It Started out as Salcombe... - 25-27th August 2012

by Ken Gordon and Jane Jackson

Saturday by Ken

 

Saturday on the dive formally know as Salcombe...

Off to N50°20'56.67" W3°34'38.47" (aka Dartmouth harbour office steps...) we go, 105 of Dagenham's best horses dragging two sets of dive kit up hills almost at walking pace.

In Dartmouth various members of bsac42 leap out of a waterside breakfast place and point us the correct way.

The boat is blue and quite cosy, very much a squash and a squeeze.

Once all the kit has been shoehorned into place all the drivers are thrown off to make more room or maybe to park *on the other side of the river* we motor across to pick them up on the Kingswear side.

The first dive was a low reef off Tinsey Head, a bit north of Start Point and offering a good view of the lighthouse.

The bottom, about 15 to 18m, was a mixture of boring sand with the odd scallop and more interesting rock formations. These were like slate on edge, rising maybe a meter or so, with lots of long thing gullies to hide in. Hiding was further aided by the poor vis, maybe a couple of metres. There were plenty of crabs, mostly swimming ones but a couple of medium sized edible ones too. A few small fish were hanging about but mostly the game of not losing your buddy occupied the mind. It couldn't have been too bad though, we lasted about 40 minutes before starting back for the surface.

After some hours trying to figure out how to get the less liquid fraction of chicken soup out of a mug while motoring north back towards Dartmouth we jumped in for the second dive. This was on an underwater pinnacle lying between a couple of sets of rather pointy and upright rocks on the north side of the river mouth.

The bottom is in the twenty somethings, we saw 19, and the top about 10. This was rather like diving a wreck life wise, with the usual pouting and pollock appearing as silhouettes in the mixed vis, dead mens fingers and some great anemones. The vis varied from "ooops where has she gone?" to maybe 3m. Despite the rubbish vis this was a good dive, we managed nearly fifty minutes, and would be excellent dive in better conditions.

The grey but calm day had deteriorated to a grey an blowy day, so getting out was more of fairground ride than usual. Since we were close to home it didn't take long to get back in, get air, go to the pub etc...

 

Sunday by Jane

Arrived in Dartmouth Harbour at 8.00 am, and the place was already buzzing. A much more pleasant day, sun was shining and much of Dartmouth seemed to be taking the opportunity to get into their boats and yachts, the gig racing heats had started before we left the harbour, as a prelude to the following weekend’s Dartmouth Regatta.

First dive of the day was on an old collier the Bretagne which sank in 1918. The wreck is around 250ft (70m) in length and lies in about 30m of water, about 5 miles east of Torquay. The shot line was well sited on the wreck and Brett and I made an easy descent to the upper deck of the wreck. As with all the dives of the weekend, the visibility was poor, but might have been the best of the four, at about 3m for most of the time. The wreck actually looked like a ship, not just the usual hunks of strewn metal so often found. It was also very popular with fish, although I failed to see any congers, which several buddy pairs spotted, there were more fish mainly pouting and pollock on this wreck (albeit spotted through the gloom) than I’ve seen in UK waters – which explained the presence of anglers over the wreck and the odd bits of filament and angling weights caught up on the wreck. Swam between decks coming up beside a pulley encrusted on to the deck. Swam over the side and came across several edible crab in the crevices caused by the degradation of the wreck. Brett found a good sized lobster but couldn’t persuade it out of its hidey-hole. There were several types of anemone together with dead man’s fingers. Made our way back to the shot line, and used it to ascend, making the usual safety stop at 6m.

The second dive site was back towards Dartmouth at the Mewstone (there seems to be several of these – certainly one near Plymouth, and I guess is a name given to rocks offshore frequented by sea birds). The tedium of the journey was enlivened by lots of sea birds, particularly gannets diving/plummeting into the water and the wind was also beginning to pick up a bit so it was more bouncy. We anchored in the shelter of the Mewstone and soup was served (an interesting variation on pulse and smoked meat) lentil, I think, and smoked sausage.

