Floodlight Sonata - 22/12/2018

When Beethoven wrote his Moonlight Sonata, it was probably beyond even his imagination that it would be whizzing round my head when around 207 years later I was diving the Breda at night, floodlit with the Barrman. I mean, he had an impressive imagination, but I'm prepared to wager that he never composed it as a soundtrack to something of that ilk. In fairness, it was probably the Barrman that tipped it over the edge of probability.

We had agreed we wanted to do it some time ago, along with StewPatz and his good lady. At the time of booking we didn't know what the weather would do. As it was we were blessed with flat seas, low wind and moonlight. 

In the end the Barrman and I headed in and swam around the deck of the Breda. It was very relaxing, with lots of fish.

Hull of Kintyre - 08/09/2018

I have friends who consider me a depth junkie. I'm really not, but some of the best dives require deep training and a fair bit of commitment. Some time ago when chatting in the pub I had mentioned that the wreck of the SS Kintyre was one of my dive highlights. The Barrman was enthused. He wanted to dive it there and then. Shiny also decided it was special enough to lure him in for a dive.

I promised to keep my eyes peeled for suitable dates. In the end we plumped for Saturday 8th September. High tide was 12.16pm. As such if we entered the water at around 11.15am  we'd nail the tides. The weather forecast looked promising. It all came together as it had once before for Jester and I the previous year.

I was buddying Shiny, the Barrman was with the Wylie Fox and we were joined by one half of Das McLetchies and his buddy John. 

Shiny is always slow at kitting up. I mean, painfully slow. Although, he'll point  out that it means that he has everything just right. And he did, but it meant that we were last in the water and at the back of the queue.

We never saw the rest of the divers disappear down the pipe. Instead, we made our own way down and onto the wreck. Both qualified beyond recreational limits, we headed for the stern and ended up recording 49m. It was a pretty relaxed affair, but made me realise the best bit of the wreck is 40m on the deck. On the way back up along the famous jobby pipe we met the other divers. I was asked if we'd been to the boat. I signalled the affirmative. The rest, it seems, hadn't found it. I never said much about it the dive - nobody wants to be "that guy".

Once More With Feeling - 02/09/2018

The end of summer is definitely approaching. The sea may  stay warmer for a few weeks and then starts to cool for winter. With that and mind, myself and Jester headed to St Abbs to dive the Glanmire before doing a shallow dive at Skelly's Hole. 

As usual we were diving with Pathfinder. We were diving to plans on the first dive and as a buddy three. We dropped down in great conditions and went in search of the props. On previous vists, the visibility has made navigating the wreck a little more challenging, but today in around 8m the wreck made a lot more sense to me. It was nice to see it more fully too. Definitely worth the last minute decision to go.

We bimbled around for about 34 minutes, going a little deeper than we had originally planned and headed up doing our deco stops on the deeper plan. Simple. 

After a quick surface interval we headed to Skelly's Hole for a few swim-throughs and out over the gullies. We buzzed about for a bit before surfacing and congratulating ourselves on a very decent days diving.

Prop

Anemone

Lobster

Bloody Henry

Anemone

Judge Dredger - 05/07/2018

When a relatively new company Wreckspeditions put up an offer to dive the Greenock Dredger on a warm sunny night, myself, the Wylie Fox and Jester thought it seemed like a decent idea. As a result, we gathered up a further 5 divers to fill the boat. My buddy for the evening was Jim. We were planning for 30minutes at 30m on a 32% mix. The weather, as forecast, was ideal, and we headed out full of optimism. 

As the last buddy pair to enter the water we were charged with making sure that the temporary shot line was free of any blockages. Once Jim and I hit the bottom there was already a fair amount of silt at the touchdown point, meaning I had a bit of a hassle moving the shot to a clear spot. My first attempt failed as in the gloom I didn't know I was dropping it into a second whole. Eventually, after a couple of minutes I felt I got it onto a spot that would be ideal. 

