# Another dive season has come and gone



## blobbottlebob (Oct 18, 2018)

I dove my last tanks of the season on Sunday. It was an adventure and a fitting end to the season. Didn't dive as much as I would have liked this year. Didn't find as much as I would have liked. My spots are getting picked. So, I will write about Sunday's adventure forthcoming....


----------



## blobbottlebob (Oct 18, 2018)

My motor boat hasn't been running right this year and I have had to shore dive or borrow a canoe from my folks. It actually works pretty well. I can carry it alone, get where I want to, and store stuff in it. I used it a few times with my buddy and it went off without a hitch. Well, maybe it is a bit tippy but the two of us had little trouble. We parked it shallow, though, and just stepped into waist deep water. 

I decided to go out alone in it a few weeks back. I wanted to dive in the 20 feet deep range. I didn't know if I could climb back aboard without any counterweight but I would find out. Worst case scenario, I could pull the anchor and tow the boat to the shallows. It was worth a shot.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Oct 18, 2018)

Amazingly, I was able to climb back aboard after my tank. I made sure my gear was inflated, took it off, and hung it up over the side of the canoe. Then I kicked myself up with my fins and grabbed the far side rail. From there, I could pull myself across and maintain a balance that wouldn't capsize the unstable boat. I had to get my fins off so that I could balance and move around better, but it all worked. 

Well, last Sunday I went back out apparently confident that I could easily manage the canoe. I even picked a better entry point so that I cut my paddle out and back in half. When I dropped anchor, I planned to throw my gear overboard to get a start on hunting for bottles. Things rapidly went bad. As I was throwing the gear over the side, all of the weight in the canoe tipped to that side. Without warning, I had tilted so badly that water rushed over the hull. One quick look told me that the whole boat was about to go face down and I would lose everything that didn't float. In an instant, I bailed.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Oct 19, 2018)

That quick decision saved the boat from tipping completely over. I entered the water faster and less prepared than I had intended but the only missing item that I could tell was that one fin went overboard and sank. My plan was to sink down, find it in three seconds and go out bottle hunting. I followed the anchor line to the bottom and began to search. I started out trying not to stir things up to preserve visibility. I couldn't find it. I carefully swept the area, came up, re-centered and tried again. Then I began to feel around with my hands. Over and over, I crossed and crisscrossed. No fin. Now, I was coming up farther away from the boat than I would have thought. I was not searching well.

{THIS NEXT SENTENCE IS A LITTLE GROSS. Skip down to avoid it.}
Before long, in that cold water, I had to pee. (Sorry, it happens). I decided to climb back aboard and strip down so as not to get my gear all stinky.

I tried to get back in the boat. I kicked up with my one fin and grabbed the far side rail. So far, so good. But the hundreds of gallons shifted to the far side with my weight. Water flooded in very rapidly at this point. I flipped back into the water over the other side but too late. The boat was so filled with water that it was nearly up to the top rail.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Oct 19, 2018)

Now the need to find the fin was even more urgent. The boat was way past the point where it could be bailed out. I was going to have to swim it to shore. With two fins, the task doesn't sound too bad. But without that fin, I wouldn't have nearly the same push or pull power. So, I began to scour the bottom in earnest again. Over and over, I re-centered by the boat. Over and over, I came up empty and farther from the boat than I imagined. After over and hour and a half, I ran out of air and never found the fin.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Oct 20, 2018)

Now, with one fin, I was going to have to swim this boat in. It was so waterlogged that it listed to the side with the edge of the boat underwater. The only reason that it didn't sink was some kind of buoyant material inside the ends. Several items were afloat inside. I would need to make sure that they didn't drift away. But first, I had to pull the anchor. When standing in a boat, you use your legs and back to pull an anchor out of the muck or rocks at the bottom. I had to yank with my arms but I was able to get it loose. 

I quickly realized that pushing the canoe would work better than pulling with only one fin. On the fin side, my kicks were effective and strong. On the non-fin side, it was like slipping on ice. No purchase and no progress. It was a modest swim to the nearest shoreline but it was going to take awhile. Oddly enough, a motor boat went right past several times. With the canoe barely afloat, he never stopped. After about an hour, I made it in shallow enough to stand up.


----------



## sandchip (Oct 20, 2018)

Rough day for sure, brother.  There will be better times (and bottles) to come.  Just glad to hear that you're okay.


----------



## GLASSHOPPER55 (Oct 23, 2018)

Sorry for your bad luck on Sunday. We love seeing what you do and the stuff you find.


