Croatia 2015
Team: Max, Ivo, Sebastian, Flo, Heinke, Steffen, Tobi, Marc
The second project in 2015 brought us back to Croatia. The project was on the back burner because it had rained heavily in Croatia the weeks before. Our local contacts had told us about strong flow. Thus, some caves were still not diveable shortly before the start of the project. One day before the start of the project we decided to start the project.
Day 1
Arrival of the first 5 participants (Max, Ivo, Sebastian, Flo and Steffen) on Saturday. We were on the road with two cars and had a trailer for the equipment. The journey with the trailer is nevertheless clearly longer than with the passenger car or bus and lasted approx. 10 hours. Arrival in Starigrad around 21 o'clock.
Since Starigrad is a tourist area, we had this time a much better hotel than the year before in the interior (*** Croatian stars). Here we had the luxury of having our own dive cellar in one of the hotel rooms, which we used for the duration. At the end of the day we had dinner and planning for the first day of diving.
Day 2 ( Modrič )
The diving equipment was unloaded and assembled. On Sunday, the Modrič cave was on the program. We had already dived this cave last year ( read here ) and this year the line from the Plongee Sout, DirSlo and AKPP was extended by almost 1km. Spurred on by this we wanted to see if we could explore the cave further.
Since we had some new participants with us and we had received reports of difficult conditions, the first thing on the agenda were exploratory dives for both the OC and RB teams. After the narrow passage at the beginning of the cave, the cave passage becomes very spacious and except for a few places, one can comfortably scoot side by side. After about 300m the first haloclines appeared and we encountered fresh water which made the visibility vary a lot. The RB team (Flo and Ivo) advanced to the earlier End-of-Line (EOL). The strong flow of the last weeks had destroyed one or the other piece of line, which had to be mended. At noon we were joined by Marc and Heinke, who had spent the night.
The second dive (Flo and Max) went to about 600m. Here more patching was done and line remnants were removed. Shortly after turning around, Max noticed that the handling characteristics of his scooter changed completely and that it only had an acceptable water position during the trip. Thus, it was clear that the scooter was full of water - but Max still managed to get it out of the cave, which made it a very expensive day for Max, as the battery was thus scrap.
Day 3 ( Modrič )
The OC team (this time extended by Heinke) had the task of filming in this project. From the previous day we knew a nice spot not too far from the entrance with a large stalactite in a 90 degree bend. The visibility in the Modrič was okay for diving - but insufficient for filming due to the many suspended particles. So most of the shots can only be used for documentation or at best as practice for later film dives.
The RB team (this time extended by Marc) had continued to fight their way along the line and repaired the line. The penetration depth from the RB team that day was a good 1km. When surfacing on the second dive of the day, we surfaced at sunset. This is also where the beautiful picture was taken, which adorns the Thor brochure and you can admire at the beginning of the article.
Day 4 ( Glavas )
For better filming and because some of the participants didn't know the cave yet we went to Glavas cave. This cave has a clear view and bright walls, which reflect the light nicely. Also emergence points (in the shallow side arm) allow communication over water. In the cave known from last year, only the OC team was in action and made film recordings. Here the conditions with around 20m were much better than in the Modric and better shots were possible. Max and Sebastian were also impressed by the cave, as some of us were last year.
Due to inconsistencies between our dive permit and the opinion of the local authorities, we unfortunately had to stop our action in the Glavas after the first TG. The regulations change in Croatia again and again, which always requires new (different) permits, which we didn't seem to have in this case. Tobi joined the team in the evening, after our return to Starigard.
Day 5 ( Modrič & Zečica )
With Tobi and two other scooters we could tackle the pushdive in the Modrič today (Marc, Flo and Tobi). The end of the northern passage was reached at about 1700m. The passage divides here, but both ends quickly become narrower or reach the surface which prevents progress. Further ahead in the passage, however, the cave seems to change direction significantly at one point. Presumably this would be a better place to look for continuations. During this time, two OC teams (Heinke, Sebastian and Steffen) and Team 2 (Ivo and Max) explored the conditions of Zečica Cave. This cave is located at the tip of a headland where we could not transport our equipment. Since all but one scooter was needed for the pushdive and we could only organize a boat for the following day, the groups had to cover long swimming distances.
