Photos (c) 2002-2003 Rose Yates, Jerome Meynie, Xavier Meniscus, Moritz Scheibler
INTERNATIONAL DEEP CAVE DIVING FILM
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Project leaders and Deep cave divers:
Dr Jerome Meynie (UK) (-178m)
Xavier Meniscus (France) (Fils d'Ariane team) (-122m) (previous terminus -143m)
Deep cave divers:
Olivier Rodel (Switzerland) (-85m)
Safety and support cave divers:
David Bianzani (France) (Fils d'Ariane team)
Laurent Yllare (France) (Fils d'Ariane team)
Jean-Claude Ancelin (France) (Fils d'Ariane team)
Arthur Halgrain (France) (Fils d'Ariane team)
Nicolas Febvay (France) (Doc Adventure team)
Alexandre Pourgeoise (France) (Doc Adventure team)
2nd of May Underwater Video footages:
Moritz Scheibler (Germany)
Many thanks also for their visit and help to:
Michael Waltz (Switzerland)
Arno Muritz (Switzerland)
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Many thanks to my girlfriend Rose Yates for her psychological support through this adventure.
Many thanks to my friend Xavier Meniscus for giving me the opportunity to dive that fantastic cave.
And finally, many thanks to ALL the team, it's their exploration not only mine !
The goal of the expedition was for further exploration where open circuit and swimming were no longer an option.
The US Navy Mk15.5 CCR and deep underwater UV-26 Silent Submersion Scooter became the choice weapons of 'mass depth'.
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Jerome tested all Swagelock connectors, practiced again and again his CCR skills and did some video footage of the cave with Moritz.
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All tanks were analysed through the Pick O2 and Helium Analyser kindly provided by International Technologies Dr Gambert; exploring at such deep depth, it was very important to know the percentage of O2 in each tank, and also the percentage of Helium, because some of the tank have been used in the "Source de la Marnade" previous expedition and had just been topped off with O2 and/or He..
Olivier Rodel decided to explore the shallow gallery starting on the top of the main shaft; due to the narrowness of the passage, reaching -19m he removed his twin back tanks, and just pushed forward a twin (home made) aluminium 11 litres; Jerome observing the situation:
"I saw Olivier disappeared in a just human size narrow gallery, a cloud of silt following him, being myself in no vis I made my way back, thinking that he was really nuts !"
Olivier successfully explored 50 meters of new gallery going slightly up to -16m; he made his way back in no vis moving carefully his body backwards.
The day went on, Jerome and Rose finishing at the last minute the construction of a reel with 210m of 5mm blue line tagged and labelled every 10 meters.
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Early Sunday morning all the gear was prepared:
David and Laurent installed our technical habitat:
Jerome prepared the B50 "Narguilé", and the Silent Submersion scooter was left in-standby in the pond:
Nico and Alex went staging some decompression tanks:
Xavier went first staging the scooter and some tanks at -120m:
Olivier in stand by with his SCR:
10h30 "Time for rock'n'roll"
After warming up the Spherasorb-sodalime for 5 minutes Jerome made his way into the water, entering the mouth of the cave:
Nicolas helped him to go through the -11m narrowness, Jerome started with 4 stage tank: 2 x 20 lit (250b) 7/85 (7% O2 85% Helium) and 1 x 18 lit (250b) of 25/45 for the descent and decompression; and a 3 lit (330b) of Argon to inflate his Otter drysuit.
The first 50m involved crawling under a very low ceiling between -12m and -21m.
Then the first shaft:
10h45 "Deep Meeting"
In the shaft at -40m Jerome met Xavier who was on his way up following his decompression, Xavier signalled to Jerome that he had successfully accomplished his mission: the Silent Submersion scooter was waiting at -110m, and he had placed two stage tanks: a 20 lit (250b) of 11/70 for decompression at -120m, and 5 meters downstream in the gallery a 20 lit (250b) of 7/85 at -122m.
10h48 "Switch to deep gas"
At -57m Jerome abandoned the 18 lit of 25/45 and switched carefully to his 20 lit stage tank (off-board gas) of 7/85 (using Swagelock Connectors QC6); the in-board gas of the rebreather: a 3 litres inconel sphere of 7/93 being kept as a safety tank in case of off-board tank failure.
