DiveCaching
Locate a DiveCache
OK, so you are ready to play. The first step is to search online for a cache that you’d like to find. DiveCaches are listed on www.geocaching.com and can be found by typing in your location and doing a local search.
Once you’ve located a DiveCache near you, download it or input it into your GPS. If you are working through geocaching.com and a basic or premium member, you’ll be able to download driving directions to the site as well. Otherwise you can load in your GPS coordinates and the coordinates of the cache into Google maps and get driving directions that way.
DiveCaches are somewhat different from land-based geocaches in that they are submerged and require you to leave your GPS device behind (or, at the very least, you will be unable to get a GPS reading underwater – with most units.
There are several likely search scenarios when looking for dive caches:
You’ll use your GPS to bring you to the appropriate body of water, lake or quarry, and then follow a single or multiple headings using a compass while at the surface or underwater, OR:
- You’ll use your GPS while on board a boat to get you over the top of a likely dive site, OR
- You’ll take your GPS out on a dive float with you and get a good reading over the top of the dive cache location.
Here is an actual example of a DiveCache listing from geocaching.com that indicates the use of a compass search to find the cache:
“This hunt is only for geocachers who are also certified and advanced SCUBA divers! This is a 100′+ cold water dive that will require going to a GPS waypoint and then diving a single compass bearing to find the cache in the hulk of an old car.
The actual cache is about 100 feet north of the coordinates at a depth of 100 feet of fresh water (summer months will be closer to 115′ deep) located near a 1956 Ford that has been sunk there for many years. Use the guard rail end as your start point. Submerge and become negatively buoyant and follow down the slope and swim straight north on your compass. I’ve been diving on this site 3 or more times and end up a little right seeing the car to my left as I descend.
The car is pointed east and you’ll need to swim to the shallow side of the back seat area (a lot of body metal has rusted away). In the back seat you’ll find a green plastic toolbox with sharpie writing on the front. The box will be fairly neutral in buoyancy. Open slowly as something might float out and try and reposition disturbing as little silt as possible.
Remember, even if you’re using a computer this is deep, cold dive (41F in May) and you may start to feel nitrogen narcosis. If you go past 120 feet even in summer months you’ve missed the car. I’m told the lake goes to 300+ feet in this area.
Don’t get hung up on the cache. Get in the box, trade an item, and go back up to shallower water! Don’t turn this into a decompression dive or unintentional trip to the hyperbaric chamber. Plan your dive and dive your plan!”
Logging a Visit
When you get access to the web again you’ll want to log onto geocaching.com and record your visit to the DiveCache. Here are some examples of visits logged to the same DiveCache described above:
Logs
[ Found it] Wednesday, 01 September 2010 by Zeb Cedar Swamp (153 found)
Fantastic day for a dive….car sits at 110 feet due north of entry rock path about 15 feet from end of guardrail. We just head “downhill” and besides the depth problem I might suggest watching what rock you might grab coming or going. They might just slide down the steep grade and start an underwater landslide. There are some HUGE boulders along the wall. Once you’ve done get back up and enjoy the rocky slope. Someone put a trophy on the mirror/window; the watch is still there and a few other things. Great!!! There should be more of these around. Thanks!!!
[ Found it] Sunday, 10 June 2007 by rhintz (2 found)
Awesome dive! 30-40′ vis and 40 degree water make this fun dive. The car and geocache are exactly where described although there is not a lot left in the cache. The watch a trophy and a cell phone are all that I remember seeing. After finding the cache make sure and swim the shore west at about thirty feet. There are a lot of granite boulder outcroppings with fish hanging out under them.
[ Found it] Sunday, 09 July 2006 by squigglestar (19 found)
I found this with my father about three years ago(sometime July 2006 todays date is July 2009). My mom was the big geocacher back then but couldn’t do this one! So she enlisted our help. Since that time I have gotten into geocaching and finally made my own account. So I log my old find now.
