Underwater?

[+BleepnBloop]

My husband and I recently started geocaching. We both love magnet fishing. Once we are ready to hide our first caches, are we allowed to hide a cache underwater that would require a magnet to retrieve? 

[+lee737]

I can't see why not.... I must admit it sounds like a maintenance disaster though!

[+TriciaG]

I don't see why not. There are scuba/underwater caches, and there are magnet retrieval caches on land. Why not combine the two (sorta)?

 

There might be a potential problem with lazy cachers not replacing it correctly, but that's true for almost every cache.

[+Max and 99]

1 hour ago, BleepnBloop said:

My husband and I recently started geocaching. We both love magnet fishing. Once we are ready to hide our first caches, are we allowed to hide a cache underwater that would require a magnet to retrieve? 

We've had a few of those type in my area.

[+kunarion]

1 hour ago, BleepnBloop said:

My husband and I recently started geocaching. We both love magnet fishing. Once we are ready to hide our first caches, are we allowed to hide a cache underwater that would require a magnet to retrieve? 

 

Have you found caches like that?  It could be very cool! I've never seen a spot locally where something like that could be expected to survive as a cache.  It would be a challenge. 

 

This may be a good place to discuss your container design.  My first thought is a replaceable container of some kind (bison tube, lock-n-lock), but it would be inside a magnetic cover.  That cover doesn't need to keep out water, just hold the cache container, and it's the magnetic thing that the fishing magnet "catches".  

 

A SCUBA style log may be inside the actual container.  Writing board, China marker.

 

Something like that?

[+barefootjeff]

It's certainly allowed and I'm sure it could be made to work with enough careful design, but be aware that, for any container to not be buoyant, it's going to have to be pretty heavy and will likely need a substantial magnet to lift it. One of my caches is in a hollow space in a stone retaining wall alongside a creek, but my first attempt, a plastic Sistema, floated away when the creek flooded. I decided to switch to a steel cash box, thinking its weight would keep it in place, but a bit of experimentation showed that it was still buoyant and I needed to glue two large lead sinkers, each about 450 grams, into it to make it stay on the bottom in my submergence test.

[+TheLimeCat]

I have a cache underwater, though it is retrieved by pulling up a rope. If I recall, the magnet used by magnet fishermen is pretty solid, so I'm guessing it would be able to haul up a weighted pelican case. Someone near me has hidden a couple caches with a thick sheet of aluminum spun around a dowel as a log. Cachers can use to tip of the dowel to basically press their name into the foil. I'm guessing this would work pretty well for an underwater cache.

[+BleepnBloop]

2 hours ago, kunarion said:

 

Have you found caches like that?  It could be very cool! I've never seen a spot locally where something like that could be expected to survive as a cache.  It would be a challenge. 

 

This may be a good place to discuss your container design.  My first thought is a replaceable container of some kind (bison tube, lock-n-lock), but it would be inside a magnetic cover.  That cover doesn't need to keep out water, just hold the cache container, and it's the magnetic thing that the fishing magnet "catches".  

 

A SCUBA style log may be inside the actual container.  Writing board, China marker.

 

Something like that?

 

[+BleepnBloop]

We have never found a cache while magnet fishing. As for the container design, I was thinking of a small plastic container weighted down with large metal washers glued to it. I’ve pulled up many metal washers magnet fishing. OR, a container with a metal weight like a lock attached to it so that even if the plastic container is buoyant, the metal attached to it is enough to keep it submerged in one place. Hubby and I may need to experiment to see what works. I’m afraid a metal container holding the plastic one will either open and lose the cache or keep rusting pretty quickly that it would need to be replaced multiple times.

[+TheLimeCat]

4 minutes ago, BleepnBloop said:

We have never found a cache while magnet fishing. As for the container design, I was thinking of a small plastic container weighted down with large metal washers glued to it. I’ve pulled up many metal washers magnet fishing. OR, a container with a metal weight like a lock attached to it so that even if the plastic container is buoyant, the metal attached to it is enough to keep it submerged in one place. Hubby and I may need to experiment to see what works. I’m afraid a metal container holding the plastic one will either open and lose the cache or keep rusting pretty quickly that it would need to be replaced multiple times.

I use a length of paracord, run through the center of a few washers and tied into a loop, then I clip the weight loop to the pelican case with a carabiner.

[+kunarion]

59 minutes ago, BleepnBloop said:

We have never found a cache while magnet fishing. As for the container design, I was thinking of a small plastic container weighted down with large metal washers glued to it. I’ve pulled up many metal washers magnet fishing. OR, a container with a metal weight like a lock attached to it so that even if the plastic container is buoyant, the metal attached to it is enough to keep it submerged in one place. Hubby and I may need to experiment to see what works. I’m afraid a metal container holding the plastic one will either open and lose the cache or keep rusting pretty quickly that it would need to be replaced multiple times.

 

It will be an interesting build.  The main thing is you never want to have only the part with the washers pulled up (the lid or the rest of the box now gone), even if it gets hooked on something during retrieval.

