Coming up, Jonathan and Todd explore a famous cave with an even more famous cave diver!
Welcome to Jonathan Bird’s Blue World!
Merritt’s Mill Pond in Marinna, Florida, is a cave divers paradise.
If it looks like a flooded river, that’s because this pond was created by damming up
a river, to power a mill.
The mill is gone, but now it’s a reservoir originating at Jackson Blue Spring.
The spring discharges a massive amount of ground water every day from an immense cave
system, making it popular with cave divers.
Jackson Blue Spring is a first magnitude spring, which means it spits out at least 64 million
gallons of water every day, which is enough to keep that entire Merritt’s Mill Pond
filled with crystal clear water.
The Blue World team begins the day carrying our gear from our rental house down to the
dock.
Cameraman Todd, Zach of all Trades, and I are preparing for a fun day on and in the
water.
Well there it is…our own personal boat.
This boat is great!
This is great.
You know, on most shoots we have to rent a van to get around.
But for this shoot, we have to rent a boat because all of the dive sites are accessible
only from water on this little pond.
We begin by assembling our dive gear on the dock, where we have a little more space to
work.
Today, Cameraman Todd and I are going to be diving with Edd Sorenson, who is a world-famous
legend of cave diving.
He was Brian Kakuk’s instructor.
So Brian Kakuk was my instructor.
So if I think of Brian Kakuk as like Obi Wan Kenobi, then Edd Sorenson is Yoda!
Once the last of the gear is aboard, it’s time to shove off and see how well Zach can
drive a boat!
I’ve never been in a situation where I’m on a boat, but we have to watch out or we’ll
hit a tree.
These Cypress trees are beautiful and they have the Spanish moss on them, but they are
in the middle of the pond, so….
With Captain Zach of all Trades at the helm, we head north up the shallow pond, towards
the dive shop to meet with Edd.
We’re almost to the dive shop!
You know it’s kind of weird…when you pull up to the dive shop in a boat.
Zach brings her in like a pro and we tie off to the dock.
We meet dive instructor Mehdi Zinetti, who unfortunately has to watch the dive shop today
while Edd goes diving with us.
Up the hill, Cave Adventurers, known around the world as the gateway to the numerous caves
of Marianna, Florida.
Hey Edd!
Great to see ya!
Great to finally meet you!
So, ready for some diving?
I’m ready!
Well, why don’t we head over to Jackson Blue and see what crystal clear water looks
like.
I can’t wait to see it!
As soon as we can get Zach away from his new buddy Maverick, we can hit the road.
I mean the water.
Back down at the dock, Mehdi loads Edd’s gear on the boat.
Given that it’s actually Edd’s boat and he knows the way, we figured it would be better
for him to drive.
On the way further north, Edd tells us about life on the pond in Northern Florida.
And we’re all thinking the same thing—this sure does seem like a nice place to live.
Soon we approach Blue Springs Recreation Area, a state park built around Jackson Blue Spring.
Since it’s after Labor Day, they are closed for the season, but diving is still allowed.
Most people show up in a car and dive from shore, but with a boat we can tie up and swim
in.
We will gear up in the water, and Edd certainly has a casual way of doing it.
Finally, it’s time to suit up.
Todd and I are wearing 7mm wetsuits.
But Edd has a drysuit.
A little lawnmowing?
Edd moves some of the floating eel grass to clear a spot.
Then we finish gearing up.
Alright so let’s recap on what we’re going to do.
OK If we survive the swim over though the weeds….
Much of the pond and the spring is covered with eel grass beds, swaying in the strong
current of water emerging from the spring.
All we have to do is swim over it.
Edd leads the way, around the outside of the spring to avoid the strongest current in the
middle.
It’s like swimming over a field of wheat.
Soon we reach the cave entrance.
The water blasting out pushes us backwards.
It seems like it will be really hard to swim in.
But Edd leads the way, entering through a corner section with less current.
He points out his reel that he placed for teaching, so we don’t need to run our own.
