WJL
Contributor
I have a question about a good protocol for installing distance markers on a line.
Here's the background: We sometimes dive in a local lake for fun and to practice. The bottom is generally flat, weedless deeper than 25 feet, silty and for most of the year the visibility is in the 10 to 20 foot range - in other words it's a typical northern inland lake. Scattered around the bottom of this lake are various largish items, such as sunken boats, car parts and sections of dock. We have run lines to many of these things, so we can find them again. Some of the lines are fairly long - more than 1000 feet. We decided to install line arrows on some of these lines with distance markings on them to give people an idea where they are and which way is home.
So, this is the method my buddy and I used to mark off the line. We used one of those 100 foot plastic tape measures that crank up to measure the distance. My buddy and I were on our scooters. We started off sticking together as a team. We tied the end of the tape to a point on the line, then reeled out the tape along the line until we reached 100 feet, then installed the line marker, then scootered back to the beginning of the tape measure and untied it, reeled it up, scootered back to the just-installed marker, and repeated the process. This lasted about one iteration, as it was a giant pain in the @$$ - both of us are going back and forth over the same 100 foot section three times to install one marker and be ready to start on the next one.
I already know we are going to hell, but what we ended up doing was this: One person held the end of the tape measure by the line while the other person scootered off along the line reeling out the tape. When the reeler reached 100 feet, the reeler gave two sharp tugs on the tape, to tell the person holding the end that the 100 foot distance had been reached. The person holding the end of the tape then scootered along the line pulling the end of the tape along. The reeler meanwhile installed the line arrow and waited for the person with the end of the tape. When the person with the end of the tape arrived at the new line arrow, we repeated the process.
Using the "go to hell" method we were able to go much faster and accomplished the tedious task of installing many line markers pretty quickly. Of course we were separated by 100 feet at maximum and out of sight from each other for the time it takes to scooter 200 feet or swim 100 feet. We have talked this over a few times because we are uncomfortable doing things this way. The "go to hell" method has the advantage of being efficient, but has the risk of being apart if (when?) something goes wrong. We consoled ourselves with the observation that 100 feet of separation is about the distance we covered in a no-mask, no-air separation drill we did in cave class. But still, there are obvious problems.
The one solution we came up with was to have two two-person teams do the installation. This works, but is so boring that it is hard to get anyone to participate.
So, my question is, is there a better method of marking off and installing the line markers using just two people?
Here's the background: We sometimes dive in a local lake for fun and to practice. The bottom is generally flat, weedless deeper than 25 feet, silty and for most of the year the visibility is in the 10 to 20 foot range - in other words it's a typical northern inland lake. Scattered around the bottom of this lake are various largish items, such as sunken boats, car parts and sections of dock. We have run lines to many of these things, so we can find them again. Some of the lines are fairly long - more than 1000 feet. We decided to install line arrows on some of these lines with distance markings on them to give people an idea where they are and which way is home.
So, this is the method my buddy and I used to mark off the line. We used one of those 100 foot plastic tape measures that crank up to measure the distance. My buddy and I were on our scooters. We started off sticking together as a team. We tied the end of the tape to a point on the line, then reeled out the tape along the line until we reached 100 feet, then installed the line marker, then scootered back to the beginning of the tape measure and untied it, reeled it up, scootered back to the just-installed marker, and repeated the process. This lasted about one iteration, as it was a giant pain in the @$$ - both of us are going back and forth over the same 100 foot section three times to install one marker and be ready to start on the next one.
I already know we are going to hell, but what we ended up doing was this: One person held the end of the tape measure by the line while the other person scootered off along the line reeling out the tape. When the reeler reached 100 feet, the reeler gave two sharp tugs on the tape, to tell the person holding the end that the 100 foot distance had been reached. The person holding the end of the tape then scootered along the line pulling the end of the tape along. The reeler meanwhile installed the line arrow and waited for the person with the end of the tape. When the person with the end of the tape arrived at the new line arrow, we repeated the process.
Using the "go to hell" method we were able to go much faster and accomplished the tedious task of installing many line markers pretty quickly. Of course we were separated by 100 feet at maximum and out of sight from each other for the time it takes to scooter 200 feet or swim 100 feet. We have talked this over a few times because we are uncomfortable doing things this way. The "go to hell" method has the advantage of being efficient, but has the risk of being apart if (when?) something goes wrong. We consoled ourselves with the observation that 100 feet of separation is about the distance we covered in a no-mask, no-air separation drill we did in cave class. But still, there are obvious problems.
The one solution we came up with was to have two two-person teams do the installation. This works, but is so boring that it is hard to get anyone to participate.
So, my question is, is there a better method of marking off and installing the line markers using just two people?