 

TheLimeCat's Pelican box also sounds good, but those are expensive.  And I handed a similar box to a friend once, and he began pulling with all his might on the wrong end of a latch.  So I've actually never placed one of those. 

 

I have a couple of thermos bottles, and just now tested them, and the sides are slightly magnetic.  I also have cheapie wide mouthed soup thermoses.  Those proved to not keep soup hot although they are double steel wall vacuum bottles.  So I've been considering sacrificing them to Geocaching.  

 

[+kunarion]

1 hour ago, TheLimeCat said:

I use a length of paracord, run through the center of a few washers and tied into a loop, then I clip the weight loop to the pelican case with a carabiner.

 

What's the water and mud situation inside such a cache?  Is it generally moist and nasty all the time?  What do you use as a log sheet/book?

[+TheLimeCat]

5 minutes ago, kunarion said:

 

What's the water and mud situation inside such a cache?  Is it generally moist and nasty all the time?  What do you use as a log sheet/book?

Mine hangs suspended above the lake bed, so no mud. The algae coats it pretty well after awhile though. Right now I use RITR paper, but I am thinking of switching to an aluminum log. It gets damp, but I've never found it filled with water.

[+kunarion]

12 minutes ago, TheLimeCat said:

Mine hangs suspended above the lake bed, so no mud. The algae coats it pretty well after awhile though. Right now I use RITR paper, but I am thinking of switching to an aluminum log. It gets damp, but I've never found it filled with water.

 

That's pretty cool!  I'm too picky as a CO, so I've never tried anything like that.

 

The only underwater cache I ever found was a large ammo can in a submerged hollow stump in a swift little stream.  The can was half filled with concrete to keep it sunk.  It was full of water, but the fun was the uniqueness of "under water" (and trying not to fall in while retrieving it).  Caching friends did all the acrobatics, I just pointed and laughed.  I don't remember what the log was, maybe some kind of plate that you scratch your name into.  It was also anchored with a cable, yet still managed to wash away.  I would guess rust was also a problem over time.

 

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by kunarion

[+GeoElmo6000]

12 hours ago, BleepnBloop said:

My husband and I recently started geocaching. We both love magnet fishing. Once we are ready to hide our first caches, are we allowed to hide a cache underwater that would require a magnet to retrieve? 

 

I just got a set of magnet fishing gear but don't know where to start with it.  I'm hoping to try it this weekend.

 

I once hid an underwater cache but in a stream, and despite all my best efforts to keep it anchored in place, it got washed away twice, so I wound up archiving it.  It was a fun cache though.

[+thebruce0]

In a climate that ices over water, that's something to watch out for as ice can move and crumble which could rip and stretch any cord or cable (if the container is deep enough it may never be swallowed by ice). But great idea for perpetual unfrozen bodies of water. Found a couple like that around here, but I'm not sure what kind of maintenance they had to endure. Some ponds around here never really freeze (unless it's a really long and cold winter)

[+kunarion]

27 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

In a climate that ices over water, that's something to watch out for as ice can move and crumble which could rip and stretch any cord or cable (if the container is deep enough it may never be swallowed by ice). But great idea for perpetual unfrozen bodies of water. Found a couple like that around here, but I'm not sure what kind of maintenance they had to endure. Some ponds around here never really freeze (unless it's a really long and cold winter)

 

Around here (Georgia), there's ice occasionally, but the main issue is floods.  There's a massive, powerful flow of water, mud, rocks, and pieces of all the nearby plants.  But that's just after a day or two of rainstorms.  The rest of the time, the place looks like a great spot for a cache.  And it may not even be intended as an underwater cache.  It's on the ground uphill from the peaceful stream.

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by kunarion

[+cerberus1]

16 hours ago, BleepnBloop said:

My husband and I recently started geocaching. We both love magnet fishing. Once we are ready to hide our first caches, are we allowed to hide a cache underwater that would require a magnet to retrieve? 

 

Cool !    Not far away either... 

A Reviewer down South once said they had an underwater cache that was an ammo can with holes drilled in the sides.

They used a Diver's slate/board as the log, with a simple, attached pencil.

[+niraD]

On 8/1/2023 at 1:45 AM, kunarion said:

The only underwater cache I ever found was a large ammo can in a submerged hollow stump in a swift little stream.  The can was half filled with concrete to keep it sunk. 

One of the underwater caches I've found was an ammo can about half full of concrete to counter the ammo can's natural buoyancy. As I recall, the log was a weatherproof notebook, in a heavy ziplock bag, inside another ziplock bag, with a note on the cache page to make sure that NOTHING was caught between the lip of the can and the seal of the lid, otherwise it would wick water into the can. Everything in the ammo can was dry, but it was a mystery/puzzle cache that wasn't found very often (and was mainly found by groups who were making an evening of it, since it was also a night cache).

 

The other underwater cache that comes to mind was full of water, and the log was mush.

 

All the underwater caches I've found have been tethered though. I've found "magnet fishing" caches, but they've been lightweight containers, and not hidden underwater.

[+lee737]

We've only found a few, and they have all been wet inside.... I remember hauling one up from the bottom of a lake once - I was surprised how dry it was, but it was still wet and gross!