When wreck reels attack

[27 sailfish]

FWIW: The word F#CK comes out clearly through a regulator.

Went looking for a lost prop about 2 weeks ago. Water is only 12 to 15 feet deep but muddy. Bottom is a nightmare - 6 inches of fine silt , then 6 inches of regular silt - then about a foot of muck. Had to use a stake and wreck reel to conduct a circle search. Used a borrowed underwater metal detector - hoping it could find the prop under the 2 feet of muck.

Searched for about an hour - found beer cans , old boat ladder , half a pair of sun glasses.









Viz. is zero and had to crawl along bottom and hold wreck reel line taut to keep my bearing.

Line got snagged on a log and I had to tug to get it free. Line went slack so I crawled opposite direction to tighten it. Still slack ?????? Crawled 90* off that and still slack. Tried to reel in slack and had trouble finding the handle.

Ah , the joys of muck diving. Looped the detector under my arm and used both hands freely to reel in line. Only trouble - no handle on the reel. F#CK.

Turns out - no side plate either - double F#CK.

What a mess - about 100 feet of line wrapped around me , tank and metal detector. Had to surface to get out of this mess. Started to swim to the boat but then the line came tight . Luckily , long stake pulled from mud after a few hard tugs / twists with my body. Had that plus the marker jug and line wrapped up.

Got to the boat and my son had to cut some line to free me up.

[RickyF]

Skip, that's scary. I have the same reel. Glad you kept your cool and got out of it!!

[27 sailfish]

Ricky - FWIW: The side plate broke off the shaft. The small C clip is still there. Might have been damaged in my dive bag - or when gearing up. I tried breaking the other side and gave up.

It's a decent reel for the price. A lot of places I dive , I have to willing to leave all my gear if real trouble arises. I buy lower priced tools ( shears , knives , reels etc ) so it will not pain me to lose or have to ditch some gear.

My other reel - same brand - lasted about 5 years. That one got lost handing it into the boat - crew dropped it and the 2 foot metal stake.
Tried to find it but had to give up when tank was out.

[RickyF]

I only use the reel when diving at the Triangle Wrecks when the viz is really bad. It helps find the anchor line on the way back! LOL