It turned out that the cave is diveable and thus could become the second goal of the project. The cave really opens up at 40m at the cave entrance and enlarges in such a way that during the dive you can't see all the walls in the lamp light. The cave is very beautiful with large passages and many stalagmites and stalagtites. Visibilities here were around 5 to 8 m, in salt water around 10+ m. Most of the cave runs around 40 m (21/35th). The line situation in the cave was catastrophic, the mainline was torn in many places by the current, jumps were not clearly visible or incorrectly marked and often there was more than one line. Already in the entrance area some line had to be mended.
Day 6 ( Zečica )
With the knowledge of the previous day, we decided as a goal for today for the OC team to completely cleanly re-route the line in the entrance area and remove the old line remnants. Team 1 (Basti, Heinke and Steffen) took care of the entrance area as well as the video documentation of the operation. Team 2 (Ivo and Max) took care of a clean line run in the first 300-400m. Thus, the RB team was able to quickly leave the entrance area of the cave behind and did not have to start mending lines until later. After the work was done, OC Team 1 could enjoy the fruits of their labor in the second TG.
The RB team, on the other hand, was able to advance to EoL at about 1250m and tried to find new passages. At the end of the line, the cave ends in an obstruction with large blocks, which did not allow enough space for further advancement. But more about that later. The last deco stop of the RB team was in open water at 6m. The idea was to use the deco times to already scoot around the headland a bit. Unfortunately, the 6m line runs in the direction of the bay with the result that the RB team stuck its head out of the water for the first time in the middle of the bay. J.
Day 7 ( Majerovo )
In addition to Modrič and Zečica, another cave in the interior was on the program. Majerovo cave was also completely new for us and is located about 90 min from Starigrad and is in a very secluded, but also very idyllic area.
This freshwater spring feeds an old mill and provides quite a lot of water even in summer. The cave has two narrower entrances that have a fair amount of fill due to the amount of water. The teams descended together to check the conditions. Team 1 (Ivo and Max) put a line into the cave. Team 2 surfaced in the meantime to give Team 1 time to lay line and not stand on each other's feet. The conditions at the cave entrance are quite challenging due to the flow, having to dive practically overhead a good 15m through a nozzle. If you don't hold on, the cave spits you out again in seconds. After a short wait and another fight with the entrance, team 2 could also dive the cave. Tobi and Flo also dove into the cave with their RBs. They broke off the dive very soon, because the cave quickly reaches depths of 70m and more and the following deco in the described nozzle promised anything but fun.
Day 8 ( Zečica )
Influenced by the impressions of the first TG in the Zečica we wanted to try again whether we could not find another passage or whether the cave does not go further. Therefore, Flo and Tobi had decided on the last day again to go into the cave. This time the two had found a way to bypass the cliff on the left and were able to lay another 30m of line, but ended up in a dead end.
After the fall appeared to be not bypassable on both sides and due to the visibility of about 3m at this point the search was relatively difficult, the two had to turn back without having achieved anything. Interesting at this point is that the cave with 35m becomes shallower again and despite the depth fresh water leads. What brings on the one hand just the worse visibility with itself, on the other hand in addition, speaks for the fact that the enough water seems to come behind the collapse around the salt water to displace. On the way back Flo & Tobi tried to look for a continuation of the cave at a part of the cave where it makes a concise change of direction - unfortunately without success.
We were really lucky with the weather and with our guests. In addition to the two known caves (Modrič and Glavas), we were able to get to know two new caves, Zečica and Majerovo. However, both caves seem to be already fully developed or continuations should be rather difficult to find.
All in all a successful project. Croatia is always worth a visit. We hope for more new caves in this area.
In this sense,
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