I know Ryan visits here infrequently. He posted about finding a lost camera at Breakwater when we were doing my Open Water class. He was one of my instructors. Perhaps this thread will catch his eye as he seems to have some knowledge of this memorial.
Ok, yeah, it caught my eye.
I only stumbled onto this thread a little less than a month ago, having spent years knowing of the plaque but never knowing the reason behind it. Mikemikethepike sent me a private message out of the blue, asking if I was the same "Ryan Holmboe" who's name appears on the "Restored by..." tag. I find it amusing that with all the time I spent doing Google searches for Steve Ewart (and coming up empty) I never thought to search Scubaboard for the answer untill after I received that private message. One minute and one quick search later, I found this thread and Chuck's info on Steve's accident.
So, here's my little chapter of the saga, mostly pulled from my original response to mikemikethepike:
When I first started diving Monastery, (actually, I think it was my second dive at Mon. North) I ran across the plaque at around 70 feet tucked into a little natural cavern of rocks. That must have been back in early '05, I'd have to check my log book. Back then the plaque was relatively clean and legible. After that I'd try to spot it on every dive at north, usually able to find it.
Over time I noticed two things, it was getting covered in marine growth (and harder to read) and people were moving the darned thing around! Sometimes I'd find it up in the 35'-40' depth range, well outside of tide differences. I didn't like that people were moving it about.
Well, one day while diving, I noted the plaque in yet another new place, heavily covered in growth. I propped it up against a rock and continued along my way. During surface interval my dive buddy noticed another diver coming from the beach, holding the plaque under his arm, which he tossed into the trunk of his car. Really lucky my buddy saw all of this, and went and questioned the diver. Turns out, the diver thought he'd picked up some trash and was going to throw it away!
My buddy scrapped away just enough junk to show the diver what it was, and we planned to "re-plant" the plaque on dive two. While we were waiting though, I noticed that not only was the plaque encrusted, it was corroded, really deep pits. I decided there to bring it home and sand blast it to clean off the junk, then coat it somehow.
Sandblasting revealed just how bad the damage was, I was genuinely surprised the pitting hadn't gone all the way through the plate aluminum. I made the choice then to have it powder-coated, a plastic coating that should lock out most of the seawater and other corrosive elements in the water.
Also wanted to do something to keep the plaque from getting moved around and carried off again, so this time I sank the handle of the plaque in a half bucket of concrete, along with the little plastic tag showing that it'd been refinished. I've always hoped it would one day bring me the answer you're looking for too, who was Steve, who originally sank the plaque, and why.
So, Halloween '07, my girlfriend and I snuck onto the beach mid-week to re-sink the newly cleaned plaque. Entered through the surf with the plaque and concrete attached to a lift bag, brought it out to around 30' in depth and sank it. Reinflated the lift bag to neutral, then swam the whole thing down the reef looking for an appropriately clear protected area. Wanted it somewhere around the original location I'd first found it, used to be at 73', I think the final resting spot turned out to be about 82'. Hoped that would be deep enough that most of dorks who'd want to move it would think twice. Partially buried the concrete in the silt and it hasn't moved since, as best as I can tell.
I try to get a picture of it every time I swim by, to chronicle the amount of sea growth over time. Twice now, I brought along a plastic scrub brush to clean off the front of the plaque, but left the back untouched. The brushing takes off the less aggressive algae build-up but some of the dark spots you can see in the pictures above don't come off with scrubbing. I'm afraid that inevitably it'll get covered over and become illegible again. Briefly considered refinishing the plaque with some kind of anti-fouling paint like they use on boat hulls, but I have no experience with them.
Anyways, thats about it. Probably more information that you wanted to know, but thats the story. Funny thing is, other than a significant amount of time expended the whole thing didn't cost me a thing. Borrowed the sandblaster time. Got the powdercoating done for free. Buddy donated the concrete and bucket. Even the "restored by..." plaque was donated by the nice ladies who engraved it for me. And, well, re-sinking it was a lot of fun, and good practice with the lift bag. Didn't matter to me in the least that at the time I had no idea who Steve Ewart was. Still wouldn't mind knowing who sank the plaque there, whether they did it by boat or by diver, and what the inscription at the bottom of the plaque means.
Ryan Holmboe
