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Article on Owl Hole Project

Below is a copy of an article I'm hoping to get published in the next issue of the NACD journal, 3rd quarter 2008. The published version will hopefully include a couple of extra photos, but the text is the same.

Owl Hole Project

Owl Hole is the larger of the two cave entrances that make up the Old Freetown system on Grand Bahama Island. It is a textbook quality example of a limestone sinkhole, formed by the collapse of a section of a cavern’s roof. Entry via Owl Hole cuts almost 3000ft off the swim to access the cave passage to the north, which extends for an additional 2000ft with the possibility of further discoveries enlarging the known cave still further. The cave lies on land owned by the Grand Bahama Port Authority, which has been content to leave access largely unregulated for many years now.



In 2004 it came to my attention that Owl Hole would benefit from a little work to help conserve the cave environment as well as improve access and diver safety, while introducing a system of cavern lines and signage which would bring the cavern zone towards what international divers could expect to find in other parts of the world.

We set ourselves certain targets, including:

• Removing and replacing the existing ladder.
• Removing an old truck battery and other refuse.
• Installation of a permanent cavern line.
• Marking the limits of the cavern zone with stop signs.
• Producing a diagram of the cavern zone.


The team was made up of a mix of cave divers working and living on the island, visiting cave divers, family members, and passers-by. Everyone involved volunteered their time, and several members contributed financially for various pieces of hardware. The NACD generously donated the gold line and the stop signs.

Removing and replacing the ladder



The drop into the water is 24 feet long, we calculated that an approximately 40 feet long ladder would do the job …… this became urgently important when one of our divers fell through the old ladder, luckily catching himself on the rung below. Steve Robinson demonstrated his grasp of winch and pulley theory to both remove and replace these ladders. The new ladder is made from 3 inch diameter marine grade steel tubing, welded together by Steve and his volunteers. We all hope it’ll outlast us as it weighs a ton!



Clean-Up

On almost every dive we would remove a bag full of old tin cans and beer bottles, until we felt the cave was clear of such refuse. I need to thank an anonymous transportation driver from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie who helped haul the truck battery out of the hole.

Installation of Permanent Cavern Line

Johny Chessa, an NACD cave diver and open water instructor, and I spent almost three hours installing the guideline. It follows the perimeter of the cavern entering a short distance into each of the three cave tunnels. The presence of a halocline and especially the amount of percolation that occurs in certain sections make the cavern guideline especially beneficial.

Installation of Stop Signs

Thomas Lorenz, of Xanadu Undersea Adventures and an NACD cave diver, generously donated his tools, van, and time to help with the installation of the stop signs. We used stainless steel hardware to bolt the signs to PVC plumbing pipe, which was in turn bolted onto rocks of the local limestone. We aimed to use materials naturally occurring in the cavern where possible. Each sign is located approximately 150ft from open water at the start of the three cave tunnels.




Producing a diagram of the Cavern Zone

Steve Robinson, Kevin Jones, and Thomas Lorenz have all helped collect the data for our survey of Owl Hole. We hope that the diagram will assist cavern divers in planning safer cavern dives, as well as show what a natural wonder exists here – a wonder that many people on the island are unaware of.








Diving Owl Hole

Although it would be possible to dive Owl Hole as an open water dive, the near certainty of inadvertently passing into the ‘overhead’ environment strongly recommends cavern or cave training. A cavern dive can be safely enjoyed by open water certified divers only in the company of a properly trained and equipped cavern guide.

To cave dive here, the diver should be properly trained and equipped for cave diving, and like always must not exceed their level of training.

Cavern

The permanent cavern line will help to safely explore the cavern zone. Take note of the ceiling where you can see large areas of fossilized star corals and various shells. The halocline occurs around 35ft and creates some great effects. While ascending watch the walls for some impressive collections of stalactites. Wonderful views back up to the surface and light displays throughout. Watch out for crayfish, freshwater eels and two other species of freshwater fish.

