Today my neighbors asked to borrow my SCUBA tank for some advanced diver training in the apartment pool. I thought I'd told the tank story last year and I was going to give you a link to it, but I can't find the file so I'll just go through it again.

Last year someone left a Scuba tank sitting on the steps here at the apartments and two days later it disappeared. The day after that I saw it sitting inside our landlady's doorway so I asked about it and she said she had asked every tenant and nobody knew a thing about it. I asked if I could use it and if anyone claimed it they would be welcome to it. She said 'fine'.

I took it down to the local tank filling station and asked if they could identify it. All the tanks have their tops painted different colors and are numbered to identify their owner. This 'filling station' sends a truck around in the mornings to all the dive shops and dive boat docks to drop off full SCUBA cylinders. They go around again in the evenings to pick up the empties. Kind of like an old fashioned milk man. During the night, when electricity rates are at their lowest, over 1000 tanks are filled, 120 tanks at a time.
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The tank I brought in was color-coded yellow with yellow numbers and Ricardo the manager said it was from 'off island' because it didn't match any local user color codes.

They opened the valve on the tank and there was no compressed air in it! That is a bad sign because of the possibility of moisture getting in and corroding the tank. I asked them to inspect the tank and they removed the valve and found a couple inches of sea water in it. (The tank is tipped over a little, below, and you can just see the waterline across the bottom.)

Here is a larger view but the focus is soft. (sorry, tricky shot, in a hurry, etc,etc)

They thought this tank might have floated up from Belize. On the mainland they have lovely sand beaches and the dive boats load and unload from the beach. Beach crews carry the dive gear and full tanks out to the boats in waist deep water. After the dive trip the tanks are thrown overboard back at the beach for the beach crews to bring ashore. These modern tanks are filled to 3000 PSI and since air does have some weight to it, when you pump enough air into the tank to get 3000 PSI the tank gets heavier. These high pressure aluminum tanks actually hold enough air to sink in sea water from the weight of all that air. The dive usually lasts as long as it takes the diver to breath the tank down to about 500 PSI. At that pressure the tank will float. When they are unloading the boats the nearly empty tanks float and are easy to find and drag ashore. If there is an unused tank it will sink, sooooooo, when they pitch the tanks into the surf they open all the valves just a little so they will hiss and bubble and not get lost. Apparently this tank was full, sank, and was somehow lost. It rolled downhill, underwater, and when enough air escaped, maybe the next day, it surfaced, miles and miles away.  When all the air escaped the floating tank would breath between day and night because of the change in temperature and also sucked in some sea water. It's still a mystery how it got from the sea to our apartment complex gate since no one has asked about it and it's been almost a year. Hell, maybe a big wave washed it up here that night. It's only two blocks to the sea front and maybe a 20' difference in elevation. (that's humor)

At the filling station they rinsed out this mystery cylinder with fresh water and thoroughly dried it out. Then they laid it on a set of rollers with an abrasive in it and tumbled it until any and all inside corrosion was rubbed off. Then they washed it out again with fresh water, dried it, re-inspected it, replaced the valve and filled it with air. All for just over $10 usd. Incredible!

I left the tank at the 'filling station' when I went home last Spring and stopped by to pick it up when I got back this year and it was empty, zero PSI. Somehow the valve got left open, AND, the valve was not screwed in tight either. Actually, when I first asked for the tank they couldn't find it. I showed them pictures of it on my laptop and they said they'd look for it.  When I checked back a few days later they'd found it, empty. I used their inspection light and saw some tiny white specks inside they didn't think amounted to anything but they re-did the tumbling and cleaning just to keep me happy. They charged me $2.50 this time plus the regular $1 to fill it. I'm going to wear this thing out if I'm not careful.

OK, back to borrowing the tank. On the way to pick up the tank we stopped at the Mission for breakfast. The 'Mission' restaurant is on 30th (6 blocks in from the coast). This is one of three locations. The other two are up-scale and very spendy. This location does most of the delivery business

Next is the interior. Note the linen tablecloths.
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(I think the cook was a little skeptical of my picture taking)  =)

Out back is a patio with a mural that gets even better as you get closer.

Here is the breakfast photo again that I took when I first arrived (note the prices, divide by 11) The basket is filled with toasted baguette slices.

On my way home I stopped to watch some guys remove an inner race of an inner wheel bearing from a truck spindle with a custom puller. They welded the rebar right onto the race. You'd think the heat would have make it drop off in their hands. Note the size of those tapered rollers. (not VW)

My neighbors wanted to use that SCUBA tank to do some certification work with an advanced dive instructor that's visiting. In the afternoon he showed us a new mask he brought along that has 'Anti-Fog' lenses. (yes finally, and yes spendy)

Lo and behold that mystery SCUBA tank at work.

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