# An interesting thing happened while diving



## blobbottlebob (Aug 6, 2013)

UGH! I just spent at least a half an hour typing in what I thought was an interesting dive story. I got timed out and lost it all because I didn't save it. That blows! I'll tell this story tomorrow.


----------



## digger dun (Aug 6, 2013)

hate it when that happens...


----------



## cobaltbot (Aug 6, 2013)

I can sympathize,

 now get back in that chair mister - YOU'RE ON TIMEOUT!!!


----------



## tftfan (Aug 6, 2013)

DARN !


----------



## reach44 (Aug 6, 2013)

[]


----------



## epackage (Aug 6, 2013)

If you write your story using Windows 'NOTEPAD' or similar software you can take all the time you want, you can even 'save' what you wrote and come back to it days later, then you can copy and paste it here on the forum...


----------



## RICKJJ59W (Aug 6, 2013)

I use office or AOL. Write mail.    Copy paste. KABAM! []


----------



## blobbottlebob (Aug 6, 2013)

Thanks for your sympathy people. You guys are the best. Guess I was tired and crabby at that point last night. I could have written it as a document, but I wasn't planning on it being anything major. I think I will now so that I don't lost it again, though. One story coming soon.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Aug 6, 2013)

Sorry. Ran out of time. Story will be posted tonight.


----------



## Plumbata (Aug 6, 2013)

Looking forward to it!

 What I do as a hedge against the post timing-out is Ctrl+A to select all, then Ctrl+C to copy before clicking the post button. I also downloaded a clipboard manager kind of program, which automatically stores the last 100 items copied, so when researching or constructing posts and whatnot one can access whatever bits of info were stored in such a manner.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Aug 7, 2013)

I an going to leave off the ending. I'm sure you can guess what happened but I'll let you do it tonight and I'll post the last two (plus)paragraphs tomorrow to finish this off ....

Okay. So I was out diving at about twenty feet. Because of the thermocline in the summer, the water is significantly colder at the bottom than it is at the surface. Itâ€™s one of the benefits of diving on a hot summer day. The bottom is naturally temperate and cool. The warm temperatures at the surface are nice too. I love floating on my back and relaxing in the bathwater after a dive. Itâ€™s nice looking up at the sky and trying to save that feeling because I know how much I am going to miss this when winter rolls around again. 
 As Iâ€™m feeling around for bottles at twenty feet, I found one with the top pointing straight down, the bottom facing the sky. I need to step back here. Oftentimes, divers will find common or modern or damaged or plain old junk bottles. One thing they sometimes do, is place them back into the bottom with the top pointing down. It is supposed to signify that this bottle has been checked and it is worthless. I hate it when divers do that (so, I try not to). It seems territorial to me like a dog lifting his leg; â€˜this is mine â€“ I searched this area - itâ€™s been done â€“ and this thing is junkâ€™. Once, I found a hutch just a foot away from one such rejected bottle. I was thinking, â€œHa. In your face! You missed this one!â€ Anyway, my first fear was that Iâ€™d likely found a rejected bottle. I reached down and felt a blob top with the stopper intact and in-place on the blob. In fact, the bottle was in the closed (sealed) position. Apparently, the thing just sank top-down. I tucked it into the belt area of my bcd. (This is the vest you wear to control your buoyancy underwater. It clips around your waist). Then I went looking for more bottles.
 After several minutes (and several found bottles), I decided to return to the surface to unload. I pulled myself up along my float line. Just as my head pops out of the water I hear a concussive â€œKAAHH BOOOOMâ€. It sounded like someone threw a bowling ball in the water right next to me. Or better yet, someone jumped off of the upper deck of their pontoon boat landing in my face. The first thing I thought was that my dive buddy was messing with me. Nope, nowhere around. What about a boat? No again. Maybe I had trapped a large fish up underneath my float just as I was surfacing? That would explain it, but I didnâ€™t see any fish and that had never happened before.


----------



## goodman1966 (Aug 7, 2013)

I'm hooked, more if you please!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## sandchip (Aug 7, 2013)

You're killin' us!


----------



## deldig (Aug 7, 2013)

Your poor blob exploded due to the temperature change, didn't it.


----------



## cowseatmaize (Aug 7, 2013)

> I got timed out and lost it all because I didn't save it.


I mentioned this in the past but it's worth repeating I think. 
 I've always had luck with hitting the backspace key and that brings the post back. Copying the text, pasting in notepad and logging in again and then just paste it back. You lose links and pictures I think but it's better than everything.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Aug 7, 2013)

Thanks for checking out my story people. Deldig - you pretty much got it. Here's the rest of it.

I began to unload the bottles when I realized the weiss beer bottle that I had found with the stopper now had no stopper. In fact, there were no metal pieces on it at all.
 I realized that the stopper had blown off. The temperature change, perhaps the pressure change, had forced the closure to blast away completely. Lucky for me the glass sustained no damage. I smelled the remaining contents of the half-filled bottle and it smelled like beer. Not rancid or tainted, just regular hops or malt. Pretty neat. The original purchaser of this bottle 100 plus years ago lost it before it had ever been opened. Because of the tiny amount of trapped air, it probably sank closure downward and sat there until I found it all those years later.
 When I returned to the boat, I had my buddy smell the bottle. He agreed, it contained beer and it smelled good. Crazy!


----------



## digger dun (Aug 7, 2013)

We dug a sealed, full blob top beer from an 1870s layer of a Philly privy. It started leaking while we were putting out the finds for the pick, so I opened it. it fizzed, and smelled like skunked beer. When I poured it out it foamed up in a puddle just like a beer of today. It was the bottle in the middle of this picture.


