fins or no fins

[stellar]

rongoodman What fun would buying the part be? Maybe i shouldn't say this,but actually it wouldn't be my first solo. I kind of enjoy solo. You do have a very valid point. It isn't recreational anymore. Now you got me thinking and i am eager to do this. Now i am going to have to rethink. But since i enjoy a challenge and am a little stubborn i think i'll still go. I will be sure to excercise more caution now tho. Who knows i may change my mind at the last min. and not go.

[stellar]

rongoodman You are causing me pause.(which is a good thing) You have a very valid point, it isn't recreational any more. I am still excited about doing this, i love a challenge and buying the part just wouldn't be any fun. I probably shouldn't say this,but i have done solo before and i like it. Poor vis in this part of the country is common,but this will exceed what i have done. Cutting out of entanglement with no vis may take awhile. I do have an extra reg and tank, so i may bring it down with me. Hell fins or no fins is beginning to almost become a moot point. I may as well tie them to the line with the extra tank. This is beginning to sound like a real job instead of fun.

[stellar]

I called a few buds to go to the quarry tomorrow. I will do a little prep work and the buds are interested in assisting with the boat part recovery JOB. So there will be some help and it may end up being fun. I sure feel a lot more informed than before i asked about the darn fins. Thanks. I will let you know how the recovery goes hopefully within the next 2 weeks.

[mrmccoy]

If it is around and under docks, I would have someone on the surface making sure no boats or fisherman come around....you should be fine!

[navyhmc]

You haven't said stellar, what is the "Lost boat part"?

[divingchef]

Fins!!! or weight on each foot with life line to dock....

How deep is the bottom?

Doing this dive solo doesn't bother me, I've been under numerous boats, never fun!! But good luck!

Aligators? Snakes? Bulls? Tigers? just the things I think about in the mexican marinas where I dive boat bottoms....

GOod luck!

Saludos!

Dd

[mitsuguy]

Given the info at hand, and that everyone has given you good warning... I say no fins, wear booties, and overweight yourself a good 10 lbs... Honestly, I would overweight yourself 2/3rds what your BC can lift... We do a lot of work setting up boat moorings and such... a sand screw weighs about 30 lbs, and we have two options for moving them around underwater - a) lift bag or b) deflate your bc completely, take the fins off, and walk point a to point b...

as mentioned, proper planning is essential...
since the lift bag is one extra thing to worry about once we get to the destination, we choose to have one diver carry the other divers fins and a couple clip weights to hold on to all of our fins once we make it to the place where the sand screw is to be installed... there, we are purposely overweighted so we stay in place while installing the screw...

[stellar]

There will be someone on top. Not sure what the part is called or even what it looks like, but i will know before i go. That sounds like a good saying can I patent it? (KNOW BEFORE YOU GO) The part holds an outboard to the boat when the motor is lowered and keeps it from hitting the boat. My daughter says it is about the size of a deck of cards. Her boyfriend (not the brightest bulb on the tree) went fishing for it with a magnet. I didn't say anything, but I think most boat parts are made of AL and not FE. It is a private dock so boats shouldn't be a problem.

I did a few dives at a quarry yesterday and played on the bottom a little kicking up the silt to reduce vis to 0. The extra weight is a good idea and the fins won't be on. I also found out I am going to need a refference point. It gets a little confusing with no vis. So I will drop a lot of weight on a line from the dock to work from. I am also thinking about attaching another line to the weight with knots evenly spaced to work my way in in an orderly way. I would like to work from down stream to up stream, hoping to limit more silt. I will probably do this next week.

[cmburch]

Yes, good idea for a reference point. When low Vis, I use a yellow floating line with a sash weight to mark my position when freediving, so I can easily return to the same location on the bottom.

[SadrithMora]

Man, diving without fins always seems like a bad idea to me. I must admit I've done it before, but in 10 feet of water in the keys to find lobster. It was the easiest way to maneuver around in the dead coral environments, but it made me feel REAL uneasy. I triple checked everything in my setup and made damn sure that I could launch out of my bc if anything did happen.