The Mewstone was formed of a ridge of rock square to the land, which continued in a curve under water for some distance. The top of the ridge was some 11-8m deep and landward side descended to about 20 m, with the seaward down to at least 30m. The shot was on the landward side. Brett and I descended down the shot, tracking the ridge away from the Mewstone on the landward side. Briefly popping over to the seaward side, before tracking the top of the ridge back into the shelter of the Mewstone. There was not so much life here as there had been in the morning, but lots of small starfish and a few pieces of soft coral, together with several spider crab. Made a more rapid ascent than was desirable, and Brett followed shortly afterwards.

 

On the journey back to Dartmouthit was clear that the wind had continued to pick, but fortunately it was only a short journey back to Dartmouth. However, during the course of the journey the skipper checked the shipping forecast and informed us that the following day would be force 5-7, southerlies – and therefore with the wind blowing straight on to land, no sheltered spots along the coast for diving the next day.

Holborough Lakes (T)raining Day - 14th July 2012

by Victor Grayson

Saturday saw 17 of us trot down the road to Holborough Lakes for a day of training. There were 5 Ocean Diver trainees, 4 Sports Diver trainees, 6 instructors and Sally who came along simply to get some dives in (but ended up joining in with the SD trainees, doing rescue skills), and a guest appearance was put in by long-lost diver and former Club Treasurer Anna.

Brett had organised the day into 4 sessions. First, OD trainees got in the water to do the basic skills (mask clearance, DV retrieval etc) that they’d already practiced in the pool, while SD trainees were shown how to use a compass in a dry practical with Kim. The remaining 3 sessions alternated wet and dry, with OD trainees (Bjorn, Grant, Nav, Raj and Tom) ticking off various skills, and SD trainees getting familiar with Resusci Annie and her terrifying clicking sternum.

The 2 SD dives (sessions 2 and 4) were eventful due to the very bad visibility. The lake was especially busy with several clubs and schools present that morning, resulting in rather a lot of silt being kicked up and visibility ranging from practically zero to a metre or 2 towards the far end of the lake. This meant repeated loss of buddy/instructor/orientation, but Adam and Victor managed a successful compass navigation from a platform to a wreck, and all SD trainees (including Alan and Elaine, now in re-tailored drysuits) completed a Controlled Buoyant Lift followed by a very tiring tow with rescue breaths. We were knackered, yet inspired by Brett’s rousing “you’ve-got-it-easy-I-had-to-tow-Ross-in-a-howling-gale-in-the-Atlantic-whilst-being-attacked-by-albatrosses-and-all-I’d-had-for-lunch-was-a-handful-of-hot-gravel” speech.

It rained, but as it was warm and not windy, it was tolerable, although our kit got pretty muddy. We were all packed up and (vehicle problems aside) ready to go at 2.30pm.

Big thanks to the instructors – Kim, Brett, Mariette, Lars, Ed and Steve – for their patience and for giving up their Saturday for a murky but fun day out in Kent.

Committee Meeting - 20 June 2012

On Wednesday, June 20th, the club committee had a meeting to discuss ongoing training, kit status, the dive calendar, etc.

Kit

• We reviewed the Equipment Rental agreement: all Ocean Divers have access to club kit as long as they are in training. Once qualified, all members are subject to a kit rental fee. (see the Equipement Rent Form and the T&Cs on our website).
• With limited club kit availability for open water dives, each member will only be able to rent one cylinder per days' diving
• As part of ongoing kit reviews and upkeep, most of the kit have been serviced for this season

Dive Calendar

• The Nemo 33 trip (Brussels) has been scheduled for November 17th & 18th - this promises to be a good weekend trip, so all are welcome!
• Going forward, all members will be included in organising the club dive calendar. The recent survey provided good insight into the majority's preferences, so this will be used as a reference for the 2013 dive calendar

Other

• BSAC's Litterpick project seem like a good potential club activity - we're exploring options
• We're looking into options for a Summer BBQ - suggestions welcome!
• A Rescue Skills Review night will be arranged one Wednesday night - ALL members will be encouraged to attend

Strange how a 3h meeting can be summed up in a few lines...

