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United States » The Jewel

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Rated 2.8/5 stars (285 ratings) Thanks for rating this cave system!

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Date	Submitter	Visbility	Remarks
6/2/2006	Eric Deister	50'	*********Closed site- Permit diving only********* Great dive. Maestro and I head out to dive the Jewel Friday evening, after getting the lock on the gate straight we drove over to the water. gearing up, Maestro almost steps on a pygmy rattlesnake (still had its rattles). We put a line in from the surface with a 8# of weight (which now hangs at 70’). As Maestro prepped his RB, I took the O2 down to 20 feet to tie off. There is a thermal at 21’ going from 84 to 71 was a shock, the best part was when Maestro hit it and screamed. Dropping down our down line to 70 feet vis opened up to about 25 feet. I didn't see crap, it was just dark. Maestro tied off a primary line to the weight and headed inward and downward. Around 150' the vis cleared up to a nice 50 feet. He tied off the primary and pulled out a gap reel, telling me to hold, he headed down a crack following a old line that would be easily overlooked if you didn't know where to look. Giving him a couple of minutes I headed in after him. After about 50 feet of tight silty restriction I came into the big room and boy is it big! The break down in that room is the largest I've ever seen in a cave. The rocks were as big as my house. Following the main line down to around 300 feet I saw the ship - thank God for helium. Looking around the edges of the room I can just imagine the leads that could be in there (Double Keyhole?). But this was just a check out dive to see if it's worth working in anytime soon. Turning around and coming out I realized how many people have been in there as you could see jumps off the main line all over the place. The bad thing was that some must have been on air, who would put 10' of line in a circle? Exiting was fun, Maestro showed me some of the old things that were left in there – steel spikes to hold the line in salt water, steel chains in the wall to hold deco bottles in the salt water, etc. Deco was very fun, reminded me of the old days of diving the quarries back up in PA. I was a nice relief to hit 20' and have the water temp go up 12 degrees.. Nice dive looking forward to diving it again and putting some real time in below 300 feet.. Side note - the next day we went back to take some surface pics, there was a 7ft gator at the entrance. Now that would have been fun doing deco at 11pm and seeing him.

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Description	Type	Date	Author	Remarks

Sslect Search Radius:

System	Depth	Cave	Cavern	OW	Last Report	Distance (mi)
Lost 40	165	True	False	False	7/15/2023	11.8
Hospital Hole	143	False	True	True	4/30/2023	9
Ward's Sink	198	True	True	True	9/30/2022	6.7
Hudson Grotto	110	False	True	True	10/30/2021	4.7
Arch Sink	197	True	True	False	7/18/2021	5.8
Bulldozer Sink	60	False	True	True	3/22/2020	9.1
Palm Sink	197	True	True	True	10/15/2019	4
Rock Sink		False	False	True	3/24/2019	8.9
Diepolder III	300	True	False	False	5/27/2017	11.7
Salt Spring	330	True	False	False	12/13/2014	8.4
Wayne's World	280	True	False	False	8/16/2013	3.1
Twin Dees	335	True	False	False	8/3/2013	9.1
Isabella Spring	110	True	False	False	5/22/2013	0.7
Weeki Wachee Spring	407	True	False	True	4/28/2012	9.6
Diepolder II	360	True	False	False	12/23/2010	11.5
Free Ride Cave	120	True	False	False	10/10/2009	1.2
Cedar Island Springs		False	False	False	9/19/2009	2.9
Double Keyhole	230	True	False	False	1/11/2009	0.5
Horseshoe Spring		True	True	False	1/10/2009	1.2
Little Salt Spring	240	True	False	False	9/23/2008	10.1
Heart Spring	270	True	True	False	8/3/2008	5.9
Bobhill Springs		False	False	False	12/29/2007	2.6
Jewfish Sink	200	True	False	False	9/2/2007	2.7
Mud Spring	210	True	True	False	11/20/2005	10
Beacon Woods - Round Sink	150	True	True	False	9/25/2005	5.3
Joe's Sink	60	True	False	True		11.5
Snook Spring	120	True	False	False		1.2
Star Sun Spring	120	True	False	False		1.2
Wolf Sink		False	False	False		9.6
Hospital Spring	40	False	True	False		8.9
Coffee Sink		False	False	False		5.9
Nemesis Sink	250	True	True	True		6.3
Beacon Woods - Nexxus	150	True	False	False		4.9
Beacon Woods - Smokehouse Pond	150	True	False	False		4.3
Whiskey Spring		True	False	False		8.2
Cauldron Spring	85	True	False	False		8.7
Beacon Woods - Briar Sink	150	True	False	False		4.4
Brett's Toilet Bowl	40	True	False	False		8.7
Nursery Sink	214	True	False	False		11
Garden World Sink	250	True	False	False		1.2
Willow Sink		True	False	False		9.4
Jenkins Creek	50	True	False	False		8.2
Mary's Sink	58	True	False	True		11.6
Beacon Woods - Stratamax	150	True	False	False		4.5
Beacon Woods - Golfball	150	True	False	False		4.3
Gar Spring		True	False	False		8.1