Then Jerome continued his descent through the different shafts and chicanes arriving to the 80m gallery where he had to swim gently for 20m before descending in the narrow 80m shaft:
10h58 "My favourite Toy"
Reaching the bottom of the -80m => -110 shaft Jerome found the Silent Submersion scooter left by Xavier ready for a ride:
After less than one minute scootering in the -110m deep and 50m long gallery Jerome reached the second deep narrow shaft, this one going from -113m to -120m proved to be a bit more tricky: narrow and slightly in spiral, obliging to change of position through the descent, another minute to do so.
11h01 "Here start the long path"
"Bottom of the shaft (250m from the entry) I found at -120m attached on the line the 20 litres of 11/70 for my return decompression, and 5 meters away (to avoid confusion) in the gallery the 7/85 stage tank. Xavier did his job perfectly I couldn't ask for a better aid ! Here I was ready for a long deep ride using my Mk15.5 Close Circuit Rebreather (set point Ppo2 1.0 bar), backed-up with three 20 litres at 250b of 7/85 staged on my side in neutral position (light weight of the tanks and high Helium content)"
"At 11h03 I flew away pulled forward by the Silent Submersion"
" The gallery was 3-4m large but 1m50 high, even less in some parts, I had to navigate carefully to avoid banging the ceiling, glad to be wearing a helmet ! The visibility being a bit foggy [10-15 meters maximum] ; having to keep a streamline profile scootering position, the propeller of the scooter had to be near the floor - highly risking moving the silt."
"I could follow Schneider's metallic-electrical line on the left side of the gallery, observing also the geology of the floor: long steps going very slowly deeper, it seems to never end; I was thinking about Xavier's January Dive when he did all of that just swimming and using open circuit, I was very impressed !"
11h09 "Xavier January 2003 Terminus"
"From -130m (old 1985 J. Schneider terminus) I had to follow the well known Xavier's red 2 mm line"
"After 6 minutes I reached the end of the red line 450m from the entry. My VR3 wrist trimix computer showed -145m, my Uwatec Depth Gauge showed -148m; Xavier in January was using a first generation Uwatec Aladin (little screen) and had -153m."
"I attached my 5mm blue line to the head of the rock, and checked my secondary display where all three IT Dr Gambert O2 cells were perfectly showing 1.1 bar Ppo2. Two stages of 7/85 were still showing 250b, and the one connected the CCR showed 240b."
11h10 "The Last Frontier"
"Time to go in the unknown, very concentrated, I scootered forward pulling my reel still in a 2m50 wide 1m50 high gallery with a floor containing marine fossils; unfortunately two times due to the low ceiling I banged the Mk15.5 back cover, praying that the Plexiglas dome of the scrubber wouldn't fail!"
"Scootering in speed 6 of the Silent Submersion put one of my Jetstream Poseidon second stage into a little free flow, I had to reposition him on the stage tank properly head facing backwards. Reaching -156m, the Over Pressure Valve fixed on the first stage of my DS4 Apex of my 3 litres went into a slow free flow, I guessed that the 16.6 bars ambient pressure had trigger the opening mechanism of the OPV; I didn't worry too much having still 120b in it"
"In that long deep gallery I had to stop two times to go through some chicane-little-1m-deep shaft and change of direction, carefully placing the line for the way back, the visibility turning to 5 meters"
"At -172m I heard a BANG wondering what a hell was going on and stopped to investigate: all my JMD 50 watts xenon lights were working well, the Mk15.5 CCR giving me perfect gas through the loop ... investigating my left stage tank I found that the Beuchat (submarine model) SPG was half full of water and was loosing very slowly some gas."
"I switched off the tank and plugged the Swagelock Connectors to another tank."
"I continued forward still in a long gallery, and still no shaft !"
11h15 "Should I go or should I stay"
"Arriving at -177m (VR3) -178m (Uwatec Depth Gauge) another Chicane-little-shaft was facing me ... raising a few questions:
1) I was at 42 minutes on my run time and I had calculated my back-up tables for 40 minutes 200m max.
2) 3 litres OPV still in free flow and at 40b : /
3) If I would need to go back in open circuit, how was the broken SPG going to behave ?
4) The geology of the cave (long galleries) didn't really give me any hope for an approaching downward shaft.
