2005/01/16     Blue Springs State Park

It was cold, very cold... but worth every minute of it!  Blue Springs, the cave, kicked my butt... but the manatees were amazing.  JC, Ed, Tom, Stacey, Charlie and I were in the water for about 2 hours despite the 40 degree weather and 72 degree water. 

Ana who at the time was just 3 months pregnant, my parents & Sofia waited around and had lots of hot chocolate from the little gift shop.  They were great sports for standing the rainy, gray and very cold day! 

After the dive, I bought some light blue "manatee" socks for me and for my nice Ashley.  They were too cute to pass. 

These creatures are so docile, so caring, so incredibly gentle.... enjoy!  Click on the link below for all the pictures: http://www.tiswango.com/photos/2005/050116bluesprings

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

2004/01/11
Blue Springs State Park and Frolicking with Manatees by Matt Hoelscher

Photos:
Click here for the 40 best photos from Matt and William
http://tiswango.com/photos/040111bluebest/
Click here for all of Matthew’s photos
http://tiswango.com/photos/040111blue1/
Click here for all of William’s photos
http://tiswango.com/photos/040111blue2/



Sunday morning at 4 AM, the alarm on my watch wakes me from my highly anticipated shallow slumber. Andrea rolls out of bed and opens the guest bedroom’s door to go to the bathroom. Little did she know, she had set off the house alarm system.

WOOF................WOOF......woof..woof..woof.. barked Roxy, the 9 month old Rottweiler. Bedrooms on both sides of the house echoed an eerie, “Its ok Roxy, its ok.” After I talked Andrea out of the bathroom, fearing for her life, we packed and headed out at 5 AM. With only a long sleeve T-shirt on, the crisp, damp, morning air chilled my bone as waited for the heater to kick in on the car.

We met up with Charlie and Alicia at the 7/11 Citgo in Palm Bay. We arrived at Blue Springs State Park at 8:30 AM. When William called the ranger, he was told the park was filling up and forced to close as people were coming to see the 70 plus Manatees in the park. At the park, we turned over our C-cards and paid the $10 to dive.



At the park, we ran down to the swim platform to see the Manatees. Swimming opened at 1 PM, but you had to stay 50ft from the manatees at all times. We could get in to dive at a second opening to access the cave. After 1PM we could drift the river, through the protected areas and exit the swim platform. From the swimming area to the scuba entrance was a good 200 yards of boardwalk.



We set up our scuba rigs in the parking lot and made trips with the carts to drop them off at the steps to the water. We suited up and walked to the water. Georgia, one big manatee, hangs out at the stairs as she is starving for attention. Since its a $250 fine to swim within 50ft of the manatees, we couldn’t be in violation of the law if we are standing on the stairs with a cameras in the water? We were giddy with excitement, Andrea was so happy.



Conditions:
Air temp 37 morning, 69 afternoon
Water temp 72 degrees
Sunny



Imagine 2.25 times the flow of Ginnie coming out of a hole half the size of the Devil’s ear. That’s the flow at the base of the cave at Blue Springs State Park. I used to think the walk from the parking lot to Ginnie was bad, this dive with five people, required transportation logistics. We geared up on the stairs and made a hard right after entering the water for the 2ft deep area. The water was moving a good clip and we had another 50 yards to walk up river against the current to get to the spring entrance. Several spots along the way the water was deep enough that you couldn’t get enough traction to move forward. We had to zig zag to find ground to get there. This challenge added to the fun and the excitement of the day.



Up at the springs base there were two more manatees hanging out by the entrance to the cavern. As we prepared for our pre dive drills, I felt something on my leg, one of the manatees swam over and was leaning up against my leg! I leaned forward and began to swim in the 4ft of water. Our S-drills and valve drills became a game of dodge the manatee as they would not leave us alone. After our checks we reviewed the plan and headed down.





Dive 1: Blue Springs
10:57 AM
SI: 22:56
S: William, Andrea, Matt
A: 32%
D: 100ft plan, 115ft max
D: 30 minutes 36 minute rt
D: Floor
D: 60ft deep, 20/3 10/3
PSI: 3400 start 2500 end



Being neutral, the flow pushed me up to the surface. I left all the gas out of my wing and hovered with full doubles in the middle of the entrance. As William and Andrea descended, I pointed my head down and began to dive. Every time I went horizontal, I stopped with no need to add gas. At 60 ft William made a couple of big wraps around the “Go no further without Cave Training sign” and we continued down. The walls were off white and smooth. This was like no cave I had been in before. I was worked our way down, every 10-20 ft there were ledges on either side and a passageway that went 40ft or so horizontally. We continued down, William’s eagle eye spotted a couple of placements and I put a log on the line to keep it down. At the base of the cave there were several jagged edges to tie and lock the reel.



