Cave Survey Mexico

Wetnotes and Compass

It has become increasingly important to survey the line that runs directly from Cenote Tajma Ha to Cenote Sagrado  South. Something is wrong in the survey data and I need to reorder everything so that the cave is surveyed from the principal entrance into the cave. As I have some Survey data starting at Cenote Sagrado reordering will help me see where the error(s) likely lie.

The Cenote Tajma Ha to Cenote Sagrado South line is commonly known by divers as the white line, or downstream line. Its know as the white line as it’s the only white line that leaves from the Cenote Tajma Ha, the Cavern Line and the line to the Jumna river passage are both gold braid.

Regardless of its color, the line is not knotted, so after some earlier success with the solo tape technique. I decide to see how far along I could get. The interesting thing here is that the survey went really well. Actually it feels far more efficient than surveying in a team and is not that much more effort than a knotted line survey. The dive was pretty uneventful and very enjoyable. I slipped easily into the groove and finished the survey just at thirds and took a nice leisurely swim back poking around a few holes along the way.

Article posted by AlanF

A very live Coral Snake, Cenote Tajma Ha

On my way to Taj I stop off at Cuzel to pick up  my tanks, where I am shown the remains of a dead Coral Snake. The Central American Coral Snake is the most venomous snake found in North America. To give this statement perspective; it is nastier than a Mojave Rattlesnake. To give them credit though they generally shy away from humans and only bite as a last resort. A bite from this tiny snake is apparently not painful, but results in a shutdown of the respiratory system and almost certain death.  I discuss this with the tank guy and decide on a new rule of no more flipflops in the jungle! Continue reading →

Article posted by AlanF

Yesterday’s survey of the Nachich line was a good one. Lots of data and a thoroughly enjoyable dive. I decide its time to forget the City of Agre region for the moment, even though there are some small sidemount passages around Nachich and the French line still to survey.

It is becoming critical now to survey the downstream line from Cenote Taj Mahal to  Cenote Sagrado South. The line has no knots so is better surveyed in a team with a fiberglass tape. By chance  I received an email on the weekend from Etienne, a French rebreather instructor, that spent half the day on Sunday with his rebreather surveying exactly this line and offered the data. With  the promise of data arriving soon  I decide its time to survey a very nice line that jumps off the aforementioned  downstream line and ends at a nice T passage intersection (Not a line T) with the Cheers to Sagrado Line (already surveyed) in front.

All goes well for the first set of shots until the line changes, most likely a repair, to a knot less line. I abandon the survey and head back to a small jump towards the beginning of the line. I tie in and survey the jump, take the azimuth of the first station and start counting knots. Hmm… there arent any. I really should have checked that. Once again I decide to abandon the survey and just poke about the Room of Cheers for the rest of the dive. There is a little loop line at the back of the Room of Cheers that passes a  small unlined room that I have meant to take a look at for a while. The room is smallish and appears a little unstable. I breathe as little as possible always terrified that my bubbles will bring down an avalanche of rock held together only by a few mm of ten thousand year old silt.

The room doesnt seems to go anywhere that wouldnt require me digging a bit and I definitely dont feel comfortable about that so decide to leave it. I swim around the loop reach thirds and exit.

Article posted by AlanF

Cenote Nachich is the most western  cenote currently known in  Sistema Tajma Ha. It makes for a nice varied dive especially if you try to make it from Cenote Tajma Ha. In my case I need every minute of survey time I can get,  so I park the car by Sagrado, jump in there and head directly into the City of Agre where I pick up the Nachich line.

Sistema Taj Maha - The Nachich Line

Surveying the Nachich line is a pleasure( at least at the beginning ) long shots with great views passing the COA Cenotes before decending into and through the breakdown and around Nachich in a pleasant circuit.

As I pass the circuit closing double arrows, I drop a cookie. I will visually jump this later when I get to the end of the line which I can see a few feet to my left. The cookie will tell me that this really is the line I expected.  While visual jumps cause some fuss with cave divers this will save me swimming all the way back, so I will do it and admit it here publicly!

I complete the survey as planned noting the very tannic water around Nachich. Nachich is an interesting cenote. I haven’t surfaced there yet but I see a wooden ladder going into the water from above. I guess its a local swimming hole. We will find out soon enough when we start to straighten the survey out based on GPS coordinates at all the exit/entry points in the system.

So EOL and I see my cookie on the crossing line ahead. I visually jump, pick up the cookie and head back out to Sagrado and home.

