The piling al Mukilteo

oldsalt · Post by **oldsalt** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 4:55 pm

I noticed a piling sticking up off the bottom near the satellite dish on the way to the sunken boat out from the T-dock. I have been there a lot and had not seen it before. To see a piling rising from the bottom at 100 ft depth is unusual to say the least. Does anybody know the story? Other divers say it has been there for about two weeks. It seems like another practical joke by Barry.

Rockfish · Post by **Rockfish** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 2:47 am

Barry had nothing to do with this one. Was the piling sticking in the bottom?

oldsalt · Post by **oldsalt** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 4:29 pm

Yes. The piling was buried into the bottom at 100 ft depth and sticking up about 15 ft from the bottom. The top of the piling is far below the surface so I deduced that it had to be erected underwater. I sink pilings by hand in front of my home, so I have an idea of what is involved. A major effort.

dieseldude · Post by **dieseldude** » Mon Dec 20, 2010 1:50 pm

I saw the same thing yesterday & had the same question for rockfish. I'd estimate its height more than 15'. wherever it came from, its been underwater for a while. I'm assuming I have just missed it in the past. I also noticed that the sat dish is home to more rockfish all broken up than it was when it was whole. I also saw kelp greenlings on it which I usually do not see at Muk. The recent storms have moved several things around. the small boat northeast of the dish has been blown into the line that runs parallel to shore, on the far north end of the line, if you follow the log past the lines, another small boat has been shoved into whats left of the jungle gym down at about 115' & is kind of a tangled mess now. cool for fish but not something good for divers to get wrapped up in unless they are prepared to deal with it. The shrimp were out in force. could've filled a bucket fast yesterday.
MJ

Rockfish · Post by **Rockfish** » Mon Dec 20, 2010 2:44 pm

Sorry can't take credit for the piling. It has been a long time since I have been to the t-dock. I'm going to try to get down there before the end of the year and check it out.

Thanks,

Mike

loanwolf · Post by **loanwolf** » Mon Dec 20, 2010 7:40 pm

I spotted that the other week coming back from a deep scooter run and thought to myself "were the hell did that come from"????? "am I were I think I am or am I someplace else like under the ferry"????????

Yea if someone put it their that is impressive.

oldsalt · Post by **oldsalt** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 6:03 pm

I swam out to the boatwreck today and the piling is tilted over at 45 degrees (about, I didn't measure it). I suspect that a couple more changes of tide will bring it to rest on the bottom.

Agent 47 · Post by **Agent 47** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:53 am

dieseldude wrote: I also noticed that the sat dish is home to more rockfish all broken up than it was when it was whole. MJ

Sweet, now we can say it was intentional

so the story is after growing concern that the satelight dish was incapable of supporting life we "modefied" it to increase the local rockfish population..... yeah that'll work.. lets run with it.

whatevah · Post by **whatevah** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 8:58 am

Sounds like it was a dead-head to me - floating along, barely positive and oriented such that only the very tip of one end was visible at the surface - the rest of its considerable length pointed directly towards the bottom. These are not fun to encounter when boating. It finally become waterlogged enough for a small wave to submerge it and that was enough to send it spearing down into the sand. Subsequent tidal flows must've moved it some.

Recent storms and flooding probably washed it off a beach or out of a log-jam in one of the rivers.

Rockfish · Post by **Rockfish** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 10:19 am

Yes we can't thank Agent 47 enough for the part he played in making the satellite dish a better place for rockfish.

Rockfish · Post by **Rockfish** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 10:13 am

We dove at Mukilteo yesterday and saw the piling.

At this time there is very little of it sticking in the bottom and it looks the the tip that is in or at the bottom is hollow and jagged. It moves very easily.

I think that the theory that this was a dead head has a lot of merit. The upper part of the piling does have some residual bouyancy.

I would strongly suggest that anyone diving around this piling exercise extreme caution as the the piling could topple over at any time.

It's unforunate that this will probably topple over sometime soon as it looks really cool silhouetted against the surface.

Mike

oldsalt · Post by **oldsalt** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 11:06 am

I just got out of the water with Morningdiverbob. The piling has toppled over and rests atop the satellite dish. Lots of big rockfish though. Also lings, GPO under the boat, and two wolf eels in shallower water. Lousy vis, great dive.

Northwest Dive Club