rgecy
Bronze Member
I wanted to thank Darren in NC and xXx (Dave) for a great adventure this past weekend! Darren, Dave and I have been communicating by phone for many months, but up until now, had never met face to face. In preparation for some of our projects, we decided to get together to share ideas, talk of new adventures and do a little diving in the South Carolina Lowcountry. So after some last minute cancellations, Darren and Dave decided to come visit me down in Beaufort, on the southern most tip of South Carolina. This is the story of our Saturday Adventure!
We had no major goals for our adventure this day. Earlier in the week I had scanned an area of the Beaufort River and found a target that resembled a possible cannon. I was excited and Darren and Dave liked the prospect of locating a cannon. Beaufort is rich with history and is a natural deep water port. The possibility of our target being a cannon was definately viable. So we started our day by surveying the area using Darren's newly acquired Mag and my Humminbird 987 Side Scan Sonar. After an hour of trying to pinpoint our target and finally setting our buoy, we were set to hit the water. Being from this area and growing up diving in Black Water, I prepared Darren and Dave for the conditions we may have. The biggest shock is usually the visibility. On a good day we may get 2-3 ft! Today we were lucky, it was 1-2 ft of vis and just a slight current. Even though the dive was only 25-30 ft, you get absolutely no sunlight penetration. A dive light is a must!
The first dive was fairly uneventful, but we were able to successfully locate our target. I was very excited when I bumped into it after about 15 minutes of searching. We had pinpointed it pretty well. It had the shape of a cannon! It looked like a cannon, and it felt like a cannon! It appeared to be encrusted and I found what I thought could be the but of the cannon. You have to remember, in 1-2 ft of visibility, you never know what you may have. We had got some significant hits on the mag in this area and we were very confident we had a good target. But with the visibility so poor, it was difficult to tell if we had an iron object. So I grabbed my dive knife and started to poke, probe, tap and scrape. It was official! We had successfully located our first ............... wooden dock piling! Wow! Such a let down! We still don't know what set the mag off. Maybe another survey and dive on this site will reveal other targets. But for now, we were hungry!
So we decided to dock and have us a Crabby Patty at the Back Porch Grill. Yes, a Crabby Patty! My six-year-old son was excited to know such a sandwich actually existed and wanted to know if I saw SpongeBob on my dive!
We sat and enjoyed our meal on a deck overlooking the Marina and got to know alot about each other. We discussed our families, our past, our futures, religion, and most of all, where we wanted to go with this hobby we love so much. We even met an older local diver who filled us in on some possible hot spots for Bottles and Megalodon Teeth, that he had not dove in over 20 years. This area is famous for its huge sharks teeth that are pulled from the local waters. I think Darren and Dave are more excited now about finding Teeth. Treasure comes in many forms, and if you have ever been on ebay and searched for sharks teeth, you will see that some of them can almost bring their weight in gold. Many teeth sell for hundreds of dollars and some even into the thousands. Check it out sometime!
Once we finished our lunch, we set off for our next dive location. I decided to show the guys an area where I did my first dive at the age of 18. It was near an old Phosphate mine from the 1800's and I had found many bottles and Megalodon Teeth here in the past. The shoreline is littered with the debris of this now collapse mine. Bricks literally line the banks and almost look as if they were laid into the mud. I can only assume the building collapsed into the river and walls fell in place. It really looks like someone paved the banks with old bricks. At low tide ther are several sunken barges visible along the shore. Again, this dive would be between 25 and 30 ft with about 2 ft of visibility. We hit the water quickly, working the slope of the bank where the bricks have collapsed into the water. I was amazed at the amount coral and sea life in the area. I hadn't dove this site in almost 18 years. There was some amazing fire red soft coral and lots of small creatures crawling about all the plant life. Not something we see hear too often in Black Waters! Typically its just sand, silt and mud!
The dive ended up being fairly uneventful. We found a few whiskey bottles and some older bottle pieces, but nothing significant and no teeth! But at the very end of my dive, I did locate an interesting artifact. It was large enough and heavy enough that I had to surface. It turned out to be a wooden wheel or pulley about 14-16 inches in diameter. Something I had never found in this area and most like had to come from the Phosphate Mine. (I will post pictures later!) A neat find none the less, but not the Treasure we had set out looking for!
It was getting late and Darren and Dave needed to get back on the road. Dave is from the upper coast of South Carolina near Myrtle Beach, and Dave is from Raligh, NC, some 6 hours away. We had come together on a whim. A meeting of Friends who first met here on Treasurenet! I thoroughly enjoyed every second of my day with my new friends and hope we can have many more!
I wanted to share this with all of you and I hope you have your own chance to meet some of the wonderfull people and friends we have here. If you ever get down to Beaufort or Hilton Head, look me up and maybe we can do some diving!
And if you get a chance, ask Darren or Dave (xXx) about their Dive Lights!
Thanks again guys for our adventure. I look forward to getting together again soon!