Let us know if you have any questions.  

Scapa Flow June 3rd -8th 2012

Four members from the branch (myself; Brett; Ken and Eddie), were joined by 5 members from other BSAC branches (Dave Porter from DAGSAC; Serge Weinstock from Clidive; Mike Tonge and Cat Burgess from Hellfins; Mary-Ann Craig from BSAC Direct) to dive Scapa Flow and the Outer Islands over the diamond jubilee weekend……

We all travelled up on the Friday, with a stay overnight in Inverness, with the final leg to Scrabster to catch the ferry to Stromness.

I was picked up at 5.00am Friday morning by Brett in the car. The planned estate car was replaced with a saloon car, so some economical packing was required. Fortunately we were hiring cylinders from the boat, so both space and weight was saved, but with two lots of dive kit and luggage the car quickly filled up……, and we still needed to pack one more passenger.

Arriving in North London at 5.45, we picked up Mary-Ann, who fortunately packed light, we got everything in the car and headed north up the M1; M6 and M6 toll; so by 9.00am we were near Manchester.

With a rotation of drivers, we arrived at the Tullibardine distillery halfway between Stirling and Perth at 13.15 with a tour booked for 14:00. It really didn’t take much discussion before a “trip” bottle was bought…!

With a scenic tour via Fort William we arrived at the B&B in Inverness a little after 19:00.

The Saturday morning, following a hearty Scottish breakfast, we all set off to Scrabster….!

Arriving in Stromness at 13.00 on the Saturday it was a short drive to the MV Valkyrie, rated one of the best liveaboard dive charter boats in the world. Luggage loaded and kit assembled; we were ready to go!

DAY 1 - Sunday

SMS Karlsruhe

A light cruiser of the Konigsburg II-class.  It lies on its starboard side and was in approximately 28m metres of water. Visibility was very good being in excess of 10m. Much of the ship has been damaged by salvage operations with several salvage breaks, but the remaining parts still contain many interesting features with an intact stern section complete with anchor capstans and the anchor.

F2 and YC21 barge –This dive consists of descending the shot line to the YC21 barge that was used in salvage operations which sank in a storm in 1968, which while significantly smaller was almost more interesting. With easy penetration to the cabin, a frame that contains part of a mirror is still mounted on the wall. The holds still contain a gun salvaged from the F2 as well as also containing the winch engines and a generator.  A line across the seabed takes you to the F2. The F2 was a torpedo recovery vessel and never really took part in any action and isn’t part of the German fleet that was scuttled, it sank in 1946. The boat lies on its port side in 18m of quite cold water. Visibility was very good being in excess of 10m. The wreck has also been extensively salvaged around the stern. Unrecognisable wreckage lies strewn all over the sea bed. The bridge structure is quite intact and the mainmast still lies across the seabed. On the foredeck there is a well preserved 4 inch gun turret with its breech mechanism exposed for inspection by the interested diver. Anchor chains are clearly visible as are the paraphernalia of cleats and capstans.

The afternoon saw us off exploring some of the Neolithic heritage with a long walk from the Stones of Stenness, the nearby Neolithic  Barnhouse settlement discovered in 1984 and then to the large diameter Ring of Brogdar….

DAY 2 - Monday

SMS Dresden

Lying on her port side the seabed was at 27m at the bow and 38m at the stern she rests  on its starboard side, it is almost intact. With both a stern and bow shot line, we descended the shot line on the stern, which was attached to the rear guns near the officer's quarters where even the bath is still fitted.  

The hull itself is relatively intact apart from salvage damage around the engine room, with the bridge structure still intact. At the bow, the shield (which would have been painted) is still attached to the hull just at the bow.  

