Remainder of Team Arrives

From a glance at the Team Member list compared to yesterday, you can see that our group has grown! The crew from Fuqua School arrived, along with Doug Chapman, Linda Wooddell, and Amy Giannotti of the Cambrian Foundation. Three more divers also arrived (Bob Giguere, Michael Poucher and Sandra Poucher), bringing the total dive team to six (three teams of two) for the rest of the week.

Andrew and Terrence loaded on five cylinders and went back to the Time Line. They checked out several leads and put on about 150 feet more line. However, it was starting to curve back on itself, so they tied off and turned on air. Nonetheless, the area shows promise, with many leads left unexplored. As a special dive bonus, they found Karl’s missing watch and Renee’s errant reel, returning them to their respective owners after about a three and a half hour dive.

Meanwhile, Renee and Karl went north. They checked out some leads off the Grand Canyon line. They ventured nearly to the end, dropping into some low side passage below the halocline in a few places. This is one of the most impressive parts of Sistema Camilo, though a long way from the closest entrance. Relatively few cave divers are likely to ever see it. On the way out, Karl took pictures in the House of the Gods entrance corridor, one of the cave’s most memorable features that he and Grant Graves had the privilege of discovering during the Akumal 2000 expedition. Karl and Renee surfaced after a two hour, 48 minute dive.

Upon returning to Villas DeRosa, Terrence and Renee met up with the arrivals, squaring away their accommodations and briefing everyone on the schedule and procedures for the coming week. Andrew, Renee and Karl helped the arriving divers get their gear set up for their first jump the next day. Meanwhile, Terrence, Amy and other staff helped the students get settled.

Meanwhile after a long day of traveling (starting for some at 3:30 in the morning), we arrived at Villas DeRosa around 1:00 PM. After a lunch by the pool we decided to check out the ocean and pool. Later in the afternoon Dr. David Lindell from Utah State University at Logan gave a presentation on meso-american coral reef ecology. We ate dinner on the roof of the hotel. We then presented half of the PowerPoint presentations that the students prepared on things like karst, speleothem, Mayan and Akumal. Then we went to get a much needed and appreciated night of sleep.

Each year the Cambrian Foundation awards the Giant Stride Award. This award honors the person or organization that has helped the Foundation in an exemplary fashion. This year Amy Giannotti was presented the award for her exceptional dedication to the Foundation. Thank you for all of the work that you do. The Cambrian Foundation also honored three recipients of the 2nd annual Legare R. Hole, III, Memorial Scholarship. John Boswell, Woody Dunkum and Josh Owen were recognized during a ceremony in which the Hole family and Terrence shared some words of reflection and encouragement to the students receiving this award.

Larry Fish of Fountain Computer Products graciously donated the Cambrian Foundation the latest version of his Compass cave mapping software. The survey data collected in the cave is entered into the Compass program and processed by it to produce a map (see picture). Prior to software products like Compass being produced, cave mappers had to plot their maps by hand using a protractor, ruler and trigonometry (yikes!). The computer is a logical way to process and manage the huge amount of data produced by a large cave survey project. There are a number of software packages around, but Compass is one of the best. It specifically is useful for us because its ability to handle the depth gauge readings used in underwater cave survey. It has a large number of other useful features: for more information see Larry’s web site at www.fountainware.com.

Tomorrow, the divers will split into teams of Renee and Andrew, Michael and Sandra, and Karl and Bob. Renee and Andrew will go into the north section to check out possible new passages. Bob, Michael and Sandra will be making a familiarity dive to get acquainted with the system and become familiar with their new territory.

Team Members

• Bethany Barton
• John Boswell
• Breanne Bryant
• Doug Chapman
• KO Donkor
• Woody Dunkum
• Taryn Eggleston
• Amy Giannotti
• Bob Giguere
• Jessica Langlois
• Hope Morton
• Mr. Shane Newcombe
• Josh Owen
• Andrew Pitkin
• Renee Power
• Michael Poucher
• Sandra Poucher
• Cara Robertson
• Catesby Saunders
• Karl Shreeves
• Thecia Taylor
• Ms. Stephanie Trovato
• Terrence Tysall
• Linda Wooddell

Send Questions or Comments to the Trilobite

Sounds like all is going well and I love reading your updates everyday! I miss my husband sooooooooo much but I guess it’s worth the sacrifice to have him down there with you guys doing this incredible stuff – just tell him to shave- I don’t want him to scare the kids next week! Send my love to Terrence and say hello to everyone for me! Be safe!!
Allison

Hey Pretty Girl, I miss you as well. Please give all of our “kids” a big hug and a kiss for me! Please let me know how things go with our boy. I really wish you were here, you wouldn’t believe the amount of life in this cave, More than I have ever seen, Amazing!!