Lost Camera Found .....

[sandman98007]

Well …. The dive God’s were kind to me today.

Recap:

08.01.10 … Dive trip with Deep Sea Charters. Dive Locations were Peapod Rocks and James Island. Peapod was great. Shallow but abundant life. Nudies, creeping pedals, Candy strip shrimp, and more. Vis was about 15’ and max depth was 50 feet. We noticed several Bald Eagles and a bunch of seals. A great dive. Next destination was James Island. This is when the unthinkable happened. I lost my camera, I had posted the details earlier, so you have an idea what happened.

Needless to say that I have been sick about the loss. Depression over a camera???? You bet .... when the rig is that expensive and no insurance coverage. A-Holes.

Lucky for me I am a member of NWDC board and posted my woes’ . Typical of divers here in the PNW, fellow divers came to my rescue. Steve was kind enough to offer to use his boat and we would go on a camera rescue. I was floored at the kindness of the offer and jumped at the chance to find my rig. PNW divers are the best people in the world.

Now understand … after dealing with the insurance company, and this being only the second time I have dove this location I had very little confidence at finding the camera, but I had to try. The topography is a moderate slope with crags, boulders, and crevasses. There is a lot of foliage there and all this added to my lack of confidence. Can we say …anti-depressants ???? There are walls and all sorts of critters to add to the difficulty of the search. It was not looking good. I herd somewhere say that trying to find something underwater was like trying finding a needle in a haystack.

Add to this current and the possibility of tumbling the camera rig from here to eternity … well you get the picture.

Luckily, I met Steve through the board. We decided to meet up today (08.07.10) for the morning ebb and we met in Anacortes Washington Park at 09:00. Steve owns a 20 rigid inflatable. Steve brought along another diver named Greg. Steve and Greg are re-breather divers, the plan was to let them take the depths, and I would cover the shallows. Armed with a plan thanks to Joshua from Tacoma Scuba we were set. Cold rain, over cast, and rough water … this was not helping my confidence. The only bright spot was that Mark from Deep Sea Charters got the GPS coordinates and depth (50 feet) before we left last week. At least this gave us a place to start.

If you ever get a chance to dive off of a 20 rigid, inflatable you must give it a try. The fun part was the trip to the site. Can we say BUMPY …. Think “jet ski” on a windy day. Thank god for dry suits. Since there were three of us, one would operate the boat for live pick up’s and the others would dive. Steve and I decided on a “mowing the grass” pattern 10 feet apart and we would cover the site. We started at 90 feet. We covered the area fairly rapidly. Back and forth, decreasing depth by 10 feet per run … always keeping each other in site. We hit the ebb on the money and very little current was noted. North and south we swam, with each decrease in depth, the more sure I was that the camera would not be found. 90, 80, 70, … well you get the picture. At 90 feet, I found a downrigger ball thinking it was the camera. LET DOWN. At 50’, that would be the last traverse. I just knew the camera was not there, but we stuck to the plan. Since the current was picking up a bit, I was hugging the bottom. I came over a small boulder next to a crevasse and low and behold, I see a black object. I rush over there and stuck between some rocks …IT WAS THE CAMERA. WWWOOOOOHHHHOOOOO. Needless to say that my dive etiquette went right out the window. I flashed my dive partner and we shook hands. What a great feeling.

Now this camera was on the bottom for 6 days. I expected it to have flooded and useless. At least I would have my housing back. Guess What????? I turned it on, no water in the housing, and began to take some picture. OH HAPPY DAY. Took a few shots and broke the surface holding my camera overhead as if an Olympic champion … then I gave the OK signal. My day was complete. I drove the boat for Steve and Greg to have a dive then we headed into town for lunch …. And Yes …. I did buy.
All in all a great day. I wish to thanks everyone for the advice given and especially Steve and Greg for their help. Without them, I would be without my camera.

Steve and Greg …I would be honored to dive with you both again any time.

Well that is about it …. A long post …. I apologize ….

Here are the pictures from 08.01.10 and 08.07.10. There are a few videos stuck in there as well. Please enjoy the show. The Last three in the set are after the camera was underwater for 6 days.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandman980 ... 7297/show/

See ya in the water.

Tim

[Blaiz]

YAAAAAAAY

[Joshua Smith]

That's fantastic! Congratulations on the recovery!

[H20doctor]

was this the 6k rig ?

[Alexitt]

Dude, well done!!! With that kind of luck you need to pick up a couple of Lottery tickets...

[John Rawlings]

HOOOOORAY!!!! Great news!!!! Now THAT deserves a dancing taco if anything does!!!!

[4ster]

It was a fun day. Hats off to the skipper at Deep Sea, the camera was EXACTLY at his numbers and depth. That was a pretty awesome dive as well.

[Grateful Diver]

was this the 6k rig ?

Yes ... Congrats Tim, looks like the scuba gods were saving up all the karma for this big event.

PS - glad ya got those cockerell's dorid shots. They were worth waiting for ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[loanwolf]

It was a fun day. Hats off to the skipper at Deep Sea, the camera was EXACTLY at his numbers and depth. That was a pretty awesome dive as well.

Ditto on that one.

Just very glade it was found.

[spatman]

AWESOME! great job, you guys!

NWDC kicks ass.

[Tom Nic]

AWESOME! great job, you guys!

NWDC kicks ass.

Wow Wow Wow Wow!!!

This is definitely one to be celebrated!!!!

[Jan K]

We all needed some good news! Congratulations to the recovery A-TEAM !

[Seaslave]

Congrats!!! Having lost things myself, I know how rare it is to find them again. What a great feeling


-Mathue

[lundysd]

congrats Tim -- that's great news!!!

[SeattleYates]

CONGRATS on finding your rig!!! And you got some nice shots to boot!

I just joined NWDC a few days ago, and one of the first posts I read was the one about your lost camera (and sucky insurance response). I was mightily impressed that Steve immediately stood up and offered his time, boat and assistance to try to find it. Kinda renews your faith in mankind when people are so quick to offer help...when the easy thing would be to just read the post, feel sorry for you and move on.

It's great that you found your camera! But just as great IMO that this group is made up of people like Steve!

[sandman98007]

Dude, well done!!! With that kind of luck you need to pick up a couple of Lottery tickets...

I believe all my luck goes to finding things i loose ... dog's ( when they get off their lead and are terrorizing the neighborhood cats), key, and cameras ..... no luck left for lotto .... :(:(:(

[sandman98007]

CONGRATS on finding your rig!!! And you got some nice shots to boot!

I just joined NWDC a few days ago, and one of the first posts I read was the one about your lost camera (and sucky insurance response). I was mightily impressed that Steve immediately stood up and offered his time, boat and assistance to try to find it. Kinda renews your faith in mankind when people are so quick to offer help...when the easy thing would be to just read the post, feel sorry for you and move on.

It's great that you found your camera! But just as great IMO that this group is made up of people like Steve!

Could not have said it better myself .... Thank You

[H20doctor]

What an Epic search and Rescue.... How Far Had the Camera drifted from the entry Point ?

[sandman98007]

What an Epic search and Rescue.... How Far Had the Camera drifted from the entry Point ?

Not far .... though probably about 6 - 10 fet deeper since we were diving a lower tide .... if it had not wedged in those rockes the current might have blown it away ... as of taday I am making the housing even more negative.

[WylerBear]

Yay! Just fantastic. It's been said before but PNW divers are the best!!!!!!
Especially those on NWDC!
:smt038