A Warnadoone fisherman came across an UFO (unidentified floating object) while out at sea on Sunday, 28 June.
Thomas Singleton contacted the Natal Sea Rescue Institute to ask advice when he came across the huge floating vehicle about eight to 10 kilometres off the coast and he was asked to move it out of the shipping lane if possible. He hooked a line to it and towed it back to shore
“Members of the Warnadoone Ski-Boat Club helped us pull it into the river after the anchor rope snapped in the shore break,” said his wife, Bronwen.
“About 15 people in total battled for about an hour-and-a-half to hook it out of the river and load it onto a crane truck, which we hired.
It was a mission, but also very exciting, as we didn’t know what the vehicle was.”
Bronwen contacted the company it belongs to, Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) based in Norway, to be informed the vehicle was a dilt float, which is used to steer a streamer to look for gas lines under the sea.
It is made from polyethylene and can be self-powered or towed behind a vessel. The one Thomas found weighed 368kg, and measured 3.86m in length, 1.53m in height and 1.2m wide. Its capacity was 2,500 litres.
“PGS said this one was lost in November or December,” said Bronwen. “Its sonar was switched off after it was lost, as it attracts whales.”
Until PGS sent a South African-based company, Geodis to collect the dilt float from the Singletons on Tuesday, 21 July it was case of hide-and-seek, according to Bronwen. “We had to move it twice to secure locations, as word had got out and we were responsible for it until Geodis collected it.”
Now that the dilt float has been safely returned to its owners, the Singletons will be rewarded with a finder’s fee for all their hard work in retrieving it.
