Marcus wanted to go and have a look at sump six in P8 (Jackpot) in Derbyshire. Several years ago he did some work towards sump ten but had always by-passed sump six which branches off between sumps five and seven, both of which drain into six. With sump six being the lowest point in what is known as the downstream sumps (one to ten) it offers a good digging potential. So our aim today was to try and get to six if the other sumps were open.
A lightweight trip was planned using lead previously staged down the cave and only taking minimal equipment. (How impressed was Marcus when we got to the sump and I pulled a camera out of my bag?) Unfortunately we were unable to locate some lead left by another diver (Jim) and I didn’t have enough weight to sink properly so I only had a quick look into sump one.
Marcus did rather better. The first three sumps were open and sump four only needed a small amount of work to make it passable. Sump five was more heavily obstructed by silt and sand. Marcus exited the sump after making a couple of meters by digging.
We then left the cave which is now nowhere near as popular as it used to be. The total trip time was about 6 hours.
So you’ll be planning a return trip to find out if it sump six does lead anywhere?
You better get your calorie count up if you need more weight!! I suggest some more cake, and chocolate and chips.
Yes Pete we are planning on another visit or two. The sumps are usually don’t let people through without some work spread over several trips.
Tish, I am not sure about your plan. Putting on weight by eating chocolate would help by increasing my thermal insulation and therefore reduce the amount of neoprene I would need. Fat is neutrally buoyant and neoprene is positively buoyant so replacing the one with the other would work. Shame I wouldn’t then fit down the cave 🙁
Girls! Always thinking of cakes, makeup and boyz! Never anything practical like neutral buoyancy… 😆