Search and recovery challenge - $700 reward!

[Cmjstealth]

Looking for a search and recovery challenge at an amazing dive site close to Seattle (Bainbridge) within recreational limits? Long story short I lost my uw dslr camera rig today while diving Rockaway Beach (Norrander's Reef). Being slightly negatively buoyant it slowly sank from the surface in an area approx. 80ft deep. Although I returned with another tank I unfortunately hit my recreational limit before I could make much of a search pattern (I had been diving all day). I tied off and left my reel / red dive boey in the general area along the dive site bottom rope where it should have dropped so you can’t miss seeing it from the surface. The current was pretty slack when it was dropped but unfortunately since it sank at least 80ft to the bottom and because the bottom is so smooth with polished rocks, etc, I’m not sure how far it might have drifted.

The camera is a Cannon T2i DSLR in a large Ikelight transparent camera housing with black and red handles. It has a stobe on one side held by arms and a homemade LED video light attached on the other side with aluminum square stock making it quite identifiable if found. The camera has a high speed 32gig card for shooting hd video. I really loved that camera and case and since it is going to cost me plenty to replace it would certainly be win-win if someone else was interested in diving and was able to find it. It is a pretty awesome dive site so hopefully that will increase the odds of it showing up. The local dive shop in town near the ferry dock is super friendly and is also aware that it is missing. I will also see if I can find some photos to post of what it looks like.

Norrander reef is on the east side of Bainbridge Just north of Blakely harbor. If you haven’t dove it before I highly recommend it - our dives today were fantastic: multiple octopus sightings, great visibility, tons of life, easy shore entry, and there is an impressive field of squid eggs along the rope laid along the bottom leading divers from the entry to the first reef. The entire bottom is small to medium sized rocks so there is much less silt than typical mud/silt bottomed sites. You can find great info regarding the site at http://www.planyourdive.com/map/sites/1 ... 7s%20Reef/ and http://www.theperfectdive.com/DEF-Site.asp?sID=81 .

Background: My friend started had an air issues at about 80ft so he switched to my backup and we immediately made a nice and slow ascent + safety stop. Unfortunately in the process the clip on my camera rig broke right at the surface and it slowly sank down. By the time I noticed it had broken free it unfortunately was too far down for me to feel comfortable chasing it (200-300psi). A sad day but at least the diving was great fantastic at the beginning – I just don’t have any of my pictures to prove it :-(

My cell 360-421-0744
email: Curtis (at) cmjstealth (dot) com
PMs also alert me at my main email - feel free to send.
I live in Bellevue,

[Scubie Doo]

I think DAN may cover it, since it was a "rescue" situation. They may need more documentation, but doesn't hurt to call, assuming you have DAN.

[mheyns]

My buddy and I are headed out there on Saturday. Planning to do 2-3 dives at the site. At least one will be a search and recovery for your camera.

If we find anything we'll let you know. :-)

Michael

[Cmjstealth]

Still haven't heard any word from anyone so don't think it has been found. If anyone does find it would be great if they could retrieve the dive flag I left (both so others know it was found and so I can get it back ).

I cross referenced my dive computer, my best guess of the currents at the time, and did some ballpark math which I think may suggest the camera could have drifted south a bit from where we ascended. See image below:

[H20doctor]

I'm heading there today... wish me luck

[Linedog]

Luck.

[H20doctor]

So I hit the ferry last Thursday to help find the lost camera set up and see if I could somehow find it … after being on the ferry for a 35 min crossing I hit the island took a left and went around the harbor.. after 3 miles I found the dive site…

as I was gearing up another diver was getting out with a Sierra divx scooter …at fist I thought he was stealing mine because I had already put my scooter on the beach and had walked back up to my Van… but it was his.. I forgot his name but he is a diver at the seattle aquarium and know fritz… fermerkel… so he helped me zip up and I asked him if he had seen a large camera set up and he said no… I got in the water and scooted on the surface out to the smb that was marking the missing last area of the camera… I dropped down with a full 119 Hp with a 4,000 psi fill… down into the green clear water and I hit the rock structure at 75 feet.. I went deeper at first and did some large loop pattern to see what I could find but at the deeper depth the viz was worse about 20 feet , and as you go deeper he it tends to get really gooey and silty … I have never been to this site before and from what I can tell this is not a high current site, as that I can see silty bottom and detritus everywhere on the rocks … I then took a 150 Deg heading and was on the trigger for 15 mins I then came back on a reverse heading between 90 and 80 feet … as you can see on the Map I made the first dive is the green line… after 65 mins of dive time I had to do a 20 min stop and off gas…. At the end of the dive in 13 feet of water I had a total dive time of almost 90 mins… I did find a pretty good bottle field at 110 feet

Dive 2 1 hr later of off gas and im back in the game with a new charged battery in the scooter back into the water and im ready to go… This second dive is the red line on the map… I was way more impressed with the large rock structure here on the south end which has 2 white buoys on it for boat dives… the wasnt much for fish here , some rock fish but very few.. the one thing I saw in abundance is white alabaster Nudis

Nudi.jpg (60.42 KiB) Viewed 2817 times

They were every where , and lots of them … I scootered in and around all the reef structures or large rock boulders here.. I hit every inch of this site and found no camera … dive 2 was 70 mins long and no deco max depth of 70 feet…

[mheyns]

We went out and did two dives around the buoy and 80ft mark on Saturday am. Nothing.

Did you factor in your drift in ascent as well as the potential camera drift in descent? because the camera likely dirfted far less going down than you did coming up.

We searching in an area probably 400-700 yards in diameter around around where the reel was attached to the reef. Sorry!

Michael

[maelstrom]

That was an epic search pattern. I would think that the divers drifted farther South than the camera, but the scooter search pattern was entirely South of the marker. They were drifting for at least a minute or 2 after dropping the camera, and before deploying the SMB.

We dive that site all the time, and usually follow the line back to the white marker, (actually a boat fender). Even the short swim from the fender tends to push us more than 45 feet. I would suggest a search North of the SMB.

Cmjstealth, Were you on the main reef, or the deep reef when you started up? The main reef ends at about 60-65 feet, and the deep reef is about 95-100 feet. There is not much to see in between.

Hal

[Cmjstealth]

We were at the west side of the second rock structure - I assume this is the start of what you call the "deep" reef?

This forum appears to be cutting off the right half of my picture above with the map - sorry about that. Here is a direct link: http://www.cmjstealth.com/bloguploads/L ... -small.png

[maelstrom]

I get it now. The SMB was placed on the second dive where you began your ascent, and undoubtedly you drifted farther South prior to reaching the surface, and the camera drifted farther South as it sank. You cannot assume it is at the same depth you were at the beginning of the ascent. If the current carried it deeper, it will never be found. Do you have any recollection of where you were off shore in relation to the park, and houses South of the park? 100 yards or so South of the park is another bouy in fairly shallow water. I believe this is noted on H2O's red line scooter dive. Did you see it? Just South of that is another, shallower reef(Metridium), followed by another , larger shallow reef(Leiker's). If the camera drifed in this direction it is probably fairly shallow. Do you have any idea of how far off shore you were when you surfaced?