Date: 5/6/09
Diver: Brian Kakuk
Location: Abaco Island, Bahamas
Site: Reel Breaker Blue Hole
Depth: 96
Time: 2:55
Bottom Time: 48
Water Temp: 80
Mode: O/C Side Mount
Gas: EAN 37 with O2 Deco
Over the last year I have been taking side mount students through a breakdown pile near the entrance of this ocean blue hole known as Reel Breaker. Diving this site is relatively easy since it is literally 100 feet off shore, near a dock on the east side of the island. During some of the training dives, I noticed a nice bit of current flowing from a small gap near the bottom of a silt mound. Today I decided to do a quick check to see if there was a chance for continued passage…..and there was. The current was flowing strongly and I had to pull my way in the first 200 feet or so, which was the plan. I figured if I tried to push during a full moon, ripping tidal outflow, it would be easier to determine which of the myriad of small tunnels is the main way on.
The plan worked well and with very little searching, I was able to push through some small side mount restrictions and into larger passage. The passage continued in a southeast direction and the further I went, the more decorated the passage got. All of the formations in this part of the cave are heavily covered in a thick coating of sponges, tunicates and hydroids. The various colors of the sponges make the walls look like a psychedelic montage created by an acid crazed artisan.
I love these ocean caves. They are so completely different than the crystalline goliath passages found inland. The life in this cave is amazing and I stopped every so often just to check out countless crabs, shrimp, cave fish, eels and other critters taking their food from the roaring currents of the cave. My line ran out just past a small, scoured squeeze between several thick stalagmites just over 400 feet from the entrance.
I shone my light further down the passage and could see more tunnel and formations in the distance. That, coupled with a good water flow hitting me in the face, tells me this passage will continue to yield more passage.
After dropping an arrow on the end of the line, I slowly headed back checking the many side leads along the way for current direction and flow. I think this area of the cave will give up a lot more virgin passage than the 400 feet laid today.
Date: 5/10/09
Diver: Brian Kakuk
Location: Abaco Island, Bahamas
Site: Reel Breaker Blue Hole
Depth: 96 feet
Time: 09:18
Bottom Time: 77 minutes
Water Temp: 82
Mode: O/C Side Mount
Gas: EAN 38 with O2 Deco
As is the case with many of the exploration dives I have done, the sight of wide open virgin passage on my last dive here has been constantly on my mind over the last few days. Today I selfishly gave in to temptation and decided not to save the new passage for some other friends that I wanted to set it aside it for.
Since the plan of pushing against the full rage of a rising tide worked so well on the last dive here, I decided to do it again. After dropping an o2 cylinder at 25 feet, I threw a jump reel on the main line near the entrance and tied into the hidden line at a back-bend side mount entry that gave access to the new passage. The jump complete, I made tracks for the end of the line 400 feet in that was laid only 4 days earlier.
I thought it was funny that other parts of this cave has been dived by various explorers for more than 15 years and no one ever saw this small hole near the entrance. I felt really lucky and was hoping that this would turn out to be a significant new part of the cave.
The swim to the end of the line went quickly and I tied on a full explorer reel when I reached my line arrow from a few days ago. The passage continued with good water flow at depths meandering between 65 and 95 feet. Several small squeezes between formations on the floor of the cave continued to reveal large dome rooms on the far side of each squeeze. The largest rooms were 20 to 30 feet in diameter and filled with critter encrusted stalactites and stalagmites.
The further I swam, the more the cave changed. At about 700 foot penetration, the formations lost any sign of marine growth. The walls, ceiling and formations began to darken in color and eventually I ended up in room after room of what can only be described as a black forest of speleothems. The floor no longer had marine rubble or shells and sponges, but was covered by fine, whitish-grey silt that had very cool contrast with the black formations. This is by far the most decorated part of the cave.
I passed through 3 or 4 more rooms before my line ran out again just over 1200 feet from the entrance. I pulled the terminal loop of line over a stalagmite in wide open passage and placed an arrow on the line. Once again I shone my light down the passage where a now, faint current flowed back toward the entrance. I think this passage still has more to offer but this time I really will save it for a friend.
