Lake Chelan's water level remains about 15' below summertime levels, so this coordinate is as close to the actual cache site as I could get. You can park your car just a few yards from the water. This dive site is semi-popular for the area so there likely will be others there that are not geocachers. Share what you're doing and they might join in.
This is also a great view of Lake Chelan and the town of Manson across the lake.
The actual cache is about 100 feet north of the coordinates at a depth of 100 ffw (summer months will be closer to 115' deep) located near a 1956 Ford that has been sunk there for many years. Use the guard rail end as your start point. Submerge and become negatively buoyant and follow down the slope and swim straight north on your compass. I've dove this site 3 or more times and end up a little right seeing the car to my left as I descend.
The car is pointed east and you'll need to swim to the shallow side of the back seat area (a lot of body metal has rusted away). In the back seat you'll find a green plastic toolbox with sharpie writing on the front. The box will be fairly neutral in buoyancy. Open slowly as something might float out and try and reposition disturbing as little silt as possible.
Remember, even if you're using a computer this is deep, cold dive (41F in May) and you may start to feel nitrogen narcosis. If you go past 120 feet even in summer months you've missed the car. I'm told the lake goes to 300+ feet in this area.
Don't get hung up on the cache. Get in the box, trade an item, and go back up to shallower water! Don't turn this into a decompression dive or unintentional trip to the hyperbariac chamber. Plan your dive and dive your plan!
Inside the box you'll find the following things that I thought would be interesting to see how they aged underwater. No log book on this dive. I couldn't find a spare dive slate or writing surface, so log in this website!
- 1 Casio dive watch (needs a new battery)
- 1 CD-ROM with MP3 reading of The Hobbit
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- Robinhood (smaller than regulation) golf ball I found on another dive in a nuclear missle silo.
- 1 3 1/2" diskette case (no diskettes)
- 1 1956 penny (same year as the car?)
- 1 1998 Columbia Cup boat race pin (wee www.columbiacup.com)
- 1 Budweiser bottle cap remover keychain
- 1 new condom (Trojan)
- 1 nail file.
- 1 Dollar Bill (If you take it, log it in at wheresgeorge.com)
- 1 Microsoft Keychain
- 1 Travel Bug named "Nooch" wrapped around a Disney rabbit character
- 1 Euro coin