{"id":272,"date":"2013-08-23T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bsac406.weebly.com\/dive-reports\/diving-mv-victoria-star"},"modified":"2013-08-23T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-23T09:00:00","slug":"diving-mv-victoria-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bsac.zelta.me\/?p=272","title":{"rendered":"Diving MV Victoria Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div style=\"height:20px;overflow:hidden\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"875378764154186228-slideshow\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"height:20px;overflow:hidden\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph\" style=\"text-align:left;\">There really wasn\u2019t much discussion about the target for the weekend. Those of us who missed the first dive on the Victoria Star last Friday were keen to get out there and see it for ourselves. It\u2019s quite close inshore which makes for a quick ride out there but does leave it close to the shipping lanes. It\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess whether the authorities will decide to buoy the wreck or destroy it \u2013 we\u2019d obviously prefer the former \u2013 but something needs doing.<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>Anchoring took a couple of attempts but we hooked in before too long and got diving. The viz was adequate rather than spectacular \u2013 I suspect that being close to the dredged areas it won\u2019t get much better \u2013 but I\u2019ve seen far worse. Mike D and PJ came up in complete certainty about the anchor position:<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>\u201cAmidship\u201d<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>\u201cNo the stern\u201d<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>\u201cPortside\u201d<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>\u201cNo starboard\u201d<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>Armed with this priceless information me and Cath went for a look. It\u2019s not often we get to dive a wreck as recent as this one (the Mariam Express was the last one) and it\u2019s fascinating to tour round a boat that\u2019s almost pristine apart from being underwater. It\u2019s hard not to smile when you see a large sign saying: \u201cSAFETY FIRST\u201d. Someone was obviously not paying attention.<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>The wreck is about 80m long and sitting upright. The cargo of concrete blocks has tipped around quite a bit though it\u2019s not clear if this was a factor in the sinking. It\u2019s not an obvious deliberate sinking the way the Sea King 5 was and the way the Ajman Glory may have been. I can foresee a few more visits in the near future.<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>All in all a good day and I think it\u2019s only fair to overlook such misdemeanours as PJ going over the side without his air switched on or Brian cutting the wrong line attached to his lifting bag.<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>This was the last dive (for a while) for Chris De Klerk who is returning home although he hopes to get back here in the not too far distant future. A pleasure to dive with you Chris and we hope to see you again soon.<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>Overheard on the way back to the club:<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>\u201cIs the small boat behind us or in front?\u201d<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>\u201cBehind I hope\u201d<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>\u201cWhy, is Mike towing it?\u201d<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>\u201cNo, we are\u201d<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>The photos (worth a thousand words) are by Polly Buckingham, and can be seen above. PJ&#8217;s video will be premiered on Tuesday.<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There really wasn\u2019t much discussion about the target for the weekend. Those of us who missed the first dive on the Victoria Star last Friday were keen to get out there and see it for ourselves. It\u2019s quite close inshore which makes for a quick ride out there but does leave it close to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dive-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bsac.zelta.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bsac.zelta.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bsac.zelta.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bsac.zelta.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bsac.zelta.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bsac.zelta.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bsac.zelta.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bsac.zelta.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bsac.zelta.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}