but this time, I notcied it in the cenote after we surfaced. For our non- diving friends, a roll off is when the knob to your one of your tanks rolls closed completely shutting off the gas to one of your tanks. This happens when you traverse a really long restriction...that is the only thing I can come up with as to how it happenened. Last time it shut off my main gas....that is how I knew. This time it shut off on the way out of the cave.....how the heck do I keep doing that? I was on my stage bottle so I didn't know until my suit inflation didn't work. The rebreathers are bigger and angled differently than the regular back gas open circuit tanks.....but come on. I will pay more attention to it on the next dive.

Tomorrow is another day off....fixing drysuit and hopefully finishing platform. We talked to Fernando and Friday will be our next big push. We will have 7 tanks for him to use so we can lay more line. We have already staged 3 in the cave and the other one's we will be bringing with us on Friday. He will carry 2 and John and I will each carry 1 for him. Again, the rebreathers are great because both John and I will only have 1 drive bottle and back gas, plus the safeties we already set up. We will use one full stage and maybe some backgas, but probably not......as compared to 7 stages. I still find that amazing.

Less than one week for me until I go back to Phx, I want to get 2-3 more dives in Camillo.....I hope my ear cooperates!

Karen and John