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Winnipesaukee Divers · 07-26-2011, 08:39 PM

We consider them a "Man overboard" drill... We get most of them.

We once lost a SCUBA tank out the back of the walk-though transom on my sailboat. I was on deck furling the sail when dive buddy Paul inadvertently knock one of tanks over. I holler for him to stop the boat and back straight back, while I readied to deploy the anchor.

When I thought we had gone far enough; I dropped the anchor. We stopped in sixty-five feet of water just west of Parker island and I thought my chances of recovering the tank were very slim at best. I only had a spare 80cft tank left on board to use and it's not much bottom time at that depth, since I'm a big guy and need lots of air and usually use steel 120s.

Down the anchor line I went, once on the bottom I cleared my mask, took my bearing and prepared to start the search. I had only gone about 30' due west and there it was... Suck, valve down in the sandy bottom at an angle, looking all the world like an unexploded bomb form WW2. I tied off my marker line/float a continued on the search. I couldn't come back to the boat that quick, I had to do an extensive search to make Paul sweat a little longer and burn up the rest of the tank (can't have stale air left over). When I got back to the boat I had all sorts of treasures tucked in my suit. Paul said, "No luck on the tank? Looks like I owe you a new tank." I responded back, just pull up the marker line next to your feet and lets get back to the dock."

We got lucky that day... But rest assured, had I come up empty handed, we would have marked the site and returned back to scoured the bottom until we did find it.

My old saying is: Nothing is lost in the lake, it's just in cold storage for a while.

07-26-2011, 08:39 PM	#13
Winnipesaukee Divers Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Exeter, NH or @ WCYC on weekends Posts: 250 Thanks: 7 Thanked 46 Times in 28 Posts	Hats... We consider them a "Man overboard" drill... We get most of them. We once lost a SCUBA tank out the back of the walk-though transom on my sailboat. I was on deck furling the sail when dive buddy Paul inadvertently knock one of tanks over. I holler for him to stop the boat and back straight back, while I readied to deploy the anchor. When I thought we had gone far enough; I dropped the anchor. We stopped in sixty-five feet of water just west of Parker island and I thought my chances of recovering the tank were very slim at best. I only had a spare 80cft tank left on board to use and it's not much bottom time at that depth, since I'm a big guy and need lots of air and usually use steel 120s. Down the anchor line I went, once on the bottom I cleared my mask, took my bearing and prepared to start the search. I had only gone about 30' due west and there it was... Suck, valve down in the sandy bottom at an angle, looking all the world like an unexploded bomb form WW2. I tied off my marker line/float a continued on the search. I couldn't come back to the boat that quick, I had to do an extensive search to make Paul sweat a little longer and burn up the rest of the tank (can't have stale air left over). When I got back to the boat I had all sorts of treasures tucked in my suit. Paul said, "No luck on the tank? Looks like I owe you a new tank." I responded back, just pull up the marker line next to your feet and lets get back to the dock." We got lucky that day... But rest assured, had I come up empty handed, we would have marked the site and returned back to scoured the bottom until we did find it. My old saying is: Nothing is lost in the lake, it's just in cold storage for a while.