GREEN SINK CAVE SYSTEM GREEN/SNAKE CAVE BLUE SPRINGS CAVE . ~ '. i LAFAYETTE COUNTY~ FE © 1977 by Sheck Exley GREEN SINX Survey by N.S.S. Cave Diving Section CAVE SYSTEM a 200 4~O ft. scale Ii' i i a 50 100 m SURVEYORS D.W. Sweet C.S. Stevens 8.5. Stevens T. All en ) r:=z z I. S. Exl ey totaZ surveyed lengths: GREEN SINK CAVE SYSTEM - 2873 ft. (876 m) BLUE SPRINGS CAVE - 259 ft. (78 m) GREEN/SNAKE CAVE - 125 ft. (38 m) GREEN/SNAKE CAVE . Green Si nk c/)' cave completelu undeppater <" ..,' Snake Sink BLUE SPRINGS Zegend: a= natural bridge, b= Skyliaht Sinks CAVE I & II, c= Eaa Sink, d= ~reat Pyramid Room, ~jBlue 5Dring e= Stevens Sink I, f= Stevens Sink II. g= ;--; a ! : Stevens Sink III, h= Sweet Sink, i= Amoeba ......... Room. j= Kitty Sink, k= Trao Sink, 1= the Suwannee River Nostril s I & II I • -~\\~-~~.~'Q\ ~~ ~~~, ". \~~\~ ~1,',,'·"k OFFICIAL NE~JSLEnER OF THE CAVE DIVING SECTION OF THE NATIONAL SPELEOLOGICAL SOCIETY@) 1977 by the Cave Diving Section vol. 4, no. 5 UNDERWATER SPELEOLOGY COVER published bi-monthly beginning in February Our cover this month is a map of Flor­ by ida's red-hot discovery, Green Sink The Cave Diving Section af Cave System, and qoes with the article The National Speleological Society on page 59. but the bieaest news ;s in Martyn FarrIs article on p.56 reeard­ ., ing the latest developments at Bri- Membership in the NSS Cave Diving Sec­ " tion is open to any NSS member in good ta in I s famous II/oakey Hal e. standing that is interested in cave div­ ing and has paid the dues ($3.00 for REGISTER FOR NEW YEAR'S WORKSHOP " 1977). Persons not wishing to join may subscribe for $5.00 per year. Checks Those desirin9 to register for the should be made payable to "NSS Cave SUDer fantastic 7th Cave Divine Work­ Diving Section" and sent to Steve Mae­ shop in Branford. Florida, on Sat. & gerlein, Box 60. Williams, IN 47470. Sun., Dec. 31 & Jan. 1, are uraed to send their fees on in to Sheck'Exley (see address opposite) to helD defrav Deadline is the second Friday of the expens es. The reai s tra ti on fees are . preceeding month. Send articles and cor­ as follows: section members - $2.00; respondence to the Editor, Sheck Exley, section subscribers - $5.00; all oth­ 1591 S. Lane Ave .• Apt. l18C. Jackson­ ers - $10.00 (includes 1 vear's sub­ ville. FL 32210. scription to underwater sPeleology. All proceeds will be donated to our Opinions expressed herein are not nec­ Section, so help support the section essarily those of the NS5 Cave Diving and cave diving investigation and safetvor' with ~.vour •presence! Section. CALENDAR NEW MEMBERS Sep. 5-10; 3rd International Cave Div­ Gary Cislaghi, 3401 Sandra Dr., ing Camp, Bristol, Great Britain. Shreve Port, Louisiana 71119 (This is just before the 7th Inter­ national Speleological Congress - William Mixon, 5035N South Drexel contact B.E.C. Travel Limited, 63 Blvd., Chicago, Illinois 60615 Dun Keld Road, Ecclesall, Shef­ field 511 9HN England.) NEW SUBSCRIBERS Dec. 31-Jan. 1, 1978: 7th NSS Cave Diving Workshop, Branford. Florida. Larry F. Collins. 1724 N.W. 39th Ave. (Contact Sheck Exley. 1591 Lane Gainesville, Florida 32605 --- , Ave. So., n8C, Jacksonville, FL 32210.) Raymond F. Fogarty, 6603 Broadhale June 18-24, 1978: Cave Diving Session Drive, Louisville, Kentucky 40291 and Annual Section Meeti~g at NSS Convention, New Braunfels, Texas. Tony Murland, 6311 St. John Ave., 1979: 4th International Cave Divinq Kansas City, Missouri 64123 Camp, Mexico. (Contact Eduardo' Castro Ruiz. Cerro de Tezonco 117, Jamie Stone, 1125 NW 36th Road, Mexico. D. F. Gainesville, Florida 32601 ' 53 CDS NEWSLETTER, October ,1977 . COMMENTS ON FLORIDA'S LONGEST CAVES by Chuck Heller (NSS 6618) (see vol. 3~ no. 8 of Underwater SoeleologYJ p. 63) Check with the FSS* as to the surveyed lenoth of Briar Cave in neala. The main most passage is water-filled (wa~er table) where one has to swim before reaching "dry" passage. Many underwater leads seem to "e probable. This cave runs under a horse breedina farm in the Ocala Ridqe, and the owners do not (as far as I know) currenti"y let people in. (editor: Paul W. Smith ofFSS and the Florida Underground Karst Survey says that Briar is in fact in the 3000- foot range~ with some additional passage unsurveyed~ and is irzdeed closed.) I discovered this cave about 1963. I asked a local resident if he knew of any caves in the area that no one knew about. He