Just a little swim
Rich elected not to dive this time, to allow time for his flooded undersuit to dry out.
Ash and I set off into the cave with a plan to go straight to the end of the 2017 and start laying new line in sump 2 beginning at a depth of 42 metres.
Cave passage on the approach to sump 2. Image: Mark Burkey
Arriving at the sump pool, I was having difficulty adding oxygen to the loop. The faulty MAV had been plaguing me for a while and despite repairs, was still intermittent. The oxygen injection was now not even working at all.
This was a no brainer. The unit was faulty and I could not dive. Ash was already geared up in the sump pool so, after a brief discussion he asked if he could 'go for just a little swim'.
I told him to stop mucking about and to go to the end of the line and see what happened - or this cave wouldn't get pushed out at all!
Ash sets off into sump 2. Image: Mark Burkey
Ash quickly reached the end of line, picking up a bailout stage en-route, and tied on the reel. After approximately 2 minutes of laying line, a stage was dropped.
In 3-4m visibility he got very excited about a ramp which went from -46m up to -25m but this quickly dropped back down.
In 17mins 207m of line was laid, approximately half at -40m average and half at -30m average, on a 101min dive.
He surveyed the line on the way home and we were relieved that the cave seemed to be trending shallower, although it still hadn't done the honourable thing and surfaced.
The gauntlet was now laid down for Rich and myself to get back on the horse, rebreather seemingly fixed and try to make more progress on our last day.
Chris tows gear across the lakes in the Halcyon Life raft. Image: Mark Burkey