Dolphin Address 11
May 3th 2006
Since evidence suggests it must have been the hasty angler, accompanied by two young Dalmatian looking dogs and rushing off on my come-back, who threw my gear into the brine in an unwatched moment. This set me back over 1600 Euros, my underwater housing for the camcorder taking the lion’s share. This made me ponder and research options to secure my landlubber belongings from criminal activity.
Some places offer an abundance of hiding places, like Pollenawatch, others have steep or flat rock faces that only harbour the obvious, like the Dusty caves. The easiest way is to hide your stuff under a rock. Do make sure the location is not washed over, at least not in the time you think to be gone.
Often the opening shows your things inside and you can insert some loose rocks to hide them from sight.
If you want to make sure no one will get to it, you can puzzle smaller rocks together in such fashion that they lock. The last one to be inserted should be of such a shape that it can be twisted and then locks itself into the structure. You will need cone shapes you insert sideways so the big end is caught in between either solid rock or stones too big to move. Lock-link adjoining stones on to what you have already there. The final one to be inserted is the first one to open up. If well done, the rest is immobilised.
'Community alert'
You can stimulate locking by shaking the rocks gently in a final, gravity induced position. That's how the ocean locks up all the loose rocks it can move. Ideally your stonewall safe locks on a single stone that only you and the people you showed know. To even further armour your defence you can use a mallet rock to hammer inserted stones into their catch. Of course criminal intent can after trial and error find the locking stone, but you can rather delay a break-in by the complexity of your rock puzzle and for instance use a small stone for the final lock up that is hidden somewhere under and hard to find.
Particularly when loose rock is abundant you have a wide choice of shapes that will catch on to each other.
This may sound like endless hard labour, but it does not have to be. Once you start joining conical shapes it will become easier to identify fittings and you will be pleased by your own cleverness in construction. The bigger the stones, the faster you build, but the more difficult it will be to find a locking fit. Lots of small stones produce a poorer lock on account of more surfaces that have to catch. Just try it out for the fun of it, take a picture and if you please, e-mail it to me. I will collect them on the 'foto's' page under the subject 'Bank Holliday'.
Please be aware of antique insects like silverfishes and speed sealice living under loose stones. You simply can't be as terrified of them as they are of you, so don't kill them as they find there exit in seconds under another stone.
It is bad enough that some people find justification in their anger to disrespect the property of others and strike in vulnerable time outs. I hope you will find confidence in this kind of technique to promote the security of your earthly prizes.
Jan Ploeg, WaterWing Research and Development Centre, Fanore, May 3th 2006
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