Woodville Karst Divers will Attempt World Record Dive of Seven Miles

{sidebar id=1}The Woodville Karst Divers will attempt a world record dive of 7 miles on Saturday, December 15, 2007. They will enter the cave system at Turner Sink, swimming 300 feet below the ground, and will surface on Sunday, December 16, 2007 at Wakulla Springs. This dive is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest.

To honor their efforts, the public is invited to meet them on Sunday, December 16, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. at the pavilion in Wakulla Springs State Park.

Divers with the Woodville Karst Plain Project, who in July, after 17 years of searching linked the Wakulla Spring to the Leon Sinks Geological features, are entering the Wakulla-Leon system Saturday at Turner Sink in Wakulla County.

The dangerous seven-mile long traverse will end at Wakulla Spring. Diver Casey McKinlay estimates that this underground traverse will take 7 hours. Divers will decompress for another 12 hours before surfacing Sunday morning near the dive tower.

According to the Friends of Wakulla Springs, the dive team's efforts have increased everyone's understanding about our area's connected cave systems.

"We want to congratulate and honor them for their efforts," said Della Parker-Hanson, the Friends' president.

She said that the public, with park admission, is invited to free pizza (while supplies last) and soft drinks and encourages everyone to see the dive exploration team's equipment and to talk with the divers.

The attempt to break the world's cave traverse begins at the following location Saturday around 1:00 p.m. Please click here for a map with directions on reaching Turner Sink. When you get to 236 Greenlea Circle, follow the tape to the sink hole.

About the WKPP

The WKPP is a non-profit affiliate of Global Underwater Explorers (GUE). The mission of the WKPP is to explore, survey, connect and protect the flooded underwater cave systems of North Florida's Woodville Karst Plain. To this end, the WKPP promotes public awareness, education and scientific discovery through exploration and research support within these flooded underground cave systems. Through partnerships with state, federal and private landowners, the WKPP is uniquely positioned to facilitate scientific research and the gathering of valuable data. In turn, researchers, resource managers, policy makers and landowners can formulate necessary and responsible land use decisions to protect these unique and treasured resources for future generations.

Project Highlights

Officially Established: 1990
17 years as an official project, 22 years total
Total # current, volunteer team members: 75
Total # volunteer team members since 1990: 500
Investment—ALL Volunteer
300+ scheduled diving events and 300,000+ hours since 1990
Amount of equipment moved per event: 15,000lbs
Longest exploration dive exposure: 26.5 hours
Average exploration dive exposure: 15 hours
Direct expenses per event: est. $10,000
Total direct expenses since 1990: est. $3 million
Equipment cost per exploration diver: est. $85,000
Equipment cost (total team): est. $1.5 million

Turner Sink to Wakulla Springs Traverse

Water conditions permitting and barring any unforeseen logistical issues, the WKPP exploration team of Jarrod Jablonski and Casey McKinlay will enter Turner Sink on December 15 and travel approximately 7 miles downstream and underground to Wakulla Springs. The journey will take approximately 7 hours followed by 12 hours of decompression due to the extreme depths (300ft) of the cave passageway. No exit to the surface is possible along the way.

Dive Plan Overview

Friday, Dec. 14: Decompression setup—Support teams at Wakulla Springs & Turner Sink position decompression tanks and equipment for all dive teams.

Saturday, Dec. 15 @ 7am: Wakulla Springs setup—Dive team from Wakulla Springs will stage equipment 1 mile into Wakulla Springs for pickup by traverse team on final leg of trip—10hr dive.

Saturday, Dec. 15 @ 1pm: Traverse team will depart Turner Sink for 7 hour journey to Wakulla Springs once delivery of Wakulla equipment confirmed. Exploration along the way may be possible.

Equipment: Halcyon RB80 Rebreather—12 hour range
DPV—5 for each diver—3 mile range each
Tanks—5 for each diver—1.5hr range each
Plan: Depart Turner Sink at 1pm
@7,000ft downstream switch tanks & DPV—3pm
@13,000ft downstream switch DPV—4pm
Abort no longer possible, committed to Wakulla
@19,000ft downstream switch tanks & DPV—5pm
@25,000ft downstream switch tanks & DPV—6pm
@30,000ft downstream pickup staged equipment, switch DPV and complete final 1 mile journey to Wakulla—7pm
Arrive Wakulla Springs and begin decompression—8pm
Surface Sunday, Dec. 16—8am

WKPP Cave Diving Records

• World Record— longest traverse between two openings into a flooded cave system—Big Dismal Sink to Cheryl Sink Traverse 1999—13,000ft
• World Record – longest penetration into a flooded cave system – 23,810 ft. Wakulla Springs, June 23, 2007
• World Record – longest penetration into a flooded cave system – 20,100 ft. Wakulla Springs, May 19, 2006
• World Record—longest penetration into a flooded cave system— 19,000ft. Wakulla Springs, July, 2000.

Wakulla-Leon Sinks Cave System

Ranks #1 in the US—longest underwater cave system
Ranks #4 in the world—longest underwater cave system
Ranks #64 in the world—longest cave system wet or dry
More information about the WKPP can be found at: www.gue.com and ww.wkpp.org

This article originally published on December 10, 2007.

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