By: Curt Bowen

Rumors of giant underground rooms, deep pits and possible new discoveries lured the ever inquisitive Florida cave explorer Brett Hemphill to the quiet little fishing village of Steinhatchee, located in the corner of Florida’s pan handle. Steinhatchee has the old time fishing village feel with the taste of southern hospitality.

Brett researched the area and located the local fishing and diving expert, Captain Jim Rogers owner and operator of the 43 foot Torres, The Jolly Rogers II. Captain Jim who specializes in local and middle ground spearfishing trips had heard and actually visited a couple springs or caves but not being a cave diver he had never explored beyond the light zone.

Excited with the possibility of discovery Brett gathered together a small group of experienced cave explorers, Steve Strastma, Jeff Peterson, and Curt Bowen to share in the joy of discovery and of course help fund the expedition.

Weather was looking good on the morning of April 23rd, 2003 as the band of explorers gathered at the local Tampa dive facility, Depth Perception for last minute preparations, a quick lunch at the local Hooters restaurant, and the 4 hour drive north to Steinhatchee.

Captain Jim and his first mate John Riddick, the old owner of Tavernier Dive Center in the Florida Keys curiously awaited the teams arrival. Captain Jim had taken out all types of fisherman, spearfisherman and even some celebrities such as Tiger Woods, but never in his day did anyone ever call about exploring submerged caves below the Gulf of Mexico. Just the thought of deep, dark and restrictive places below the ground intrigued him.

After loading the Jolly Rogers II with the required doubles, stage cylinders, decompression gases, food and drinks the vessel slowly motored its way through the channel of seemingly endless rivers of waving seagrass, twisted palm trees and diving marsh birds. Once clearing the last channel marker buoy, Captain Jim put the hammer down and the Jolly Rogers jumped into action. The trip out 57 miles would take another 4 hours as the team and crew talked about logistics, watched the sunset, cooked hot dogs and tried to come up with a few jokes no one has heard yet.

Powering the vessel down as the GPS numbers came closer to double zeros and our destination, everyone crowded around the bottom sounder like small kids at a candy store, anxiously waiting for a good show to appear on the screen. Flat sand bottom at first, then a few little crowds of bait fish. Suddenly the bottom dropped 8 feet in one step and a stack of bait fish and amberjacks towered 40 feet above the sea floor. Cheers of excitement filled the cabin as visions of giant unexplored cave danced through their heads. But the excitement would have to wait till the morning and a good nights sleep.

With a large smile on his face, Captain Jim open a floor hatch and jumped down into a lower compartment. Below, rumblings could be heard such as cave divers probably cannot fish worth a dam and only small girls go to bed this early. He quickly reappeared with a large selection of fishing reels and shouted “fishing time.”

Spreading out around the boats spacious back deck, fishing lines baited with sardines, squid and strip bait danced around the sea bottom. After just a few minutes and the with the help of Captain Jim enticing the fish below with some chum balls, the show was on. With sounds of reels spinning, excited anglers flopped fish onto the deck of the boat every few minutes. After a couple hours, dozens of medium and large snapper, reds and black grouper filled the fish coolers. Slowly the team surrendered to their heavy eye lids and only the hard core first mate and the captain continued to slay the fish.

With the explorers and crew snoring like bears in their bunks, Devils hole below would throw one last attempt to keep its secrets.

The morning would bring a totally different sea as the calm night before changed to low grey clouds racing across the sky as their winds howled over the white cap churning seas. Sea spray slapped across the cabin windows and the 43 foot vessel pitched hard side to side. But the team didn’t come this far to give in so easily to the Devils hole below and they prepared their equipment as the boat captain moved the vessel into position.

With the sea floor only 105 feet below, the captain marked the site with a weighted down line and surface float. First mate, John Riddock was chosen to dive first and check the position of the down line and if possible move it to the caves entrance. Curt Bowen would follow down a few minutes later with underwater communications equipment to take a quick look into the cave then relay from the bottom any information to the divers waiting on the vessel.

Waiting patiently in their equipment on the Jolly Rogers, the rest of the explorers listened for the heavy breathing voice of Curt Bowen to relay information up from the bottom. First, a quick radio check as he descended, the visibility report of very poor, maybe five to seven feet, then the “dive dive dive” signal after he had located the caves entrance and placed the down line into position.

Swimming to the buoy on the surface that marked the cave location below the seas crashed over the divers heads. Dumping their wings they descended through the poor green visibility as large amberjack darted in and out of view. Landing on the bottom just outside the caves entrance at 105 feet the team discarded their decompression stage cylinders onto the sea floor. Tieing off a reel they disappeared into the caves entrance. The team had originally planned for a maximum depth of 350 feet and no more than a 25 minutes of bottom time.

The floor and roof of the cave sloped down at a 45 degree angle, just leaving enough space for the divers to slide through between the floor and the ceiling. The floor was made up of large break down rocks and heavy silt. Every inch of the ceiling was covered with small marine life such as sponges and anemones. Making their way down through the rubble the ceiling cut back at a depth of 145 feet making a larger room. Visibility had reduced to less than 3 feet as the team dropped into this room. To our disappointment the cave pinched off at the wall at a maximum depth of 167 feet. Due to the percolation from the ceiling and the debris sliding down into the cave the divers had to make an exit in a complete black out situation.

Returning out of the cave, the divers completed a parameter search of the area looking for any other possible entrances. None were found.

Returning to the surface the seas had calmed slightly and the mystery of Devils Hole was solved. On the way back to shore, Captain Jim strategically commented about other possible caves he knew about. Just the more reason to return on another date.