With that Jim and I headed off to the stern of the ship looking for the prop and rudder, before sheltering from the current up the port side to the bow. At that point Jim was getting uncomfortably* low on air. So we began our staged stops 7 minutes earlier than planned.

It was a weird dive, particularly gloomy, as most Clyde wrecks are, but recognisable as dredger with the old hoppers still lying on the deck.

* He still had plenty, 80bar and a full pony, but we didn't want to push anyone's comfort limits.

Scapa Flow Day 5 - The Mighty Mighty Markgraf - 13/06/2018

The SMS Markgraf and SMS Brummer wre our targets for the day. The Markgraf would end up our deepest dive of the week and the point at which I started putting my limited technical dive planning skills to use.

The dive was the deep wreck, highlight of the week.Which was weird because it was followed by the worst - the SMS Brummer. I won't say anything about the Brummer. It really wasn't worth the O2, but it ticked a box. The SMS Markgraf however....

The dive started near the bow where we followed a heavy chain down to the seabed and started working our way to the stern and the phenomenonally huge rudders. before returning along the upturned keel back to the rope care of a very pleasant drift.

It's really hard to explain the scale of the wreck, or how pleasant it was to dive.

Plan the dive, dive the plan

Scapa Flow Day 3 - Mary Poppins - 11/06/2018

Day 3 on board the MV Karin was going to follow a very similar pattern to the previous day. 

Step 1. Dive a German High Seas Fleet Cruiser

Step 2. Eat

Step 3. Dive a a blockship

Our plan was therefore to dive the SMS Coln and then dive the Tabarka blockship.

I was settling into the routine, the diving while deep and technical was actually pretty straight forward.The Coln passed without incident for myself and the Wylie Fox. It was impressive and to someone who isn't a 'wreck guy' was fairly recognisable. We had spent about 40 minutes below 30m before starting to come up doing around 20 minutes of deco. Simple.

However, it was the shallow Tabarka that through me for a spin and reminded me how things can change quickly. Diving as a four, we had waited for slack water. I had WF's advice ringing in my ears - just get to the wreck an meet me there. 

So, I junmped in and got down. I was joined by the Landlady then the Barrman. We headed as a three towards the wreck where we met up with WF. We explored the inside, saw the boilers of the old steamer then headed towards the exit. The kelp was flat and the tide was running fast. 

The skipper had mistimed the tide and so the dive plan needed to change. WF and I put up an SMB as did the others. We emerged on the leeward side of the tide at which point WF's SMB acted as a sail and swept her away with the surface current. It was almost magical, a bit like Mary Poppins. This left me in a bottom current going the opposite direction and effectively on my own. I watched the others struggle with their own SMBs before deciding to go it alone.*

I popped up my own SMB and enjoyed the instant feeling of being whisked away. It was fun. Some time later I surfaced. It had been quite a ride. 

Coln Gun

Nudi

In the Tabarka

In the Tabarka

* I don't recommend solo diving, but myself and WF had agreed that as we both had redundancy the usual look around for a minute didn't apply. It's debatable if it's right or wrong, but we work on the presumption that we're solo diving anyway.

Scapa Flow Day 2 - SMS Dresden & the Copa Cobana - 10/06/2018

OK, there is a slight possibility I misheard the name of the wreck when I was informed of the day's itinerary. However, my error made the second dive of the day feel a little more tropical. However, I'm getting ahead of myself. 

The SMS Dresden was to be our 2nd ship of the High Seas Fleet to be ticked off. It is deeper than it's sister ship the SMS Karlsruhe and in better condition. So I was prepared for the wreck action to really start to heat up. To compliment this I'd bought an additional Fourth Element thermal from Scapa Scuba because I knew that long deco stops = cold Frewbowski.

The SMS Dresden was definitely more like what I expected. Even I could recognise the guns and enjoyed numerous easy swim-throughs that allowed you to feel that you were exploring something a little bit special. Thanks to my top I also definitely stayed warmer as WF and I racked up around 20 minutes of decompression.

It turned out our second dive was a blockship - the SS Gobernador Bories. She was a pleasant little boat in the shallows surrounded by kelp and nudibranchs. Lots of nudibranchs - including some of my favourites! 

