Week 2 of the 2009 Weeki Wachee Spring exploration season was just as successful as the first. 

The missions for this week were two-fold.  First, there was a familiarization dive, led by a seasoned Weeki Wachee exploration diver, for team members needing to enter the cave.  On this familiarization dive, a 2008 team member was able to safely and successfully enter and exit the Weeki Wachee cave system for the first time.  In his words, "it was amazing".

The second mission was the first working dive of the season.  This dive was performed by an open circuit team that was able to enter the cave with a safety bottle to be left in the Mermaid's Lair and install a float ball at 185' (just above Sheck's Folly).  This float ball will be used to hang decompression bottles so divers on longer dives can place their decompression gases at a more shallow depth (185') allowing them to start their decompression  further into the cave -- a safer distance from the cave exit.

We again want to thank the staff at Weeki Wachee, the Florida State Park system, the volunteers (one of which is Don Currie who took the picture above), and our sponsors for making this week's dives more successful than we could have hoped for. 

STAY TUNED: Week 3 will bring the first closed circuit mission dives of the season.

The first week of the 2009 Weeki Wachee diving season was successful in many ways.  In the middle of the week, KUR had a team of divers verify the integrity of the guidelines and re-aligned some of the abrasion protectors that had gotten shifted out of place.  They also confirmed the anchoring tie-off was still in good condition and in the cave, they relocated a rock to raise the downstream line to keep it from gouging a clay bank.  Divers reported that the visibility actually looked a little better than last year - a little less white hazy (but the haze is still there).

On Saturday we had familiarization dives for several new KUR divers.  They learned the "ins and outs" of Weeki Wachee.  We were all happy with their ability to navigate the natural hazards associated with Weeki Wachee's difficult entry and exit.

Lastly (on the diving front), a new piece of debris has been found at the bottom of the fissure leading to the cave.  This debris is a metal sign and will be extracted next week as it is a hazard to the safety of the divers. 

The image to the right show water levels we placed inside the theater during the 2007 exploration season.  From the picture to the left (taken by Becky Kagan of Liquid Productions), you can clearly see that the water level in the basin is already at the level it was during the last dive of the 2007 exploration season (7-14-2007).  One can also see how quickly the basin level raises after the rains begin (8-14-2007 & 8-28-2007).  It is bittersweet to be able to dive Weeki Wachee as it means that our aquifer is suffering horribly.

Many thanks go out to everyone at Weeki Wachee and the Florida State Park system for making this year's exploration project as easy as it has been so far.