The floor was coarse rocky gravel of different colors. The crack in the center of the floor spewed water with such intensity you could feel the turbulence all over your body. After one lap around the floor looking at the interesting patterns the water carved into the rock, we turned the dive. I signaled for William to leave the reel in as I planned one or two more dives that day. We looked up at the entrance and thought we saw natural light, but it turned out to be Charlie’s HID shining down on us. I was kneeling in the gravel waiting for William to head out. He gestured at me, spoke through his regulator, and evenly knocked me upside the head to shake the narcosis out of me. I was supposed to lead the team out. Heading out was a challenge as the flow would grab your jetfins and flip you over.



Back at 60ft with the sign I laid down on one of the ledges out of the flow. I started down on one of the tunnels until it was too tight for me to get past with the doubles. The rock was all kinds of different shapes, colors and textures as it did not have direct contact with the water. We headed back and ascended to 40ft. I headed down another shaft and came back. As time was running out, we ascended to 20 ft and wedged ourselves in the corner for the safety stop. I was too narc’d to take pictures on the bottom, but I started shooting away up there. At 10ft we rested on a log and watched the two manatees meditate nose down in the bottom. We stirred up these tiny white limestone chips on the bottom and they were pouring out of the flow like popping popcorn. Andrea was covered in them by the end of the stop.



Andrea went back down to 10 ft and practiced her mask drills with William. I floated around and enjoyed the view. Wendy came as surface support and hung out at the observation platform. All the tourists were questioning what the heck we were doing down there and she was giving a play by play of a standard cave dive.



When William came up he mentioned, this cave was “Deep and Demanding!” William went on to say that he forgot this was where he did one of his first cavern dives with some old buddies. After the first dive, a female buddy mentioned this cave was deep and demanding and earned the nick name, “Debbie, deep and demanding Dallas”. I could see the memories replay in his eyes. He said in the old days, they dove this in single tanks and would take turns trying to swim across the flow at the bottom. Andrea just earned her Cavern “Plus” certification



I was happy to get an idea of how the cave went and strength of the flow. We ditched our gear on the beach and shot a few more manatee pictures. Then floated down the river to the stairs to make our exit. Alicia and Andrea needed to switch over to the second tanks and we all needed some lunch. There was a large crowd on the stairs admiring, filming and photographing Georgia the manatee.



In the parking, Alicia and Charlie doffed their wetsuits and put them on top of the car to solar pre-heat for the next dive. I put my dive parka over my 7 mil and was quite toasty. We had a nice picnic lunch followed by three rounds of Yerba Mate tea. We switched our tanks and got ready to make another dive.



Back at the stairs there was a huge crowd of people and several kids snorkeling and getting ready to get in the water. People were surrounding the manatees and playing with them. I was surprised none of the park rangers were patrolling the grounds. William and Wendy had many stories of people getting busted for interacting in this “protected” manatee area. We got back in the water and headed to the spring to find another gaggle of snorklers gathered around the other two manatees. As we passed I reminded the one adult that it was a $250 fine for being within 50ft of the manatees and he said, “Yes, I know.” With all the manatees gone, there was nothing to do but cave dive.



Dive 2: Blue Springs
1:56 PM
SI: 1:56
S: William, Matt, Charlie
A: 32%
D: 100ft plan, 115ft max
D: 30 minutes 31 minute rt
D: Floor
D: 60ft deep, 20/3 10/3
PSI: 2500 start 1400 end



We floated off our beached gear and doffed it in the water, putting on another show for the observers on the platform above. This time Andrea and Alicia would dive to 60ft and William and I would take Charlie down for a “Cavern Plus” dive. Going back the second time I decided I wanted to check out the ceiling at the top of the flow opening and play in the heart of the flow. Just forgetting about buoyancy made the dive a lot easier. I went parallel to the ledges and pulled myself down with the team. At 80ft, William and Charlie followed the line to the reel. I followed one of the small ledges near the top directly over the flow. The texture and color of the walls changed dramatically as the wall curved back around to my right. The rock just was not strong enough to contain this water. Debris from the bottom must break off and act as sandpaper smoothing more and more of the rock off. Every 10 feet or so the water circles back and creates the tunnels. On the ledges there were several small holes that looked like cup holders. It looked like somone had drilled them into the ledge. The holes were at different depths of completion from getting started to going all the way through the ledge.



