Sabak Ha Project
| The Sabak Ha project is found with the idea of exploring the bottom cave of the deepest known Sinkhole in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. Sabak Ha in the local mayan language stands for "Sabak" turbid and "HA" water, due to the layer of algae bloom found in the surface of the large cenote expose to direct sunlight most of the year. Actually an open cenote is unsual in the cenotes in this area, which usually require abseiling down thru small openings to the water so the caves been "indoors" stay cool and avoid algae bloom resulting in crystal clear water. |
The Cenote is located 3.5-4hr away from the famous cenote area in the
beach of Quintana Roo in the Riviera Maya between Playa del Carmen and
Tulum.
The closest city is Merida and is an area famous for fantastic weather and
unique cultural sources and fantastic food. Caves are mostly Trimix deep
dives.
The Sabak Ha Cave itself is a Sinkhole, so a vertical cylindrical - conic Shape
cave with a diameter of 60mt /200ft in surface and estimated diameter at
bottom of 330mt / 1000ft. The debris falling in the cenote thru the years
piles up as usual in a debri mount, this one with double tips, shallowest
point at 290ft / 90mt, mount slope to main cenote floor at 375ft / 120mts
depth.
In the walls at 200ft / 60 mt deep there is two cave entrances opposite to
each other, with a max explored penetration of 500mts on each side.
From its bottom you enter in the cavern tall 150ft /50mt and 330ft / 100mt
penetration, at 360ft / 120mts deep and there is the cave entrance that
quickly slopes to the end of the exploration line at 490ft / 160mt depth at
P750ft / 250mt.
beach of Quintana Roo in the Riviera Maya between Playa del Carmen and
Tulum.
The closest city is Merida and is an area famous for fantastic weather and
unique cultural sources and fantastic food. Caves are mostly Trimix deep
dives.
The Sabak Ha Cave itself is a Sinkhole, so a vertical cylindrical - conic Shape
cave with a diameter of 60mt /200ft in surface and estimated diameter at
bottom of 330mt / 1000ft. The debris falling in the cenote thru the years
piles up as usual in a debri mount, this one with double tips, shallowest
point at 290ft / 90mt, mount slope to main cenote floor at 375ft / 120mts
depth.
In the walls at 200ft / 60 mt deep there is two cave entrances opposite to
each other, with a max explored penetration of 500mts on each side.
From its bottom you enter in the cavern tall 150ft /50mt and 330ft / 100mt
penetration, at 360ft / 120mts deep and there is the cave entrance that
quickly slopes to the end of the exploration line at 490ft / 160mt depth at
P750ft / 250mt.
| Exploration History The cave was found by local divers and found bottom less from 30mt /100ft. Nick Toussaint was the first diver to reach debri mount bottom and "bottom" floor. Later Andreas Matthes join and were the only ones to explore this cave in the mid 90's, with experimental trimix softwares. Matt found and Explore the "shallow" caves and did the map above. Later we make separate attempts to Explore the bottom of the Cave. Unfortunately as a result of a fatality during a Trimix Class in the site have discourage divers to dive the cenote, however there been several attempts to reach the end of the line thru the years, without success.. Since then, last visit to the end of the line, was done in 1999 by team lead by Nick Toussaint and Mauricio Diamant, which result in confirming on going tunnel at P750ft and depth 490ft All this attempts were done swimming and in OC. With dive times of in average 7.5hr Limits of OC where quickly exceed and exploration postpone until technology catch up and deliver reliable rebreather technology and fast scooters. One of the main motivation for myself personally to venture in equipment development thru the years and finally in White Arrow. |
| The access is 800mt /half a mile from paved road in a vehicle trail. Access to the water is a easy slope trail and equipment is downloaded by rope of a tree, which is 100mt away from vehicle parking. This logistics are usually handle by the local sherpas, which are very welcome to get a payed job for a few days. Water temp is 26°C year round and higher on the surface in the summer and below the various haloclines |
| The Exploration Project is planned for Thanksgiving week 2012 (last thursday of November) which is the best time and the best temperatures in and out the water and good chances of less turbid water to completely clear. Even algae is usually 3mt thick at it's worst. In February 20th the team is performing a scout dive to the bottom in OC and using Decompression Rebreathers (WA Sweet Deco) taking detail information for the big dives decompression and including Habitat possible locations while securing logistics for the project ahead. This end of summer expeditions in Lot France and a previous one in Italy are organized already by the team as training sessions with the latest technology available that will be use during the November project. |
| This website is intended as information resource and development of the upcoming Sabak Ha project. Reports on the progress of the project with pictures and videos will be updated in real time ! Stay tuned ! |