Seydlitz debris field - The Seydlitz was fully salvaged, but debris remains over the depression where the ship lay. However a current saw this change to a drift dive which took us away from the wreck site, although we did come across the searchlight irises and the ship’s anchor.

The afternoon of Monday saw us off to visit the Maes Howe, a spectacular Neolithic chambered cairn built with layered stone slabs. Built some 5000 years ago it is older than the pyramids of Giza and Stonehenge. It was occupied by the Vikings in the 12^th Century as a shelter from a storm, where they carved “kilroy was here” type graffiti in their native runic writing.

DAY 3 - Tuesday

SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm

One of the large Konig-class dreadnought battleships of the German Fleet that fought in the Battle of Jutland, it settled virtually upside-down on its starboard main deck in 38 metres of water. Much of the superstructure is buried in the seabed.

This wreck is enormous! Her hull, however, is relatively smooth and uncluttered. To get the most from this wreck you must get to the sea bed and work on alongside or in by descending off the port side of the hull. With about 4m between the port deck and the seabed this dive is not for beginners!

Along the gunwales are the casemate gun turrets - 7 per side. Although many are badly broken the forward two are still relatively intact.

Our dive was cut short when my 2^nd regulator decided to provide 75% sea water with every breath.

SMS Brummer – A mine laying cruiser this lies on its starboard side in 34 metres of water we descended the shot line and then headed towards the stern.  The salvage break allowed entry into the coal hold.  Proceeding towards the bow another swim through along the mine tunnel with an exit hole.  With 25 minutes deco racked up, we ascended back up the shot line with total time underwater of 68 minutes.

Day 3 also saw the lighting of the Stromness Jubilee Beacon on Brinkie's Brae, the hill above the town. It was a bitterly cold evening, but warmed up considerable once lit. The evening ended with a beer in the pub.

DAY 4 - Wednesday

SMS Markgraf

Another of the dreadnought König-class battleships and was lying in 44m to the seabed almost upside down on her port side.  

My second dive of the day was aborted soon after jumping in with a free-flowing Octopus that wouldn't stop.

DAY 5 - Thursday

SMS Coln

The Coln is relatively intact light cruiser and sister ship to the SMS Dresden, with a single salvage break towards the stern. The shot line was attached to the lifeboat davits, and immediately went forwards where a large hole in the hull plates near the bow lead to a long swim-through. The armour control tower was evident along this route, where you could either go over or under the tower. Going under would be a far more dangerous penetration, so passing over the top we exited the swim through near the lifeboat davits where we started.  Proceeding to the stern past the salvage break aft guns were evident.

SMS Brummer – Weather was now playing a significant part in determining dive sites, with some really not diveable because of the sea state, hence a return visit to the SMS Brummer

DAY 6 - Friday

F2 and YC21 barge - The weather was quite stormy, and while the original plan was a return to the SMS Dresden, the sea state was too rough, we reverted to the more sheltered site of the F2 cruiser and YC21 barge.

The second dive of the day was called off due to the weather, so Plan B was put into operation – The Pub!

The end of Day 6 saw Brett, I and Mary-Ann, heading off to Kirkwall to catch the midnight ferry to Aberdeen, where with a berth booked we woke early on the Saturday morning to drive the long road home......

Messing about on boats.....

On the evening of the 18th June, I was messing about with boats......

As a recent new member of the Maritime Volunteer Service based at the City of London unit near Tower Bridge, alongside Brett also, we get to practice boat handling, whether a RIB or a chance to play with their hardboat LD1.

Anyway back to the events of 18th June....

The RIB had been brought back to its Tower Bridge base earlier that day after being berthed in Putney for a few weeks. The task was to then drive the RIB back to Putney taking one of the earlier crew so he could pick up his car. Driving a RIB back up to Putney you are limited to 12 knot speed limit until you get to Wandsworth Bridge when the speed limit drops to 8 knots. Along the way you have to avoid the other much larger vessels such as the Thames Clipper or other pleasure craft.

Having successfully dropped the earlier crewman off at Putney, we turned around to head back to base, passing the various landmarks on the way.......

