October 2009

Bogusław Ogrodnik

Cave diving can be compared to mountain climbing, where the logistics and teamwork are at least as important as the climber's personal preparations. The zero fault tolerance also holds true for divers in the cave. Each trip is a huge logistical and technical effort. Preparations for the record-beating lasted almost two years and involved a total of nine two-week expeditions.

Due to the vast and intricate network of corridors, the diver and his team must carefully prepare the route plan and secure adequate supplies for the passage of the entire route. In preparation for the final solo dive Czarnecki was supported by a group of seven divers. Among them was Krzysztof Starnawski, one of the most experienced cave divers in Poland, with whom in 2005 Leszek Czarnecki set the world record covering over 14 km in the caves (cenotes) of the Dos Ojos system on the Yucatan Peninsula. An additional difficulty was the limited access to the caves, which are located in the dense tropical forest of the Yucatan. All equipment must be transported by team members without the use of mechanical transport.

Leszek Czarnecki and a group of his friends have been exploring the Dos Ojos cave system on the Yucatan Peninsula in southern Mexico for about 10 years. This is one of the most popular cave diving spots and many novice cave divers go to the easy parts to take their first steps. Nevertheless, for us, this cave was still very interesting.

First, it is one of the longest systems of flooded caves in the world. Second, a large part of it still requires exploration and from time to time new corridors are being found. Third, in the middle part the Dos Ojos is very easily accessible by car and there is easy access to water, which simplifies logistics.

In total Leszek took 9 two to three weeks' trips to this cave, which allowed him to really get to know it well. One of the main risk elements when diving in caves of the Yucatan is getting lost, because they look like Swiss cheese, with lots of corridors, forking paths, branches and multiple levels. An additional difficulty is that the caves are quite extensively explored, hence a lot of old guidelines leading to nowhere, arrows and cookies put in many places (and sometimes, unfortunately, also removed – even ours!) by other teams.

The training was intended to accomplish several objectives. The most important was to get acquainted with the topography and the exploration of unknown regions of the cave. Another issue was choosing the appropriate equipment configuration. Leszek tried everything: rebreathers, back mounted doubles with stages, a ‘fourpack’ or four tanks on his back, and finally a sidemount. Each configuration was good for a different part of the cave. The wide corridors were best done with the doubles or fourpack. Unfortunately, both in the upper and lower parts restrictions abound, so this configuration did not come into play. For similar reasons, the idea of rebreather diving was rejected.

Here, an additional aspect is the equally high risk of mechanical damage. After many discussions and trials (there was also a concept of equipment changes under water), Leszek finally decided to go with an open circuit in a sidemount configuration. Another problem was the choice of regulators. Given the use of motor scooters Poseidon’s Cyklones seemed the best, because of having a transverse membrane, which is not easy raised by the flow, but they caused a lot of trouble. The scooter screw often raised mud and rock debris from the bottom (especially in tighter places), which easily got under the membrane causing the leakege. The second choice were the Apeks. Absolutely indestructible, but large and mounted on stages, they would often catch on the rocks in restrictions. Leszek finally decided to use both.

The Dos Ojos system has multiple exits (cenotes). Some of them are easily available and can be reached by car. Others are in the middle of virgin jungle and we have spent many days cutting our passage with machetes. It was very important because these were potential exits for Leszek and we had to find them, and be able to carry out a rescue operation if needed. Leszek decided to do a traverse dive meaning he would go in one way (Pit Cenote) through Cenote M1 to the final downstream exit, with a number of side branches (the LSD) on the way. In total, more than 17 km. The maximum depth of 72m (in the Pit). Leszek used a total of 15 tanks, 4 scooters, 3 headlights (not counting the 4 back-up ones). He was diving on trimix, air and nitrox Most of the route he did with EAN 40.

Although we started early in the morning, taking into account that Leszek decided to start from the Pit and access to it is not easy, because there is no road leading to it, Leszek descended shortly before 9:00 am. We all got his run-time, which he prepared himself. He estimated that the whole dive will last 605 minutes. Such precision was due to the fact that earlier Leszek has been through each cave passage, noting the time and gas consumption. On the way there were two support divers waiting for Leszek, in two places. I was the first, with the second man waiting underwater (about halfway) being Krzysiek Starnawski. Remek, Patryk and Mirek pushed parallel to Leszek ready to rescue him at any moment, if necessary.

Leszek went through the first part of the route very quickly: he was about 30 minutes ahead of time. He met Krzysiek underwater exactly according to plan, to the minute. Finally, he finished his dive after 558 minutes, almost exactly as planned, which is amazing. Leaving the cave at night, in the middle of the jungle, (with over 2 km to the path) and finishing his mega dangerous project, he was, ironically, attacked by a swarm of wild wasps. The suit (great one, an Eques specially made by Rysio Paluszkiewicz) protected his entire body from them. Body, but not the face, which resulted in 11 bites on his face. The next day Leszek said jokingly that this was the most dangerous part of the trip.