Hi all,
a friend of mine runs a sailing school here in our town. Two years ago he participated in a school project and invited the kids to come and see how to sail. He had some "Optimists" at this time especially for kids to get started. An Optimist is actually a small dingy with a mast and a single sail and is pretty easy to handle. Its reputation is that it's also a stable boat. Ideal for kids one would think.
On the project day the kids took off under the supervision of some trainers. Now two of the elder boys just couldn't stand the temptation to fight out a little sea battle. The result was predictable: One of the "Optis" capsized and ended keel up. No problem since these boats are unsinkable and the boys wore life vests. As one of the supervisors turned the boat back up, he was in for a surprise: The mast and sail, the complete rig was gone!
My friend asked me if I would go for a dive and search for the rig. He provided a "very rough" location:
"You know, shouldn't be a problem to find it. We have a waypoint marked at the spot."
Good, I thought, with a waypoint provided it should be possible to find this rig. I packed my gear the next day and took off. At the "waypoint" I checked the depth with the fishfinder: 20 metres. Not good, but it could be worse.
I searched for 20 minutes using a compass and a stopwatch to get the area covered as good as possible. Visibility was about 5 metres, but: No success!
A bit frustrated I asked the supervisor how he created the waypoint, 'cause I had the feeling that I had searched in the wrong area. He told me that he didn't have a GPS handy when he recovered the Opti. So his buddy drove out later with a GPS while he was standing on the pier, estimating the rough direction and distance to the pier.
? Whaaat???
A reversed cross bearing standing up on a pier telling the guy on the boat when to mark the spot by a mobile??? Well.....
No wonder I couldn't find the rig.
Anyways, since I have my boat moored at this pier, I always thought about this stunt when I drove out the last weeks and passed the "waypoint". Two days ago, I got this on the screen twohundred metres away from the spot I had searched two years ago:
Instantly I thought that I had the rig located. The shape looked like a Opti sail spread out on the ground. I marked the spot, went home and checked the recording with YellowFin and DeepView. I came to the conclusion that it's worth a dive and see if I really can bring home my friend's missing part of his boat.
Hm, here's the result:
An old tarpaulin, propably lying there for a decade.
Not exactly the rig I was hoping to find.
However, I think it's quite impressive what one can find with a SI unit.
My friend will have to wait for another lucky strike like this before he gets the missing part of his boat back. Although it's kinda frustrating to me that I just found an old piece of junk and couldn't help my friend today, I'm convinced that it is possible to locate the rig. I'll keep looking....
Happy hunting and fat booty!
Harry