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Black Keld Laying LineLast revised: 1/3/01
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| Access to Black Keld Is Not Allowed!
Diving in January 2000 at Black Keld. (Continued)
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By the time Phil Murphy reached Sump 5 he had a sizable leak of air in one valve. He decided it was prudent to retreat and to wait for Brian Judd in the dry passage near Sump 2. "The underwater passage in Sump 5 is generally large and the greatest difficulty I faced, was pulling the line from banks of sand which had buried it. 150 metres into Sump 5 I passed the 'Bypass Junction'. Previously the lined route had gone through a small silty oxbow at this point, but the line is now laid in the larger main passage. The line was a little loose, because it had been washed around by floods. Plastic 'silt screws' which were pushed into the sand to hold the line, had come out and it needed fixing down with lead weights." |
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| Side Passage | ||
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"I got to the end of the line at about 300m into sump 5 and started to lay line using the reel already in the cave, weighting it on the way or tying it to rocks or rock nodules. I followed the left hand wall and stayed on a mostly sandy or rock bottom, at a depth of 3m. The visibility was too poor to see the full extent of the passage, but I swam up and around to investigate every so often. The passage here is about 3 x 4m; there is a notch a couple of metres up marking the bedding plane and various solution hollows in the roof. After 90m the line ran out... By now mildly hypothermic, so no time wasted getting out."
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Click on pictures to enlarge them and get more text. |
 Passing Sump 5
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