PJ couldn’t make the dive last Friday as he was in Germany where he met up with Uwe Oldenburg for a few glasses. Uwe, for those who don’t know is a much missed former member but we do get to chat with him on Skype from time to time.
Mike Anthony wrote Peter a few lines about the weekend which to save myself some effort I’m taking the liberty of cutting and pasting:
Yesterday we got news of a new wreck so set off with high hopes on a bearing of 284 from Hamriya on almost glassy seas but with an as yet untamed swell which held our speed down to 40kph or so. Arriving at the spot we found the echo sounder was seriously misbehaving. Eventually I traced it to the transducer which was looking horizontal. Returning it to the vertical fixed things and the we started a box search around the coordinates but to no avail.
Next was a trip to the Taha and we had a couple of goes at trying to snag that with the anchor eventually succeeding but we were 95m from the mark so decided to pull it up again. Meanwhile the wind had got up and we had 1.5m seas. The anchor was round a line and even big Marc could not raise it all the way to the surface nor could we drag it free with the engines. Geoff went in for a look and tried to cut the line but without a tank could not manage it. He returned to the boat and Marc went in with my new scissors and managed to free us. We concluded along the way that the seabed has almost totally swallowed the ship as there is very little showing above the bed.
Next was almost a 2 hour trip into the weather 31km to the Dara and Ian displayed consummate skill in getting us there without breaking the boat or any of the passengers. So in the end Derek and I were the only divers yesterday managing 40mins in soup like conditions during which we liberated 3 stuck down fish pots and several floats from nets. Along the way I managed to unanchor the boat. The anchor had managed to free itself whilst we were diving and they tied off onto a float whose down line I cut! Marc was fined for not bringing a BCD.
It was good to have a beer or two with Peter Blanchflower last Tuesday. Peter was passing through the area and dropped in on the club. He expects to be back again from time to time.
Mike Anthony wrote Peter a few lines about the weekend which to save myself some effort I’m taking the liberty of cutting and pasting:
Yesterday we got news of a new wreck so set off with high hopes on a bearing of 284 from Hamriya on almost glassy seas but with an as yet untamed swell which held our speed down to 40kph or so. Arriving at the spot we found the echo sounder was seriously misbehaving. Eventually I traced it to the transducer which was looking horizontal. Returning it to the vertical fixed things and the we started a box search around the coordinates but to no avail.
Next was a trip to the Taha and we had a couple of goes at trying to snag that with the anchor eventually succeeding but we were 95m from the mark so decided to pull it up again. Meanwhile the wind had got up and we had 1.5m seas. The anchor was round a line and even big Marc could not raise it all the way to the surface nor could we drag it free with the engines. Geoff went in for a look and tried to cut the line but without a tank could not manage it. He returned to the boat and Marc went in with my new scissors and managed to free us. We concluded along the way that the seabed has almost totally swallowed the ship as there is very little showing above the bed.
Next was almost a 2 hour trip into the weather 31km to the Dara and Ian displayed consummate skill in getting us there without breaking the boat or any of the passengers. So in the end Derek and I were the only divers yesterday managing 40mins in soup like conditions during which we liberated 3 stuck down fish pots and several floats from nets. Along the way I managed to unanchor the boat. The anchor had managed to free itself whilst we were diving and they tied off onto a float whose down line I cut! Marc was fined for not bringing a BCD.
It was good to have a beer or two with Peter Blanchflower last Tuesday. Peter was passing through the area and dropped in on the club. He expects to be back again from time to time.