The wreck also provided a confidence boost to the Landlady who was a little reluctant to swim in an overhead environment. She and the Barrman joined #teamdeeppenetration and never looked back after this point enjoying her first wreck penetration, first drift dive and first nudibranch.

I was genuinely excited by the volume and variety of nudibranchs around the wreck. I'm not sure I'd ever seen such a concentration. I briefly thought of Jester who'd of been burning his camera battery at the sight.

With that, diving was done for the day.

Dresden 5" Gun

Aplysia Punctata

Janolus Cristatus

Sea Lemon

#teamseeppenetration

Looking through

Drifting

Deco stops

Scapa Flow Day 1 - Karlsruhe-ins - 09/06/2018

As a club we had decided to go to Scapa Flow. When the idea was first mooted there was considerable excitement, but with the horsetrading of life in the end just three of us were making the trip. In addition, I'd asked around my diving buddies and found another willing participant. That made four.

Now Scapa Flow is one of the jewels in Scotland's diving crown as it is home to the scuttled WW1 German High Seas Fleet. Despite being well north  (8 hours by car and ferry) of Scotland's Central Belt in Orkney it remains quite accessible for those prepared to make the trip. Beyond this I won't give you a detailed history or geography lesson there are websites for this information.

Myself, the Barrman and his Landlady had arrived off the first ferry on the Saturday morning and met the Wylie Fox at our home for the week - the MV Karin. I lucked out and got a cabin to myself.

Our first dive (a check dive) was to be one of the cruisers, the SMS Karlsruhe.

WF was my buddy for the week. She was an experienced veteran of Scapa Flow having dived it around 20 times. I'd therefore be in good hands.

We dropped down the line to around 25m and began exploring. It was a jumble of wreckage suitably described as the "most broken up of the wrecks". We plodded around for 45 minutes before making our way to the surface. We took around 8-10 minutes to surface then headed back to port to get the divers who were coming late in the day. It was a decent enough check dive and allowed me to iron out a few kit wrinkles.

Kit wrinkles

The SS Kintyre - 17/09/17

When the Wylie Fox asked me if I was interested in diving the SS Kintyre I was immediately keen for a number of reasons. 

1. I could make myself available
2. An experienced diver told me the tide conditions would be ideal
3. The weather forecast looked good
4. It was to be one day shy of the 110th anniversary of the sinking 

It all seemed right and I had wanted to do this dive for sometime and one of the reasons why I had wanted to get the twinset.

It's deep,at around 36m with a long swim out to it from the shore. In fact, by the time you get to it breathing air you are almost in deco. I had asked if it was OK if I brought Jester along for the ride - which Wylie Fox was cool with.

Jester and I as a buddy pair planned as follows:

• Stage 1 - Dive the sewage pipe, if we were both happy by the end of the sewage pipe we'd move to stage 2
• Stage 2 - Dive along the guide rope to the bow of the SS Kintyre, if we were both happy we'd continue to stage 3
• Stage 3 - Dive down to mid ships at around 40m before returning home

Neither of us had any camera equipment - it seemed silly to take it on a dive where people do get into trouble given neither of us had dived it before.

The pipe was pretty, encrusted with anemones and with life all around it, but we ignored it on the way down, along the rope was pretty, but we ignored that too until we got to the bow.

It was magnificent, some people say it's deteriorated considerably, but it is still proud and ghostly as it emerges from the gloom. When I got to it I reached out and touched it - admiring it for a moment. I looked round to see Jester offer me a handshake. He must've felt the same way.

We continued off down along the port side spotting nudibranchs and little schools of fish. I could of stayed there for longer ( I certainly had enough air in the end), but a plan is a plan and we turned heading back.

It's a long dive with plenty of deco. In fact, I felt that one of our companions (K-Pep)  had the right idea with a nice O2 rich 'travel gas' and air on the wreck. It certainly meant that he didn't have to hand about for 15m at 3-5m at the end.

All in all, it was a memorable success.

