If you're interested in what a weekend of non 12" dick cave diving is
like, read on. If not, you know how to work the DELETE button.

We just spent a 4 day weekend diving in Peacock Springs. The weather and
conditions were excellent and the springs weren't crowded (gas prices
maybe?). If you want to follow along, there is a good map of the system
here http://www.floridacaves.com/PeaockMapFull%20copy.pdf  (Thanks
Mike). There are some other links and info here
http://www.floridacaves.com/peacock.htm

We flew into Jacksonville on Thursday night. We were supposed to have a
Ford Explorer, but instead they offered some POS Buick. I bitched, and
got a free upgrade to an Expedition. I really like that truck; it has
plenty of room for gear and such. We went to the storage locker and
picked up our tanks (double 95s for Cindy, double 108s for me) and some
other gear we keep there, and drove to Live Oak, where we spent the
night. In the morning, we drove to Cave Excursions in Luraville, where
we got our tanks topped with their banked nitrox and picked
up the key and box of linens for the double wide we rented for the
weekend (nice, and $45/night). The trailer is in the middle of nowhere,
but only 5 minutes from Cave Excursions and Peacock Springs. We went
first to the trailer and then to the park for some diving.

It was a bright sunny day with a crystal blue sky, about 80 degrees. We
were at Peacock 1, and there were only a couple of other vehicles in the
lot. We went to the spring to have a look, and saw that the water was up
to the 4th step, clear and had a noticable boil. Yeeeehaaaaahhh, this is
great! We put our gear together, got into our drysuits and did a gear
check - my 18W HID would not fire. I had just put my old Sartek light
head on a new Dive Rite wreck canister with a 9 AH NiMh battery pack
(replacing my old big 14 AH lead-acid AUL canister). It checked OK at
home, burn tested to 3 hours+. A quick check
showed that there was something wrong in the light head, not immediately
fixable, so I drove the 5 minutes to Cave Excursions and got one of
their 10W HID rental lights ($10/day). Back at the spring, we got geared
up, did our checks, and got into the water. We were not overheating in
our drysuits, but the cool spring water felt really good. We did our in
water checks and headed into the cavern entrance. There was no need to
run a primary reel, as the permanent line comes all the way out. We
dropped down through the cavern into the darkness, and our HIDs lit up
the white limestone walls as we followed the line toward Pothole Sink.
The line is continuous through Pothole, and we continued on to Olsen
sink. The vis varied from 40-50 ft where a class had been to 80-100 ft
in undisturbed areas. This cave is silty, and even divers with perfect
technique will stir it up a little bit. There is silt on the ceiling and
walls, and your bubbles and motion past the walls will cause some
particulates to mix in the water.

We swam through Olsen and up the line toward Challenge sink. When we got
halfway to Challenge, we dropped a marker on the line and turned the
dive. It was a nice dive back with the flow, and since Cindy was now
leading, I got to be the tourist. Through Olsen and back down the main
line, I still marvel at the white limestone formations. After Olsen, you
go through what looks like a window, and it reminds me of the Peter Pan
ride at The Rat. There are delicate lattice formations and some columns.
We continue through Pothole sink and back to Peacock 1. We surface after
a short safety stop. total dive time 103 minutes, max depth 70 ft,
average depth about 55 feet, no mandatory deco.

We got out of our gear and decided to head down to High Springs to see
if I could get my 18W straightened out. We found the new location of
Barry Miller at Salvo diving - they had just moved into their new store
2 hours before. Barry had Welch Allyn bulbs, and a new one fixed my
light. I couldn't resist one of his new reflector assemblies to replace
my beat up old AUL aluminum assembly, and it made a huge difference in
my light's performance. I am still eying one of his new 21W Bright Star
lightheads. He makes some really nice stuff, and his new dive shop has
plenty of other nice gear. After getting the light straightened out, we
went to Cave Excursions East and filled our tanks with nitrox for the
next day.

On Saturday, after a relaxing night in our trailer in the sticks, we
headed back to the park. I dropped Cindy and our gear off at Orange
Grove and took the truck to Peacock 1. Someone there was nice enough to
give me a ride back to Orange Grove. We geared up and got into Orange
Grove Sink. The vis in the sink was horrible, but it cleared up about 40
ft down. I ran a primary line from the basin to the main line, and we
once again headed off into the darkness, this time lighting up the cave
a bit more with my 18W and new reflector. We were especially careful,
because there was a team just a few minutes behind us, and we didn't
want to spoil their dive. The vis in this part of the cave was the best
in the system, 100 ft+. We swam past the Distance Tunnel to Challenge
sink, through the sink and down the line toward Olsen. We got to the
marker we'd left the day before without hitting our turn pressures, so
we were good to go to complete the traverse to Peacock 1. We swam
through familiar cave, through Olsen and Pothole, still finding new
features and some jumps we hadn't noticed before. We got to Peacock at
96 minutes and did a safety stop. After getting out, we went to Cave
Excursions and again filled our tanks.

