Will a log sink?

[Wade Lippman]

I know this will sound like I am making it up, but I'm not.

We had a very serious storm a couple weeks ago and all kinds of crap littered the lake I live on. Most of it has mysteriously disappeared, but yesterday a large log (maybe 18" diameter; 4' long) hung up on my hoist. It sure isn't mine; I toyed with the idea of liberating it and letting it be someone else's problem, but that seemed wrong. So I tied it to the end of my dock.

It is about 95% below the water now. If I just leave it there, will it eventually sink?
I can't possibly get it out the water and don't know what else to do with it. There were much bigger trees in the water and they seem to be gone now; I assume they sank.

[Lee Schierer]

Most logs will eventually sink, but limbs can keep them up off the bottom for a long time making them a hazard to navigation, swimming, etc.

[Lornie McCullough]

When I was sixteen years old, I was driving a ski boat (my father had built) to tow my mother and father while water-skiing on the Columbia River. They were in the water, ready for me to tow them, and when they yelled "Hit it!!" I pushed full throttle to pull then out of the water.

As they were pulled out of the water to ski the surface, and the boat reached planing speed, I ran over a submerged log, and ripped the transom of the boat away from the sides at the bottom of the boat. I quickly beached the boat so it wouldn't sink, but the damage was done.

Another boat went out, found the submerged log, and towed it to shore...... and that is when I learned that logs can sink (but still float just below the surface).

Lornie

[Bill Jobe]

An industry has come to be harvesting sunken logs that are hundreds of years old. Some of them were taken from the bottom of the Great Lakes and the wood is said to be far superior to todays' trees.
They are carefully dried and it has been reported that wood from these logs make violins and cellos equal to those made by Stradivarius and unequaled by any instruments made with current materials.

[Von Bickley]

An industry has come to be harvesting sunken logs that are hundreds of years old. Some of them were taken from the bottom of the Great Lakes and the wood is said to be far superior to todays' trees.
They are carefully dried and it has been reported that wood from these logs make violins and cellos equal to those made by Stradivarius and unequaled by any instruments made with current materials.

They are also recovering logs from the Savannah river on the SC & GA state line. Wood from these logs bring a premium price. Great wood.....

[Wade Lippman]

Most logs will eventually sink, but limbs can keep them up off the bottom for a long time making them a hazard to navigation, swimming, etc.

It doesn't have any branches; just the log. The transom story is what I am trying to avoid. If hadn't put a rope around it, it would have drifted out now that the wind has shifted.

A small sailboat washed up a couple doors down. I tied a cinderblock to it's bow line to keep it from drifting out again. I put a notice on CL and called the local marina, but it is still there. The guy who owns the house probably isn't happy about the cinderblock.

[John C Cox]

Tie a bag of cement to it and sink it near your dock so you can fish it. It will become a fine submerged fish structure.

As a boater - submerged logs are a fact of life and a reason you have to know your water and the likely hazards you will encounter there. ...

[Rick Potter]

In 1968, when Lake Powell was filling up (several years), I borrowed my dad's 18' boat, and four of us went to spend a week on the lake and travel the whole 180 miles up too the Dirty Devil River and back.

On the trip the boat got progressively more sluggish, to where we couldn't water ski anymore. It was only after returning to the starting point, and almost not being able to pull the boat out of the water, that we realized we had hit a submerged log and cracked the hull. It took an hour to drain the hull before we got it all the way out. We never saw or felt the log.

Dad was not happy. I had to go to work right away, and he had a fishing trip planned so he fixed it without waiting for me.

PS: I still have the can of resin and glass cloth he used to fix the boat...and used some a year ago. Still good.

[Wade Lippman]

Tie a bag of cement to it and sink it near your dock so you can fish it. It will become a fine submerged fish structure.

Two days later it isn't any lower in the water; and I am not happy about having a log tied to my dock.

I don't have any cement, but I have cinderblocks I don't want. I tied two together and slung them over the log.
It is now safely on the bottom, out of anyone's way.

I appreciate everyone's help.

BTW, I still have epoxy and glass I bought to fix a boat 15 years ago. It is now dark purple, but works fine; just used it 2 weeks ago. I wonder if the color works as UV inhibitor...

[Art Mann]

Rick makes a very good point. For the recreational boater with a small craft, one of the worst things that can happen is to hit at speed an almost submerged log that is difficult to spot. I had this happen to me one time. It is a good thing the log was captured if the water is navigable.

[Pat Barry]

It doesn't have any branches; just the log. The transom story is what I am trying to avoid. If hadn't put a rope around it, it would have drifted out now that the wind has shifted.

A small sailboat washed up a couple doors down. I tied a cinderblock to it's bow line to keep it from drifting out again. I put a notice on CL and called the local marina, but it is still there. The guy who owns the house probably isn't happy about the cinderblock.

drag the log out of the water. its hazardous floating around out there.

[Bill Jobe]

One got hung up in a town along the Des Moines river. It was a hump sticking up and some clever person nailed fin-like pieces of wood along its hump making it look like a sea monster. It hung around for a couple of years, I think . Them a flood took it away. I wonder if it ever made it to the Mississippi delta.

[Wade Lippman]

drag the log out of the water. its hazardous floating around out there.

I can't see that at all. A boat would need 6' draft to reach the log, and even then it couldn't hit it without also hitting my dock. Seems safe enough to me.

[Pat Barry]

I can't see that at all. A boat would need 6' draft to reach the log, and even then it couldn't hit it without also hitting my dock. Seems safe enough to me.

My dock wouldn't survive long with a,lot of weight banging into it from the side all the time. Maybe yours is more permanent or better built. Maybe you have it tied up so well that the log will stay there in a future storm. Maybe it won't work its way loose and end yup floating around the lake. Maybe it will just stay there forever. One thing for sure is its never going to be easier to handle than it is now.

[Alan Rutherford]

I'd either sink it or ground it, and it might be harder to permanently sink than you'd expect. If it's still 95% submerged and you turn it loose, it will be a several-hundred-pound barely-visible hazard to boats or other docks. As they get close to sinking, one end can submerge so the log floats vertically with only a few inches above water. If there's any wave action they bob up and down and can stay submerged for long periods until they come up at just the wrong time and place. Don't make it someone else's problem.