Try and plan to dive in one direction as percolation from the ceiling can rapidly reduce visibility. Be aware of the effects of the halocline on visibility also.

Cave

The north and south sections from Owl Hole offer some wonderful cave diving. To the south the traverse to Mermaid’s Lair is a possibility through 2900ft of highly decorated passage at an average depth of 70ft. The ‘Big Room’, surprisingly, is a big room approx. 80ft in diameter, and 40ft from floor to ceiling.

To the north it is possible to enter a short, deep section where the cave descends to over 100ft. allowing the development of stalagmites over 20ft tall. Many passages are highly decorated and display interesting sedimentation. It is possible to see blind cave-fish, remipedia and isopods throughout.

Bring plenty of clothes-pins as there are 65 T’s in the line. The average cave tunnel is from 4-6ft from floor to ceiling, the floor is covered with extremely fine sediment (as this is a virtually no flow system) and the decorations are extremely fragile. Therefore mastery of buoyancy control is an absolute requirement, for the cave’s sake as well as your own.



The Future

There are persistent rumours that the land above the Old Freetown system is about to be turned into a golf resort complex. We hope to complete a modern, accurate map of the system to help any future developers to minimize their impact on the system, we will try to negotiate continued access to the site and let the people of the Bahamas know that they have something which is very much worth protecting.

Team Members

Ben Cook William Fogo
Steve Robinson Johny Chessa
Thomas Lorenz David O’Dell
Kevin Jones Sam Rutherford
Mark Colangelo David Cook

The Author

Ben Cook is the NACD Safety Officer for the Bahamas, and an NACD cave diving instructor. He lives in Orlando, Florida, and organizes and leads cave diving trips to the Bahamas, Florida and Mexico.
For any information or advice on cave or cavern diving on Grand Bahama, he can be contacted at BahamaBenCook@Hotmail.com.

North Florida

Well I finally made it up North, a six hour car ride from my home near Miami, and nearly 12 years since my last visit. The caves soon convinced me to return much more promptly! On the 24th of August Steve Robinson arrived from Freeport, bags bursting with dive gear-I picked him up from his hotel and we headed north towards Gainesville and the home of cave buddy John Forder(who along with his wife Angie had offered to house our mini expedition for the next 4 days). In those 4 days we managed to squeeze in 11 great cave dives, visiting Ginnie Springs, Little River and Peacock springs. Logistically, I've a lot more work to do; if John hadn't kindly lent us his in-car GPS we'd have spent most of our time getting lost, and never have found his house again. Even with his GPS we spent a lot of time in the car, from the second day on we decided it made much more sense to have 2 sets of doubles each filled and ready to go each morning, or the lunchtime fill can eat up much of the afternoon and many of the dive sites close at 5. A lunch box would also be a good idea.
The caves themselves were a load of fun, even though the locals assured us flow was 'way down' it still led to some ammusing moments for us 'no-flow' boys. I'm really looking forward to getting back up there, with a little more work I'll be ready to add North Florida to what is already a really spectacular choice of areas for cave tours and training.
Thanks also to Rich Courtney and the gang at Cave Excursions East for making filling tanks fun, and thanks to Steve for sending me the following photos.

Testimonials page

Who?: Jack and Jackie Gregory, Georgia, USA
When?: 19 Aug, 2004; 22-30 April, 2006







Crazy Jack’s Most Excellent Bahamas Cave Adventure

In the Bahamas last week (Grand Bahama IS) serving as the loyal, overworked, and hard humping Dive Master for some of my OW buddies on the standard reef and wreck “buy-off” trip. That’s the trip that you just hate going on BUT if you do, you have “bought” your wife’s goodwill to ensure yet another year of her diving with you in the caves. So, the first day while I’m standing around at the LDS we were using (Xanadu), I noticed several of the NACD Stop Signs. On checking further I found out that “Bahama Ben” Cook, who leads OW’s around, is also an NACD Instructor and happens to be the NACD Bahamas Safety Officer.
This is getting interesting because, when it comes to his appointed task, Bahama Ben reports in the NACD hierarchy to our Instructor in Florida (who is the International Safety Officer). Small world and time to tell outlandish untruths and BS tales about the same people we know (sorry Michael).

