Lines, mooring ropes, anchor ropes and any other piece of rope on a boat has an uncanny knack of getting knotted, tangled or generally in the way. There are a multitude of ideas and ways of keeping ropes tidy and in order, and every skipper has his own theory.
Bag in the nose of the boat
Seahorse is a boat used mostly with new students – for some, we provide their first ever boat ride – we often have people doing completely unheard of things with ropes including tossing them overboard without tying them off. I have tried to make sure I reduce the likelihood of a mishap so amongst other things I have marked the deck Port and Starboard, and the lines on the pontoons are colour coded: red for port and green for starboard.
If there is a line on the boat that should not be untied, the knots are covered with insulation tape and the most recent addition to the rope organisation system on board are these bags for keeping mooring lines off the deck and out of the way. Fenders are attached permanently at the stern to avoid them going overboard unclipped, and it is the same up front in the bow.
Storage bag
I have also recently moved the life jackets from the hatch in the bow to these two grey bags on the stern for easier access. The O2 unit will now move into the hatch in the bow, as it is a little more sensitive to salt water.
Yesterday I told you about the test run of Jan Braai’s underwater fireplace. Some repairs were necessary after that day, as the glass had cracked during the test run. The designer added a few improvements and upped the suggested amount of ballast for the final attempt. Weather days just were not playing along so we ended up in the harbour at the Hout Bay slipway on a very grey day. I had Seahorse for boat support, and Craig and Mark were there to assist in-water.
Sinking the braai in Hout Bay
The water looked good. The viz was not amazing, but certainly a good few metres for decent underwater footage. With a cameraman from Atlantic Edge Films, a cameraman from Jan Braai and GoPro and a further three or four GoPro cameras, we were ready to hit the water. Jan packed the unit with wood, firelighters, a grill a lighter and some wors (for foreign readers: boerewors, wors for short, is a type of South African sausage that is typically cooked over a fire) and then shut the rear panel. This panel had glove holes with gloves attached inside, like a chemistry experiment or hazardous materials unit, so the activity in the box underwater could be managed from outside.
We wheeled the underwater braai into the water and swam it out to the buoy and anchors we had placed at the right depth beforehand. Sadly the required ballast had once again been miscalculated, and the centre would not sink to the correct depth. Back to the slipway we went, and the team added rocks and a few hundred kilograms of sand in plastic bags. We swam the braai back out to the required depth and this time it was a success.
The tide was so high that the jetty in Hout Bay was submerged
Once the unit was submerged Jan, on scuba, with two safety divers in attendance, inserted his hands into the gloved openings, took the lighter, lit the firelighters and got the wood burning. The stack had an extractor fan to draw the smoke out and pipes to draw fresh air in, and once the flames took hold of the very dry well prepared wood the smoke was visible above the water.
The underwater braai in action
Jan then surfaced and waited a while for the wood the burn to coals. He then descended again and started the world’s first ever underwater braai. It took around 20 minutes before he surfaced, claiming the wors was ready for consumption. The unit was winched up to above the water line, Jan then removed the rear cover and proceeded to eat the first piece of meat cooked underwater.
The cooked (and some uncooked) wors in the braai after the event
All in all the idea masterminded and executed by Jan Braai was a resounding success and was done to celebrate National Braai Day on the 24th September. The program showing the execution of the idea was broadcast on Kyknet on Friday 27 September 2013.
The designer of the underwater braai makes sure everything is in order
The wors is ready and waiting to be cooked
Checking on the braai as it is moved deeper into the water
There’s been a bit of press coverage – no one has done this before, as far as we know – and there are a couple of videos on youtube documenting the event. Check out a round-up of media coverage here, if you missed it.
Not far from the wreck of the tugboat Rozi, off Cirkewwa in Malta, is situated a huge anchor, lying on the sand. It’s quite encrusted with sea plants and is an arresting site for passing divers.
The anchor is over two metres longSwimming over the anchor
The dive details shown below are from a dive we did on the Rozi (our first dive in Malta, in fact), after which we visited the anchor on our way back to shore.
After some years in the sea the anchor is quite encrusted