Article posted by AlanF

With Jason not being available to hold the tape,  I decided to head back into the City of Agre (COA) where I could count knots, My intention was to  finish the survey of the line to  Northern COA Cenote and the Southern alternative route through the COA cavern.  Happy with my plan I packed up my gear and jumped in the car and headed for Cenote Sagrado, where I could shave off a few minutes of swim time to gain more valuable survey time around the COA.

The water was still tannic in the cavern. Swimming through the Sagrado chamber to the little cenote, I held my light underwater so as not to upset the bats. I dropped down onto the line and visually jumped to the  twin cenotes line. I should point out at this point I am in open water 4 feet deep and here is no way I will leave a line here for the ATV snorkelers to play with.

Descending quickly down the side of huge column. I make my way to one of my favourite passages in  Sistema Tajma Ha. The Sagrado to COA line. (New and better names will come soon!)  A little tight in backmount, the tunnel is a real pleasure for a sidemount cave diver, with some easy, stress free restrictions and plenty of silt and cieling percolation to keep things interesting.

I tie off on the end of the line and tie into the Southern part of the COA circuit and head east into the City of Agre  cavern zone. I locate the line I want,  the short line to the City of Agre North Cenote. I had previously surveyed the tie in so i quickly jumped and started the Knotted Line survey all the way up to the cenote. The light show from the cenote was pretty dramatic as I approached it. Lots of flashing curtains and a couple of impressive laser beam display. I havent seen it quite like this before. I must be lucky with the position of the sun. I decide to surface in the cenote.  Both the North and South Cenotes are completely wild and inaccessible over land without a machete, however they should be very close to to Cenote Escalara and Cenote Estrella in the hydraulically connected Minotauro system. It was nice to surface in the late afternoon sunshine. I took a look around suprising a few birds and animals that I could hear, but not see scurrying away. The cenote is a real  picture postcard. I enjoyed the sweet moist jungle air and decided it was time to get back to the dive. Reg back in and descent through the streaming light beams back into the COA cavern.

I crossed the cavern  and tied into what in our survey notes is identified as the COA Southern Alternative. A line originally laid by the French cave diving explorers from the 1996 Xpu Ha expedition. I survey the jump and resurvey the from station taking both forward and back bearings to be sure of the tie in when I add thios line to the software. Tie in complete I start the survey proper. Bugger! No knots. I should have realized. French cave divers traditionally don’t use knotted line . they have a bizzarre ( to me ) system of using bits of tape wrapped over the line with distances written. Unfortunately after a while in the cave those tapes move or fall off the line. I move forward with survey for a few shots estimating distance before abandoning the idea.  I spend the rest of the dive looking over the cave and head back to Sagrado.

Arriving back at Sagrado I meet the ATV guys with some snorkelers. I chat with them for a while about the tannic water which they are of course desperately wanting to clear back into the gorgeous saphire blue that their clients are paying for.

Article posted by AlanF

I really want to start pushing the survey into the Waterfall /  Chinese Garden area of Tajma Ha. We have already established a good portion of the cavern, but not enough yet to tie in. With this in  mind I decided to scout the waterfall line in preparation as its a long time since I dived that side.

Setting up,  I realize that my primary reel is missing. F$%k!  I remember that I last used it to tie in our ground zero survey station to the cavern line. We surveyed the tie in and I picked up and clipped the reel. That means I will have dropped it at the very edge of the cavern area, where all the snorkelers and cavern tours would see it. I am pretty gutted about it, It’s not that I need it for this dive but the reel has been with me for a long time and I feel kind of attached to it. Anyway I can’t seethat I wilkl get it back unless by luck another cave diver found it.

I head through the cavern, jumping off onto the Waterfall line. The cave is different from how I last remember it from a few years ago.  It feels a lot bigger. I guess that comes with doing so much more smaller cave recently. The cave also makes a lot more sense. I feel good about that. I am really reading the cave now whereas in the past without knowing it, I was very much diving the line not the cave.

There is a line very close to the start of the waterfall line that drops into a short deep passage with an impressive column towards the  bottom, that somehow survives the relentless attack of saltwater below the halocline. I am diving air and have a long way to go still so dont hang around too long. I head back up the waterfall line noting the line changes. I pass the crossover line to the Steves loft line and note a new one I dont remeber seeing before at the bottom of the breakdown. Continueing on I hit thirds and head back. Once back towards the chinese garden jump I have recalculate thirds and head off into some of the small unlined passages. we will need to survey them laying temporary lines for the duration.

A gentle deco in the cavern zone where iInote imbalances in my trim while playing with rocks and back out into the real world

Article posted by AlanF