regthing
12-08-07, 19:17
Hello.
Dived these two ships with PeterM, Chris, Dan, DB1 and Mogwai with Dive Bunker (http://www.divebunker.co.uk/) on the 11th August. Thanks to Peter for arranging the trip.
The day started with a pishy drive through from Greenock. But as usual once I got past Glasgow the rain eased a bit, still no sign of the glorious sunshine we had had the previous two days though. Unusual for me I was actually early so had time for a special treat, breakfast at Burger King :cool:
The main dive for the day was the Campania but slack water wasn't until later in the afternoon so was to be the 2nd dive. The 1st dive hadn't been decided yet and was a toss up between Blae Rock and the Royal Archer. As the title suggests the Royal Archer won.
Dive Bunker (http://www.divebunker.co.uk/) have a nice set up. The impressive 9m RIB is on a trailer in the car park so getting kitted up and the boat loaded is a breeze. It's then a very short drive, with us all in the boat, to the slip and we're ready to go.
After a short fast trip out to the wreck, with the slight rain hitting like hailstones, Mark the skipper shot the wreck like a pro amidships. I buddied up with DB1 and once we where all kitted up in we got. Stephen and I were in last. The visibility was not too bad at around 3m in torch light. Mark expected some ambient light on the wreck but can't say I noticed it too much. We had the task of folding up the grapple so once that was done we headed to the stern. We passed over the remains of two lorries and the ships boilers. Life on the wreck was good with lots of the usual dead mans fingers and array of crabs. We were also treated to a parade by an impressive looking lobster. Got to the stern with its hand rails still in place. I was showing 3mins of NDL time left so we headed back for the shot line. No luck in finding it and we managed to end up on a silty sea bed not 100% sure where the wreck was so up went a blob and we where heading home incurring 4 mins of deco.
We than headed off for the Campania. Once we where there we found ourselves being closely monitored by some local seals. After seeing previous reports of diving this wreck I wasn't expecting the viz to be that great but was more hopefully after what we had on the Archer. Stephen and I where the last down again and just as had entered the water one of the woman from the center surfaced and shouted over that one of the seals had buzzed the wreck and kicked up a lot of silt. We descended the line and instantly could see that the visibility was a lot worse. My fins actually hit a bit of plate sticking up behind me before I seen any of the wreck. Once we where there we where treated to another fine display of white and orange being tiptoed over by crabs. Again it was our job to fold up the grapple. By this stage I could no longer see Stephen as yet again he was leading and was looking for the grapple, I followed the line as it snaked through some plates but I ended up in a cloud of silt. The visibility at this point was so bad that I couldn't even read my computer with the backlight on :eek: . The awareness that I could easily be in an overhead situation struck me so I gave a three tugs on the line and got three back from Stephen so I headed back out of the cloud and waited for Stephen, when he re-emargered I signaled to head back up. Call me old fashioned but I like to see where I'm diving. So we headed up. I got beat at naughts and crosses on the safety stop :rolleyes: I didn’t feel so bad for calling the dive after Stephen told me that he realised that the weight block he found on the wreck turned out to be his which would have made for a more interesting ascent had he had less air in his cylinders.
All in all a good day out.
Had a bit of a drama on the way home when Peter and I witnessed a guy leaving the road backwards down an embankment into a tree. Luckily no one was seriously hurt, the driver, his wife and kid walked out but has Dad had a suspected broken collar bone or shoulder blade. Not too good.
Now I just need to rinse my gear out....
Dived these two ships with PeterM, Chris, Dan, DB1 and Mogwai with Dive Bunker (http://www.divebunker.co.uk/) on the 11th August. Thanks to Peter for arranging the trip.
The day started with a pishy drive through from Greenock. But as usual once I got past Glasgow the rain eased a bit, still no sign of the glorious sunshine we had had the previous two days though. Unusual for me I was actually early so had time for a special treat, breakfast at Burger King :cool:
The main dive for the day was the Campania but slack water wasn't until later in the afternoon so was to be the 2nd dive. The 1st dive hadn't been decided yet and was a toss up between Blae Rock and the Royal Archer. As the title suggests the Royal Archer won.
Dive Bunker (http://www.divebunker.co.uk/) have a nice set up. The impressive 9m RIB is on a trailer in the car park so getting kitted up and the boat loaded is a breeze. It's then a very short drive, with us all in the boat, to the slip and we're ready to go.
After a short fast trip out to the wreck, with the slight rain hitting like hailstones, Mark the skipper shot the wreck like a pro amidships. I buddied up with DB1 and once we where all kitted up in we got. Stephen and I were in last. The visibility was not too bad at around 3m in torch light. Mark expected some ambient light on the wreck but can't say I noticed it too much. We had the task of folding up the grapple so once that was done we headed to the stern. We passed over the remains of two lorries and the ships boilers. Life on the wreck was good with lots of the usual dead mans fingers and array of crabs. We were also treated to a parade by an impressive looking lobster. Got to the stern with its hand rails still in place. I was showing 3mins of NDL time left so we headed back for the shot line. No luck in finding it and we managed to end up on a silty sea bed not 100% sure where the wreck was so up went a blob and we where heading home incurring 4 mins of deco.
We than headed off for the Campania. Once we where there we found ourselves being closely monitored by some local seals. After seeing previous reports of diving this wreck I wasn't expecting the viz to be that great but was more hopefully after what we had on the Archer. Stephen and I where the last down again and just as had entered the water one of the woman from the center surfaced and shouted over that one of the seals had buzzed the wreck and kicked up a lot of silt. We descended the line and instantly could see that the visibility was a lot worse. My fins actually hit a bit of plate sticking up behind me before I seen any of the wreck. Once we where there we where treated to another fine display of white and orange being tiptoed over by crabs. Again it was our job to fold up the grapple. By this stage I could no longer see Stephen as yet again he was leading and was looking for the grapple, I followed the line as it snaked through some plates but I ended up in a cloud of silt. The visibility at this point was so bad that I couldn't even read my computer with the backlight on :eek: . The awareness that I could easily be in an overhead situation struck me so I gave a three tugs on the line and got three back from Stephen so I headed back out of the cloud and waited for Stephen, when he re-emargered I signaled to head back up. Call me old fashioned but I like to see where I'm diving. So we headed up. I got beat at naughts and crosses on the safety stop :rolleyes: I didn’t feel so bad for calling the dive after Stephen told me that he realised that the weight block he found on the wreck turned out to be his which would have made for a more interesting ascent had he had less air in his cylinders.
All in all a good day out.
Had a bit of a drama on the way home when Peter and I witnessed a guy leaving the road backwards down an embankment into a tree. Luckily no one was seriously hurt, the driver, his wife and kid walked out but has Dad had a suspected broken collar bone or shoulder blade. Not too good.
Now I just need to rinse my gear out....