Underwater caches

[+GPSJane]

I am wondering of people have placed any under water caches?

 

I found the most awesome place to set a cache in the middle of a lagoon - you could walk to it as the water is shallow. You could swim, snorkel, walk or take a boat.

 

All you would need is a waterproof GPS or a zip lock bag with the GPS in it. The container has to be seriosuly water proof and resistant to salt water. I reckon it should float too as recovering it and logging it will also be a problem in the water. I would use water proof paper and you could only place waterproof items.

 

So I have thought about it but I wonder if there are any other difficulties I need to know about?

 

GPSJane

[+wesleykey]

There is an attribute for wading. I have found a few caches that required boating to an island, but have never had opportunity to find an underwater one. If you can do it right, it should be a great hide.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

I am wondering of people have placed any under water caches?

 

I found the most awesome place to set a cache in the middle of a lagoon - you could walk to it as the water is shallow. You could swim, snorkel, walk or take a boat.

 

All you would need is a waterproof GPS or a zip lock bag with the GPS in it. The container has to be seriosuly water proof and resistant to salt water. I reckon it should float too as recovering it and logging it will also be a problem in the water. I would use water proof paper and you could only place waterproof items.

 

So I have thought about it but I wonder if there are any other difficulties I need to know about?

 

GPSJane

There are many underwater caches; there is even one in the Atlantic trench off the coast of Portugal which is over 6,000 feet deep. In fact, there are several older threads on this forum devoted to scuba caches and other underwater caches. I do not have the time right now to do a search for those older threads using the Search feature (and hopefully someone else may do a Markwell and provide some links to such threads) but at least one of the threads lists all known scuba caches.

[+Whitewater49]

Here is a list of underwater caches. I am sure there are many more

http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.a...d6-d46a46c6dca5

requiring SCUBA

http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.a...df-965e7785b236

http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.a...63-4b8279c6d291

Edited September 26, 2007 by Whitewater49

[+9Key]

Here's an underwater cache I did recently. As you can read from the disable log the owner found that plaster-of-paris is not waterproof and disolves after a while. Also, the cache container, a screw top metal Thermos, was not waterproof. It was a fun cache though - one of my favorites.

[+VerySmartGirl]

I am wondering of people have placed any under water caches?

We had a quite a miss adventure placing an underwater scuba cache. Despite reading the forums and getting others advice, there were several problems. We planned to place it in 20-30 ft of clear water so it would be a scuba cache.

 

The cache container was a PCV pipe (i can not recommend the use of this above water) tethered by a plastic chain and a plastic coated cable with stainless steel fittings. When filled with air the pipe was buoyant. Inside the tube was a dive slate log and an item to identify in order to log the cache (a plastic fork)

 

We were good to go, found a place in the Gulf of Mexico 20 miles off shore with clear water. Anchored. I don't live in FL but a family member was set to maintain it for us.

 

Dropped the cache while trying to lower it.

In retrospect, we should have made it neutral buoyant, then lowered it.

 

The boat pivoted on the anchor which made way marking the spot very difficult.

We should have placed a string attached to the cache and an inflatable dive balloon. This way we could have better localized the cache at the surface.

 

The winds changed, the waves kicked up and visibility fell to zero. Which probably means the cache will slowly be covered in sand within no time.

We should have been more careful about scouting a good spot.

 

On the way home, we did some caching and LEFT our GPS at GCQD2Y Slim Bob goes to Potts. Which was our only record of the underwater waypoint.

We should have written down the coords and not rely on just an electronic record.

 

So, basically we littered in the Gulf of Mexico .

 

This seriously dampened our exicitment for placing an underwater cache. Hope others can learn from our mistakes.

 

VSG's dad

edit for spellin'

Edited September 26, 2007 by VerySmartGirl

[+anakerose]

My boyfriend put one in a pond at Polson Park in Vernon, BC (See: I sleep with the fishes GC148JW). My biggest thing is I can't understand how people don't get how to retrieve the cache. LordEd did not tell me ANYTHING about how to do this cache, because I wanted to find it on my own. But after reading the cache description it took me 2 seconds to figure it out. He's received so many emails from people complaining that his coordinates lead them into a pond.....well duh!

[+steve p]

We had a quite a miss adventure placing an underwater scuba cache. Despite reading the forums and getting others advice, there were several problems. We planned to place it in 20-30 ft of clear water so it would be a scuba cache.

 

The cache container was a PCV pipe (i can not recommend the use of this above water) tethered by a plastic chain and a plastic coated cable with stainless steel fittings. When filled with air the pipe was buoyant. Inside the tube was a dive slate log and an item to identify in order to log the cache (a plastic fork)

 

Dropped the cache while trying to lower it.

In retrospect, we should have made it neutral buoyant, then lowered it.

Interesting story to read!

On the neutral buoyancy, if the container contained air then wouldn't the buoyancy change with the item's depth? If neutral near the surface, would have have negative buoyancy at a deeper depth.

