Exped FE Janvier 2007

"FONT D'ESTRAMAR SPRING"

INTERNATIONAL EXPEDITION JANUARY 2007

-190m (624 ft) 800 meters from the entry

(Click on any thumbnails to enlarge the photos)

Topography of the multiple galleries

Jean Luc Armengaud (France) "Lord of the spRing" for the last two years, he has repaired the first 400m of line in the cave.

For Jerome's decompression at -12m he transformed an unused wheelie bin into a proper decompression habitat with a deliberate constant small leak which allows CO2 created to be evacuated from the enclosure, whilst keeping a constant air volume within.

Friday 19th of January, Jean-Luc installed the habitat alone at -12m, furnishing it with:

2 x 6 lit of air to rinse periodically the habitat + 1 x 12 lit of air with a regulator (air breaks)

+ 2 x 18 lit of oxygen

+ a basket containing: food, drink, an inflatable pillow and a communication slate.

Eric Sormani (Switzerland) CCR Dolphin-KISS, staged for Jerome:

15 litres 50/50 at 21m (backup) + 11 lit 40/60 at 30m (backup) and the second scooter of Jerome at 150m into the cave.

Jerome Meynie (France), Closed Circuit Rebreather Ouroboros-VPM-Spectrum + VR3-VPM as a backup,

using two Silent submersion: a UV26 (from 0 to 500m distance inside the cave) and a UV27 NiMh Deep Version (picked at 150m; used from 500 to 700m)

drysuit CF200 DUI, undersuit 400gr thinsulate DUI, and Xerotherm Artic 4th Element.

Starting at 11:30am he took on board: 2 litres of diluent Heliox 6/94 and 2 litres of oxygen +

off board: 4 litres of Air (for the drysuit) + 3 litres O2 (backup) + 20 litres 6/94 (backup and wing) + 20 litres 12/88 (backup) + 11 litres 23/77 (backup).

View of the cave entry from the pool at -6m.

Descent between -10m and -18m.

Left hand option gallery at -9m leading to the South Gallery.

The main route to the deep shaft is found by following the white electric cable, sometimes appearing grey or brown due to the sediments on it.

The first 500m of the cave is a succession of cross-roads and shafts where it's very important to stay focussed to avoid following an incorrect line leading to a wrong gallery.

Arriving at the beginning of the deep shaft "Puit du Loukoum géant" Jerome abandoned the UV26 and continued descending with the UV27 NiMh deep version (double body thickness).

The descent comprised of many small shafts with passages between them of different lengths, all of which makes it difficult to reach a desired descent speed of 20m/min.

Visibility was 20m up to -120m, then diminished to 5-10m below, due to a possible mix of salt and non salt water, and/or cold and hot water. The spring of Font d'Estramar, like the spring of Port Miou, probably has deeper galleries at the old level of the Mediteraneen sea which was 300m lower one million years ago. Thus, the water in Font d'Estramar is a mix between salt water, coming at a deep level from the sea, and non-salt water, coming from the land through the limestone.

After 45 minutes (+/- 850m), Jerome arrived at -186m to a concave floor within a room of 5-6m in diameter. He saw two galleries of possible access:

a left gallery (on his left when descending) was investigated by scootering 20 meters in, whilst staying at the same depth. There was no obvious flow of water. He returned swimming to re-reel the line, the Ouroboros CCR did not show any WOB (work of breathing) increase.

Back to base at -186m, the exploration was then done on the right hand gallery. Jerome went through two rooms with concave floors at different depths (-189m et -187m). He arrived at the beginning of a new shaft where he descended to -190m (with a visibility of 5-10m down). He deliberately moved the silt on the wall to find out that it was the active passage as the flow of water moved upwards.

Jerome has spent 5min 45seconds between -186m and -190m, and his Total Time to Surface was now showing as 11hours. As such, he decided to turn back and continue the exploration another day.

At -190m the temperature shown by the Ouroboros and the VR3 was 19 degrees celcius whereas during the first 500 meters of the cave between the entry and -50m it read 18 d.c. It's difficult to know if there is really a thermocline or if it's a possible effect of inaccuracy or a rounding up of the temperature sensors. Other shallow (-30m) parts of the caves are know to go up to 22 celcius degrees.

At -172m Jerome had an astonishing encounter of a little shrimp with white eyes and translucent body. It was 2-3 cm length and was swimming in open water. After further investigations it seemed to be a "Typhlatya arfeae", more information about it on: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2005.00175.x?cookieSet=1&journalCode=zoj

-158m first VPM decompression stop, one minute every 3 meters.

from -92m deco stop going up to two minutes every 3 meters.

-90m "The ghost cloud": still in a crystal clear water, Jerome saw passing upward by his side a big cloud of silt, possibly some silt that was stagning on a roof of a gallery and had been detached by the exhaled bubbles of the rebreather on his way up.

At -50m Jerome's took back the 'UV 26 and flew back through the last 500m following the "up and down slow variations" of the cave profile, leaving to the Ouroboros-VPM algorithm to adapt the decompression.

Jerome enjoyed the way back, soaking in the geological diversity, created by millions of years of water alternating with air to carve the walls of the cave.

He found some layers of "Marne", black in colour, on a brown-yellow limestone background.

In addition, there were layers easily breakable by hand, which are the result of chemical reactions between the rocks and the salt and non-salt water but also from water of different temperatures coming from different parts of the cave, and of course organic maters drained from the surface where the "corbieres" vineyards lie:

Pete Muholland (England) visited Jerome at around -33m to retrieve Jerome's two scooters, two 20's and one 11 litre tank.

Eric Sormani was in and out of the water like a yo-yo visiting Jerome underwater delivering him food and hot drinks and taking back on surface all the parameters of the dive to share with the team.

Jerome then had the bad idea to drink some hyper-calorific orange-peach juice at -18m. When ascending to his next stop he experienced some nausea, and at -15m he vomited, (1/5 in the RB and 4/5 feeding the cave fishes).

After 6 hours in the water without problems on the Ouroboros rebreather, Jerome spent 5 hours in the decompression habitat, alternating 25 minutes on pure oxygen and 5 minutes air break all on open circuit. At the same time of the air break a "habitat" break was done by flushing with fresh air the inside of the decompression habitat, therefore keeping it breathable in case of an hyperoxic crisis, or a CO2 hit.

The inside temperature of the habitat was 21 degrees celcius, 3 degrees higher than the surrounding water temp. It was the perfect temperature for a snooze, helped by a shoulder-neck inflatable pillow.

The surface chief "cook" sent Jerome for lunch a "Tomatoe & Basil Rice" and for dinner a "Poule au Pot". All of which was washed down with 500ml of water per hour to help his desaturation. For dessert, and for hypercalory intake, he had some concentrated chestnut cream. Something you will not find in the UK only in France!

You can imagine Jerome's surprise when a little Eel came between his legs inside the habitat. It must have been attracted to the light from his own dark waters.

At the end of the decompression time Jean-Luc helped Jerome to exit the habitat and to go back to the surface from -12m at a speed of 3 minutes per meter on pure oxygen.

Jean Luc came back down to remove alone the habitat and recover the nearly empty oxygen and air tanks used by Jerome.

Jerome exiting at 22h30, without any problems and very (very) happy.

The exploration of Font d'Estramar is to be continued .... as we now have a better idea of where the water flow comes from! Possible future samples taken at deep depth could also indicate if the salt in the water is coming from inland (geological residu) or from the sea (deep connections with the Mediteraneen sea, at 200m on surface, but used to be 300m lower million years ago).

"I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises" Neil Armstrong

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