Fantasy dive story

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Fishkiller

Contributor
Messages
1,169
Reaction score
1
Location
Mesa Arizona, The all beach no ocean state.
# of dives
100 - 199
This story has a beginning as stated below those of you who wish to add to this story can, let's make it real fun for those who read it.

Episode One

It was like any other Saturday morning while at home, waking after staying up late checking to make sure all the Scuba gear was in working order, packed away in such a manner that it would survive the bumpy trip, just 6 hours away. Upon waking and eating a breakfast of eggs and toast, one just can not get enough of that fresh homemade blue berry jelly; the scuba gear was loaded into the truck. After making a stop by the local convenience store for gasoline, snacks, and ice for the cooler the weekly dive trip began.

The spot today was selected by my neighbor during the week while on a pleasure cruise his wife lost a diamond inlaid platinum necklace while they were anchored in Pirates’ cove. It has been a several months since I have been to that spot on the lake and knew of only one way to get there with out a boat. I didn’t remember that many downed trees that needed driven over the last time but soon with the help of the ole’ trusty Magellan GPS, the tires of my truck were two feet above the water. I stopped to watch the now rising sunrise crest over the mountains. The lawn chair recovered from a previous dive was still there along with its fishing pole, safe on the beach. All ten square feet of beach, the rest of the cove was cliffs and large rocks, it was safe to say that none had been here since or disturbed the area, almost like the first time, well the large tree that was transplanted has something to do with it. Amazing what TNT, wench, and cable will do. The news a few weeks later was interesting to watch, people claimed that a red truck was parked at Pirates’ cove, a few people were lost for a couple of days, searching for how the truck made it there. Talking with the Sheriffs office even they couldn’t explain the interest in the Cove and what made it look different. We dare not say it was from watching old Batman re-runs. Just further rumors that went with the legend of Pirates’ Cove. There again would be strange news reports over the next week.

I should add here the special thing about Pirates’ cove; Outside of the location just about 1000 yards further up-lake uh, river from the ever so popular Thong beach, where everyone beaches their watercraft to enjoy the visual sights. Larger boats that did travel past Thong beach would use the cove to turn around due to the narrow canyon walls. The water here in Pirates’ cove does something strange the water, under the thermocline, is crystal clear. Granted it is pitch black due to the lack of sun getting past the upper layer of lake water. Once to settle an argument a tape measure was used to measure the exact distance one could see, the argument wasn’t settled, because the amount of as far as your light could go wasn’t a proper answer, everyone had different dive lights. Makes one wonder why there can’t be specifics in generalities.

The pre dive conference was done at the neighbors house with the help of a aerial map we knew the general starting area for our search. The debate on the best course of action, was due to the ever so slight current and bottom composition, it was conceivable that layers of fine sand now cover the necklace, was decided that the expense of an underwater metal detector was the finders’ fee. The hang up with getting equipment for a search and recovery dive was it had to be new, with the option of returning it for cash. The dive plan was to giant stride off the truck into the 126-foot deep water, swim over to the search area and drop down following the point until we reach the bottom, then use a rope to search for the necklace in a circle pattern. If the necklace could not be found in the search circle, a search around the edges would be done on subsequent dives. The lift bag was useful in that we attached all the search equipment to it so the descent would leave the hands free to hold the guide rope down.

Passing through the thermocline this time it was at 45 feet, the Nemo dive light almost showed the bottom, making the necessary buoyancy adjustments soon we were safely on the bottom and everything was OK. We could spend 25 minutes at this depth, before we had to begin our assent back to the surface. Placing the basket beneath the lift bag at the center of the search circle, canister lights were set up and turned on, a post with swivel was placed and the metal detector was turned on. Things were going pretty smooth outside of the occasional fish there was no life. There have been several boats in the cove; cans, bottles and a blender were placed in their proper container. On the sixth revolution the computer’s alarm went off, the time had come to turn off the electronic machinery and begin the assent. Knowing that if we waited two hours by eating and such the search could continue.

Once on the surface it was a short swim around the corner to the improvised ladder, would have to bring the generator out and attach a lockdown point permanently, with the use of a hammer-drill place a couple of eye bolts, the exits would be less strenuous. The diving gear was placed on the hangers and soon the BBQ grill was heating up the potatoes and meat from a fine grain fed cow. Sitting around the small table eating and relaxing this story was told.
 
In the 1880’s a old miner from England claimed to have found a crooked canyon near a river, the spring near the end of the canyon was bitter-water, while digging a mine entrance a cavern was found that contained Gold. The miner hid the entrance to the mine when his new wife was late in pregnancy and could no longer stay near the site, during a freak accident the miner was killed, never telling his wife the exact whereabouts of the mine. His Grandson auctioned off the diary, which was rumored to hold the clues to the mine location, for 50,000 dollars. That was thirty years ago and the crooked canyon with bitter-water spring was never found.

The discussion lead into summations and thoughts aloud: Just when was the dam built for this lake? 1912. Before the dam would pirate’s cove be considered a canyon. The water below the thermocline is more salty than bitter but it is a spring. If you were a miner with access to TNT, and wanted to hide your gold mine, how would you hide it, for who knows how long? By blasting a rock over it. When diving have we really done a search along the edges? Most of the dives have been in the open part of the cove where the boats are. The diving hasn’t been for the search of a large rock that could be moved, revealing a cave.

First things first we need to fine that necklace or there will be a lot more divers out here looking and find our dive site. For the second dive we could do 7 more revolutions before the non-geometric searching would begin. It was decided instead of doing a hand search we would pack up the gear and make a third complete dive. We could hear a boat entering the cove so we knew that we would have to bring our flag, with the smaller flag noting that we were searching for a lost item and not to drop anything, especially the anchor. This flag often kept people from staying long in the cove, though most people just turned around and went back to the beach. There were the few fishermen that would yell at us on the surface for scaring away all the fish, we yelled back one day “if you knew how to fish you wouldn’t complain”, that is how we met the sheriff. We broke the law once and speared a fish once just to keep a person quite, didn’t help the fine was 340 dollars. Once we were even asked to scout out this private lake for a species count, cheaper to pay a scuba diver than pay for the Gaming official to check with a net and electrodes.

The decent on the second dive past the thermocline was as expected, getting to the lights, turning them on went smooth. The guideline was taken up and the next three revolutions found a watch, several silver dollars, and a glass eye, which would be turned over to the sheriff because someone was looking for it. Nearing the seventh revolution the necklace was found. It was a race to pack everything up, the sooner this project was finished, the quicker the search for the cave could begin.
 
Well it has been two weeks now and no cave was found, the Metal detector beeped and several quarters were found, the only good news was that on the way home I splurged and bought a Lotto ticket and won Fifty dollars.
 

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