After reaching 1380 from the entrance in Polldeelin rising I felt that I missed the connection point. It seemed to me that trying to forge the connection from the Polltoophill Sink should be easier as in 2009 I left the end of the line in an open passage, 1070m from the entrance. Six eventfull dive over July and August finally resulted in the connection between Polltoophill in Castletown and its resurgence Polldeelin in Kiltartan. After 2.5 year and 45 dives from both sides the Riders on the Storm Traverse was completed - 2.4km in length with an average depth between 40-45m and max. -62m. Here are the log entries.
08.07.11 Extremely dry. River bed dry, no flow into Polltoophill, most of he river sinking into the Castle Sink. Line repair dive. The lines severely damaged , all over the cave. Retreat after 1h when diver accidently cuts himself off the main line and looses the mojo for the day. Runtime 1.5h.
Further line repairs, breakages every 30-40m. On the top of that, as my nemesis , the line from an abandon lead from 2008 got entangled with 2009 line making things even more complicated. I spent a lot of time at -40m trying to sort it out but in the end I couldnt find the continuation of the way on. Again a lot of line cutting and tying, all in low vis due to lack of the flow, a lot of second thoughts as well, a courage to continue was sinking as a proverbial stone... The weather was extremely dry and there was no indication whatsoever from the current. I needed to go back to my 'riders on the storm' strategy' – waiting for the rain. Runtime 2.5h.
21.07.10 POLLTOOPHILL SIEGE
Day 1
It rained a bit over the last few days, all right , but nothing really major. Arriving to Castletown I expected some decent flow. Surprisingly there was a LOT of water flowing into the sink, I was standing by the swollen river thinking WTF...?! Anyway at that stage I thought the water level was dropping but just in case I put a stick into the river bed, marked the water level and started preparing the equipment. 3 hours later whe everything was ready I went down to check the level and ...it rose by one inch! I decided to camp and wait till the next day.
Day 2
Water levels still rising despite a lack of rain. A trip around Coole Lough, investigating its sinks and risings. Back to Polltoophill in the evening the water level seemed to stabilise. I decided to wait. Siege tactic.
Day 3
Water levels were monitored through the night and proved to be dropping slowly but the current was still extremely high. The dive was postponed for one more day. A trip along Castletown river – Pouloonogue doline located revealing a very promising underwater cave , a lot of water flowing from at the bottom of 8m cliff, coming from the east.
Day 4
The calls from friends from Dublin worrying about my mental helth became more frequent which forced a decision to give it a go. Extra ropes were installed at the surface in case I would need to pull myself out from the cave. The flow at the surface very strong. I carefully started working my way down, at the beginning the suction under the water didnt seem that strong but I knew it could be very deceptive – it's full strength was usually thrown at the diver on his way back. At -9 metres I replaced a short section of the 8mm guideline which seemed to be very weak. At -16m where a low roof starts the flow increased rapidly. I passed that slowly to -21m and there I stopped, wondering what next. The worst section, with the strongest flow was behind me and I was still in control but I realised that if I continued and got rebreather failure no amount of open circuit bailout would get me back. So I decided to abort and return to the surface. Easy to say. There you could do only a one thing – to pull yourself along the line ( In 2009, when I applied the 'riding on the storm' tactic I put 8mm one down to -21m). Extremely hard work, at some point my breathing was so heave I was about to bailout. The rest of the day I spent poking around in Ballylee area which resulted in discovering a new, deep and important underwater cave – Pollindre.
Day 5
A further drop in the water level and I decide to have another go. This time more succesfull. Following an indicative flow of the river I quickly located the way to the section found in 2009 and after repairing another section of broken line I returned to the base. I didn't expect any more line breakages, the stage was ready for a push dive.
01.08.10
Planned as a push or even a connection dive. As I expected I quickly get into the section discovered in 2009 where the passage started gradually descending below -50m. There the line was broken again and I had to lay over 150m of the fresh one mostly at the depth of -60m. At -62m i came accross my line from 2009 , I tied in and continued, still in 60s. Suddenly and out of nowhere a quite substantial leak developped somewhere at my left hand side. I tried to locate it but it was very difficult to chack anything with the amount of the gear I was wearing. After a systematic check I ruled out the leak from the scuba cylinders so it must have been rebreather. I couldnt ignore it and continue, the dive had to be aborted... Once I got back to -40s on my way out I fugure out the source of the leak – the automatic diluent valve. I separeted it but unfortunately there was no way I could attack the end of the line again, I already spent a lot of time at -60m and a lengthy decompression was due. Runtime 4.5h.07.08.10.
The Connection
Yet another try. Got to -60s without any troubles, continued on that depth for a while untill the passage stated ascending. Surprisingly there was another line breakage there but I regained my line from 2009 after 20m or so. Kept ascending and around -23m I expected to see a big steel reel to which I anchored the line a year ago. However the end of the line was loose, wrapped around some small boulder. I attached a new reel and started laying a new line into the unknown. The passage wasn't even nearly as silty as I remembered, the slope was also very gentle, almost unnoticable. The passage raised to -19m with no sign of any mudbanks and then started descending again over a flat , well washed floor. Soon I was back to -30m and the theory about the connection point in the big mudbank area faded away. But I was still following a noticable flow so I knew I was on a good track.
After a while at 30s a line from the reel run out but this time I was prepared and reached for another 150m reel clipped to my hip Dring, tied the knot and continued interrupted in a rather pleasant passage. Suddenly the floor fell away and I stopped on the brink of some vertical drop. I made a belay and dropped down landing on a floor few metres lower. While making anothe belay at the bottom I felt that my leg cought something. First I thought it was a tree branch but I turned around and saw a relatively fresh 4mm line. I was constantly following the flow this year so there was no way it could be a Polltoophill line and this summer I was using only a 6mm while in there. So I knew straight away I made a connection with Polldeelin, after 2.5 years and 45 dives from both sides... I tied in and proceeded for a short distant along the line untill I met a marking – it was the section of the line from my last Polldeelin dive on 16th of June. This section hasn't been survey yet but the connection was somewhere 1200m from the Polldeelin entrance and with a similar distance from the Polltoophill the Riders on the Storm Traverse was 2.4km long. Yet, to my surprise the moment of making the connection was very different from what I imagined... No euphory or deep self-content or satisfaction. Instead I felt ...sad, I guess sad because it was over. It took me completely by surprised for on a many occasions I expressed a wish the Traverse was already completed...I guess Wild was right saying that there are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants and the other is getting it...;-) But hey, the project is far from the end , there are ongoing leads in the system which is now 2.8km long, and who knows where do they go. There's only one way to find it out, to dive there again.
Return was slow and tiring, on my way out I collected all the cylinders that secured my dive (5x 11l, one 12l, one 7l and one 5.7l) and I surfaced at 3 am after runtime of 6.5h. I made a camp fire, prepared a late diner/early breakfast and hit the sleeping mat at 5am.
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