Clare Gledhill(Offline)

Fraser and I continued his 'let's not dry out now I can dive again' mission in Weymouth with the best boat on the South Coast (OK I'm biased ) Wey Chieftain and the ever cheerful Graham Knot.





A very civilised ropes off at 9:30 am meant that we were able to get to Weymouth in good time...ruining Fraser's reputation of being last to get to every dive this year. We were joining a club of BSAC divers from Teddington - who were very friendly and we would dive either the Sky or the St Dunstan - dependant on sea state. Both are 30 metre wrecks, and Fraser and I have dived them both before so didn't really mind which but both of us have fond memories of a St Dunstan dive last year so it would be good to go back.

Graham announces that it will be the Sky - and Fraser's bottom lip trembles... so Graham takes pity and heads west to the St Dunstan

Yay!!

It is a rough trip out and several divers start feeding the fish on route. Never been there myself - how could I be sick when there is chocolate to eat? Luckily for me, Fraser joins those who are feeling queasy so I get to eat his chocolate too

We get to the site eventually and Fraesr most sensibly feels that the water would be the best place to be.

St Dunstan




Photo from Divernet

The 'Dunstan' was almost certainly built by Lobnitz and Co, Renfrew at around the turn of the century, only to be sunk by a mine on 23rd Sep 1917 with the loss of two lives. This vessel was originally built as a dockyard bucket dredger but was operating as a minesweeper when she went down.

The wreck lies in 30m of water, with a very heavy list to port. The stern and midships section of this vessel has collapsed onto the port rail, leaving a tangle of dredging buckets, gulleys, lifting equipment and tunnels. The bow section of the vessel is intact but upside-down, allowing easy access to the twin engines and boilers which are situated immediately behind the chain locker.

An unusual feature of this vessel is that the boilers and engines are in the bow, leading many to believe that this is only half of a ship - the bow 'half' being located elsewhere. This machinery layout allowed the bucket assembly to be lowered through the middle of the hull and a hopper to be included amidships.

I led most of the dive... and to Fraser's astonishment managed to find the boilers, the anchor, the winch buckets and gear, the prop and a few swim throughs too - he says I've improved whilst he has been away.... He spotted the conger though The life on this wreck is astonishing - although no lobsters today...

It is only a small wreck and so even though we were diving bottom stages (to save back gas for dive 2) we saw round it twice before it was time to ascend and even then it was the cold which made us think it was time. We had given a maximum dive duration to Graham of 65 minutes so took a nice steady ascent hitting the surface bang on one hour - to fnd that they had had a little fun on the boat in our absence. Never mind - all was well enough.

We got ready to set off for another site - only to find that the shot line was wrapped round the prop. Guess who still had their suit on....

So I kitted up and jumped back in to see if I could free it. Needless to say the rope was completely twisted tightly round the prop and I surfaced and asked for a large knife to try to cut it off - an operation which would clearly not be that quick either given the thickness of the rope.

Hmm... call me a slow learner but when I'm hit on the head by a boat once... I think it hurts. A second time, I know it hurts. A third and I'm begining to think who cares about a rope round the prop. The fourth time it hits me (the swell was rather nasty) I start to see stars and think that there must be something to be said for wearing helmets in the water after all ... I give up and surface.

Graham is worried as I am not taking the opportunity to take the p1ss out of him - although this improves when I start to see in single images again He cuts the buoy off at the surface and takes the boat to a place with slighter better conditions to have another go. I sit this one out - but am clearly recovering when I call Graham "The skipper who can shot anything - especially his own boat!"

Fraser decides that he still feels rough and sits out on Dive two. I was going to sit out with him but decide to go scalloping (as I never have before). I jump in to shallow water with the DO of the club and we fill a bag with scallops which I then send up on my DSMB. Fun - I almost feel like a proper diver

Back to the harbour for fills (twinsets and stomachs - the Old Harbour Dive Centre did us proud and gave me free ice cream!!!

Good Friday? - indeed it was

So come on - what about you....

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Mark Chase(Offline)

NOT DIR just a trip report. you may or may not enjoy, I hope you do.

Howard the Dude, Juz, Blanaid, Andyp, Illi, Nick Keith and a bloke I only know as "warmwater diver" met up at Dover for the now Annual YD Easter gig.

Having all got over the initial shock of AndyP turning up early we set about loading "Neptune" which is a stunning new boat. Beautifully kitted out with superb facilities and cabin space, a great kitting up area and a 1st class lift.

The weather looked great and the sea was only a moderate at the min so not too bad.

The plan to dive the Andaman was shelved due to poor viz (no viz) reports in the area so we set off for the shipping lanes to dive a wreck called the Utility?? Strange name. I had never herd of it. However our skipper was non other than Dave Bachelor who wrote the book on diving around here so we trusted him that we were better off on this wreck.

The sea was getting worse and mist / fog was building up so the call went out that we all had to come up the shot. I wasn't planning a long dive so i hadn't brought a John line and I knew it was going to be bad but it was the obvious call.

Andyp and i were first in and my bail out reg immediately free flowed. It was playing hard ball so I lost a load of gas stopping it but I had 80bar left in my 3ltr diluent which was enough if I was careful and i had another 3ltr and a 7 of bailout slung so we went for it.

Dropping down was a bit depressing it was pitch black at 10m and i stopped to switch on the 21W HID making sure it was nicely warmed up by the bottom of the shot. What a torch how did we manage without them.

On the wreck things were much better a good 3m of vis but a slight current already due to the dreadfully short tide window. The wreck was fantastic. We saw a small eel about 200m long almost flat and 30m deep and it was white with purple spots. If i was in blue water i would have said ribbon eel but i have never seen such a thing in UK waters. The soft corrals were in bloom catching the particles in the slowly increasing tide and they looked beautifull. I found a swirl of yellow Newdibranch eggs looking like a rose growing out of the metal work and a glorious slipper lobster with iridescent blue spots and antenna. Edible crabs were everywhere some quite large but i left them alone as they taste rubbish this time of year all watery and skinny inside their shells. I very nearly got a lobster but i couldn't hang on. My wife was not going to be happy. Not one but three Dover Sole were spotted and i found a lost Mac Mahoon reel but it was covered in barnacles so i left it there.

We had had to lay a line out from the shot to ensure we found it again so despite finding some really good entry points I didn't go inside the wreck as its too much hassle having to retrace through when following the line back. I kept wing inflation to a minimum trying carefully not to use up my valuable 80bar of dill I used a little more of my off board suit inflation than i normally would.

30mins into the dive we were heading back to the shot. At some speed i might add, the tide was now quite strong and it was all I could do to reel in the line fast enough as Andyp undid the ties. We found the shot and Andy had had enough of the cold so he went up. There were a couple of others hanging about so i stayed down. I set off in the opposite direction from before going with the tide now i was in full on lobster hunting mode. Soon it became imposable to stay still by finning and i was having to go hand over hand back to the shot. This wasn't so easy as it was crawl crawl wind in slack line crawl crawl etc. Suddenly the line didn't feel right and i guessed it had come off a tie or snapped. I was going to cut off and tie in but i noticed another line obviously new heading my way so I just realed my one in and followed that back to the shot.

The cause of my problems became obvious at the shot the tide was now ripping through and it had snapped the waster causing the grapnel to come out of the wreck and move about 10 feet. In doing so it went across my line and snapped it.

I managed to retrieve my clip which saved me £2 but I was keeping a carefully eye on the bouncing shot to make sure it wasn't going anywhere.
I stowed my kit and headed up doing a quick check on my deco. My primary computer was screwed giving me garbage deco of 70mins so I ignored it and went with the back up. After 50mins at 38m I reckoned on 30mins of deco tops and the other one agreed with me so I felt justified in my calculations. Turns out the integrated computer was showing a PP02 of 0.9 when i was on 1.3??. Salt water and electronics really dont mix well. I reckon we should give up on these computers you know

Sticking your head up out of the wreck you instantly knew it wasn't going to be fun. The tide was now ripping through and the shot line was going up and down about a meter. It was a balance of letting the line slide through your hand and letting it hold you against the current. no fun at all.

Illi was beneath me and he was on OC so had about 10mins more deco than I. I stayed with him after I had cleared but that was an incredibly long 10mins. At 6m the swell was bouncing us all over the place and now the tide was really pulling so holding onto the rope as hard as you could was mandatory. Unfortunately this meant being bounced up and down. My computer was showing 4m 6m 4m 6m. No fun.

With a little cheer Illi signaled he was good to go and we slowly surfaced. They had a rope out from the boat so we could drag ourselves to the lift and then we had the usual entertainment of trying to get on a platform that was bouncing up and down like a Yo yo. I checked my dill and I had 50bar left so I had done 80mins on 30bar of dill out of a 3ltr. Coooooooolllllll.

Back on board i was pleased to learn we were the last up and no one had missed the shot. Looking at the fog and the sea state the helicopter would have had a hard time finding a lost diver.

Big smiles all round as everyone had a good dive, the trip home was a bit of a roller coaster but we didn't care it had been the best dive so far for all of us so far in 2006. All that and the skipper did us hot cross bunns to go with our coffie. Excelent

My only regrett is wife and kidds ment I had to come home. Most of the others will be diving all w/end.


PS FOR GLEDDERS: I think Illi works for Cadburys and he brought a box of chocolate. I mean a 18" long 12" deep 12" wide box FULL of chocky


ATB

Mark Chase

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The only DIR Inspiration diver in the village

Janos(Offline)

Nice reports

I didn't got diving: Mrs. Janos made me take some rubbish to the tip. [1]

Janos

[1] - Any CCR comments will be replied to with a slap from a wet towel.

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You can lead a horse to water but you can't climb a ladder with a large bell in both hands - Vic Reeves
www.hellfins.com/shed

Bob Cooper(Offline)

Good Friday saw me and Andy (And) at Stoney Cove (yawn!).

This was to be our last opportunity to fine tune ourselves and our scooters prior to a cave diving trip to France next week.

Stoney was fairly busy and, after arriving around 11am, we waited around until midday until a space came free in the bottom car park.

Next week, we are planning to dive further into Ressel than either of us have been before (if conditions are good) and so we planned a quick dip at Stoney to check that all four scooters are weighted correctly and to practice our towing techniques.

Most of the day was spent either chatting, carry scooters to/from the water, pulling scooters apart or eating/drinking coffee.

However, we did spend about 20mins in the water with standard body scooters and then another 10-15mins riding standard body scooters and towing a short body each. We fine tuned the tow cord length and generally reaquainted ourselves with juggling stage bottles and towing scooters. The water is v cold at the moment and I am looking forward to getting back in the 12deg water in France.

It was a nice sunny day. We met Phil O and had a chat and I also met a few other old friends I hadn't seen for a while.

This-afternoon I parted with £220 at my LDS for my gas for the first planned deep dive in Ressel. Conducting deep dives OC is certainly not cheap!

We have everything else ready for our trip next week. This time we will be renting a van so will have plenty of room fro all our gear and plenty of spares.

John Kendall and Rick Huggins (Frogman) will be joining us on our trip next week. We are also expecting some celebrity appearances in France from a couple of cave divers who's gas bill might not be as high as ours!

Watch this space....

A-M(Offline)

Deep dive??
Till where are you heading? The deeper T-side or the shaft or ....?
Anyway, have fun! And please let me know what the current conditions are.