On Thu, 19 Apr 2001 12:40:55 -0400, Lee Bell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Reef Fish wrote:
>
>> >But even the short ones - particularly when narrow and
>> >obliging folks to swim in single file through them - offer potential
>> >problems if a person in the middle of a small group throws a 'wobbly'!
>>
>> Then the person in the middle shouldn't be there in the first place,
>> if said person can throw a 'wobbly' whatever that is <G> or
>> incapable of being self-reliant and head for the EXIT or get help
>> from the nearest SOB.   In that respect, such a swim-through is
>> much safer because a BUDDY or SOB is always CLOSE BY . . . .
>
>I can't agree with you on this one.  Strike was quite specific about the
>passage being narrow enough to require single file swimming.

You're certainly entitled to you disagreement of opinion.  Otherwise,
we may as well be talking to ourselves, as the lyrics of a folk song
said.

1.  A single file swimming does not NECESSARILY mean a person is cannot
    be helped by the one in front or behind.  Of all the swim-throughs
    I've done, they were ALWAYS done single-file, and NONE of them
    were the caver-type of tight squeeze that precluded me from
    helping others in front of behind me, or reaching them to help
    me.  That's the kind of swim-throughs in RECREATIONAL non-cave
    diving I was discussing.

2.  Even if there WERE a short passage of such, my stated condition
    of "CLOSE exit to surface" would make such a passage unlike any
    of the usual single-file passages cavers do.

If one is NOT comfortable with such a passage, to the extent that one
feels confident no matter what happens, one can extricate oneself
from the swim-through and head for the surface, then one should NOT
go into the swim-through.  Simple.

Besides, in Strike's question, I thought the accent was on a person
in a group throws a "wobbly".  I don't play "wobbly" or cricket.  :-)

-- Bob.