Training >
Ressel (May 2003)
Latest update: September 8, 2007
Brus is placing his equipment in the river, ready to go for the next morning. Near him stands a Gavin scooter with a bed strapped on it, to take to the bivouac room.
Gertjan Verhoef: Support
Participants at this event were; Reinhard Buchaly, Hervé Deschamps, Brus, Wido van de Langemheen, Harmen Thys Nieuwenhuis and myself, Gertjan Verhoef.
Goal of this weekend was to get some practice, and for the new ones, to get to know the cave.
Early in the morning we met at the local restaurant and had breakfast. Everybody arrived at night or in the morning, so a cup of coffee and a croissant were welcome! After the meal we had a little briefing where everybody discussed plans for the thursday.
Hervé and Brus decided to do the "deep loop" on their RB80s and Reinhard told Wido and me that he would show us the important places in the cave during a two stage dive. After this we would know the several routes toward the deep part, where to place the oxygen, the 50% and the 36 meter stuff. But first we had to go to the camping site to set up the tent and prepare for the dive.
At 14.00 we arrived at the dive site, which was everything I didn't expect. A murky river with somewhere inside a cave entrance. Also the path to the water promissed a lot of fun, small gravel on a fairly steep hill.
After some time we had all of our equipment down, and we doffed our gear. Reinhard showed us the way to the entrance, scootering at the surface. Just as we would decent, my light failed. $#%*#$&#* !! Why does this always happen on an important dive, and never during training in a lake. Luckily I always have a spare lighthead in the car, so out of the gear and hurry to get the other light. After a few minutes I joined Reinhard and Wido again, so we could go. After a few meters Reinhard pulled his wetnotes and wrote to us where to put the oxygen. This happened several times more till we knew al the spots in the cave.
This is Wido, our favorite surface manager. We stayed at our usual camping site, 2 km away from the dive site.
At the end we headed for the deep part, and took a look around the corner. After 64 minutes we ascended again, WOW. What a nice dive. Because the other guys were doing a much longer dive, we had the time to walk our gear up and load everything in the car. We decided to have a barbeque at the dive site as soon as the others arrived.
Except for calling the mayor at 21.00 because one of our chargers blew a fuse, nothing happened that night.
The friday was a "day off" for the three rebreather divers, because they had to rest and prepare themselves for the big dive on saturday. More about that later.
Wido, Harmen and I planned a dive in the deep part. Entering the cave on 50%, placing the oxygen and then a 10 minute ride to the 21 meter point. Switching the 50% for an alu80 with 17/55 and down into the shaft, entering the deep part. A few minutes after arriving in the deep section, Wido turned the dive. His scooter became slower, which is very unusual. He took a lift from Harmen, who pulled him out of the cave. Later on the surface we learned that the batteries from Wido's scooter were not fully charged, due to the broken fuse. This alarmed Reinhard, and he checked the other batteries immediately. They were all fine, so luckily an isolated problem. Later that day I did two dives with Harmen to set up the decompression bottles at 21 and 33 meter.
During these dives the rebreather divers placed their gear for the next day in the water. After all this we decided to have a barbeque at the dive site. Wido volunteerd to sleep next to the gear that night, and I decided to join him.
Saturday, 6.00 in the morning. Something made me awake. It was the cars of the breather guys, who were coming down already. They suited up and donned their gear. Final check, and let's rock.
Brus stands by his rebreather. He is discussing equipment setup with Harmen.
After about 3,5 hours we saw some bubbles coming out of the cave, and no one else entered after them….. problems? After checking everything was fine, Brus called the dive after his scooter 'ate' some line. The removing of this took so long, he used too much gas to continue.
In the afternoon I did a dive with Harmen in the deep part, and also one with Hervé and Wido. This system doesn't get me bored at all. ;-)
In the evening we had a - guess what - barbeque! During these barbeques we discussed all aspects of diving and cave diving in particular.
After a long drive I arrived at home at 0:45. My alarmclock would wake me at 5.30 but is was worth it. Now we are already talking about getting back there to see some more of this stunning system.
Hervé at the Ressel last year. No picture of him this year since he was hiding... Of course he has changed these horrible green knobs with proper sherwood rubber ones!
Hervé Deschamps: S1, 29th May 2003
After a short night of sleep, Brus and I decided to warm-up with a RB dive in S1. The idea was to do the loop, shallow route first, then back through the deep way (80m) in a figure of 8.
This was a short dive so we only took deco gases for 6m and 21m, one stage with 80m trimix and our double 20 liter tanks as backgas with the RB80 in between.
As soon as we reached the cavern zone where we dropped our 6m bottle we were greeted with a visibility of 15m plus. That made the way to the shaft very comfortable. When we reached the second -21m point we disconnected our trimix 50/25 from the rebreather and plugged in the 80m trimix. We left the 21m bottle there and started the cool part of the dive.
Visibility was at least 25 meters. The cave was spectacular. I never noticed before that there is so much detail on the walls. It is like it has been sculpted by an artist. The diameter of the tunnel is impressive too. I'd reckon it averages 15 meters until we get to the shortcut after 900 meters. While one person was on the line (or at least one of the lines). I was Scootering the other side of the tunnel when possible. This is best done with a third person who stays in between in order not to have too much distance between the divers. With the combined power of our 18W HID lights it was quite a sight!
