Day 5 was a bit of a write-off for me - beware the pizza in High Springs, lest it knock your digestive tract sideways for a day - but I was back in action for Day 6, when we returned to Ginnie Springs.

View from the cavern zone of the EyeJehannine and Sonia decided to shoot for a couple of long staged dives. Equipped with O2 deco bottles and stages of 32%, they got an earlier start to give them plenty of time of offgassing between dives. Chris, Kim and myself were more than happy to sleep in a bit and join Jehannine and Sonia at the site later on.

For this day's diving, we opted to go in the Eye entrance just to mix it up a bit. Chris volunteered to lead the dive; Kim followed at #2 with her camera and strobe, and I brought up the rear.

Chris talking up the line on our exit from the EyeThe entrance to the Eye is very different to the Ear. It is accessed through an unobstructed, circular sinkhole with a level, sandy bottom at approx. 25', off which shoots a small cavern zone that quickly becomes a wide, but vertically restricted, downward curving slot that you have to wriggle through. This slot opens up again to a smallish passageway that levels off and curves around to the left to meet the main line (which can also be reached by the Ear route) at about 60'.

[Note: just before the main line, off to the right (I think), is the entrance to The Catacombs, which we did not get to explore this time. Mental note to check it out some time...]

Jeremy navigates the LipsFrom here, it is much the same deal as previous dives at Ginny were. We kept this dive fairly short, and turned in the breakdown room past the Lips. Chris took up the line on the exit.

For the second dive, we returned to our old friend the Ear. This time, Jeremy led, with Kim the photographer in the middle, and Chris in #3 position. Rather than laying our own line, we agreed beforehand with Jehannine and Sonia that we would use the existing line put in by them, marking it with a cookie to indicate our continued presence in the cave.

A good place to hang outGas limits on this dive were a little more constrained than the previous dive, but we made it a good bit further nonetheless because the Ear is the more direct route to the main line. I turned the dive just past the keyhole on gas, and we enjoyed an effortless glide out of the cave with the flow. By now - our fifth time exiting through the Lips - I had figured out how to reliably negotiate the Lips without my tanks impacting the cave ceiling. 

Another good day - unfortunately the last day of diving for Chris and Kim on this trip.