Salsette October 2nd 2005

**Alastair** · November 17th, 2005, 06:53 PM

Clare had organised a trip on Wey Cheiftan this weekend but unfortunately due to the weather being rubbish on Saturday this ended up being cancelled. On the off chance the three of us booked onto a dive on the Salsette using Breakwater dive center.

The Salsette was 5842-ton P&O express mail liner sunk by torpedo in 1917. She was described as "one of the most beautiful straight-stemmed steamers ever built".

Got up at the B&B this morning and the weather was good enough, forecast according to Breakwater was 4-6. First minor drama of the day was Clare was missing her stage bottle. One quick hire from Underwater Explorers and we were all sorted. Nothing like being able to hire a properly rigged stage

We were on Goose with Andy skippering us and he kindly helped us load all the gear on board. Only 5 divers on the boat in total. We set out and once past the Bill the weather was quite lumpy. I ended up having to hang onto my twinset as everytime the boat slammed down it got bounced around. Waves broke over the boat and I was very glad to be wearing my drysuit.

Got to the site and we kitted up and dropped in. We paused at 6m to do a bubble check and mod-s and then carried on down the shot. I was in position 1, Fraser 2 and Clare 3. I reached the bottom of the shot, flow checked, marked time and checked gas pressure. We set off towards the bow. Vis was about 3-5m so we got some idea of the scale, but given the size of the wreck it was a bit tricky. We went into one of the open holds and given the vis had to carefully make our way out. We kept going and reached the bow. Once there we avoided some line and made a U-turn. I passed a chunk of wreckage on the sea bed and then out of the gloom the massive bow of the wreck appeared. I had at least 5m vis and could easily make out the size of the structure. It really was quite stunning. We carried on back the way we came and after spotting some enormous dinner plate sized crabs until one of us hit minimum gas so we started the ascent.

Deco went to plan and we finished the dive at 70 minutes. Thoroughly enjoyed the dive, given the size of the wreck I reckon you'd need a couple of dives to see all of it. Definitely one to dive again.

The ride back was interesting with lots of white wave tops which wasn't much fun, but worth it for the dive. This was my first mix dive after completing Tech-1 so it was nice to put it into practise.

November 17th, 2005, 06:53 PM	#1 (permalink)
Alastair(Offline) DIRX Supporter Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: UK Posts: 693	Salsette October 2nd 2005 Clare had organised a trip on Wey Cheiftan this weekend but unfortunately due to the weather being rubbish on Saturday this ended up being cancelled. On the off chance the three of us booked onto a dive on the Salsette using Breakwater dive center. The Salsette was 5842-ton P&O express mail liner sunk by torpedo in 1917. She was described as "one of the most beautiful straight-stemmed steamers ever built". Got up at the B&B this morning and the weather was good enough, forecast according to Breakwater was 4-6. First minor drama of the day was Clare was missing her stage bottle. One quick hire from Underwater Explorers and we were all sorted. Nothing like being able to hire a properly rigged stage We were on Goose with Andy skippering us and he kindly helped us load all the gear on board. Only 5 divers on the boat in total. We set out and once past the Bill the weather was quite lumpy. I ended up having to hang onto my twinset as everytime the boat slammed down it got bounced around. Waves broke over the boat and I was very glad to be wearing my drysuit. Got to the site and we kitted up and dropped in. We paused at 6m to do a bubble check and mod-s and then carried on down the shot. I was in position 1, Fraser 2 and Clare 3. I reached the bottom of the shot, flow checked, marked time and checked gas pressure. We set off towards the bow. Vis was about 3-5m so we got some idea of the scale, but given the size of the wreck it was a bit tricky. We went into one of the open holds and given the vis had to carefully make our way out. We kept going and reached the bow. Once there we avoided some line and made a U-turn. I passed a chunk of wreckage on the sea bed and then out of the gloom the massive bow of the wreck appeared. I had at least 5m vis and could easily make out the size of the structure. It really was quite stunning. We carried on back the way we came and after spotting some enormous dinner plate sized crabs until one of us hit minimum gas so we started the ascent. Deco went to plan and we finished the dive at 70 minutes. Thoroughly enjoyed the dive, given the size of the wreck I reckon you'd need a couple of dives to see all of it. Definitely one to dive again. The ride back was interesting with lots of white wave tops which wasn't much fun, but worth it for the dive. This was my first mix dive after completing Tech-1 so it was nice to put it into practise.