All photos © Mark S. Schacht

Maui County charter dive boat captains Erik Stein (Extended Horizons) and Greg Howeth (Lahaina Divers) teamed up with Malama Kai's Jim Housh and others to set the first legal day-use mooring pins on Lanai's reefs between Dec. 4-9, 1996.

Erik's Extended Horizons dive operation (which donated a 36' dive boat and put together a volunteer team of divers that included PGD's Mark Schacht), has for years been a leader in promoting mooring pins. The photos below provide an overview of the underwater construction work needed to set a mooring pin into a reef.

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Once the boat is over the site, a pair of divers ferries down the drill, the mooring pin and other necessary equipment (like 20 lbs or so of extra lead weight to be worn by the diver doing the drilling). The hydraulic drill weighs about 50 lbs. and must be taken down with a lift bag. More than 200 feet of high pressure hose attach it to a gas-powered compressor brought onto the boat. The work team consists of a total of five volunteer divers: 2 remain on board to operate the compressor and mix a special underwater marine concrete needed to set the pins; another diver stays on the surface over the drilling site. He/she relays signals from the two other divers drilling below, and also ferries the concrete down to the drillers.

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The first site chosen to be set is "Wash Rock." On this day, the current was slight, but it was enough to tangle the hose and make placing lift bags on it a little bit challenging. Because Hawaii has approved the setting of 328 pins throughout the islands, this costly high pressure hose will have to be used over and over by volunteers. To insure longevity, it is imperative that it be kept free of kinks or bends, and that it be suspended in the water above the reefs at all times.

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Once below with all their equipment, the divers search for the right location for the mooring pin. Each pin is a heavy stainless steel rod about 16 inches long, with one end bent into an "O" shape (an "eye-hook"). The bottom 10 inches of the pin has a dozen or so steel knobs spot-welded around its circumference: these protrusions will keep the pins from being rocked back and forth and eventually pulled out. This decade-old design was developed by divers who set the pins on the reefs in the Florida Keys.

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The drill and drill bit are heavy and unwieldy, even underwater. It takes quite a bit of strength to lift the drill, and if any current is running it will take more than one diver to keep it steady and perpendicular to the reef. If the drill tilts once drilling has begun, it tends to jam, requiring the drill to be lifted out of the hole and be reset before drilling can resume. Generally speaking, it's easier to handle the drill if the diver removes his/her fins. The diver to the left with the drill is Captain Erik Stein.

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This is PGD's Mark Schacht, who drilled Lanai pin #2. In the harder lava substrate, it takes about 8 minutes to drill the 18 inch hole needed for proper setting of the pin. Drilling is similar to using a jack hammer: it won't drill by itself! Continuous downward pressure is needed to keep the drill biting into rock. As you can see, quite a bit of rock powder is thrown up in the process. Once the hole is drilled, though, that debris is cleaned out of the hole by use of a high pressure air nozzle. After that, a signal is given to bring down the concrete in the special 'syringe' which allows the concrete to be injected into the hole from the bottom up, assuring no air pockets or other gaps that would result in a weak setting of the pin.

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Now that the pin is firmly placed in the concrete, the next step in the process is to wait 48 hours for the concrete to set up and harden. At that point, divers will return to the site to attach the line and mooring ball that will transform this dive site and its popular reef into one that never again has an anchor dropped on it. Although most dive boats using the site in the past have tried to avoid damaging the reef when dropping their anchors, there is no way to protect against strong currents, high winds, and other boats' wakes dislodging a carefully placed anchor. Now, thanks to operations like Extended Horizons, Lahaina Divers (which donated tanks and air) and Navatek (which loaned the compressor), a new era has begun.

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HOW YOU CAN HELP?

Malama Kai (the tax-exempt, non-profit set up to receive and account for funds contributed to the mooring project), and participating dive captains need your financial help. They are the leading stewards of Hawaii's reefs, are entirely volunteer-based, and some, like Erik Stein's Extended Horizons, have to cancel charters (worth hundreds of dollars) in order to do the work on the mooring pin project. You should know that most operators in Maui ARE NOT contributing in this way. So, needless to say, those who ARE appreciate all the public support they can get.

If you want to contact Malama Kai: call or write Executive Director M. Carolyn Stewart, P.O. Box 5653, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, 96745 (Phone/Fax: 808-325-0128).

To read the LAHAINA NEWS story on the Lanai mooring pin effort, go to Reef News

To get an update on the project, dive over to Capt. Erik Stein's page