The duck itself was proper submersion, head sideways, spluttery, taking a slalom route between chert nodules on the roof. Neoprene hoods had been brought for this purpose and, I was once again delighted to see that a single survey shot would clear the water to a station on the sandbank opposite. Sadly this passage soon ended and we were faced with the 10m long, low airspace duck.

If anyone is ever down here to find out what happens in flood, they are probably in for a very bad day. This really is a magnificent passage which once carried a lot of water, and perhaps still does in flood. We surveyed on, in the rather excellent passage, reaching 3m wide and 1m tall, with large, deep scallops filled with stream pebbles. I was pleased to see that a single survey leg would clear the several metres of slop and into the dry passage beyond. We arrived at the small aven where surveying to Tree Root Chamber commenced last April, and onto the small pool where The Second Wave commences on the right (Tree Root Chamber is straight on here). which seemed appropriate given that it is relentless sliding over slippery mud. In keeping with the Covid theme, we called it Whitty Junction, and the right passage to Tree Root Chamber, we called Next Slide Please. This junction, and the right passage has never really been named. We made quick progress down Pandemic Passage, and downstream to the major junction where the right passage leads off towards Tree Root Chamber and The Second Wave. Only 20 minutes later, the water was lowered several inches and we were through.

We were about to give up when Gary gave the contacts a final scrub, and as if by magic, the pump fired up on a last attempt. Some jiggling of the pump and connector later, we established that power was arriving perfectly well at the extension, but the pump wasn't firing. Therefore, on arrival at the sump today we plugged in the pump, and powered on. This meant unplugging the pump to plug in the drill. On Wednesday just gone, Gary had drilled the fissure above the sump, the start of his efforts to bypass Sump Three. We set off down about 3:30pm after fueling the generator, however our efforts were nearly thwarted at Sump Three. We were not specifically looking forward to this I remember what an ordeal a trip to the furthest reaches of Jenga Pot is, and doing so while surveying was going to be especially demanding. We never regained entry to the Covid Extensions after April 2021, so The Second Wave, an enticing northbound passage which reaches what we assumed to be the Excalibur Pot streamway (200m downstream of where it is lost in Excalibur Pot) remained unsurveyed. After that, all our pumping equipment failed, meaning summer 2021 was a lengthy re-cabling and re-wiring job. It seems a couple of months are needed after each flood for this to drain enough. We surveyed most of the Covid Extensions in 2020, and then to Tree Root Chamber in April 2021, however, on that latter trip, we had a quick look up The Second Wave, and found the 10m long low airspace duck to be too full.

This is the passage that goes off on the right shortly before Tree Root Chamber in the 2020 Covid Extensions of Jenga Pot. On 26th June, only 22 months since the passage was first discovered, myself and Gary decided to finally survey The Second Wave. The following was my trip report if anyone is interested (probably a little too detailed for anyone without intricate knowledge of the system, but posting for the benefit of a small handful who might be interested):

4 push ups or shot jenga