Robert in SC
We had no major goals for our adventure this day. Earlier in the week I had scanned an area of the Beaufort River and found a target that resembled a possible cannon. I was excited and Darren and Dave liked the prospect of locating a cannon. Beaufort is rich with history and is a natural deep water port. The possibility of our target being a cannon was definately viable. So we started our day by surveying the area using Darren's newly acquired Mag and my Humminbird 987 Side Scan Sonar. After an hour of trying to pinpoint our target and finally setting our buoy, we were set to hit the water. Being from this area and growing up diving in Black Water, I prepared Darren and Dave for the conditions we may have. The biggest shock is usually the visibility. On a good day we may get 2-3 ft! Today we were lucky, it was 1-2 ft of vis and just a slight current. Even though the dive was only 25-30 ft, you get absolutely no sunlight penetration. A dive light is a must!
The first dive was fairly uneventful, but we were able to successfully locate our target. I was very excited when I bumped into it after about 15 minutes of searching. We had pinpointed it pretty well. It had the shape of a cannon! It looked like a cannon, and it felt like a cannon! It appeared to be encrusted and I found what I thought could be the but of the cannon. You have to remember, in 1-2 ft of visibility, you never know what you may have. We had got some significant hits on the mag in this area and we were very confident we had a good target. But with the visibility so poor, it was difficult to tell if we had an iron object. So I grabbed my dive knife and started to poke, probe, tap and scrape. It was official! We had successfully located our first ............... wooden dock piling! Wow! Such a let down! We still don't know what set the mag off. Maybe another survey and dive on this site will reveal other targets. But for now, we were hungry!
So we decided to dock and have us a Crabby Patty at the Back Porch Grill. Yes, a Crabby Patty! My six-year-old son was excited to know such a sandwich actually existed and wanted to know if I saw SpongeBob on my dive!
We sat and enjoyed our meal on a deck overlooking the Marina and got to know alot about each other. We discussed our families, our past, our futures, religion, and most of all, where we wanted to go with this hobby we love so much. We even met an older local diver who filled us in on some possible hot spots for Bottles and Megalodon Teeth, that he had not dove in over 20 years. This area is famous for its huge sharks teeth that are pulled from the local waters. I think Darren and Dave are more excited now about finding Teeth. Treasure comes in many forms, and if you have ever been on ebay and searched for sharks teeth, you will see that some of them can almost bring their weight in gold. Many teeth sell for hundreds of dollars and some even into the thousands. Check it out sometime!
Once we finished our lunch, we set off for our next dive location. I decided to show the guys an area where I did my first dive at the age of 18. It was near an old Phosphate mine from the 1800's and I had found many bottles and Megalodon Teeth here in the past. The shoreline is littered with the debris of this now collapse mine. Bricks literally line the banks and almost look as if they were laid into the mud. I can only assume the building collapsed into the river and walls fell in place. It really looks like someone paved the banks with old bricks. At low tide ther are several sunken barges visible along the shore. Again, this dive would be between 25 and 30 ft with about 2 ft of visibility. We hit the water quickly, working the slope of the bank where the bricks have collapsed into the water. I was amazed at the amount coral and sea life in the area. I hadn't dove this site in almost 18 years. There was some amazing fire red soft coral and lots of small creatures crawling about all the plant life. Not something we see hear too often in Black Waters! Typically its just sand, silt and mud!
The dive ended up being fairly uneventful. We found a few whiskey bottles and some older bottle pieces, but nothing significant and no teeth! But at the very end of my dive, I did locate an interesting artifact. It was large enough and heavy enough that I had to surface. It turned out to be a wooden wheel or pulley about 14-16 inches in diameter. Something I had never found in this area and most like had to come from the Phosphate Mine. (I will post pictures later!) A neat find none the less, but not the Treasure we had set out looking for!
It was getting late and Darren and Dave needed to get back on the road. Dave is from the upper coast of South Carolina near Myrtle Beach, and Dave is from Raligh, NC, some 6 hours away. We had come together on a whim. A meeting of Friends who first met here on Treasurenet! I thoroughly enjoyed every second of my day with my new friends and hope we can have many more!
I wanted to share this with all of you and I hope you have your own chance to meet some of the wonderfull people and friends we have here. If you ever get down to Beaufort or Hilton Head, look me up and maybe we can do some diving!
And if you get a chance, ask Darren or Dave (xXx) about their Dive Lights!
Thanks again guys for our adventure. I look forward to getting together again soon!
Robert in SC
to put them in and maybe keep some of the water away from the light. Fast Forward now to the dive. Darren and I have our huge lights secured into 2 zip lock baggies each. You know, extra protection. If this idea was to work, we may have just changed black water dive lights forever. Darren placed his light into the 2 bags and released all the air out. I put my light into the 2 bags and decited to try leaving all the air in. As I was decending the light became heavier and heavier to the point it was actually trying to pull out of my hand. Ya, the same hand I'm trying to decend on the anchor rope with. With all the air in the bag it was acting like a fully inflated BCD. However, the light did come on and worked GREAT, just until it popped out of my hand and shot to the surface like a rocket! After the dive was over we DID find the light about a mile up the river, and it "STILL WORKED". 
