Report #9 of the EJIDO JACINTO PAT EXPLORATION EXPEDITION

REPORT #9 Monday Evening, June 17th, 1996.



As of this evening, total line laid in the cave system is over: 165,000 feet. Steve Berman, Steve Irving, David Minor, Pat Watson and Keith Kinard are diving out of the newest cenote due west of Cenote Kentucky Castle. Made one dive to orient themselves with their area to explore and set up stage bottles. Doing a push dive on Tuesday. Paul Heinerth and Jill Rabjohn have ceased with exploring and now concentrating on underwater photos. Gary Lemme is flying home early because wife has become seriously ill and is in the hospital. Bil Philips found another passage between Frontierland and the Wild West line in M1 and installed 1100 feet of line.
Steve Keene and Sue Sharples are surveying several lines in the Kentucky Castle area to double check accuracy. Sue has pushed a new lead 400 feet. The Dos Ojos Smaps data from the past has been a big help for the Kentucky Castle area and Hilario's Well. Sue Sharples has been super helpful with printing out worksheet maps from the computer.
Tuesday, Rich Chapski joins Bill Renaker in Hilario's Well. Bill extended his contributions another 250 feet for a total 3275 feet of new line in this area originally considered dead. They are moving to an entirely new area. Bill Dooley with the help of Jim Osborne are concentrating on photos. Today at Hilario's Well. Our Mayan Sherpa team did not show up on Monday. So, we took ten men off the construction crew at Villas DeRosa to help haul tanks. Worked out very good.
Received a very nice letter from Tom Mount. He stated he enjoys the daily reports and is proud to have IANTD a sponsor of this unique and successful expedition.
Many thanks to our sponsors. OCEANIC - Barry Warner. Scuba West of Hudson, Florida. IKELITE of Indianapolis, Indiana. Spring System Dive Outpost of Luraville, Florida. Lloyd Bailey's Scuba in Gainesville. HENDERSON Wetsuits. American Underwater Lighting of Leesburg, Florida - Arnold and Judy Jackson. It's Dive Time, Inc of Columbus, Ohio - Rob Harris. SubAquatec of Cancun, Mexico. Big Thank you to Tony and Nancy DeRosa of Aquatech/Villas DeRosa. Dos Ojos Dive Center - Buddy Quattlebaum.
RoseMary Redgen has been outstanding with the plotting and handing of the massive amount of survey data. Incredible job. Kevin Renton, Pierre Turgeon and Issac Villanavue continue to"shine" with their excellent support work.
Received a great letter of support from David Rhea. Congratulations with your new position with SCUBAPRO. The positive support from so many people has been spectacular. Things are beginning to wind down. Will start the dreadful job of moving equipment out of the jungle in two days.
OUTSIDE MAGAZINE called asking for photos. They have written an article evolving around both directions of Dos Ojos and Nahoch Nah Chich. We announced where we stood in distance and our future goals.
SCUBA TIMES Magazine is keeping close tabs of our progress along with the FLORIDA SCUBA NEWS.
This concludes Report #9. Thank you to everyone for the support and interest. This project has indeed been FUN and a tremendous learning experience.
Steve Gerrard