in Panama City, Florida where it was inspected and found to be in good working order. Everyone knew there were no issues with the equipment.
As I climbed out of the water and carefully scaled the steep slope of the sinkhole, I lugged my Steel 104’s over to my pickup truck. Pulling the tailgate down I turned around and sat down. I stripped off the back plate straps and carefully laid the tanks down into the floor bed of the truck. I opened the driver’s side door and reached onto the back to grab a towel to dry off my hair. Then I walked away and into the woods to find a private space to relieve my bladder as it was giving me plenty of notice that I had to go pee
After that task was completed I ambled over to Bill Gavin’s van where I saw Parker, Bill Gavin, and Bill Main gathered together talking. As I walked up all three thanked me for helping get Bill McFaden out of the cave. We were all his friend and we all sensed a true sadness in losing him. Obviously, there were many questions asked. But there was nothing new to report as they already knew all the answers. We had reviewed all the circumstances of the dive before we performed the recovery. The “word” had gotten to all three about the air remaining in Bill McFaden’s tanks. Bill Gavin was the most surprised by that information.
Parker Turner, Bill McFaden and Bill Gavin preparing a cattle trough a.k.a. habit trough to be installed at Sullivan Sink in Leon County, Florida.
Photo by Steve Penn Gerrard