View Full Version : Kintyre video
its deep, its dark, its the Kintyre...
dived the Kintyre from the shore on the 25th Feb.
if you have never done this before, have a look at the map, this will explain the video clip better.
dive site desctiption:- http://www.congeralley.com/sites/Kintyre.htm
entry from shore, head for the 'cludgie' pipe follow it down to 25m.
along the rope to the bow, dive the wreck & then back in reverse order.
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alexmaclennan
26-02-07, 22:47
What a great tour of the wreck - what was your max depth, dive time and deco time?. Did you use Nitrox 50/60% to shorten your deco?
alex
Alex,
my run time was 45 minutes.
15 down, 13 minutes on & 17 minutes back.
as this was a neap tide we traveled to half way down the stern just as the ship 'disolves' into the sand & only hit 40m.
(see Clyde shipwrecks page 70 for info).
i used air as a travel gas in my twin 10's.
my deco was worked off on the way back up the pipe (by 18m) as the slow gradient of the seabed stops you from ascending at any 'fast' rate.
i switched to a 63% mix at 15m (1.6 ppo2 @ 15.4m) on the run, while on the pipe-line.
i used this until i surfaced at the steps, covering a large section of seabed at around the 9-5m range.
i used 90 bar from my manifolded twin 10's & 40 bar from my 7 litre.
the guy in the vid at the start used 50 bar on his inspo & lets us know it. often!
A pic of how she used to be.
Out of interest, would it be possible to shore dive Kintyre on air only? Talk of 63% mix Nitrox to shorten deco tends to imply that us air breathers can't pay a visit from the shore.
Thoughts? Comments? (Has this been asked before?)
Al.
I'm sure that stew will give you a thorough answer to this query.
In the meantime though, the answer is yes. ;) Although you may not be able to explore the whole wreck on one dive. :eek:
I've conferred with stew quite a bit about this dive as I plan on doing it soon and he & his buddies have dived it quite a few times recently: so he's well clued up on the subject. I used Decochek software to check the figures using dive profile info that stew supplied me. I intend to dive it on twin 12s (air) and the (fairly conservative) plan that we were thinking of would incur 14 min of deco.
As I'm sure you're aware, this is a dive which needs a bit of forethought: tidal currents & poor viz have to be taken into account. On our first foray, we intend to "dive the pipe" & only follow the rope along if we're 100% comfortable with the conditions.
Remember and take the excellent dive guide on CA with you
Watch out for down currents they can be really dangerous here ;)
Midton,
my deco had cleared by the time i hit 18m on the ascent.
i was using air. the dive can be done with air only, no problem.
i used my mix for in-built safety reasons.
i would suggest anyone attempting a dive like this (or any other dive!) that they have a firm grasp on gas-managment.
my above figures prove the theory that Deco-check software works.
i planned a similar dive to Charlie recently, Charlie's plan was on air, mine incorporated the use of a 60% mix for deco.
both worked out to be exactly the same run time.
the gradient of the sea-bed allows you to work off your deco on the very slow ascent.
as Charlie suggests, this dive requires forethought.
main hazards can be currents, but not all of them run the same direction, as Ding suggests, 'down currents'.
i have dived here with the current running north-south near the beach & south-north at depth on the same dive.
navigation errors can be critical as the sea-bed has a slow gradient, you may run parrallel to the shore thinking your heading in-shore.
if you decide to bail out, fire up a DSMB, your a long way from the shore & now at the mercy of the faster surface current, Arran looks nice :)
watch the video again, at the start you will see the Clutha dive boat (red boat). the Clutha is sitting directly above the Kintyre, picking up divers.
look how far of-shore it is.
best way to do this dive is to have a 'guide' who has dived it before.
this is how i was introduced to it.
this is a very physically & mentally demanding dive.
Hi Stewart, cheers for the reply. It's going to be a wee while before I do Kintyre (especially at the rate I guzzle air, I'd need to leave staging bottles all the way along the route! :) ) but good to know it's not beyond the reach of us air breathers.
Thanks,
Al.
nice vid, too deep for me though. would maybe consider diving the pipe and rope then out, but probably not worth the effort.
Keep the good vids coming!!
the pipe alone is a good dive,as you can see there is plenty of live on it.
Nice video. The viz in the shallows doesn't look that bad either....
I've only dived this from a rib.....mainly cause it looks liked a long swim from the shore. Was it a leisurly 15min swim to the wreck or were you on a mission? Also has anyone ever had any problems from locals parking etc.?
I like the idea of diving it from the shore as it saves of boat costs :D
it was anything but leisurly, it was tuesday before my leg muscles relaxed to their natural state. look at my breathe rate, im generally 14-17 LPM.
if your on a ccr, you can stroll down to avoid o2 spikes.
if your on oc, you have to get the head down.
the locals dont mind you parking just so long as your not noisy & not exposing your bare botty in their windows. respect :) is good