We returned to Orange Grove sink, and followed the line we had left to
the main line, and then up the main line to the Distance Tunnel. We
jumped to our right and set our jump reel on the Distance Tunnel line.
This tunnel gets smaller the farther back you go, and is very "dusty".
We went back to where it splits and turned the dive. We had plenty of
gas, so we just kind of poked our way back, looking for unmarked jumps
and poking into alcoves. There were some pretty big white crayfish and
lots of some other little white cave critters. When we got to the main
line, I pulled the jump reel and we headed out through Orange Grove,
pulling the primary reel left on the previous dive. This was another
nice 100 minute dive.

We once again went to Cave Excursions to fill our tanks for the next
day. We ran into some old friends and had a nice chat while we got our
fills. We hit the grocery store and retired early to our trailer to make
dinner and watch the race on the satellite TV.

On sunday morning we went back to Peacock 1, did our checks, and swam up
the line past Pothole to the Nicholson tunnel. On the way in, I noticed
that there was a primary reel parallel to the permanent line, a sure
sign that there was a class in the cave. There was already a jump reel
at the first jump, and knowing that it was probably the class, and that
the tunnel is dusty, we decided to continue up the main line. when we
got to the second jump, there was another reel, and a team exiting the
jump onto the main line. It was obvious from the way they acted and were
geared that this was the class, and they were doing their circuit dive.
We waited for them to pull the jump reel, and we set our reel and swam
up the tunnel toward Cisteen Sink. When we got there, there was a "t" in
the line. Cindy wanted to take a look at the sink, so she dropped a
marker showing our exit route and we headed up into the sink. You go up
an almost vertical wall, and it was full of silt. I flashed her and gave
the turnaround signal before the vis went to zero. We got in touch with
the line, and went back to the the T, where we took the other direction
toward The Crypt. with cindy in the lead, we swam a  bit up the tunnel
to a place where you have to go under a tight "duck under". Cindy
dragged a knee going through it, which stirred up some silt, but nothing
really bad, and then stopped dead. I went into the duck under, but could
not continue because she was in the way. It was a bit tight for turning
around, so she kind of half inverted, and looking at me from between her
legs, gave me the signal that she had lost the line.  No big problem, I
can see it, it is over her head, so I direct her to it with my light and
she immediately finds it. we go just a little to a bigger section of
cave and turn the dive. We swam back to the T by Cisteen, picked up the
marker, and continued back to the main line. Cindy pulled our jump reel,
and we continued back to Peacock 1 and did a little bit longer safety
stop. This was yet another nice 100 minute dive.

After getting fills, we returned to Peacock 1 and this time took the
Peanut Tunnel. We jumped to our right to the Crossover Tunnel, and swam
to the end, which is on the main line just before Olsen. We turned
around, and went back to the Dark Water tunnel, where we jumped to our
left. This tunnel was full of odd cave critters, but since there is very
little traffic or flow, it is very silty. My bubbles were dislodging a
ton of silt, and Cindy signaled from behind that this was getting to be
no fun, so we turned it. We picked up our jump reels at the Crossover
Tunnel and the Peanut Tunnel, and had a nice liesurely swim back to
Peacock 1. total time was about 94 minutes, our shortest dive of the
trip.

Once again we went to the fill station and were good to go for Monday
morning.

On Monday morning, we went back to Peacock 1 and headed up the Peanut
Tunnel. We went to the end, and jumped onto the main line. We went right
toward Olsen, looking for the jump to the Crypt. when we were 200 ft
from Olsen, I realized we had missed the jump and we turned the dive. On
the way back, we found the jump, but continued on to the Peanut Line and
had a nice swim out. We noticed a few other unmarked jumps to try the
next time we're there. We got to Peacock 1, did a short safety stop, and
got out. Our diving was finished, so we packed up our gear and went back
to the trailer to pack the rest of our stuff. We did a quick clean up,
and went to Cave Excursions to pay our tab and say good-bye until next
time. We drove to jacksonville, put some our tanks back in the storage
locker, and went to the airport and flew back to this frozen hell. Next
we're planning another trip to the caves of Quintana Roo.