I am able to find out that yes, there is one helluva big system a little east of the LDS, by the name of Old Freetown System. I, of course, start to immediately wonder if I can scrap together enough “stuff” to safely pull off an nice afternoon trip after Ben gets off (he makes his living dealing with OW divers, so we had to work around that schedule). Come to find out, when I started really looking, about the only thing that I didn’t bring were my regular wings and backplate. Could that be why I needed 3 bags @ 70 lbs each? If I have to do OW, I use my long hose DIN Scubapro’s adapted to yoke. I even had an HID and a couple of safety reels! I have never been in a cave outside of Florida in my life…I had to do this. So, I bubba rigged my OW Transpac and instead of using the 2 stabilizer brackets that you can get for this, I just removed the lumbar pad and in its place put on a full AL backplate from the DS…with nothing running thru it. Ben had an extra set of double AL 80’s, so I was set there. All I needed were a couple of line arrows (that Ben loaned) and this boy was finer than frog hair. Miss Jackie had decided that she wanted to hang on the boat with her girl buddies (which was good because Ben didn’t have anything else to loan out, AND after a week of having to deal with me, was pretty sick of me anyway).

So last Thursday (08/19/04) off I go, with Bahama Ben driving, which is good because I would have surely crashed, still trying to drive on the right, causing an international incident of carnage, not for the cave divers to have to sort out, but for the U.S. Embassy, I’m sure.

Picture, if you will, an absolutely knock-out totally secluded beach on your left running from the surf to the backwoods road that you are driving on (about 150 ft from the surf to the road) and then the vast (and deep) Bahamian jungle on the right next to the road. Ben suddenly stops the rig and says “let’s walk to the site…I have to clear some things out as we go.” The walk is only about 125 level yards to the head pool BUT what he has to “clear-out” is about three to fours huge bright yellow spiders that have taken up residence at face height right on the path. He calls them “Harmless Banana Spiders” but one of them looks the size of a couple of stacked Krispy Creames. Miss Jackie later tells me that she would have kicked my ass if I had made her go. I have seen worse entrances in FL, but none have smelled as bad…not even Telford on a Sunday afternoon. Ben tells me that’s the typical sulfides that you get on the top of these systems. Well, OK, I can deal with the smell, BUT that surface water definitely looked like what you poor out of a bedpan….for sure not your Little Rivers look from the parking lot. We go back and gear up. I walk off the tailgate with my rig on and I SWEAR, I have never felt such light doubles. I now understand why those divers in Mexico don’t have the ACL and Meniscus problems that your good ole standard OMS 112’s on a steel backplate are just waiting to give you back here. And here is what later would become my one and only problem with the dive. Ben and I now make our way back a second time. The Banana Spiders have high tailed it to some other cave system and we are ready to enter the infamous “Mermaid’s Lair.”

We do our pre-dive, primary tie off within a foot of the surface, and then descend into the cavern for S-Drills. This is when my mind is literally blown more than when I was running around doped-up in the mud at Woodstock in 1969….and that was the halocline. Well, until this point I had never been thru one of these. What I will vividly remember for the rest of my life was this experience…Picture a thousand little shiny mirrors, all holding the cavern scene, but pointing in slightly different directions….some brighter than others depending where your light was. This Timothy Leary effect lasted for about 20-30 feet until we hit clear (and I mean GIN CLEAR) 73 degree water below it at about 50 feet. Now, as all y’all know, there are caverns and then there ARE CAVERNS. I had never seen anything like this one. It was so big, that you could have run 20 different time share presentations in the damn thing and never run into anybody.