Done

Entry

Going in

Going down

Bouncing Bombs and the Wrecks of Loch Striven - 27/08/2017

Panoramic view from the Ferry

When I suggested to member of the club that we could do a little getaway and BBQ at Loch Striven I wasn't sure how many people would come given how inconvenient it is to get to. So I sold it on the promise of an introduction to wreck diving. However, at around the same time the BBC and BSAC very kindly cobbled together a news story that included one of the loch's most famous episodes.

Sir Barnes Wallis designed the 'highball' during WWII to allow aircraft to better attack large battleships, but the design and principle would ultimately used to more famous effect in the Dambuster raids.

Today there are still highballs on the bed of the loch, but our plan was to dive the shallow wrecks of a small WWII landing craft and a barge at a depth of 12m at Brackley Point. The shallow depth means that our ScotSAC Branch divers can enjoy two nice little wrecks.

With a number of people requiring to complete a variety of different training tasks, the Land Lady had decided to take control of the operation and earn her expedition organiser stripes. That allowed me to take a back seat and just dive with our only willing branch diver - Freeflow Bob.

We all arrived and pitched up for the day at what, it seems, is a very popular site for outdoor enthusiasts of all ilks.

We made friends and went diving. Freeflow Bob led me through our buddy check and took me down to 12m and off we swam. Almost instantly we hit wreckage and then swam along a relatively bland sandy bottom. We returned underwhelmed, but Freeflow Bob had managed to take a few snaps.

Our second dive a couple of hours later was to the right which offered up a larger, more identifiable wreck.

Back on the surface there were BBQs, frying pans with burgers, happy children and kayaking. It really was a fun day. We'll be back.

Dive site

Near the surface

Fun on the beach

Return to the Glanmire - 09/07/2017

When I last left the deck of the Glanmire amidst the disaster of the Rope to Nowhere I didn't expect that it would be more than two years until I'd make it back given its a two hour drive from the house. OK, I've dived in  Spain, California, Florida, Vietnam, Qatar and deeper wrecks in the Clyde and Egypt, but TWO YEARS?

I was definitely ready tackle my nemesis armed with 32% nitrox and a twinset when Captain Al arranged a boat for the day. 

My buddy was Jester who'd be diving it for the first time. I was confident. I mean, what could go wrong?  We buddy checked and jumped into the water. I casually swam for the rope and waited for Jester. It was then when I heard him say something about something loose.

I looked down and saw my finger spool slowly spinning down. I tried to grab it but and pull it up, but doing that was just slowly tangling me. I called for Jester to unleash his knife and cut it at the clip. The spool was only worth £9 - about the same as the nitrox in my tank and a fraction of the £35 for the days diving. 

It was cut and we were ready to descend, but it spooked me. "Perhaps the Glanmire is my wreck nemesis?" I thought as I descended the rope. This was never going to be a chain of thought that would help me control my breathing as I descended.

At the bottom, I lay briefly on the deck and waited for Jester and to calm my breathing rate. I did, but not before I'd wasted a lot of air. We swam round the deck and about halfway through I watched as Jester started following another twinset wearer. Did he think that was me? I signalled him and realised we had been joined by another diver for the remainder of the dive.

It was just as well too, as sans reel I had no way of putting up the SMB when we failed to find the rope back up and JEster is always notoriously reluctant to offer his!! As we decided to go up I realised we had picked up the Wylie Fox who promptly, and expertly deployed her SMB. Up we went slowly stopping a little longer to cover her deco stop.

Back on the deck of the boat I laughed, it was my nemesis, but I'd won this time. 

A lengthy surface interval later and we were back out the boat diving the shallow Cathedral Rock. It was easy but surprisingly light on really interesting life. Still, we had a good time, of the 9 of us who dived it we all came back out without significant incident.

Lobster

Wylie Fox on the line

Jester Safety Stopping

Sunstar

Beagles About - 18/09/2016

Beadle's About was a pretty crass TV show here in the UK during the eighties and nineties. Basically it's presenter would play stress inducing pranks on the public before coming in disguised to remove the tension and allowing hilarity to ensue. Today, our adventures on K-Peps RHIB were pretty similar for me. 

