Diving the Alton Mt. Washington pier

[scubajay1153]

Was curious if anyone had dove the Alton Bay pier and had some info on depth and experiences (anything to see,etc). A buddy from AFD and I were going to try it tomorrow instead of one of our usual spots......

[Sunset Bob]

In the 50's and 60's the kids used to dive for coins.

[weim2]

I am quite sure my husband is one of those kids in the picture. He used to dive all the time and get enough $ to play pinball at the Blue Jay.

[Diver1111]

I have dived there a few times-right around the pier and up and down the shore.

Found some old bottles but nothing else to write home about historically-speaking.

Also found large piles (4 feet high) of cinder-like debris, almost looked volcanic, tough, sharp, stone-like material that is really hard; Whatever it was it was uniform in nature, meaning it did not have alot of junk mixed in with it like wood, stones, trash, pieces of cinder-block etc.. I welcome any ideas as to what this material might be. Odd. Given its location offshore, I can only guess that it was dumped from a boat vs. from shore.

In maybe 2006 I did however find a womans' pocketbook loaded down with rocks (my 2nd in Winni) off the docks south of the pier. I took it home, opened it up and found it belonged to a woman in... Barrington... as I recall. Wallet had a Blue Cross card, drivers license, checks, make-up, pens and assorted other items, plus $8.00 in cash in her wallet.

I tracked her down, got her address and mailed the entire affair to her... and the story goes like this...

Seems she was a single Mom doing a DJ gig-her 2nd job-at night. Was hired for an event on the western shore there one evening. About midnight she left the gig with a girlfriend after getting paid perhaps $250 in cash for her work. She put it in a Bank of NH envelope, then placed it in her purse, on top, inside the pocketbook.

She and her girlfriend-who was now in the company of some dirtbag recently released from prison her friend had met, walked out to the parking lot to her car/their cars.

For reasons that I don't recall, she explained that she and her girlfriend got separated from her car-perhaps walking and smoking-I don't know, while the dirtbag remained "behind'; When she got home she discovered her envelope in her pocketbook was gone, but nothing else. She speculated-prob. correctly-that the dirtbag rifled her purse, grabbed the easy target, then walked the pocketbook to the waters' edge and sank it with any available rocks ASAP.

She was amazed I recovered it, and of course most thankful, for what the recovery was worth. To add insult-to-injury, she told me her pocketbook itself was a...."Coach" brand (Ladies-help me out here)...a high-end pocketbook she really liked and treated herself to-and was pissed off she lost that as well as the money.

I told her to contact (Coach?), explain the situation about the theft and that the handbag was now toast, and see if they would cut her any slack on replacing it with something else...given her attraction to their products. I told her to have them contact me if they doubt her story.

Never heard from her again except for a very nice Thank You note in the mail.

You never know what you'll find...

[Argie's Wife]

Nice story - really.

Depending on the model of the bag and the year it was purchased, a Coach bag goes anywhere from $200 on up and generally average around $300. Limited edition can cost much more.

[secondcurve]

Diver:

What year did this all happen? Just curious.

Thanks,

[Diver1111]

To answer your question:

I am confident but not positive it was October 2006 or 2007 (maybe even November of either of those years); I know it was an after-season, dry-suit, shore-dive, due to temps of both air and water.

Please understand I should prob. log all of the dives I do but after so many many dives in the Big Lake, other NH lakes and ponds, ocean dives regularly and more, I stopped logging them because it's just not on my radar unless it's really important-to me;

This ladys' pocketbook-to get it back to her-was important to me but not so much as to actually log it.

From now on I will start logging data that at first seems un-important.

I have a feeling this story rings a bell with you...hmmmm..

[secondcurve]

Diver:

The story doesn't ring a bell with me and I wasn't clear on my question so you didn't provide the exact answer I was seeking. I wasn't asking when the dive was, although this is useful information. I was trying to understand how long the pocketbook had sat at the bottom of the lake. My sense is that it couldn't have been too long as things must fall apart quickly down there, but I am not sure how long things last submerged. Thanks for your interesting posts.

[Diver1111]

As I recall it was on the bottom no more than 2 years; No rot or decay to speak of to the leather-just a little slime; Contents intact-papers etc. but delicate; Plastic cards etc. fine.

If it was in the ocean it would not have looked that good at all.

[Argie's Wife]

I think someone was diving it today... I saw a white station wagon pulled up by the sidewalk near the pier and a man was getting into a wet suit... Was it any of you, here?

[Diver1111]

Not me diving there today. When I found the pocketbook though I also came home with a nice pair of vice-grips, a nice telescopic aluminum boat hook, and a small tool chest with some other decent tools in it-all useable.