We will follow this line to the permanent guideline deep in the cavern zone.
The streamlined profile of Edd’s KISS rebreather and his expert form makes swimming against
the current look easy.
Where the entrance narrows, the current becomes quite fierce, but fortunately there are big
rocks to grab for help.
Past the narrow section, the current drops to a much more manageable level.
Inside the cavern zone, we can still see daylight from the entrance.
We make slow but steady progress against the flow.
I can already tell I’m not going to get very far into this cave before I hit my thirds
and need to turn around.
Soon we approach the stop sign.
Most popular caves have some version of this sign at the back of the cavern zone warning
divers not to go any further unless they are properly trained and equipped.
Most cave diving accidents involve divers that lack the proper training and gear.
With the proper equipment and training, Todd and I follow Edd past the stop sign into the
magical world of Jackson Blue.
The first big breakdown area is a giant jumble of huge boulders.
There are all kinds of little swim-throughs, restrictions and side passages.
Since they are so close to the exit, we can check those out on the way back.
For now we are pushing into the cave so Edd can show us some of his favorite spots.
It isn’t long until we hit a steep crack going down at a 45 degree angle.
An impressive flow pushes up through this narrow crack, but Edd glides right down like
it’s nothing.
I on the other hand claw my way down like a wounded sloth.
I blame my camera.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
At 90 feet, Edd takes a left turn and we jump to a side tunnel known as the horseshoe circuit.
This is a low tunnel, with very little flow that goes around in a big loop and comes back
to the main tunnel.
Because there isn’t much water flow in here, we need to be careful not to kick up any silt.
If we do, it will just hang in the water for a long time.
But at least we don’t have to fight the current.
Back-mount divers would have a hard time fitting though this low tunnel, but sidemount divers
like us with a lower-profile float right through with ease.
Soon Edd approaches a restriction.
He vanishes into a hole in the wall.
And pops out the other side back in the main section of the cave.
It doesn’t look too tight, so I squeeze in next.
It probably says something about me that I enjoy squeezing through tight sections of
cave.
Huge fun!
Back in the main cave tunnel, we keep going upstream, and the tunnel has gotten quite
large.
Because it’s larger in diameter, the water moves slower, and swimming is a little easier,
but we’re still swimming upstream.
Slow going.
On the floor of the cave, the sand has formed waves, like the bottom of a river, a condition
created by the flow of water.
In the troughs between the waves, tiny fossils, shells, and pieces of coral from the limestone,
which used to be an ancient seabed.
The clear water means the guideline is always easy to see.
The wavy section of cave floor almost looks like a path, leading the way into the darkness.
Soon we approach a well-known landmark in the cave: Chicken head rock.
Does it look like a chicken?
Maybe a little.
As a couple divers on scooters pass by, we have just about reached our thirds, so this
is a good place to turn around and start back.
Of course on the way back, we drift along with the flow, so we go faster with much less
effort!
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When we get back to the steep crack, I go flying up it a lot faster than I came down.
Back in the shallows of the big breakdown area, Edd shows us another cool circuit.
I watch as he disappears down a very small restriction.
It seems to me that I would probably fit down that hole, but I think better of it when I
realize I’m not sure how much space there is in there to turn around.
So I back up and watch as Edd comes back out.
Soon its time to leave the cave, and we make our way back into the cavern zone.
We get shot at high speed out of the throat of the narrow section and back up into the
main cavern area.
We pause for a safety stop, with a beautiful view of light rays coming into the cavern,
and the sway of the eel grass outside.
After our safety stop, we float gently out into the pond, and make our way back to the
boat.
Ha!
That was fun!
That was super fun!
Crystal clear!
Jackson Blue Spring is a massive cave system.
We went about 700 feet back into a cave that has been mapped more than 5,000 feet from
the entrance, containing many miles of passages.
Edd Sorenson has been mapping this cave for years, having thousands of dives in this one
cave.
And now that he has given us an introduction to the cave, we might just do another dive.
Stay tuned for part two of Jackson Blue!
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