My fleece hooded vest flared open catching the water like a sail and I could hear the water blowing. Sticking my head out I could feel my mask starting to lift off if I moved my head just right, my reg Apex reg breathed easy as it was ready to purge as I breathed. In my head I could hear Scottie from Star Trek saying, “Captain, she can’t take much more of this!”

I pulled myself over the ledge and out of the flow. I dropped to the floor with a thud. Then I swam directly into the heart of the flow. I shot up and started to tumble roll uncontrollably! I fell out of the flow again near William at the reel. I got on my knees, looked up and started laughing uncontrollably. I made the “hang loose” single with a couple of “Yee-haw's” through my reg. I was in a deep happy narc! Holding on to the rock by the flow I pushed my hand with a light down into the tunnel. I couldn’t hold the light still with the force of the water.

William checked his pressure gauge and I unclipped mine. I twisted to read it in the light and my jetfins went over the flow. The water lifting me off the bottom again and I did a couple more rolls before being tossed out again. I never let of my spg and literally “went with the flow.” Seeing I was working hard and laughing at depth, we gave the turn around and headed out. The water flow pushed us right out and would tilt you head first if you were not careful. William did a good job bringing in the reel. I noticed lots of carving of initials and phrases into the soft smooth rock. I can’t comprehend the purpose of doing such of thing. I would guess that its a tough guy thing among young locals to see who can go the deepest and leave their mark in the walls.



William flashed me before I undid the primary tie. I couldn’t figure out if he was having a problem, resting, or wanted to go in the tunnel at 70ft? It seemed to me it was a false flash and I pulled off the tie off and he secured the reel. We ascended to a large tunnel at 50ft and rested on the ledge. Andrea and Alicia were coming out of that tunnel with one diver on each side. After they exited, I signaled to go in. William pulled out his spg and signaled that he wouldn’t be going in, but that I could. Huh!?!, if a team member doesn’t have enough gas to go 40ft into a cavern, the rest of the team can go while he waits outside? I don’t think so. I gestured for William to go in again and he did the same song and dance. I knew the right answer to the problem, but this was comical so I signaled to go in again, and got the thumb back. There we go! That was the right answer. We shot some photos hovering at 20ft. At 10ft, there were some freedivers checking out the cavern and that was it.



After we surfaced I saw something in the distance on the river. 4 manatees were using their flippers to crawl up the flow and see us. Andrea and Alicia ran some more drills with William and I snapped more photos. Charlie and I had enough gas for another dive, but William didn’t. The manatees were so delightful we floated and played for 30 minutes. Then we decided that we would float down the river all the way to the swim area and exit there since it was 3 PM.



William and I took the lead and the four manatees swam after us and cut off the other three divers. At one point William and I grabbed a log to stop and we turned back to see 4 manatees on a collision coarse with us! We swam out of the way and grabbed a branch. Georgia put a flipper down and stopped as well in the middle of the fast flow. Once we grouped up, we continued down the river. Once we pasted the scuba divers entrance, the manatees stayed to play with the turons. As we floated we noted that there were more fish in the river. We saw several Longnose Gar, perch, mullet, and turtles. We had a good 10 minutes float down the river till we reached the swimming area. There were 15 or so manatees there and we had to play “dodge-a-tee” to get out without bothering any of them.



We exited onto the platform overlooking the swim area. There were 40 people or so packed on the platform. Questions started flying every which way. “Were we with the park service?” "What did we see?" “What was all our gear (Al80 doubles and canister lights)?” We tried to be polite as we ran away and headed back up to the cars to doff our gear with big smiles on our faces. I felt sorry for all the people that couldn’t do, what we just did, but don’t, because they don’t think they can.



We packed up the gear, took a COLD shower as there is no hot water, and we headed to the other end of the park where the spring run fed the river. There were canoes for rent on the beach. It was a great place to go for a paddle for a couple hours. There was one last pier overlooking 20-30 more manatees. We checked them out and shot a few more photos. William and I reached our max at over 200 photos and were deleting poorly focused shots to make room for a few more.



We headed home and stopped at Cracker Barrel along the way to break up the drive and feed our empty bellies with some comfort food. We dropped William off in WPB before 9 PM and we were home by 10:30 PM. It was nice being able to hand up our gear and not worry about rinsing the saltwater off of it. We looked through the downloaded photos in bed before passing out. This was an excellent 18 hour day logging 540 miles round trip from Hollywood Florida.



Map Blue Springs State Park map borrowed from www.floridacaves.com

Blue Springs State Park: http://www.floridastateparks.org/bluespring/default.asp