Then instead of turning left to go the deep route, we went straight into the shortcut. At this point the cave goes up 10 meters and shrinks into a roundish tunnel not much more than 2 meters in diameter. 100 meters later it drops down and links to the main tunnel. When we reached that point Brus was first and I was second. Brus made a visual jump onto the main line and went right, that is back towards the entrance through the deep route. I started to follow but for some strange reason there was hesitation in the team. None of us really knew this cave. What we were seeing did not really match the descriptions we got before the dive. And I do not like visual jumps and multiple lines. Not good when the shit hits the fan.
So I called the dive and we went back the way we came. Again enjoying the size of the passage after the shortcut. The way back is always too short. When we got to the bottom of the shaft we had 50 minutes of bottom time. Maximum depth 68 meters. So since the average depth was 50 meters we did about an hour of eventless decompression plus a little travel time through the shallow tunnel and we were greeted with a team who had everything ready for a surprise BBQ!
Reinhard walking his rebreather to the water. Probably the hardest part of the dive...
Brus: Ressel S1 with the Murphys, 31st May 2003.
Everything was setup the day before and we started very early in the morning. At 5:45 am we arrived at the dive side and thank God, we were the first divers this day. We got in our drysuits and stepped down in the river, where our three RB80s had a good night on the "Rentner-Tische" in the river Celé.
Since last year one backup-light from Micha got legs over night, we were a little bit affraid, but our dutch-security Gertjan and Wido did an excellent job. Thank you again guys!!!
We got in our rigs and after a bubble-check we started the dive on the Trimix 50/25 scootering against the river current to the cave entrance in the middle of the river Celé in 6m depth. The river was very muddy, but around the cave entrance the vis cleared up 5m. Reinhard entered the cave first, Hervé and I followed him with 2 meters distance.
After about 100 m in the cave my 18 W HID went off. Hervé stopped at once
and I checked the HID while he gave me light. I found out, that the HID went off,
when the cord got in a special position. Mr. Murphy had arrived. It was time to
call the dive, since I had only a halogen-head with E/O as backup and so I didn't
had enough burntime for the whole dive.
Reinhard checked the HID also. After
some seconds, he pulled out his backup-18 W HID head an attached it on my lightcanister.
It worked perfectly and we continued the dive. Thank you for that again Reinhard.
We arrived at the edge of the shaft to the deep section. Now we changed from the Trimix 50/25 to the "deep-gas" Trimix 18/65 and picked up our backup scooter and the deco gas for the far side. The equipment had been placed the previous night by Wido, Gertjan and Harmen. It was perfectly positioned in 3 separate bouquets: one for each diver, spaced about 1.5 meters from each other. Really good job here!
Hervé was watching, when I did the change. Good to have an attentive buddy. But when he opened his stage with the "deep-gas" and the gas came out of the pressure gauge (swivel). Mrs. Murphy was still with us.
Now it was my job to give Hervé light, while he changed the
regulators. He did a good job, but it takes some time. With all these stops we
needed 55 minutes to reach the deep section.
We flew with our stages and
backups scooter. Now the relaxed part of the dive started.
All the gear is ready to go for the next day. It's time for the BBQ and a relaxed evening.
We reached 900m, where the big tunnel goes over in a smaller tunnel profile. There is a "small" step, that we can't pass side by side with. Hervé went before me, dived up and caught the line with the handle of his backup scooter. The first son from Murphy's had arrived. I saw it and tried to get him loose. I can't get him loose and checked the line. It was not the mainline, or let me better say it was one of the four mainlines... I use my knife and cut the line. The backup scooter was free and Hervé continued to dive up.
Since there are "only" three mainlines left, the chance was not so big to get entangled, but I took this small chance and got entangled with the left foot. The second son from Murphy's had arrived. It was not that big a deal. I made a turn around and got free. For one second I thought, where was the cutted line? My scooter, better the prop found it, when I wanted to continue the dive. The prop ate up all the line quicker then I can stop the prop. The daughter of Murphy's had arrived.
I started to loosen the line and Hervé help me with the rest. It took a lot of time and after a look on the depthgauge I saw, that over 50 minutes in the deep-part had elapsed. Another look on the pressure gauge from the "deep-gas"-stage. An optimistic diver would say half full, but I would say it was half empty. The whole Murphy family met at 900m in the Ressel. It took only some seconds to know, what to do next. 900m in the cave, nearly 1100m to go with this stage to the first deep stop on the far side and the whole way back.
I called the dive. It is not easy to do that, believe me!!! We flew back to the first deep stop and had around 70 minutes in the deep-part. We finished our deco without meeting the Murphys again.
70 minutes in the deep-part and only 900m. A lot of work to bring all the equipment down. Many would think that I could have continued the dive and when the stage was empty just go to back gas. But is that safe? I would say NO! Is this "doing it right"? I would say NO! After all, I would do the same decision again in this kind of situation, but I will also work on my gas consumption and rebreather skills!