temporarily removed - found - and restored:
Detroit Diver and I took Uncle Pug (the boat) out for a couple of dives in Puget Sound. It was a beautiful summer day with very little wind and neap tides. On our first dive we anchored Uncle Pug (the boat) using a grapple hook that Shane had made. It is a heavy 18” section of 1½ “ steel shafting with four tines that extend back at 45 degree angles. It will not hold in sand or mud at all so is very useful when “fishing” for structure.
The grapple did not find the wreck we were looking for but instead hooked on a pile of boulders. This actually turned out quite well as the wreck lies due east and up current of the pile. We were able to find the wreck, do our dive, ascend free and drift back to Uncle Pug (the boat) just like we had planned.
The next dive was back at the reef mentioned in story #2. Again we grappled the bottom and proceeded to get ourselves geared up for the dive. Now this is a reef were we almost always anchor and leave the boat unattended… sometimes that results in a modest swim back if we travel too far in viz that at times is very poor.
Just before splashing I noted that a light afternoon breeze was starting but that it was blowing away from the island… good… I don’t like anchoring on a lee shore. As we made our way down the anchor line I made sure that the grapple was hooked securely so that no matter how much the wind picked up Uncle Pug (the boat) would be there when we surfaced.
We proceeded to have a great dive in marginal viz, even spotting a giant Pacific octopus. I tried to keep mental note of the general direction and distance back to the anchor line but soon that was impossible, as we had covered a large area. As we were drawing near the end of our dive I new that it would really be wonderful to find the grapple and unhook so that we wouldn’t have to make a bounce dive to release it…. but I had no idea where it was.
So I turned to my number one buddy and prayed… “Lord please help me find the grapple”… where upon we swam right into it.
I am sure that DD had no idea that I had no idea where the grapple was… he probably thinks that I just have this super innate navigation thing going.
Now the story gets interesting.
I decided that we needed to un-hook the grapple but little did I know how much the wind had picked up. It took both of us to get the grapple loose… that should have been a hint! As soon as the grapple was free off we went being towed at several knots across the bottom.
“Cool!” I though. Then I thought, “Uh Oh… maybe this isn’t so cool… we are moving pretty fast.” I tried to hook the bottom but of course the grapple just dug furrows along the bottom. Up ahead I saw a pile of rocks and thought… “Ah Hah! I’ll hook the pile of rocks!” I’m not sure what DD was thinking but it must have been, “I need to hold the grapple up off the bottom so it doesn’t hook that pile of rocks!” The pile was approaching fast and I only had seconds to hook it so I motioned for DD to let go, which he did.
Bye-Bye DD
Well it was too late to hook the rocks… next stop: Everett 3.5 miles East… so I just held onto the grapple and watched the bottom rush by…. eventually DD was able to catch up and we both road the rode as the movement through the water gradually brought us up to the surface. This time, unlike story 1, we were being trolled from a moving boat… much more fun.
Detroit Diver and I took Uncle Pug (the boat) out for a couple of dives in Puget Sound. It was a beautiful summer day with very little wind and neap tides. On our first dive we anchored Uncle Pug (the boat) using a grapple hook that Shane had made. It is a heavy 18” section of 1½ “ steel shafting with four tines that extend back at 45 degree angles. It will not hold in sand or mud at all so is very useful when “fishing” for structure.
The grapple did not find the wreck we were looking for but instead hooked on a pile of boulders. This actually turned out quite well as the wreck lies due east and up current of the pile. We were able to find the wreck, do our dive, ascend free and drift back to Uncle Pug (the boat) just like we had planned.
The next dive was back at the reef mentioned in story #2. Again we grappled the bottom and proceeded to get ourselves geared up for the dive. Now this is a reef were we almost always anchor and leave the boat unattended… sometimes that results in a modest swim back if we travel too far in viz that at times is very poor.
Just before splashing I noted that a light afternoon breeze was starting but that it was blowing away from the island… good… I don’t like anchoring on a lee shore. As we made our way down the anchor line I made sure that the grapple was hooked securely so that no matter how much the wind picked up Uncle Pug (the boat) would be there when we surfaced.
We proceeded to have a great dive in marginal viz, even spotting a giant Pacific octopus. I tried to keep mental note of the general direction and distance back to the anchor line but soon that was impossible, as we had covered a large area. As we were drawing near the end of our dive I new that it would really be wonderful to find the grapple and unhook so that we wouldn’t have to make a bounce dive to release it…. but I had no idea where it was.
So I turned to my number one buddy and prayed… “Lord please help me find the grapple”… where upon we swam right into it.
I am sure that DD had no idea that I had no idea where the grapple was… he probably thinks that I just have this super innate navigation thing going.
Now the story gets interesting.
I decided that we needed to un-hook the grapple but little did I know how much the wind had picked up. It took both of us to get the grapple loose… that should have been a hint! As soon as the grapple was free off we went being towed at several knots across the bottom.
“Cool!” I though. Then I thought, “Uh Oh… maybe this isn’t so cool… we are moving pretty fast.” I tried to hook the bottom but of course the grapple just dug furrows along the bottom. Up ahead I saw a pile of rocks and thought… “Ah Hah! I’ll hook the pile of rocks!” I’m not sure what DD was thinking but it must have been, “I need to hold the grapple up off the bottom so it doesn’t hook that pile of rocks!” The pile was approaching fast and I only had seconds to hook it so I motioned for DD to let go, which he did.
Bye-Bye DD
Well it was too late to hook the rocks… next stop: Everett 3.5 miles East… so I just held onto the grapple and watched the bottom rush by…. eventually DD was able to catch up and we both road the rode as the movement through the water gradually brought us up to the surface. This time, unlike story 1, we were being trolled from a moving boat… much more fun.
Last edited:
