Before a diver can safely descend Borehole 10-X, three corroded riser pipes, each roughly 180 feet long, must be removed from the shaft. A boom truck with a 100-foot crane is brought to the site to lift the first eight-inch pipe in 20-foot sections. Dave Blankenship operates a welding torch to cut each section while Rick and Marty manage the operation from the platform. The procedure works smoothly at first: pull 20 feet, clamp the remaining pipe with slips, torch the section off, and lay it down. After removing two sections, disaster strikes. The weight of the remaining 140 feet of pipe slips through the brace and rockets back down the shaft, landing far below the water line. The team fears the fallen pipe may have tangled with the ladder or other debris, creating an even more dangerous obstacle for divers.
While the 10-X operation continues, Craig Tester, Jack Begley, and Dan Henskee head to the Money Pit area to test the Leonard satellite map. Before leaving the island, Robert and Bob Leonard provided GPS coordinates for several shallow metal targets predicted to be two to three feet below the surface. Jack locates the coordinates with a handheld GPS unit and Craig runs a metal detector over the spot, getting an immediate hit. They begin excavating through the island's notoriously hard clay soil. After extensive digging, they uncover a large piece of metal at approximately the predicted depth. While the object itself is not treasure, its presence at the location and depth indicated by the satellite data lends some credibility to the Leonard's technology and their broader theory of underground tunnel networks.
Back at 10-X, the team devises a new plan to recover the dropped riser pipe. A diver will need to descend, attach a cable, and allow the crane to hoist it back to the surface. In the meantime, the team focuses on removing the remaining riser pipes using the proven pull-and-torch method. Dave Blankenship is lowered into the shaft and successfully hooks the problem pipe. Working as a team, Rick, Dave, Peter Fornetti, Dan Henskee, Charles Barkhouse, and Jack Begley manage to extract both the dropped pipe and the remaining sections over the course of the day.
When the dropped pipe reaches the surface, the team discovers a chunk of anhydrite approximately ten inches long lodged in its end. Anhydrite, or anhydrous calcium sulfate, is a rock-hard substance formed by the evaporation of salt water. Dan Blankenship hit an anhydrite cap at the 181-foot level when digging 10-X in the 1970s and drilled through 44 feet of it before reaching the cavern he believes is a man-made treasure vault. The team speculates that when the pipe fell, it may have punched through the 27-inch opening and taken a core sample from the floor of the chamber itself, providing an unexpected geological sample from the deepest point of the shaft.
With two of the three riser pipes now removed and the shaft significantly clearer, the team prepares to bring in a professional diver to complete the cleanup and attempt a descent to the cavern at 235 feet. Rick expresses urgency about getting the dive scheduled as soon as possible.