As we descend, you run into one of those NACD Stop Signs…..something that all of a sudden lets you feel that there are friends out there. The first section kinda reminded me of the chimney at Little Rivers. At the bottom you hit between 70-80 ft and the depth remains at that level, at least as far as I went. But here is what is different. Have you ever seen all those funny looking “3-4 foot things” coming off the ceiling and floor at Little Rivers?? Needless to say, the stalactites, stalagmites, and overall speleothems were unbelievable. When we shined our lights on the cross section of some that had been broken, the most unbelievable and intricate quartz formations could be seen. Ben is still working on getting gold for the mainline in this section so right now double arrows on # 24 are the main way of knowing that you are mainlining because of the many jumps. And this place is Jump City. You want side tunnels that go for hundreds of feet???…then this is the system for you. We had a clay silt floor all the way in up the mainline tunnel which also did a 180 in the first 500 ft, again like the Little Rivers. Big tunnel that narrowed down in a couple of spots. I turned the dive after about 30 minutes because guess what, you remember those light tanks that I mentioned? Well, son, they were too light! Gas Bag that I am, I needed about 4-6 more pounds after they were breathed down a bit. I literally drained every ounce of air that I could out of the Transpac, but it didn’t help much. If I didn’t call the dive, I would probably eventually wind up crashing into some of Ben’s favorite formations on the ceiling and that was the last damn thing this kid was going to do. So, next time I’ll bring the weight and I’ll bet that we will be able to set up a nice traverse between Mermaid’s Lair and what I now know to be the “Owl’s Hole.” (and we did---2 years later!)

So, if any of you find yourself on Grand Bahama, look up Cave Brother Bahama Ben Cook (242-373-2093; BahamaBenCook@hotmail.com; NACD I-137) for the dive of a lifetime. I was really surprised to hear that not many cave divers get over on Grand Bahama…at least ones that he is aware of. I plan to change that.

June 7, 2007 9:10 AM


Crazy Jumpin Jack (and Jackie) said...
If anyone wants a copy of this report with the images that did not post to the blog...just E-Mail me @ jjgregory@mindspring.com...and I'll sends it along. Also, check out this video!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4LV8cFQC6g

Idiot Jack

June 7, 2007 9:20 AM

The Saga of the Owl Hole Laddder

 
   Owl Hole, Grand Bahama, is a classic example of a limestone sinkhole- it’s rough circle of an entrance, with a diameter of approx. 50 feet, slopes off  under your feet.  Thirty feet down the water surface is reached; sixty feet deeper the cave floor.   Rocks, which once formed the roof to this section of the Old Freetown cave system, form a large pile, or debris cone, reaching back up to within fifteen feet of the surface.  The early cave explorers reached the water by rappelling (ab-sailing) down from the lip, their anchor points can still be seen drilled into the bedrock.  I arrived on the scene shortly after Ben Rose’s 60 foot long aluminium ladder had been stolen after being left out near the cave entrance overnight.   This was back in 1994, and as a newly certified cavern diver- who had just spent his life savings on the contents of the dive-rite catalogue- I was desperate to get down into that cave.  My two intrepid ‘cave diving’ buddies, Eric Pedersen and Steve Lombardi, and I were sure that if we could just do a few dives from the Owl Hole side we could link up with our rather aimless ramblings from Mermaid’s Lair, and thus complete what was, to us, the almost mythical traverse-even though none of us were actually cave certified at the time, and had very little idea of how this may be achieved.  Luckily, we had neither the equipment nor the expertise to attempt rappelling, so our cave diving adventures were limited to clueless forays in Mermaid’s Lair, after our days work at the nearby Underwater Explorer’s Society (UNEXSO) was done.  After learning the hard way what a T is, and what a good idea it is to mark the exit side, and finally realizing that we were swimming in circles and advancing no farther from Mermaid’s, Eric and I took the plunge and enrolled in a Technical Cave course with Tony Satterfield over in Florida (still the greatest dive course I’ve ever taken).  Somehow, I managed to persuade UNEXSO that it was in their best interests to construct a permanent steel ladder down into the hole.  They provided the steel, Steve welded it together, and we got ready to pop it into place.  The Season arrived, planning a decompression cave dive as our third or fourth dive of the day seemed less attractive, and Eric and I were busy getting slightly less disoriented from the Mermaid’s Lair side when we did have the time. Steve left the island.  Eric left the island.  I discovered the ladder was really heavy, and no one really wanted to help me carry it.     I also eventually left the island having never seen the ladder in place. 
I visited the island once, I think it was 1999, with Kate Lewis and Steve Serras. The ladder was in limbo, having been installed briefly, then removed as a potential hazard to the Owls that frequent the sinkhole. We had an enjoyable week of cave diving from the Mermaid's Lair side, and off the beach in 'Chimney Hole', but still no Owl Hole for me. Upon moving back to the island in 2003 to manage the Xanadu Undersea Adventures dive shop, imagine my delight to find the ladder back in place! Cristina Zenato had dropped it back in as soon as the Owlcentric political wrangle had been straightened out.