----------



## CazDigger (Aug 7, 2013)

Weiss beer is more highly carbonated than lagers or ale, that is the reason for using such thick glass. Good thing the bottle didn't blow up!


----------



## towhead (Aug 7, 2013)

Great story!  Sure would be nice to be in a lake somewhere right now.... Julie


----------



## RICKJJ59W (Aug 7, 2013)

> ORIGINAL:  towhead
> 
> Great story!  Sure would be nice to be in a lake somewhere right now.... Julie


 
 Hey stranger I had to check the post date to make sure it was new []

 Cool dive story bob I have a full bottle of wise beer caped off. It turned yellow when it hit the light. I doubt that smells lik[:'(]e good beer


----------



## GuntherHess (Aug 7, 2013)

The quick fall in pressure as you brought it up probably caused a lot of CO2 to quickly form that the old closure couldn't hold.
 Its amazing how well persevered stuff can stay in the relatively static conditions below the water surface.
 Supposedly drinkable champagne has survived for hundreds of years on deep wrecks.
 Find another whole one and you can have a 100 year old beer bash. Just bring it up slow.


----------



## cowseatmaize (Aug 7, 2013)

It's sounding like it got the bends in a way,.. better it than you.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Aug 7, 2013)

> I opened it. it fizzed, and smelled like skunked beer....


 
 Thanks for posting that Digger Dun. I've found full beer bottles before as well, but they were always horribly spoiled. I once had one that was absolutely rancid. But that came out of five feet of water.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Aug 7, 2013)

Thanks for the posts Caz, Julie, Rick, Gunth, and Cows. As Gunth noted,  the air trapped in the bottle may have expanded as I surfaced and increased the inside pressure - leading to the blast. The rusty stopper pieces were not going to hold off against that pressure.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Aug 7, 2013)

Here it is. Obermann Bottling and Brewing co. A really nice example of a relatively rare Weiss beer.


----------



## madman (Aug 7, 2013)

nice find and story!


----------



## goodman1966 (Aug 8, 2013)

Any more stories like that and I will swimming in the red river in shreveport!! Yeeehaaaaa!!!


----------



## blobbottlebob (Aug 8, 2013)

BTW Digger Dun. The squats are awesome in your picture. We don't have those here. But the beer bottle in the middle is cool too. I love the huge wide blob on it.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Aug 8, 2013)

Thanks for your replies Madman and goodman. Good - you need to get out there and do it!


----------



## druggistnut (Aug 8, 2013)

Hey Bob,

 I'm glad the "explosion" and release of that metal bail didn't damage your BC.  

 I'll remember this in case I find a full one. Crack it open, BEFORE you surface.

 Bill


----------



## sandchip (Aug 8, 2013)

Glad the stopper gave way and not the glass.  Sounds like you were lucky in more ways than one.  Great looking bottle.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Aug 9, 2013)

Thanks Druggist and Sand. I don't think there was any real danger of harm. It was just one of those crazy things that happens now and then. However, it is a good idea to uncork a sealed bottle if it is going to sit out in the hot sun while you're still searching.


----------



## downeastdigger (Aug 9, 2013)

LOVE  that story  

 Makes me want to head out for a dive  (Tomorrow?)

 Continued good luck and thanks for the post


----------



## blobbottlebob (Aug 9, 2013)

Thanks Bram. Do it and then let us read all about it.


----------



## tftfan (Aug 10, 2013)

Thats a nice looking bottle. Thanks for , " THE REST,....OF THE STORY ".  Good Day. []


----------



## blobbottlebob (Aug 10, 2013)

Thanks Tft. I wasn't going to tell it as 'the rest of the story' but then I thought it might be interesting to see what people would guess.


----------



## privvydigger (Aug 10, 2013)

great story but its shark week stay out the water


----------



## blobbottlebob (Aug 10, 2013)

Excellent advice Privvy. I've never ever seen a shark though. Obviously not here but even when I've been in tropical waters. Nothiing. Not so much as a nurse shark. A few rays though. They're kinda related I guess.


----------



## MINNESOTA DIGGER (Sep 2, 2013)

great story


----------



## pigeonman (Sep 2, 2013)

Mr.Blobbottlebob,i have been thinking about diving for bottles but don't have much experience. the river and creeks im looking at are anywhere from 2 feet to 15ft with some current. do you wear a wetsuit for river diving and do you wear steel mesh gloves for hand protection.any other pointers would be appreciated.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Sep 2, 2013)

Thanks Mark.

 Pigeonman. I would ALWAYS wear a wet (or a dry) suit. There is a lot of debris in any river. You will get all scratched or cut up without it (and plus you'll be warmer with it on). In terms of the depth. At two feet, I wouldn't take any gear (like your BC or tanks). Either just walk it - mucking with your feet - or stick your face in the water and pull yourself along. BTW - in two feet of water, the area is much easier searched. I think you'll have better luck where it's a least a little deeper. Having said that, I would do it in a second if I was finding old bottles.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Sep 3, 2013)

My next advice is to be careful. There are branches, rocks, fences, often combined with poor visibility. A strong current alone can be dangerous. I don't know what your experience is so, I'll assume nothing. You MUST HAVE proper training. That means a PADI course taught by a certified instructor. If you don't have that, you are literally risking your life.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Sep 3, 2013)

Lots of more advice or tips but I don't want to bore everyone. Let me know if you're interested.


----------