----------



## Huntindog (Oct 24, 2018)

Well that sucks
Glad it turned out with you coming home!!
Fins and gear can be replaced... life can not!!
I've had many an adventure diving for bottles.
Lost a fin and swam in circles, lost a weight belt and bobbed to the surface, hung up in fishing line you name it.
I've drove the 40+ miles to the river and forgot my fins, weight belt or mask. trips lost!!
But with all the troubles it's the best bottle hunting experience out there... If you are an EXPERIENCED diver.
I lived your story right along with you...
Be safe....


----------



## blobbottlebob (Oct 24, 2018)

I never quite completed my story. I appreciate the replies in the meantime.

Sandchip, Thank you. There will be better times ahead. And this one wasn't that bad, but it made for a long cold day with the sunken canoe.

And thank you Glasshopper for your kind comments.

Huntindog. It's always nice to hear from fellow divers. Scuba diving is definitely an adventure by itself. There is far too much gear not to have occasional problems. I have had plenty of things happen from my own stupidity as well like diving in bad weather or taking my gear off before I had it properly inflated. Add on all of the things that come with taking out a boat and I can blab on and on. For example, we used to dive off of a 12 foot rowboat. We were nearly sunk every trip out. Anyway, thanks for your nice comments...

Oh. You were right about replacing the fins too. I bought my fins at a used sporting goods store years ago. I think I paid $15 bucks for them and got a ton of use out of them. Once that fin is replaced, I'll never miss it (but it would have been nice to have towing the boat in).


----------



## blobbottlebob (Oct 24, 2018)

Finishing up my story.
Once I made it into shallow water, I took the gear off of my back and set it down in the rocks along shore. Next, I emptied the boat out, one item at a time. I had a second tank which went into the rocks as well. I threw my paddle and life jacket on shore and dragged the boat up the rocks as best I could. Once up on the grass, I was able to dump quite a bit of water out. Then I was able to haul the canoe up on the grass and completely empty it. Now I was back in business!

I changed tanks on my gear. I placed the gear in an accessible spot in the canoe for dropping it in the lake. I re-loaded everything and went back out to try again. I had already decided that I was not going to spend a second tank looking for my fin. I was never going to be closer than I was when I was anchored to the spot where I lost it and it wasn't worth wasting more time on it.

I went out a bit deeper. When I dropped my gear overboard, I carefully set it on the rail and slid it over. It went smoothly without a hint of capsizing. On the bottom, I set a compass heading so that I would not be circling around on one fin. (Huntindog just noted in his post that having one fin on is likely to make you circle because one leg kicks harder than the other. I've done it before so, I made every effort to stay as straight as I could). I didn't have a ton of luck out there but I did find some glass. The coolest thing was a quart soda bottle from about the 1920s with an embossed horse on it. I later saw my niece who loves horses so, I gave the bottle to her. When I surfaced, I thought for sure that I would find that I did not swim very straight. Amazingly, though, I was far from the boat and relatively straight along the heading that I set. After swimming back to the boat on the one fin, I paddled in and decided to call it a season.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Oct 24, 2018)

Here is a selfie I took before I headed out. I was anticipating a fun trip with a chance at cool bottles. I was blissfully unaware that I was about to nearly sink.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Oct 24, 2018)

Here's the quart Manhattan bottle with the horse head on it. Not as old of a bottle as I was hoping to find, but kind of cool.


----------



## coldwater diver (Oct 24, 2018)

*Another dive season has come and gone*


Say it aint so Bob. My season begins. Sorry to hear about your mis adventure. Sh*t can go sideways quick underwater and on it. I usually take these as a sign from God, today I should have done something different . I did not get much time to dive this year. I have researched alot of areas just hope the Ice stays away for a while. You might try a dive or fishing kayak they cant sink and they are sturdy.


----------



## blobbottlebob (Oct 25, 2018)

Hey Coldwater.
Really nice to hear from you. I'm glad you are getting out there. Hope you find some amazing stuff. If I had the chance to find some of that early glass you get, I might not hang it up. But I'm not finding much and the colder it gets the more painful my wet suit becomes. I'd do it if I were on great spots, though.

Funny comment about taking it as a sign from God that you should be doing something else. I know it certainly feels like that sometimes. I went to early morning mass before the dive so, I should have been covered there.  Hard to argue that I wouldn't have been better off doing work around the house, though.


----------