I finally got to dive the place, and what a place! The hole gets wider the deeper you go, until at the bottom it has a diameter of approx. 150 feet, the views up from here are stunning, there is a great halocline at 40feet, and 3 huge cave tunnels lead off into thousands of feet of cave. Everything went great, 10 dives later I finally made the traverse from Mermaid's to Owl's, I was able to use the cave in my courses, as it claimed one of the few undecorated passages on the island, which was ideal for more 'high-impact' training drills. Then, around June 2006, along came Kevin Jones to finish his cave course. Kevin and I had known each other for a while through Chip Earle's SeaDevils scuba club, and the course went off to a great start. Kevin had been lucky enough to have a really thorough Cavern instructor, and had put a lot of thought into preparing for the course. Anyway, to cut a long story slightly, Kevin was making his way down the ladder with twin alu. 80's on his back when one of the rungs gave way. Luckily, barring a few bruises, no serious damage was done, but it showed those boffins were right, steel does rust in water after all!

Obviously, something needed to be done, we needed a new ladder. First of all, Steve Robinson, my Dad, and I went out there one evening to winch the old ladder out, inspect for damage and make a plan. We decidied that there wasn't enough good steel left to effect repairs, so a brand new ladder would be needed. I left the island in September 2006, moving to Miami with wife and family, so Steve was left to finish the job himself. He has done a magnificent job, and 2 weeks ago, on the 26th May, the new ladder was installed with the help of Steve's mate Billy. The new ladder is made from a higher grade marine steel, and has been designed to allow retro-fitting of a platform to it's base; to remove it from the water, lightening it's weight, and prolonging it's life.
The next step could well be installing a 'kermantile' guide line along the traverse, cleaning up this section to convert some of those T's into jumps. Keep posted for details.

Basic Outline of Cave Course on G.B.I.

Grand Bahama Cave Course Outline

Day One: Meet at 8.00a.m. with all cave diving equipment.
Paperwork: registration forms, waivers, medical form, conservation form.
Theory: 1. Orientation to NACD and cave diving.
2. The Cave Environment.
3. Cave Diving Techniques.
4. Communications.
5. Accident Analysis.
6. Guidelines and Guideline techniques (Land Drills #1).
7. Dive Planning and Gas Management.
8. Equipment Set-up and Discussion.

Lunch/ Drive to Site

Dive 1: Ben’s Cavern or Owl’s Hole

Openwater skill circuit.
1. Familiarisation to Cave Gear in the water.
2. Propulsion technique practice(modified flutter, frog, and dolphin).
3. Line Following with and without visibility; sharing air; touch contact; without mask.
4. Reel use.
5. ‘S-Drill’ practice.
6. Horizontal out of air swim to donor (approx. 60 feet).
7. Gas valve management.

