The plan was to go down to the bottom of Hospital Hole and get 2 core samples. My son Matt thought of a project for his Karst class at USF. His thought was that the sediment build up at the bottom of hospital hole, deposited by the Weeki Wachee River would be an honest representation of our local climate changes. After his class was over, his instructor passed Matt’s idea up to the “higher ups”. The instructor emailed Matt and told him the state was interested in his theory. Before the state spent much man power and money on a research team, they asked Matt to go get a “core sample” from Hospital Hole. This is where I come in. I have the boat.
Team Vinzant is known for diving Hospital Hole, probably more than anyone else in this area. Matt told me what his plan was, and I added my two cents (which I always keep some around just for that purpose) and we proceeded to run with it. Matt picked up 2 - 5’ sticks of PVC pipe, rubber end caps, stainless hose clamps, assorted clips, rope, some tools and his lift bag. I serviced the boat, trailer and motor while my wife Carol cleaned the inside of the pontoon boat.
Matt and Sara met up with Carol and me at our house early Sunday morning. We knew if we didn’t leave Lakeland early enough, there would be no parking spots left at Rodgers Park on the Weeki Wachee River. The park is a popular local hangout and gets packed early!
When we arrived at the park around 8:45 am, there were still a few spots left. Like a machine, we all quickly unloaded the gear and launched the boat. Hospital Hole is only 5 minutes upstream from the park, so we were there quickly. We were happy to see there were no other divers there yet.
We dropped both anchors, lowered the pipes down a few feet on a rope and geared up. Our plan; Matt and I would drop down, get a sample from the deepest part, then come up and get a second shallower sample. Carol and Sara would enjoy the boat and do some snorkeling. Simple enough…..
We slipped below the surface, through the thermo-cline where we did our safety check and untied our gear from the rope. I did our primary tie off; as I was running the reel. The hydrogen sulfide layer was dense. We could tell no one had been through it recently. Small sticks and leaves rested on the layer looking like a Transylvanian fog.
Moments after the second tie off, I entered the hydrogen sulfide layer, followed closely by Matt. Everything turns gray and smells of rotten eggs as the sulfide layer is penetrated. As my head pokes through the layer, I could see the bottom sloping downward. It is dark here, very dark. It seems like someone turned out the lights and shut the door behind us. I can see Matt’s light shining over my shoulder so I know he is close behind me. I am always thankful to be running a reel in this disorientating place. There is no life here; it is like being on another planet. Decaying leaves, sticks and a few broken down crab traps scatter the bottom. I felt the narcosis hit me like a truck. I am sure Matt must feel it too, even if he does dive more than I do. We pick a spot that looks like it still gets some sediment from the surface, but not too much. Our computers say we are at 120'. Matt takes out the pipe and rams it into the bottom. Silt explodes everywhere. I pull out the 5 lb. sledge hammer and begin pounding in the pipe.
Thanks to the narcosis, the pipe appears to be moving and changing sizes. I even felt like I was pounding in slow motion. Trying not to get too tired and breathe too hard at that depth, we took turns with the hammer. When the core pipe was (eventually) in; Matt capped the top of the pipe and attached the lift bag to it. I assumed that is what he was doing as at this point, we couldn’t see ANYTHING because of the silt. We had to let the air out of our BC’s so we could be negative enough to pound the sledge hammer; which left us kneeling on the bottom.
The lift bag was full at 100 lbs of lift and the sample wasn’t budging. Matt held the dump valve and I pulled and worked on pulling the core. As it came loose, I was afraid if Matt didn’t dump fast enough, the pipe would launch toward the surface like the space shuttle leaving a trail of silt like a rocket exhaust! Matt caught it and began to put the final cap on. I was holding the core, handing him tools and holding the light 1” away from the cap hoping he could see to use the screwdriver for the pipe clamp. I could see nothing but darkness and could only hear us breathing.
With the clamp on, we both knew there would be no second core sample taken today. We had totally silted out the bottom and we were starting to rack up the deco time. Matt started up, but was snagged in the line. I helped him get loose as we ascended. I had a tangle in the reel (see picture), but couldn’t seem to figure out how to fix it (thank you Mr. Narcosis). I just rolled the line around the reel (and my foot).
The glow of the sulfur layer is always a welcome sight. As we emerged from the layer, I was expecting to see Carol and Sara snorkeling above. I figured they were just waiting for us to do our deco stop and then snorkel down to us. Matt and I hovered around and took some pictures while we waited out our time. Still, the girls were not there. As we broke the surface, the girls were wrapped up like mummies in towels.
Carol and Sara were asking us to hurry up and get out of the water. As soon as Matt and I got on the boat, we knew why; Biting yellow flies! There were more yellow flies than I had ever seen in one place.  Without moving head, I could see at least 20. They were on the dive gear, on us, just all over; and, boy were they pissed and hungry! Matt and I quickly dropped our gear on the floor so Matt could pull the anchors while I started the boat for our escape. We drove all the way up there so we figured the flies wouldn’t bother us while we were moving, so a trip up the river was planned. There were spots where there were no flies, but they were far between. Eventually, we just turned the boat around and headed back toward the ramp.
Rodgers park was a carnival; with people, kayaks, big and small boats everywhere. Some were launching, some loading, some just plain confused and had no idea how to drive a boat (like the girl who rammed our pontoon boat with her dingy and then drove her boat at an impossibly slow speed; obliviously blocking all boat traffic behind her).
After waiting in line for the ramp we all worked as a team to quickly get the boat of the water and out of the park. We stopped on our way home to see a spring Matt heard about (But that will be another story for another trip). We stopped and had a really mediocre lunch on the way home. I felt bad for all the bites the girls got, but really lucky we got home without incident. After getting home, I noticed the tire on the trailer was minutes from blowing out (see photo).