Bad Curry
On Tuesday night we decided to head to the metropolis of Kirkwell for a curry. After walking about a mile down the half mile long high street we found the curry house. The first people to arrive ordered a table for nine. When our table for nine only had eight places we should have known we where in for a bad night. It got worse when we found out they had no beer. A curry with no lager is just not worth doing. Eventually some beer was found and order was restored. We ordered and started to get stuck in, when we found that a lot of food was missing, some turned up quickly, some at the end of the meal. Needless to say - we left no tip!
The James Barrie
The James Barrie is not a very German sounding name which is just as well as she is a fishing trawler from Iceland. This was to be the deepest dive so far on the trip, at around 43 metres. She is also in one of the entrances to the flow and hence is very tidal. This time I was diving with Steve and Paul. We dropped slowly down the shot line to around 30 meters where the wreck loomed into sight. Our local expert Megan explained that the shot was on the stern and the ship was sitting bolt upright. Well she got the first bit right, but due to a recent storm the ship is now on her starboard side. The viz was simply stunning at more than 20 meters, we could see other divers light beams sweeping from side to side. True to form Steve disappeared headfirst into the first hole he came to, with Paul not far behind, I swam outside the wreck looking down the deck to the sea bed below. Coming across the wheel house I spotted a lobster and descended to try and coax it out, it was having none of it so I gave up and followed the others into the hold. Inside the hold looking at what was once the wall and is now the ceiling I was surprised to find instead of a silver roof of trapped bubbles the bubbles where disappearing into a film of oil. Darren did not see this and got covered with oil, which he promptly managed to cover the shotline with, which made trying to hold deco stops a tad harder. Coming out of a hatch we headed for the bow reaching it at around 18 minutes of bottom time. Seeing as our plan was a bottom time of only 20 minutes we turned around and headed back to the shot. By this time the current had started to flow making the trip back to the stern very quick.
We left the bottom at 23 minutes a few minutes over plan. Ascending the shot to our first decompression stop at 21 metres we saw Emily and Emma below working up the shot. Above us on the shot we saw four people at around 6 metres. We made our way to 10 metres and it became apparent that soon 11 people would be trying to decompress at 6 metres. I motioned to Steve and Paul to cut loose from the shot and put up DSMB’s, they readily agreed and Steve started to deploy his buoy from there. Pointing upwards I motioned to the 4 divers above who would have had a bit of a shock as from nowhere a 5 foot long orange torpedo zooms out from the depths. Floating off I deployed my buoy, helped Paul to inflate his then turned to look at Steve who was sheepishly holding a bit of line. Looking up I could see his buoy looking down I could see his reel heading downwards at a rapid speed. He started to pull up the line and as fast as he pulled up the reel undid. Taking off his ankle weight he clipped this to the mass of line that was threatening to engulf him, sending the weight down the line tided the line up. He pulled and pulled and eventually had the reel in his hand. All he had to do now was wind in the ankle weight and he was set. At around 10 minutes to deploy a DSMB we think this is a new world record, at least it helped to pass some of our 25 minutes of deco.
Hanging around at 5 metres a Jellyfish swam into view. Being a bit bored I purged my regulator underneath it. It soon shot to the surface. Slowly its friends started to loom out of the depths determined it would be avenged. We soon developed more signs to use on deco stops. Normally it is restricted to up down and how long have we still got, to this we added left, right, this way and that in an attempt to avoid the 30 lions main jellies that surrounded us. When our deco cleared we ascended to 3 metres for a safety stop, we soon abandoned that idea and came to the surface. Total dive time 60 minutes for 23 minutes of bottom time.
The Radiation
The Radiation is the largest wooden trawler ever made in Scotland, people said it should never have been made, and as she has managed to sink 3 times already they where probably right. Her final resting place is in 18 metres of water, which is strange as everybody managed to find 24 metres of water on her. Dropping down the shot line it soon became apparent that the viz was superb, between 12 and 20 meters depending on who you believe (leading to interesting discussion on exactly what 6 inches was). She is a small wreck with lots of holes to poke around in. The forward hold has a complete bathroom in it is strange to see yourself in a mirror underwater. Poking around in the engine room was good fun as well. A good second dive so good we did it twice.
The Koln
Apparently this was a good dive but I got lost and only saw the hull. DOH!!!
The Karlshure
This time I was diving with Paul, in all only 4 people diving this dive as everybody else was out shopping. They missed the best weather of the week it was glorious with not a cloud in the sky, not a ripple on the flow. The viz was a bit strange as it went from good to poor and back again in the space of a few seconds. We later found this was due to a scallop diver just out of sight. The wreck started out broken up as we headed in one direction it got more and more intact, we passed a gun turret stopping for a quick picture, poking our heads in holes as we went. Soon the deck leveled out with each individual plank still visible, passing capstans, bollards and chain we soon came to the end of the wreck. Paul started to make pointy shapes and I thought it was the stern so started to make steering shapes. We must have looked very strange arguing which end of the ship we where at as the Ling and Ballan wrasse where giving us very fishy looks. Swimming down the hull we came to a broken section with what looked like a rudder and prop shaft. I gleefully pointed this out to Paul, having a mooch around this we headed back over the hull and back along to the now decided bow. As we passed the shot line I decided to call the dive as I was still diving on my mornings mix and was just about to go into deco for the second time in the day. A good dive.