 

It may be on the previously-mentioned scuba bookmarks, but there's one in the Turks & Caicos Islands. The description sounds like it is inside an underwater dome at 35 feet. "The Dome" GC12BPA

[+9Key]

It may be on the previously-mentioned scuba bookmarks, but there's one in the Turks & Caicos Islands. The description sounds like it is inside an underwater dome at 35 feet. "The Dome" GC12BPA

Seems like the terrain on that cache should be a 5 since it requires special equipment.

[+Too Tall John]

My boyfriend put one in a pond at Polson Park in Vernon, BC (See: I sleep with the fishes GC148JW). My biggest thing is I can't understand how people don't get how to retrieve the cache. LordEd did not tell me ANYTHING about how to do this cache, because I wanted to find it on my own. But after reading the cache description it took me 2 seconds to figure it out. He's received so many emails from people complaining that his coordinates lead them into a pond.....well duh!

It looks to me like the terrain rating is way off, which is what is throwing people off. A terrain rating of "1" is typically a cache that is handicap accessible, which, if swimming is involved, it obviously isn't. Maybe they are supposed to fish the cache out from shore?

[+VerySmartGirl]

We had a quite a miss adventure placing an underwater scuba cache. Despite reading the forums and getting others advice, there were several problems. We planned to place it in 20-30 ft of clear water so it would be a scuba cache.

 

The cache container was a PCV pipe (i can not recommend the use of this above water) tethered by a plastic chain and a plastic coated cable with stainless steel fittings. When filled with air the pipe was buoyant. Inside the tube was a dive slate log and an item to identify in order to log the cache (a plastic fork)

 

Dropped the cache while trying to lower it.

In retrospect, we should have made it neutral buoyant, then lowered it.

Interesting story to read!

On the neutral buoyancy, if the container contained air then wouldn't the buoyancy change with the item's depth? If neutral near the surface, would have have negative buoyancy at a deeper depth.

 

It may be on the previously-mentioned scuba bookmarks, but there's one in the Turks & Caicos Islands. The description sounds like it is inside an underwater dome at 35 feet. "The Dome" GC12BPA

 

Yes! We attached the 12 inch PVC tube filled with air to an approx 12 x 6 x 6 building brick. The brick weighed approx 5 lbs. WE designed it so the PVC tube would float about 1 foot above the brick. Once we set it into the water, the brick wanted to sink ASAP. The PVC tube provided little "lift" for the 5 lbs brick. Before lowering the brick into the water, we should have inflated lift bags to keep it neutral buoyant. These are what salvage divers use to lift a boat from the bottom. Fill enough lift bags and even the Titanic will come up. With the lift bags in place we could have controlled the decent of the cache. Instead we ended up with a quick, "oh did you drop it".

Thanks for asking. We really thought we knew what we were doing, until we got out there. We want others to learn from our errors.

[+JEDI-6]

We had a quite a miss adventure placing an underwater scuba cache. Despite reading the forums and getting others advice, there were several problems. We planned to place it in 20-30 ft of clear water so it would be a scuba cache.

 

The cache container was a PCV pipe (i can not recommend the use of this above water) tethered by a plastic chain and a plastic coated cable with stainless steel fittings. When filled with air the pipe was buoyant. Inside the tube was a dive slate log and an item to identify in order to log the cache (a plastic fork)

 

Dropped the cache while trying to lower it.

In retrospect, we should have made it neutral buoyant, then lowered it.

Interesting story to read!

On the neutral buoyancy, if the container contained air then wouldn't the buoyancy change with the item's depth? If neutral near the surface, would have have negative buoyancy at a deeper depth.

 

It may be on the previously-mentioned scuba bookmarks, but there's one in the Turks & Caicos Islands. The description sounds like it is inside an underwater dome at 35 feet. "The Dome" GC12BPA

 

Yes! We attached the 12 inch PVC tube filled with air to an approx 12 x 6 x 6 building brick. The brick weighed approx 5 lbs. WE designed it so the PVC tube would float about 1 foot above the brick. Once we set it into the water, the brick wanted to sink ASAP. The PVC tube provided little "lift" for the 5 lbs brick. Before lowering the brick into the water, we should have inflated lift bags to keep it neutral buoyant. These are what salvage divers use to lift a boat from the bottom. Fill enough lift bags and even the Titanic will come up. With the lift bags in place we could have controlled the decent of the cache. Instead we ended up with a quick, "oh did you drop it".

Thanks for asking. We really thought we knew what we were doing, until we got out there. We want others to learn from our errors.

 

I've been diving for nearly 20 years. Salvage diving is a BLAST!!! Your comment "oh, did you drop it" had me in STITCHES!!!! Been there, done that. Thanks for sharing your experience with everyone else. Some great lessons learned there.

[+Kealia]

There's a cache on my "to do" list: Depth Perception in Lake Tahoe.

 

 

Clear beautiful water, about 8 feet below the surface.

 

 

I suggest emailing the owner and getting their advice on what worked and what didn't.

[JN 1013]

once i thougt about making a cache like this but what kind of conatiner would u need???

i was thinkin about weighing it down with rocks or somthin but i dono