"I took then the decision to drop the reel in a little crevasse and to turn back"
11h16 "Flying back in the Fog"
"I tuned the Silent Submersion scooter to speed 8, and flew back, unfortunately the vis had turn to 2-3m and was no good for video footage ! it was a shame because the ISD Housing was still working well even at 18 bars ambient pressure !"
"The beauty of the Silent Submersion is that you can drive it from whatever hand, on my way back I used my left hand: because even if the electronic of my Mk15.5 CCR was keeping my set point Ppo2 at 1.0 bar I decided to fly back manually at 1.2-1.3 bars injecting oxygen at some intervals with my right hand."
11h23 "First Deep Stop"
"The way back seems to be a never-ending journey, even in speed 8 it took me 7 minutes to reach my unusual first deep decompression stop at -132m. Two minutes at that depth felt like 10 minutes. At that stop I raised manually my Ppo2 to 1.5 bars"
"Finishing that deco stop (Total Time to Surface was going up ! 423min instead of 409min), I flew to the bottom of the first shaft at -120 and switched to the 11/70 trimix decompression gas, I made my way up, feeling bulky now with four 20 litres and a scooter in the narrow spiral shaft"
11h31 "Second Deep Stop"
"Reaching the -110m 50m long gallery it was time for my second deep stop, I decided to scooter the gallery to the bottom of the next shaft, keeping this time the Ppo2 around 1.4 bars"
"From -110m 1 minute stops followed every 3 meters, a PpO2 from 1.4 bars going down to 0.8 bar before each next gas switch."
"At -88m I could see the beam of Olivier's HID light from the -80m gallery, being a bit late on my schedule Olivier had been waiting for me since 17 minutes, fortunately on his passive SCR that didn't cost him too much gas ! At -80m I gave him all the parameters of my dive and two of my 20 litres stage tanks plus the scooter to take up, after shaking his hand he went up and I continued my slow decompression ascent."
Time goes on ... and on ...
"At -54m I switched to the 25/45 trimix decompression gas, keeping the Ppo2 for 5 minutes at that stop to 1.6 bars"
"At -40m Nico arrived with my heating tube, I plugged it on my suit, and the heat diffused; I gave Nico the 20 litres of 7/85 to take up after another hand shake ; )"
"At -36m I switched to the 35/35 trimix decompression gas (telling 35/20 to the VR3 to avoid being too much penalised by the Helium content), keeping again the Ppo2 for 8 minutes at that stop to 1.6 bars. The -39m deco stop was left on purpose going down to 0.2 bars, giving then time to my lungs alveoli to rest before going on high oxygen concentration"
"At -25m Alex arrived with the bag of goodies including: A Gameboy in a waterproof transparent bag, energetic food and isotonic drinks, book ..."
"At -21m I switched to the 50/25 trimix decompression gas (telling 50% to the VR3 to avoid being too much penalised by the Helium content), keeping again the Ppo2 for 12 minutes at that stop to 1.6 bars, the -24m deco stop was left on purpose going down to 0.2 bars."
"Reaching -19m I was back in the shallow gallery and David came to keep me company and take back a few tanks."
"At -15m Arthur appeared and we had a chat using the wet notes"
"At -12m Nico and Alex gave me a hand to pass the narrowness, I was still carrying a 18 litres of 50/25 and a 20 litres of 11/70 for flushing at low Ppo2 my lungs before going on high Ppo2"
"At -9m, my last stop on 50/25 there followed 10 minutes on 11/70 at a Ppo2 of 0.2 on the CCR, Jean-Claude keeping an eye on me."
Troubles ...
"Going slowly up from -9m to -6m I had to stop at -7m because I felt a little pain (1/5) on my left Biceps and left Quadriceps muscles, I went back to -9m and the pain disappeared, it seems to proved that it was a DCI, I spent another 20 minutes at -9m on 50/25 raising manually the Ppo2 to 1.5 bar"
"Going back up to -6m wasn't a problem, the pain didn't show up"
3 Hours looking at the sky - feeling like a goldfish in a bowl !
"There then followed three long hours where I was alternating with 20 minutes on O2 on open circuit through a Narguilé (long hose linked to the 50 litres O2 on surface) and 5 minutes on Air (also a 10 lit open circuit tank) ... time passed eating, drinking, reading a bit my Jack Higgins book and chatting with the ever-appearing safety divers [some of which I didn't recognise!!!]. To spend long time with me they decided to use passive SCR, some of them even for the first time: David, Xavier, Nico ..."