Dive 2:
First dive into the cave environment, introduces team to proper dive briefing, bubble check, equipment matching, ‘s-drill’, team positioning, line protocol, communication, safety/deco stop, gas valve management and post dive debriefing. These elements are an integral part of all cave dives during the course.



Day Two: 8.00a.m. start and drive to site.
Theory: 1. Emergency Procedures/ situation management.
2. Recognition of potential stressful/ emergency situations.
3. Psychological aspects of cave diving.
4. Cave Conservation.

Dive 3: Owl’s Hole (s.e. passage).
-upon turnaround, switch to back-up light while continuing to exit.
-extinguish back-ups and complete exit in touch contact.

Dive 4: Owl’s Hole (s.e. passage).
-upon turnaround, initiate share air.
-complete exit sharing air in the dark.

Lunch/ change tanks

Dive 5 & 6: Owl’s Hole (s.e. passage).
-as dive 4, with each team member alternating roles and position.


Day Three: 8.00a.m. start and drive to site.
Theory: 1. Medical aspects of diving/ DCS.
2. Dive Table Review.
3. Use and Misuse of Dive Computers.
(cavern certification could now be issued after exam).
4. Land drills #2: T’s, jumps, gaps, lost line/buddy,
line entanglement.

Dive 7: Owl’s Hole (s.w. passage).
-following rule of sixths(intro level), jump to main line from cavern line, cave dive past 2 T’s.

Dive 8: Owl’s Hole (s.e. passage).
-enter to beyond cavern zone, where each team member shall successfully perform a line entanglement drill.

Lunch/ change tanks


Dive 9: Owl’s Hole (n. passage).
-rule of sixths, Jump and T’s.
(intro certification can now be issued upon completion of exam).




Day Four: 8.00a.m. start and drive to site.
Theory: 1. Cave orientation, referencing and navigation.
2. Circuits and Traverses.

Dive 10: Mermaid’s Lair

-rule of thirds, limited deco possible.
-circuit set up dive.

Lunch/ change tanks

Dive 11: Mermaid’s Lair

-Circuit completion.

Day Five: 8.00a.m. start and drive to site.


Dive 12: Owl’s Hole (s.e. passage).

-Penetration to ‘Big Room’ and beyond, multiple T’s.
-Prep for Traverse.
-air share through restriction.

Lunch/tank change

Dive 13: Mermaid’s Lair

-traverse attempt





Day 6: 8.00a.m. start and drive to site.
Theory: 1. Stage decompression theory and procedures.
2. Inert gas narcosis and oxygen poisoning.
3. Physiology.


Dive 14: Mermaid’s Lair

-jumps
-air share through ‘the kink’

Lunch

Afternoon can be used for any ‘make up’ dives, to catch up on theory, and to hand out exams.

Day 7: 8.00a.m. start and drive to site.
Exam grading.

Dive’s 15 & 16
These 2 dives will be tailored to the group’s capabilities, and will be an opportunity to explore techniques designed to safely extend cave time. The objective will be to spend as much time in the cave as the group is comfortable with. By this point we should be thinking and diving like cave divers, this is your chance to really enjoy the caves and show off what you’ve learned. As always, be prepared to be tested!!


Notes: This outline can be changed for any number of reasons relating to logistics or performance of the group. I hope it will help you visualize what you can expect from the course. All candidates should have had the chance to thoroughly read the NACD Cavern/Cave Diver Workbook as a minimum before starting the course.

Ben Cook/ NACD I-137

Welcome

I would like to welcome you to Bahama Ben's Dive Expeditions. Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions as I expand the information offered to include details of up-coming trips, reports of past expeditions, and details of the diving services I offer - including openwater certification, cave and technical diving courses, cave diving tours of Grand Bahama Island and the Yucatan, on-board instruction and guiding, even shark feeder training!
Ben Cook,
BahamaBenCook@Hotmail.com