George emerging from Little Cave Cenote
Mark in Angel’s Halo
Andy leading the dive
The second “T”
Gathering spare stages
Project Participants and Sponsors
Aquatech/Villa De Rosa
Sartek Industries
Ocean Management Systems
Maxtec, Inc.
Dive Rite Inc.
Rick’s Dive’N Travel
Highland Millwork
New Cenote !! … Day 7
April 20th, 2001
Today proved to be incredible. Team 1, Renee and George, headed off downstream to evaluate and survey a line placed since our last expedition. On their way, they discovered something that resembled, could it be…yes ..a cenote!!! The team went up to investigate the situation and indeed saw daylight. After a bit of deliberation, the team decided to leave the cenote and try to exit the opening on the next dive. The cenote was dubbed El Grutas Pequeno Cenote or the "Little Cave Cenote". The room adjacent to the cenote, was a beautiful white room thick with columns and a huge domed ceiling that the Renee named, "The Capital Room". The room requires further exploration as the team believes it also may hold a cenote. They did, however, continue downstream on the previously placed line. Upon finding the end, they found that it came within about 40 feet of another line. The dive was turned and the team began the survey process out and exited after 81 minutes of bottom time.
Team 2, consisting of Mark, Andy and Terrence had a documentation mission. They journeyed off to the upstream side to Angela’s Halo where they obtained video throughout the area and during the exit.
After a 4 hour interval to fill tanks and eat lunch, the team headed back out to Cenote Camilo to try and reach the surface from the new cenote. Again, the group was broken down into 2 teams. Team 1, Mark and Andy were surface support. Thirty-five minutes after Team 2 had entered Camilo, Mark and Andy heard a distant yell. One of the divers had broken free to the surface. Terrence had estimated the the vector to be approximately 110 degrees from Camilo, and he was nearly on the button. Team 1 took a quick compass bearing to the voice: 105 degrees. After a brief but laborious hack through 500 feet of jungle with machetes , Andy and Mark were united with George, who was grinning ear to ear and quite happy to see us.
Team 2, George, Terrence, and Renee went back to Little Cave Cenote from below to try and evaluate and hopefully exit the opening. Terrence temporarily left George and Renee on hold and he went to investigate further. Terrence was able to dig through the muck and reach the outside. Due to the limited space, only one diver could go out. George emerged from the cenote and Renee and Terrence turned and exited from Cenote Camilo.
Dive Team:
Renee Power
George McCulley
Mark Corkery
Andy Peterson
Terrence Tysall
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