promntl,v ooi nted to a "Ioods in a field and told me a cave was closed un in 10 38 because bats bothered the picnickers. We finally found a small crevice-like opening in a bunch of briar bushes. Evidently no one had been in it be~ore. This cav~ has some of the prettiest and most abundant formations in Florida, and is well worth check­ ing out due to the underwater possibilities. Roosevelt Cave is a little-known cav~, just south of Ocala off US 4dl. This has a larg~ underwater potential. I·/hen the water table is extreMely low, one can enter the cave and swim down the passaoes. Roosevelt Cave has not been surveyed, dived, nor extensively exolored. In general, the cave has quite a few large passages. With water table norl'1al (13 years aQo) the cave was usually totally filled with water. To enter the cave, one slides down a sink (hard to get out of. esoecially with wet sneakers) to a small body-only sized hole. This is where the water level is in normal levels. Once through the hole there is a large room with passaqe in 2 directions. This rool11 is about 50% dry and is the "beach" when water ii low. While swimminq alone (with our old fom nf "B.C." then - and in~latable US surplus "jun!lle bladder") we could view a lower. totally \I/ater-filled level in the cave with very large rooms. But silt auickly obscured visibil­ ity here. The above-water sections (at that time) were pretty much eXI'llored by me. except for small crawls. I think that this cave should be surveyed and re-explored, including an exoloratory divino carty. One would want to go through the small entrance hole dry. The following is a synopsis 'of my explorations to Roosevelt Cave taken from my 01 d cavi n9 rec.ords. The~ time,S" given are tota) time soent in the cave. 4/13/63: 2 hours: Hater started"in biQ room. Swam down center main oassaqe. Crawled down sand passage (dry) leading left o~f main oassaoe. 4/14/63:2 hours: I~e did not find end of oassaae. l.Je went about 1000 ft. One carbide lamp doused out. ~/ater c.overed with a calcium film. 5/4/63: 4 hours: Problem with 6V Burqess batterY cost. Droblem - air blad­ der puncture and slow leak. Problem - nicad wet cells poooed out orema­ turely. Found common frog in big room. Found bat 9uano deep in. 9/7/63: 1.5 hours: Water about 1 foot higher than last sorinq. 9/14/63: FSS trip to see cave - same frog there. 1/12/64: FSS trip. 1/25/64: 1.5 hours:' \~ater colder in first-section than in rest of cave. * 'Flori da Speleological Soc; ety ~DS NEWSLETTER, October 1977 54.. .... EXPEDITION 1977 by Martyn J. Farr, w The Cave Oivinq Grouo (Editor's oomment: On the way baok from the NSS Convention this year we stopped at Crystal Cave~ Tennessee" and ran into one of the area's top o oavers. Naturally~ we asked if there were any particularly interesting sumps in the area to be dived. Yes there was~ he replied~ but it had been oheoked out by Martyn Farr the previous year~ who is the best there is" so o we needn't bother. We won't~ either. Martyn is one of the world's best oave divers~ and has the dives to prove it (they will be the subjeot of a book by Martyn K to be pubUshed soon). One of Martyn's pet projeots of late is famous Wookey Eole~ where the aohievements of the Cave Diving Grouu have beoome legenda:ry. We are indeed grateful to Martyn for the o"C1portunity to present E this artiole on the latest e-~loit by the Group at Wookey.) Cave diving, as anyone with experience of the soort will admit, ;s un­ doutedly the most dangerous specialisation in either caving or diving. It combines all the hazards of both sports, and not surorisinqly oartic;oants Y are few in number. There is qenerally very little to see when divinq under­ ground and the prime ohjective, in virtually every instance is to pass the submerged section. Exoloration of submerged oass~qes, in which visibility is soon reduced to a few feet, is not pleasant and the real satisfaction comes when one reaches air and a hitherto unknown cave. It ;s a pioneerina soort in every sense and pushing divers are very conscious of beinq out on a limb. Light or eauipment failure, entanolement in 9uidelines, or runnin9 H· out of air might not be too critical in oDen'water; but underground in nil visibility the situation is extremely serious. We advocate divinq alone, in this way one sorts out one's own problems; for there is little that any o buddy can do when he can see nothinQ.