"Rose sent me also some lovely support message on a slate, fortunately in English so no one else could understand ; ) "
" Due to the narrowness of the cave we couldn't install a proper habitat, but a typical inverted single French bin was used. Not feeling cold with my Fourth Element Xerotherm underwear (leggings, top and socks) and the Otter Artic Deluxe 300 undersuit I stayed most of the time in the water; I just made an attempt in the bin to eat a French Pain Au Chocolat not without some difficulties !"
Here comes the pain again
"Finishing my 6 meter stop I went up to -5m for 2 minutes listening to my body. Again, at -4m 2 minutes stop still on oxygen. 3m became an issue because the Quadriceps pain (2/5) came back"
"Followed by David and Laurent I went back to -6m, did a 5 minutes air break, and spent another 45 minutes on oxygen"
"Some Aspirin and Voltaren were taken to me from the surface to lower the risk of pain going up later on"
"I spent 4 minutes at every meter going up from -6m to the surface, I stopped at -1.5m feeling just lightly the pain (0.5/5) in my Biceps and Quadriceps muscles"
21h30 Exiting at Last !
"Upon reaching the surface all the team were there; a bit worried, but I was feeling good. I stayed on oxygen for another half an hour. I didn't do any effort that evening, I tried to drink water as much as possible, and listened carefully and objectively to my body, but I had no signs of pain or a DCI."
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"I woke up at 7am with heavy pain (4/5) in my left knee, (2/5) in my left Quadriceps, (2/5) in my left Biceps, and pins and needles in my left hand; the decision was taken to go to the Decompression Chamber on D50 Heliox table for 8 hours ..."
D50 Heliox table:
15 min -50m 40/60 (40%O2, 60% He)
25 min -30m 60/40 (60%O2, 40% He)
30 min -30m -> -25m 60/40
30 min -25m 60/40
30 min -25m -> -18m 60/40
90 min -18m O2 (22/78 break every 30 min)
30 min -18m -> -9m O2
180 min -9m O2
30 min -9m -> surface
"Emerging after the 8 hours in the recompression chamber my knee was back to normal, but the left arm was still a little bit painful (1/5) and the pins and needles still very diffused in my left hand."
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"Waking up, the left arm was still a little bit painful (1/5) and the pins and needles still present in my left hand, another 8 hours on D50 was waiting for me"
"Coming out of the chamber I felt better regarding the pain but unfortunately a respiratory inflammation caught me ! I spent the next 24h in my bed with Flu."
"The pins and needles persisted until Monday the 12 of May where I was again recompressed on US Navy table 5 (2h1/2 O2 from -18m to surface) and then all the symptoms disappeared"
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EPILOGUE
We learned a lot through the Goul du Pont 2003 Expedition, more conservatism is required for the unknown territory of the hyperbaric science frontier, more technical tools will be used to make it even more safe. Next time we will use:
Two or three Rebreathers
Two deep rated scooters instead of one
Cut tables Decoplaner GF 20/60 instead of GF 20/100
VR3 safety factor 10 or 20 % conservatism instead of 0%
VR3 pre-programmed gas 50/25 and 35/35 instead of pre-programmed 50% and 35/20
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EXPEDITION STATISTICS
World Deepest Distance covered between -120m and -178m: 310m
Deepest dive: -178m
Longest distance: 560m
Longest time underwater: 11 hours
Total hours of CCR/SCR dives: 20 hours
Longest time used of Spherasorb sodalime in 13 deg water: 7 hours
Using a CCR made the volume of gas used as:
600 litres of 7/85 used (30 bars of one 20 litres tank)
200 litres of 11/70 used (10 bars of one 20 litres tank)
540 litres of 25/45 used (30 bars of one 18 litres tank)
216 litres of 35/35 used (12 bars of one 18 litres tank)
270 litres of 50/25 used (15 bars of one 18 litres tank)
300 litres of in board O2 used (100 bars of one 3 litres tank)
Sponsored by:
Copyright 2002-2006 by Dr Jerome Meynie. All rights reserved. Revised: 09 Apr 2006 09:33:22 +0100.
