ROV found my Rocna Vulcan

[stevemitchell]

I'm out enjoying some cruising time in Puget Sound and finishing some testing for some upcoming articles, and decided I needed to take a break and take my ROV out for a spin.

The ROV is made by OpenROV (now Sofar) and named "Rhenium" - it was one of the beta units before they went into production. I have had a ton of fun looking at things at anchorages, marinas, and even tried a river (fail). You can see pictures of the ROV and details at my Trident page.

The ROV itself has a 300' kevlar tether that I pay out from the deck, and I use an Xbox-like controller that runs Android and communicates with the tether buoy via WiFi.

I usually steer clear of my anchor and anchor chain because of the kevlar tether. The thing is amazingly strong, and I worry about getting it fouled in the chain or something else, and having a mess on my hands.

Today while diving, I ran across my anchor chain, and it just so happened my anchor was right nearby. I was having some control issues, so had to edit out some barfy video.

Bonus points for anyone who can identify the various marine life and name it. I absolutely suck at that. There's one right at the end too!

Some notes:

Rocna Vulcan 25kg (55lbs) anchor
Titan G43 galvanized chain - about 200' payed out
Mantus swivel
35,000 pound Ocean Alexander tied to the other end
Blake Island, Puget Sound, near Seattle, sandy bottom

Article on my anchor selection and resulting project: The anchor project

Here's what the anchor looks like when out of the water for those curious.

I backed down pretty good on the anchor when setting it to the point it brought the bow of the boat around, as it usually does. Every time I have set this anchor, I have to drive over it with short scope to get it to unset and come out of the bottom. Neat to see it set!

 

[Shrew]

Is that a small Ling Cod toward the beginning? Later you can see a small flounder skimming away as well.

 

[w8n4sun]

That can be a nice tool for cruising, what is the package cost?

 

[SoWhat]

That can be a nice tool for cruising, what is the package cost?

https://www.amazon.com/Trident-Underwater-Drone/dp/B07P99KKCY

Think I'll stick with scuba.

 

[stevemitchell]

That can be a nice tool for cruising, what is the package cost?

It's $1695 with the standard tether. Just like any other drone/plane/thing nowadays, you can add on other things like the longer tether, hard pelican case, etc. and drive the price up.

https://www.sofarocean.com/products/trident

 

[ben2go]

I think we found the person stealing all the abandoned anchors.




Did anyone see the naked mermaid?

 

[stevemitchell]

I think we found the person stealing all the abandoned anchors.

Oh hey I never thought of that! Money making business!!!

 

[ghost]

Seriously considering parting with my last remaining underwater scooter to pay for one of these. Wonder how often they suffer from flooding. My experience with pretty much any device at depths of over 200 feet is going to flood periodically.

 

[stevemitchell]

Seriously considering parting with my last remaining underwater scooter to pay for one of these. Wonder how often they suffer from flooding. My experience with pretty much any device at depths of over 200 feet is going to flood periodically.

I've had mine for just shy of 2 years and have taken it down to 150' multiple times without issue. I haven't been deeper than that mainly because of currents and location. The longest tether they currently sell is 300'.

I have had issues with the motors and have had to replace them once since the beta, but the newer ones look to be a bit better reliability wise so far.

 

[ben2go]

Oh hey I never thought of that! Money making business!!!

All I ask in return is two anchors for my boat.

 

[diver dave]

Seriously considering parting with my last remaining underwater scooter to pay for one of these. Wonder how often they suffer from flooding. My experience with pretty much any device at depths of over 200 feet is going to flood periodically.

dragging a dead scooter out of a cave is no joy either! But, it makes exploring and mapping thousands of feet of u/w cave possible.

 

[ghost]

Did you dive it on the pixie sticks at Blake? I’d worry about entanglement and getting it back, but the pixies make for good video.

I’d really like to video Agamemnon up in BC. The sponges there were big enough you could nearly swim into one. The 300 tether might be a limitation as that leaves no room for catenary when paid out all the way. Still, I’d really like to experience some old places that I can no longer go to.

 

[stevemitchell]

Did you dive it on the pixie sticks at Blake? I’d worry about entanglement and getting it back, but the pixies make for good video.

I’d really like to video Agamemnon up in BC. The sponges there were big enough you could nearly swim into one. The 300 tether might be a limitation as that leaves no room for catenary when paid out all the way. Still, I’d really like to experience some old places that I can no longer go to.

Where are the pixie sticks? I did not dive on them. Entanglement is always an issue for the ROV, and I tend to stay away from anything too complicated. Blake can also have some energetic currents that make managing the tether a bear. I usually dive with the current if I can, which makes it a bit better. The motors are powerful enough on their highest setting to overcome any current I've been in, and then some, but it doesn't mean it's controllable a those speeds

 

[ghost]

West side. About two thirds down near where it slightly juts out. Way back when, somebody dumped a load of metal power line poles. Hence, pixie sticks like the old game

 

[stevemitchell]

West side. About two thirds down near where it slightly juts out. Way back when, somebody dumped a load of metal power line poles. Hence, pixie sticks like the old game

Aha, I was pretty close then. I was where the ending blue dot is on the map above and was diving there off and on for 2 days. Sounds like I should have headed a bit further south and would have found it.

Also sounds like I don't want to anchor there

 

[ghost]

There is a ton of stuff dumped on the west side in general. Lots of concrete and other stuff to potentially get hung up on, not just the pixie sticks

 

[rgano]

dragging a dead scooter out of a cave is no joy either! But, it makes exploring and mapping thousands of feet of u/w cave possible.

Cave divers are a breed apart.

 

[nemier]

Seriously considering parting with my last remaining underwater scooter to pay for one of these. Wonder how often they suffer from flooding. My experience with pretty much any device at depths of over 200 feet is going to flood periodically.

We just had these bad boys down to 4200' this morning. No issues.

 

[rgano]

Something you no doubt carry around on your Nordie 62.

 

[nemier]

No Sir, not these guys.
I'm at work - in India, installing a subsea completion using a 250Te crane and two of those FCV3000 ROV's. Average field depth here is 5000'.

 

[diver dave]

No Sir, not these guys.
I'm at work - in India, installing a subsea completion using a 250Te crane and two of those FCV3000 ROV's. Average field depth here is 5000'.

cool; Oil and Gas or cable lay or?

 

[nemier]

Hi Dave,
Both. It's and O&G completion, and we're installing the wellhead, and associated flowlines, umbilicals and jumpers. It's a $1.7B project, spanning a 3 year installation period. It'll keep me out of trouble for a bit. "Turkey for Christmas this year!"