Thank you LCF for your help today and for the lunch run, both were needed and MUCH appreciated.
We got a LOT of work done today in spite of some obstacles. Viz was plain old awful and that was before our work made it almost negative. You know it's bad when you can't read your gauges with a light in front of your face, so your compass is almost worthless, you've pulled the boundary rope all the way to 80' so can't follow it back up, and you've just gone into deco....
The day revealed those were the problems that seemed straightforward. There were more daunting ones, not in the water it turned out. The street was mostly parked out when we arrived and the dock was completely full. There were almost 2 dozen fisherman on the dock along with restaurant workers-parking was nasty. That created our first challenge, just getting to the workplace to unload all the gear. As fisherman slowly left we all finally got spaces, then we fretted about the 2 hour parking issues with no where to move to when our time wore out.
The first crew of Marker Buoys entered the water. Randy had a 55 gal. drum and a plan to move the big anchors. I joined with fellow Marker Buoy Kimber Chard, and with Joyce Merkel in tow acting as work photographer we dropped on the single remaining buoy to start pulling line. Rich Moore, Jim Pappin and Drew Collins assisted and pulled line in other sectors. Talk about a major silt-fest. Almost the whole job is done by braille. Turns out the key tools were Rich's hacksaw, my Titanium dive knife with a serrated blade to cut line, zip-ties, and rope. Next in value was a large goodie bags to stuff garbage in to. Not to be underestimated is the ability to work calmly in a complete mess.
At the end of the first tank LCF showed up and wanted to know what to do. I admire anyone that just wants to do anything necessary to get the job done. At that point were were dragging rope and garbage up the beach, trying to figure if we were getting out of gear, or going right back in, and finally fretting about getting tickets. She pitched right in, cleaned and coiled rope and then went out for burgers. It was getting hot so we ditched our gear. Finally the parking police showed up. Randy, the only one still in dive gear, immediately struck up a conversation. In a couple minutes we were all in the clear. That turned out to be one of the bigger obstacles hanging over us. Randy is making some dash notices that will temporarily clear us of the 2 hour limit.
LCF returned with some well received grub. I couldn't believe how hungry I was. After some food and swapping tanks out we were ready for round 2.
Jim and LCF had to leave. Kimber and I headed deep to pull more rope, Joyce and Rich went after shallow rope he had found imbedded in the bottom. Randy and Drew went to move move anchors. Kimber and I pulled rope until we went into deco. Randy had the misfortune of having one fisherman doing the berserk dance on the dock yelling at him for being 'inside the legal boundary' and simply would not listen to Randy's explanation. :angry:
Out of the water and still in the dry suit I figured it was just a simple misunderstanding and went out on the dock to explain our purpose and mission to the fisherman. Well, turns out this one guy is a semi-nutcase and went berserk on me also.
I guess Randy and I are going to be turned in to City Parks, the Police, the Harbor Patrol plus OSHA, with pictures and video sent to King-5 for proof of our transgressions. If you see us, record a clip please....
There are a LOT of bricks to move.
We're thinking a big pile just west and deeper thank the slag pile in the middle of the cove. A small lift bag, or a big one to move several bricks will be required. People with the skills, and plenty of air can continue to clean up the deep line-pull those old juice jugs too.
More buoy anchors need to be moved (big job) to the new line. Tomorrow we'll put in some temporary surface markers. There is a new boundary line but it is limited in scope, more of a surveyors line for the work party.
Folks, "this ain't no party, this ain't now disco, this ain't no fooling around". This is fun work, but is serious business with potentially nasty outcomes and guaranteed difficult diving conditions. You should be fully prepared for absolute silt-out conditions, solo diving, entanglement....entanglement.....entanglement (do I make myself clear?!?!), and self rescue. If that doesn't put you off, come on down and join in on the fun. You'll be doing a service for the dive community and making a better, safer Cove 2.
Fritz Merkel
President - Marker Buoy Dive Club