22/10/19

Estelle Sandford, Dave King, Dave Walker

1hr

Went over armed with tools to take apart the remaining cable connections and to check the state of play. Disconnected the IP44 link easily with 2 people to pull on it so removed the grey socket cable for cleaning and drying. We then went in and looked at the water levels and took some photos. It's dropped about another 8-10" since yesterday so progress... Hopefully with less rain forecast it will dry out some more over the next week. We measured cable lengths a bit so we can plan how to put on a far more waterproof set up and resin seal anything likely to ever end up getting wet. Headed to pub to discuss ideas further!

checking the water levels 21/10/19

Estelle Sandford
1hr
I popped over  with oversuit over clothes to check the status… The good news is that the water level has dropped considerably in that it is at the bottom of the first grill. The hole in the floor is still full though so not quite sure where it’s draining! Not wanting to get overly wet with no change of clothes, I carefully traversed the ledges enough to grab the pump and bring it back to the grill, only to find the cable seemed jammed and it didn’t want to come out… After some gentle flicking and tugging on the cable, it came away, bringing with it a pile of hauling rope that was obviously sat on top of it! The pump was soon bagged for removal to take home and clean and check over. Left the remaining cable in situ for now, although all is near the entrance.

15/10/19

from Mike - Mike Moxon & Jonathan Riley

Well, it's just as well we didn't have a full turn out. I've included Kevin to find out what level the borehole is at, as last time we had this much water, so did he...

Jon went down ahead of me & just as I was about to join him he reappeared at the cars - turns out the first hole on left was flooded to within view & the end was just below the top of the steps. We both went down & pulled the cable up so the first join was well above the water level. Both pools were c.5 to 6ft below the level of the railway, although we're not 100% that they are at the same height. Jon suggested that Nick could do a practice dive & recover the pump & tools from the end. Early finish in the Hunters' then.

8/10/19 2 trips in one day!

AM

Estelle Sandford, Nick Gymer

1hr

Andrew Atkinson was going to survey the stuff that isn’t on the current survey, but had distoX problems, so cancelled today. I had arranged to show Nick and it was beneficial to pump too probably, so went down anyway. Showed Nick around the top stuff, before heading down to the end to check. End was very wet and the water over the grill was flowing into the end and it was at that height. Set the pump up and going whilst Nick went and looked at the upper series and then we hung around until it had pumped enough to save time tonight. Also took a chunk out of the dam as it seems pointless having it with it filling up and overflowing and means only having to pump one place if we can move the dam enough. It appears to be a rock step though. Once drained headed out and home

PM

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Dave Walker, Chris Duberry, Nick Hawkes

2hrs

Pump was reactivated on arrival to clear the puddle area above the dig as much as anything. Chris went in to dig first, followed by Nick and then Stu had a dig – first time since his operation he had been to the end and he was surprised by how much progress we’d made. We are down to 18 buckets now, but Stu did an extra 10, helped by Estelle removing some of the remainder of the dammed bit so now the top puddle mostly drains into the dig meaning one pump location.

No digging planned for next week as a too many people are unavailable and it’s unviable with the numbers left, but could do with a couple of people planning to head over at some point to pump it so we keep on top of it as it is needing about ½ hour per week with all the rain we are having. Also on digging nights, be good if 1-2 can be there ½ hour early to get it going and maximise digging time. Jon had provided new skip for the bottom run and we have a spare for that too, the top one needs someone to take a knife down to trim the back off as it’s very hard to load at the moment.

2/10/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Stu Lindsay

2hrs

Stu went inside the cave for the first time since his operation and did the 2^nd haul and was definitely a lot more sprightly getting into the cave! We needed to pump quite a bit this week as there had been a lot of rainfall in the last week, so the pump was going for most of the session, Mike went in first to dig once it was low enough to work around the edges and then Dave filled the second lot, only about 35 skips came out as too much time wasted pumping.

24/9/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker

2hrs15mins

headed down and checked water levels after it had been torrential rain for much of the last 48hrs, so was expecting it to be quite wet, but although the water was up a bit, it didn't need pumping to work, but we chose to pump out about a foot worth of water to make sure we were keeping on top of it in case of more rain before next time. While pumping, Estelle got to digging, mostly on the left and low, trying to clear down as low as possible on that side to see if it was the bottom around the boulders. After 20 skips, swapped and James dug, he also dug the same place, which being lots of nougat type clay, was hard work and took quite a long time on his session. Jon then only did 10 as was getting close to pub time, but he dug on the right of the chamber, which was easy digging! The chamber is getting quite large now, probably a good 3-4m long and about 2.5m wide and can stand up in bits of it (where there are no boulders on the floor!) the bottom skip is desperate for replacement. Stu still getting back into it slowly post op and Mike nursing a hamstring injury so not able to do as much.