As we approached the Houses of Parliament, we ran out of fuel......which is not a good idea. We managed to avoid drifting into the exclusion zone outside parliament (special forces with guns are likely to be pointing them at you!), we drifted under Westminster bridge, while refuelling the tank from the gerry can......

Having then re-primed the system we tried to start the engine....NOTHING! The battery was flat?

By now, we are a hazard to the Thames Clipper who helpfully slow down to allow us to be tied on the their side and towed gently into the London Eye pontoon......


By now the word has reached the City of London unit, who thankfully had enough people to raise a crew for LD1 who came up river to tow us back......

The rescue from the London Eye pontoon.....

On the return to base, it was determined that actually it was the starter motor that was f*%ked...


 On the evening of the 18th June, I was messing about with boats......!

Another sunny day - Brighton 13th May

by Victor Grayson

Due to Eastbourne being blown out 2 weeks ago, our first dive of the year with Dagenham Sub Aqua Club (DAGSAC) saw us venture down to Brighton Marina, for 2 dives from the boat Brighton Diver II. Leaving London at a not-too-painful 7am, 4 of us joined 7 DAGSAC members for ropes away just before 10am. Paul was the skipper, and the boat was great: it had space, tea and a lift – 3 things that make any right-minded diver happy.

Although we had originally planned to dive the Pentrych wreck first (that was the site some of us visited on a recent trip from Shoreham, and had excellent visibility), we instead travelled further out to dive a wreck (or wrecks?) whose identity is/are uncertain, but which is/are known by many divers as the City of London. When we arrived, the boat Buccaneer was already there – skippered by Chris with Dave, that’s the boat we went out with from Shoreham the other week.

Descending using a line, there were no problems finding the wreck(s), which cover a fairly large area and which is/are very broken up. We reached depths of around 24 metres, seeing edible crab, starfish, anemone, soft coral and lots of bib, as well as beautiful shimmering pollock towards the end of the dive. We had been forewarned about the visibility, but 3 metres still let us see plenty. Unfortunately, due to a lack of a properly fitting suit, Elaine had to sit out this dive. Ken, Alan and I formed a buddy trio, and DAGSAC members buddied up to match experienced and less experienced divers (including one diver doing her first dip in British sea water). We ascended a little messily with a DSMB, clocked 34 minutes in the water, and got back on board using the boat’s lift.

The second dive – which Alan didn’t do, and in fact slept through it in the cabin – was a drift along an apparently un-named ridge just south of Brighton. The ridge was more or less a continuous 9.5 metre depth, although we could go off into deeper areas along the way (but didn’t, as we feared the kraken). Visibility wasn’t great – 1 metre, possibly 1.5 in places, but we still came across a plaice and other fish. The most impressive thing we saw was the tail of a large conger eel, and – in another hole further long – it’s very wide body, however we couldn’t find a third hole with its head. During the dive Ken and I couldn’t understand why our DSMB was being pulled in the opposite direction to the current – later on, over lunch, we learnt that it had become entangled with a DAGSAC DSMB, which eventually had to be abandoned (but was later retrieved on the surface). Sorry, DAGSAC – we had no idea! After a 28 minute dive, exit from the water was less fun as the waves had begun to pick up, but there were no real problems, thanks to the boat’s lift.

Elaine – full of the energy that us weary divers lacked – unloaded all of our kit onto the jetty, and heroically carried a cylinder at least some of the way to and from The Brighton Dive Centre for filling. Whilst that was being done, the 4 of us went to eat outside, overlooking the marina, with the sun still shining. Some of now have pink foreheads (the only lobster we saw today). On the way home we visited Ken’s friends in Brighton, and got home around 8pm.

It was great to meet Gillian and the rest of the friendly bunch from DAGSAC, the dives were fun, the boat was great, the weather was AMAZING, and the lunch hit the spot. A grand day out.