On the way back out I did the usual checks for side passages, and an occasional stop to play with the cave critters. At one point I was stopped short by an odd sight. On the guideline, about a foot off the floor, a medium sized blue claw crab was perfectly balanced like a tight rope walker, with both claws and mouth aggressively munching on the line. I’ve never seen a crab do this before (though I have seen a lobster gnawing on a line arrow) and I couldn’t believe that first of all, he could find the line so quickly after it had been laid, and two, that nylon line might even taste good to a crab.
I tried to “swish” the crab off the line after realizing he might be trying to do me in by cutting my line, but he was not having it. He held on like dog to a T-bone, perfectly balanced there on the line. A couple of thumps on the head eventually coaxed him into dropping his meal and he quickly swam away with both claws waving behind to one side like a hula dancer. I think I could hear little crab curses in the distance as he hit a silt bank and disappeared in the muck.
I paid much more attention to the transition of the cave organisms from anchialine cave (inland type cave) to marine cave on the way out. Eventually the walls and formations regained their carpet of filter feeding critters and more crabs and lobsters were seen fleeing in all directions in response to my light.
I reached the entrance just as the tide went slack and a warm slug of greenish bank water began slowly siphoning into the cave for the six hour drop to low tide. The water was still clear enough to see the silhouettes of snappers and groupers lining up in the entrance above me to snack on food being brought to the mouth of the cave by the tide. Decompression raced by in the 82 degree water as red and green “stop light” parrot fish swam by in formation, more flying than swimming, with bird-like flaps of their pectoral fins. All together, 810 feet of line was placed in Reel Breaker Blue Hole today, bringing a total for this particular passage to 1,210 feet. Another amazing, albeit short exploration dive in the Bahamas!
Date: 5/13/09
Diver: Brian Kakuk
Location: Abaco Island, Bahamas
Site: Reel Breaker Blue Hole
Depth: 96
Time: 11:49
Bottom Time: 100
Water Temp: 78
Mode: O/C Side Mount
Gas: EAN 34 stage, EAN24 side mounts, with O2 Deco.
I went in with another full reel to see if I could push back past the end of the line in the black/decorated portion of the cave. I dropped an aluminum 80 stage cylinder of EAN 34 at about 500 foot penetration and continued on with side mounts of EAN 24. After passing two grinder restrictions, I got to the end of the line fairly quickly, with plenty of gas.
As soon as I tied on the new reel, I knew it would be slow going because even though I had arrived well before slack tide, there was very little water flow in the cave showing me where to go. I took two false starts, having to reel back each one before I finally found a slight flow about 200 feet from where I tied off the new reel.
The cave back here is very different from the passages leading up to it. There is a black coating (probably bacteria) covering everything and the silt is white and very flocculent. The small hole that showed some flow was in the eastern (left side looking in) of a large, highly decorated room. This hole was actually a small gap between a large section of breakdown and some floor boulders. Both the top and bottom pieces of the hole where covered with old, broken stalactites and stalagmites, but they were laying at odd angles, indicating that they had formed somewhere other than where they were laying now.
I was able to push through this “grill” of formations without having to remove a tank, but it took me a while, not because of the size of the hole, but because the formations were just at the right angles to catch every part of my equipment. Eventually I popped through the other side and was rewarded with a large room about 75 feet long and 40 feet wide.
I swam to the far end of the room and spent several minutes looking through a low, decorated bedding plane for some evidence of water flow. When I finally found it, I thought that the gap was small enough and my gas was low enough, that I would not attempt pushing any more on this dive. So not much in the way of laying line on this dive (about 320 feet), but at least the cave is still going. I cut the reel free and dropped an arrow on the line.
The trip back was nice and easy with a slight out flowing tide. I saw lots of small eels burying themselves in the silt on the way out of the dark section. I also noticed a local blue hole fish called a “spiny cheeked sleeper” in different parts of the cave. I have only seen this fish in open, inland blue holes before, so this makes me think that I may have found my way under land now rather than under a bay. The survey will tell more.
I got back to the entrance at 85 minutes bottom time and deco was warm and uneventful.
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