In Search of: 18 grand!

What you diving fer? Asked the grizzled old man. “Oh, just old bottles and whatever other junk may be laying on the bottom.” I answered. The old man points off into the water, “Well you mights want to keep your eyes open for a safe down thar.”

Hooch waiting for the safe, and me in the water.

The old fella, is local seaside historian “Hooch” Henry. A Marine Veteran of WW2, Korea, and Vietnam, he’ll even show you the bullet hole he got on Okinawa. “That Jap popped up outta nowhar and shot me right in the gut”.

Anyway ole Hooch and the neighbor next to the pier both state that a few years back the Sheriff and two inmates in orange jump suits were at the seawall and the story goes that they threw a safe containing 18 grand in the river off the end of the pier.

According to the neighbor he has never seen the safe come up or anyone dive for it, that’s why he’s asking what I’m diving for. We all agree to share in the spoils (if any) and they show me the area the Sheriff indicated a few years ago. The water is swift with the current not yet at slack tide however, the visibility is good with the cooling of the river water. I spend about 30 minutes on the bottom working my way haphazardly around . I spot a few unidentifiable heavy objects in the muck but I’m pretty sure they are not a safe even though nobody knows the size and shape I’m supposed to be looking for.

I’m soon out of air, and the only startling find was a decomposing large piece of mammal of some sort, with ghostly white pieces of flesh swaying in the current. As the Governor of CA. would say at a time like this "I'll be back!"

A few days later, Me, Hooch, the Neighbor and my buddy Culley a deep sea Navy diver with access to the Navy Dive locker goodies are back to run grid lines over the area and lift bags to the heavy objects.

The search starts out slow due to heavy slit in the water due to the recent rains, but on the second tank the visibility clears and we can scan and cover more ground easily. As we work the area, occasionally Culley’s and my goodie bag fill up with bottles and fishing gear. When we surface and have Hooch haul it up and dump it out on the dock and get ready to head back down.

Kevin Culley- Navy Diver finding bottles but no safe.

I’d love to tell you that I’m drying 100 dollar bills in the clothes dryer but, it wasn’t so. We both got a couple of nice old bottles and I got a sweet rod and reel but no safe. Maybe we were off a few yards or the memories of those men slipped a little in the intervening years, but for me the water is probably going to get too cold by the time I’ll get some off-time to try again. Any underwater safe is going to have to wait till next year!