Jester and I had agreed to meet K-Pep for a dive out of Largs on his boat. Once we were there we decided on one of the Clyde's most famous wrecks - The Beagle.

The Beagle collided with another boat in 1865 only a year after her launch. Much of the structure has rotted away over the years, but you can definitely still make out the structure of the boat with most of the hull still intact. She lies upright in about 32m.

The day started well with a smooth ride across the channel to Great Cumbrae , but as we neared the wreck site the swell picked up. As Jester and I kitted up  a couple of Minke whales passed by the port side of the RHIB. It was surely a good sign, but when the handle on my tank broke any good feelings I'd picked up vanished - I was nervous.

I won't lie, whenever I do a new site I get a nervous tingle - it's part of the reason why I do it - but I'm also fairly confident that I don't like small boats, a swell and descents down a rope to nowhere. It's probably my trinity of bad conditions. As such, both Jester and I opted to leave the cameras on the boat. 

Then just as I was about to roll in, K-Pep said something. Something that inspired confidence and caused my nerves to dissipate. Here's what he said, "You'll come back laughing." I've been here loads of times and every time it has been true, I have come back laughing.

At that, I went to the line and dropped. I found myself at 20m before I realised Jester was 5m behind me and struggling to equalise. I waited a moment and then he was there. Down we went and we were on it. A wreck that has quietly sat here for 150 years waiting for me. It was recognisable as a boat. The hull was intact, the stern clearly visible. The point where the Napoli had pierced her hull could still be seen. The only difference was that today it was crawling with sea life:

• nudibranchs
• cod
• anemones
• cup corals

I wished for a moment I had my camera, then I remembered how I'd felt on the surface. 

We pottered about for 20 minutes before the spectre of deco began chasing us back up the line. As we did deep stops and safety stops we messed about chuckling to ourselves. Then, just like that, we were back on the RHIB laughing - just as K-Pep had said.

With the weather worsening and Stugeron not taking full effect on one of our party we headed back to the marina with a win tucked safely into our log books.

Afterwards we went into Nardini's and had an ice cream. When in Largs...

The size of his head

Nardini's

Penetrating the Lady Isabella Barque (2) - 08/05/2016

Now, you may recall in my previous post I explained how Jester and I were now cocky, experienced Scottish RHIB divers, well my cockiness was quite misplaced. As I prepared myself to meet the Lady Isabella Barque I rolled or, perhaps, slipped backwards into the water on what was one of the worst boat roll entries ever made. Even as I sank, I heard the gentle ribbing of K-Pep ringing in my ears.

Lady Isabella Barque was once a graceful sailed barque carrying a load of nickel ore, now she lies in the shallow waters off the southern tip of Little Cumbrae, I wasn't expecting much (I think K-Pep intentionally talked her down) but she was rather beautiful. As Jester and I moved round over her seaweed heaving ribs, we spotted sunstars, three varieties of nudibranchs, ballan wrasse and edible crabs. 

Nearing the end of the dive we finally found the remains of her narrow holds and, being a gentleman, I gently penetrated, popping my head in to have a look. There was little to see though.

After we had all dived her, we spoke of how much we'd all enjoyed the dive. The calm waters, on a point that is often exposed, made for a great second dive. As wrecks go she's incredibly shallow sloping from two to fifteen metres. Jester rated her in his top five dives. K-Pep, who'd last dived her 15 years ago, was also highly complimentary. It seems, that despite lying on the seabed for more than 100 years, the Lady Isabella still has her charms.

The blast home was a much more choppy affair and I regretted, my decision to partially remove my drysuit instantly as the spray soaked my face and shoulders. As compensation Mother Nature threw one last curve ball - a lone porpoise.

And with that, we returned to base.

Lady Isabella

Lady Isabella 

Candy striped flatworm

Nudibranch

Sunstar

Lady Isabella 

Lady Isabella

Candy striped flatworm