The date was early August, 2007. The place was in the Ottawa River Caves under the Islands. There were four of us that day, crammed into the 13 foot aluminum fishing boat. The 15 horse power outboard thrummed to life while Marc and Tom cast off from the old wooden peer. My drysuited ass nestled into the worn section in the stern wooden seat between peeling red paint and dull aluminum. The boat caught into the current as I slipped the small craft around the pier and into the river pointing the nose upstream and gunning the engine throttle against the stop.
It's about a 15 minute ride, straddling a stack of tanks, fins and assorted dive gear. The day was nice and sunny. A great day to be out in a small boat, on the river, diving some good ol Ontario cave. We pull up to shore and disembark from the little boat electing to gear up in waist deep water. I remember not having to hand out all the tanks and that *surprise* I was first in the cave and I was solo diving. *sploosh*
Its dark, very dark. 10 feet of tea water vis. Its also deeper here than the other main cave section, averaging 25 feet deep. The main tunnel goes a long ways, 5000 feet or something from one end to the other. My dive objective this time was to head up to the crossover into a section of the biggest cave here. In this section, the cave is 100 feet wide and I have ever been there yet. I find the cross tunnel and find the big stuff, but I am getting short on time so I turn around poking into all the little nooks and crannies on the way back. Of which there are many but only one 'goes'.
Its that one that 'goes' that life got interesting. I hit the T on the way out at about 80 minutes run time. I'v been down here before and I know it only goes 100 or so feet with the 20 feet I added last time. It probably goes another 20 feet with some bottle removal. Its a small tunnel and quite silty but it is also a very nice tunnel with stratification in the limestone layers of different colours and forming some texture on the walls. It's also small enough that you can see the whole cave which is a nice treat for Ontario.
So there I am, tanks about 1/2 way done, 50 feet into a smallish, silty passage. Did I mention the line in here is 10 year old, #18 survey line? This is important because in the low vis on the way out you need to be in contact or near contact with the line at all times. Since I was on the way out at the time, I was loosely ok'ing the line when I guess I gave it a small tug as I rounded a bit of a corner. Vis was about 3 feet and silty at the time and the line parted. I can still see that line shooting off into the silt in both directions like its in slow motion. The line basically just shot off like an elastic and disappeared in a blink of an eye.
*zip* gone.
That was a bit heart thumping, let me tell you. Well, before I had a chance to think about anything I referenced the cave and got my self oriented and solidly referenced. Then my brain caught up to my instincts and holleeeeeee shit. I had my safety spool 1/2 out of my pocket already and I just paused mid movement. Holeeeeee shit. Brain started firing on about 10 more cylinders than I have to fire and about 50 irrational thoughts went flying around my pea sized brain. Most of them went like this.
"Line gone, your fucked, swim like hell and get out of here"
Which is basically exactly what not to do of course. So I hung there, solidly referenced and some part of my self control rooted me in the spot for a few moments. Only the cave will know how long I waited there for stupid thoughts to loose to reason. I can tell you it felt like an eternity. Eventually training, experience and logic came though and got me moving in the right way. I secured my safety spool and reasoned out the 'best' course of action to find the line. Since I am aware of the gave geometry I elected to follow the general trend of the left wall for about 70 feet (14 knots - your safety spool IS knotted right?) until the cave opened up then sweep right which should land me solidly on the 'gold' line out of here. Which it did. Things went exactly as planned and I was on the gold line kicking out of the cave in a couple of minutes and broke the surface by the boat with crap loads of time.
It kept me out of the water for a few weeks though circumstance mostly, but I did turn down a pair of diving opportunities before I get back in there for an 'easy' dive.
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