Divefest Lite! - 5-7th May

We did it again! Despite Divefest being cancelled earlier in the year due to sponsorship issues the event still went ahead with a slightly reduced supplier base but the diving and entertainment were still top notch.

We managed 3 days of diving although Monday got cancelled as the weather looked like it was going to be bad so the hard boats went home.

Despite that we had a great trip and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves with a couple of people getting their first sea dives in.

Bjorn's Report

The boat set off at 1pm, the tide was low so the boat was quite a way down off the quayside. This meant all kinds of wizardry was needed to get 24 cylinders and all the other gear down safely. There were some big swells in the sea so we needed to ensure our cylinders were well secured. We travelled to the first dive site, which was a reef. My buddy Clive was briefing me on what was going to happen during the dive. Safety procedures to follow if we got separated and what was going to happen at the end of the dive regarding the DSMB.

We got our equipment ready and performed our buddy check. When we reached the site, pairs of divers exited the rear of the boat. I took a large stride into the water and swam over the marker buoy. I got a rush of cold across my back and I realised that in the heat of the moment I forgot to zip up my suit! It was too late to do anything about that so I just had to suck it up. We gave each other the OK signal followed by the descend signal and we went down following the rope to the bottom.

We reached the bottom which was at a depth of about 20 metres. I had added 2kg to compensate for the extra buoyancy of the sea, but felt that I was quite heavy and took me a while to become neutral. There was a reasonable current and we were being drifted across the reef. The visibility was much better than I expected at about 8-10 metres. It was a very peaceful and relaxing dive considering my semi-dry suit was undone and I didn't really fall victim to the cold nearly as much as I anticipated. We saw spider crabs walking about, various corals and some beautiful fish. We even found a scallop which we kept for eating later. We regularly acknowledged each other with the OK signal and regular updates on my air supply.

When my air reached 100 bar we stopped, Clive unrolled his DSMB, handed me the reel and began filling it with air. When it got enough lift He let go and it shot up to the surface. We ascended up the cable towards our 6m safety stop. As the air expanded we got lighter meaning we had to dump air out along the way, but i was unfamiliar with this BCD and the dump was very short. I couldn't find it quickly enough and at approx 8 metres I shot to the surface.

Clive came up to about 3-4 metres and told me to descend, which I did, back down to 6 metres. We stayed here as long as we could (10 minutes) to prevent any DCI. Then we reached the surface where we waved the signal to the boat, which came and retrieved us. When we both got back on board we debriefed and Clive decided against doing the second dive as a safety precaution.

All in all it was a very enjoyable dive which I thought went generally very well. Two things I have learnt from this dive is always remember to do up your suit! Secondly, be much more ready to respond quickly to buoyancy on the ascent.

Peter's Report

I enjoyed my first two dives at Dive Fest 2012 and how different they were. My first dive was like a fun dive, the second dive was more instructive. My first time out in a small boat, which was moving all over the place, was ok. When standing I found riding the movement of the boat with your knee’s helpeed, or being on my hands and knees.

On my first dive I had taken a little too long to jump in as the boat was still moving and I guess moving further away from the buoy. Once in the water my buddy (Clive) and I OK'd each other and went down. About 10 meters down I did a buoyancy check and went diving. We saw lots of Hermit Crabs, Spider Crabs, Wrasse and a mix of Ballan Wrasse,  lovely blue florescent fishes.

My second dive, I was in a lot quicker and together with my buddy (Kim) went down. I was surprise to find so much seaweed, was not sure if I could touch it, which made me take a little longer to sort out my buoyancy. I stayed very close to my buddy whilst he explored the dark areas with his torch, diving through the seaweed checking under small cliff rocks and under debris.  We saw Wrasse and a mix of Ballan Wrasse and Corkwing Wrasse, Spider Crabs and Edible Crabs. Also various anemones around and within the boiler. By now I was down to 100 bars of air and it was time to head home.

Two great dives which will be add to my experience of diving. I would like to thank Clive and Kim for my day and to thank all that were there on the day.

Can't wait for next year!