110. How to grope bottom

When conducting a working dive only the shore-side hand is used for searching...the other hand is kept on the line. However since the line is traversed in both directions, both left and right hands are in fact used. The search process is governed almost entirely by feel. The technique I use is to pat downwards through the silt with the free hand, starting from the centre of my chest and then working outwards to the maximum extension of my arm, but without shifting the centreline of my body. Then I will move the arm forward by one hand length and pat inwards, finishing the sweep with the hand in front of my chin. There will be about ten pats each way, making twenty pats or so in each sweep. The next step is to move my line hand forward a couple of hand lengths, finning slightly to keep up with it. Then I repeat the sweep, and progress along the line in this manner. I prefer to be either neutral or slightly negative in buoyancy for this work, the pressure of the search hand being sufficient to keep me clear of the bottom.

This is a slow process and I can expect to cover no more than one or possibly two legs per dive, depending on bottom composition and on how many items turn up for inspection. The siltier the site the slower the progress, since deeper silt requires more probing. Visibility will, of course, be compromised making any finds difficult to inspect visually. I have learned to inspect them largely by feel. Broken bottles can be identified this way (often it is the necks that are broken, or pieces of the base will be missing) though cracks in the glass itself cannot. I consider Kevlar reinforced neoprene gloves to be essential for this kind of work. Another thing I feel the bottle for is raised molding, which might represent a design of some sort, or possibly writing. It is possible to discern surprisingly fine detail even with thick gloves on.