August 23, 2015 / Janelle /

The wild world of underwater geocaches

Taking the extreme plunge: underwater geocaching — For the extreme geocacher: underwater geocaching

Call me Geocache. Some time ago – never mind how long exactly – having little or no finds in my profile, and no particular geocaches to interest me on shore, I thought I would cache about a little and see the watery part of the T5 rating scale.*

What better way to fill out the Terrain rating on your Fizzy Grid than going underwater to find your caches? Grab your snorkel, SCUBA gear, and wet suits, then check out these awesome and inspiring underwater caches:

GC2W056 Hilma Hooker is located in Bonaire, just off the northern coast of Venezuela. The geocache is almost 30 meters (100 feet) underwater at an actual shipwreck. Some underwater caches have special paper and pencils to sign the log, but for this cache, you must write your name in the sand under the yardarm of the ship’s main mast.

Finding the cache — Going for the dive cache!

Gotta look out for muggles when “signing” the log

Another idyllic underwater SCUBA cache is GC4BAC0 Kittiwake in the Cayman Islands. As the geocache description says:

The ex-USS Kittiwake was a Submarine Rescue vessel (ASR-13). She was part of the 6th Submarine squadron (SUBRON 6) home ported at the Destroyer-Submarine piers in Norfolk, VA. She was transferred from MARAD to the Cayman Islands Government in August 2009 and was cleaned and remediated in Norfolk, Virginia to become an artificial reef. This included substantial work including the removal of all hazardous materials (like pcb’s, asbestos, mercury, cabling, wires, oils, lubricants and a very long list). Additionally, all thin or loose materials that could break off during or soon after sinking were removed. The Kittiwake is possibly the ‘cleanest’ wreck ever to be sunk as an artificial reef.

Found it! Now time to sign the log. — Now time to sign the log.

Oh the things you'll see and do while SCUBAcaching! — Oh the things you’ll see and do while SCUBAcaching!

Did you know there are freshwater lake sharks in Germany? Well, not technically, but there is a fake shark 30 meters (98 feet) below the surface near GCNQ40 Horka – Pumpenhaus. (You gotta admit that you were taken aback the first time you looked at these photos…) This Virtual Cache is, “…the cache owner’s revenge for all the climbing caches, which [he] will never reach.”

GCNQ40 Horka - Pumpenhaus — SHARK!!!! Oh, it’s only GCNQ40 Horka – Pumpenhaus

The shark was impaled by a... huge steak knife? — Everyone’s safe. The shark was impaled by… a huge steak knife?

This is the beautiful location for this underwater cache

But what if you don’t have all that fancy scuba gear or deep water submersibles? Well, we have a couple of other options for you.

Head over to GC3KG2M Father Thames & The Mermaid (AS TIDES GOES BY) in London, England and wait for the tide to go out. This geocache currently has 387 Favorite points, and you can see why; it’s clever and takes you to a memorable location.

GC3KG2M Father Thames & The Mermaid (AS TIDES GOES BY) is only accessible at low tide — GC3KG2M
Father Thames & The Mermaid (AS TIDES GOES BY) is only accessible at low tide

We got one last geocache that may, ahem, float your boat. GC2H5GD Winnepesauke bumblebee scuba is located about 400 feet from the shore and about 35 feet below the surface. This geocache is available year round by diving in the summer, and ice fishing in the winter. Really depends on your perspective on what’s more difficult.