Tuesday October 26, 2004

Underwater Salvage

This past weekend I helped my father-in-law's neighbors recover a couple of items lost in the (very) murky depths of Lake Buchanan. Lake Buchanan is just a few miles outside of Burnet, Texas and about an hour north and west of Austin. Buchanan is quite the fisherman's paradise, as long as said fisherman retains his favorite rod and reel.

Two weeks again, a fellow was night fishing in a boat just off a private dock which features an underwater light. By accident he managed to send his $250 Shimano reel overboard into about 14 feet of water. By all accounts, he spent the next couple of days dragging with a large treble hook and nets trying to recover his pricey bit of kit. No joy. By chance he ended up talking to my father-in-law about it, who mentioned that I dive and might be able to recover it for him. Who am I to disappoint my father-in-law?

The Afternoon Entertainment Arrives

The neighborhoods around Lake Buchanan are composed mostly of retired folks who know each other pretty well. Whether they like each other is a whole other post. So when I showed up in my frogman gear to recover a fishing pole, word spread quickly. Soon the shore was populated by people sitting in lawn chairs giving me a good natured ribbing ( something about "Sea Hunt" ). Speculation abounded on what I would encounter in the way of obstacles on the bottom, and there was considerable doubt that I would be able to locate the pole at all. For the most part, I was reasonably certain that I could find it given enough time. Since the water depth in the area of operation was relatively shallow ( less than 20 feet ), I would have over an hour of bottom time to get the job done.

Since I was diving solo, my main concern was entanglement. As mentioned above, Buchanan is a fisherman's paradise and I was worried about monofiliment, rope attached to anchors and tree limbs washed into the lake. I carried two knives ( a thigh sheathed 5 inch blunt tip and a short BC mounted chisel tip ) and a pair of EMT shears. Between the knives and the shears I was confident that I could hack my way out of most entanglements. If I did become entangled, plan A was to clear the entanglement with a knife or shear. Plan B was to take off my BC and clear the entanglement. Plan C was to ditch my gear and make for the surface doing a controlled emergency swimming assent (CESA) in the event that my gear entangled and I ran out of air. In general, I think that diving should be done with a buddy and solo diving should be avoided. In this particular case, I think a solo dive was appropriate ( clear goal, no overheads, shallow water, EMT trained personel on shore, lots of air and good gear ).

The hapless fisherman made an appearance to give me an idea of where his boat was when the incident occurred; approximately 20 feet off and 45 degrees to the left of the dock in question. He runs a business on the lake and wasn't able to stay and watch the operation, but promised a reward if I could recover the reel. Easy money, I thought.

Pea Soup

My confidence was significantly erroded when I got in the water ( which was a refreshing 78 degrees Farenheit ). When I stuck my face underwater I could barely see my fingers at arms length! And that was just at the surface without disturbing the bottom. This could very well be challenge. I took a compass heading off the corner of the dock, and swam out about 20 feet trailing a nylon rope that we'd tied to the dock. The idea was to use the rope as a reference underwater to help me quarter the search area.

I submerged and did a face first dive to the bottom. Most dive instructors won't encourage that sort of descent since a head down attitude makes it more difficult to equalize pressure in your sinuses, but my primary concern was to not hit the bottom and stir it up any more than necessary. Swimming down in that murk was pretty disorienting, and I was relieved when I finally saw the bottom at about 13 feet. The bottom was a jumble of small brush on top of a soft layer of leaves and mud. I worked on my bouancy for a couple of minutes to make sure I was as neutral as I could get and then started quartering.

Houston, We Have Murk.

Afterwards, my dive computer showed that I spent maybe 10 minutes underwater. But subjectively, it seemed to be forever. I had to stop and check my compass frequently since it was easy to become disoriented. The rope helped in guiding an arc thru the search area, but it is cumbersome to swim and hold on to a rope and check guages and check the compass. The bottom was covered in thickets of brush that had washed into the lake and collected around the limestone rocks which make up the shore. The pole had been submerged for two weeks, so it had plenty of time to take on the aspect of a algae covered tree branch. I spent alot of time inspecting brush piles looking for something metallic. On my second reverse in my quartering, I found it in a tangle of brush. I had been sort of combing through a pile with my hands ( gloves are good! ) when I noticed that one of the twigs I had just disturbed had an eyelet at the end! I worked the rod free of the brush and brought the reel up to my mask for inspection. I was worried that I'd just found somebody's Zebco 202 rather than the pricey Shimano I was after. Sure enough, the big open reel said Shimano on it!

Return the Conquering Hero

While You're Down There..

After proving my prowess at underwater salvage, the owner of the dock approached me and asked me if I would mind pulling something up for him. It seems that a two-seat gliding rocker had blown into the lake off the end of dock a couple of months ago. "Sure!" I said. Down I went, trailing my trusty 5-strand yellow nylon rope. I located it quickly in about 11 feet of water three feet off the end of the dock, and I secured the rope with a couple of half-hitches (about the only knot I can tie reliably anymore besides an axe knot). The crew on the dock waited until I surfaced and then hauled the thing up. The rocker was covered in algae, but surprisinginly it didn't seem to have rusted much at all. The owner of the rocker wasn't quite as generous as the fisherman, but I wasn't looking to make a buck off these folks either. It was fun for me and I was glad to help people at the same time.

I guess if this computer thing doesn't work out, I can always fall back on my mad underwater salvage skillz.

-ejo

(2004-10-26 12:55:27.0) Permalink Comments [1]