UKRS trip to the Clyde
1st to 4th June 2002
Digs
arranged this trip through Clyde Diving,
and we were booked aboard the MV
Clutha which was skippered by Elaine. The team for this 4 day break
consisted of: Digs, Rob Hampton, Andy Cookson, Keith Lawrence, Kate Rowley, Alan
Walker, Craig Ballingall, Jim Gordon, Mark Lester, Rich Meese, Louise Thompson
& Steve Jones.
I set out on the Friday at 11 o’ clock for the long drive
north. I met Louise near Worcester and transferred her dive gear into my car.
After many miles and hours we finally arrived at Largs to book in at Roberta’s
Guest house at 8pm.
Other than one or two familiarisation dives this was to be
the first time that Louise and I had used our new twin sets, so we were both
looking forward to the 4 days diving.
Day one
Dive One
Akka, Run time 39 minutes, Max depth 31.5. EAN30
The Akka was built in Sweden in 1942, she was 442 feet long and 56 feet wide. She sunk in 1956 after hitting some rocks. At her bows the water is 30 metres deep and at the stern 40 metres. The deck slopes from 16 metres to 24 metres.
My first reaction upon reaching the wreck was “who turned
out the lights?” This was to set the scene for the rest of the dives. Although
the viz varied from 1 to 4 metres
there was very little natural light penetration, and all one could see when
looking upwards was a faint green glow.
The wreck was plastered with Plumose Anemones. These were
the biggest that I have ever seen, up to 15 inches in height. In addition there
were many other types of anemone, and any metal that did not have anemones on
them was covered with a carpet of Brittlestars. The companionways provide some
nice swim alongs and the holds are also accessible, with care, as it would be
all to easy to lose ones bearings here and become disorientated.
Dive Two
Greenock, Run time 35 minutes, Max depth 28.0, EAN30
This ship was built in 1876 and was 181 feet long and 38 feet wide. She sunk in 1902 after a collision with another ship. She was built as a bucket dredger to keep the port of Greenock clear. During WW2 the navy placed 2 mines alongside of her to act as sea defences. These were detonated in 1996.
Once again traveling down the shot line visibility was very restricted, indeed the first thing that I knew about the wreck was when it hit me in the chest. Even after this happened I could not see it until I used my torch. Again plenty of anemones to see but no fish.
The first attempt at winning the kit loss award was
submitted on this dive when Digs’ McMahon reel became detached from the DSMB
while handing it aboard and it plunged back to the depths.
I think that it was on this dive that Rob also became an
entrant for this award when he lost his goodie bag, which contained a crab.
Day Two
Dive Three
Kintire, Run time 40 minutes, Max Depth 35.0, EAN30
The Kintire was built in 1868 and was 184 feet long and 22 feet wide. She was a small passenger steamship and was apparently a very graceful ship. The ship in common with many before and since, came to grief after a collision with another ship.
Diving as a 3 this time along with Keith and Louise. The
wreck has settled on a considerable slope where the maximum depth could be 53
metres, with the minimum seabed at 30 metres. We made our way down the port side
until we reached 35 metres and then back to the shot line which was on the bows.
From here there was another permanent line which led off to a disused sewage
pipe. This pipe was again covered in various anemones and the sandy bed to the
side of it home to lots of crabs. As this pipe was sloping upwards it provided a
convenient way of offgassing prior to bagging off at 5 metres for the skipper to
come and fetch us.
While we were all on the boat talking about the dive we
realised that one diver had overshot his planned dive time. The rule that we had
established was that if you overshot by more than 5 minutes then you had to buy
a round of drinks. Well, over there in the distance, by the sewage pipe, was the
DSMB of Rich Meese who had overshot his time by about 15 minutes, giving him a
run time close to 90 minutes. When he finally surfaced he asked the RIB skipper
(our boat could not get in as it was too shallow) what the score in the football
match was. When told he rechecked if this was indeed the England match. The
skipper told him that this was the score in the final as he had been in the water
for so long.
Dive Four
Wallachia, Run time 30 minutes, Max Depth 30.0, EAN28
The Wallachia was built in 1883 and was 259 feet long and 36 feet wide, and was sunk as the result of a collision with another ship.
This was another wreck that was a swarming mass of
Brittlestars. The shot is permanently placed close to the bows on the port side.
Coming inwards from this you can access the forward holds in which there are
whisky bottles. The rear holds apparently have beer bottles in them. Our 3
managed to get separated this time which left me on my own, so after searching
around for the agreed time I bagged off and surfaced.
Day Three
Dive Five
Beagle, Run time 54 minutes, Max Depth 32.5, EAN24
The Beagle was 189 feet long and 26 feet wide. She was only one year old when she sunk after a collision off Skate point.
This dive was planned as a decompression dive, which Keith would call when he had 7 minutes of deco on his computer. Although we did slightly more and after two deeper stops (not required, but put in anyway) we had 13 minutes of stop at 3 metres.
On the deck of the ship there is not much to see, and it is
therefore necessary to drop into the hold. We spent most of our time in one
particular one where we saw a conger eel, plus some squat lobsters. I also had a
problem while in this hold as I was stung across the face by some jellyfish
tentacles. This was causing some discomfort during the deco stop, but this was
nothing compared to the discomfort once I got on the boat.
This dive provide us with our second free drink of the
holiday when Fuzzy overstayed his planned time by running up a 78 minute dive.
Prior to the dive Keith also stacked his claim for the kit
damage award by breaking the handle on his McMahon reel. Fortunately he carries
umpteen spares of just about everything that you could ever possibly need for a
dive.
Kate logged her entry for kit damage after this dive by
ripping her neck seal. Now we are not talking a little rip her, but a great rip
from top to bottom.
Dive Six
I sat out this dive due to the jellyfish stings. Indeed the
pain remained with me until about 10 hours after the initial sting. The others
went in for some scalloping, although only 2 returned with their catch. The best
excuse came from Craig who said that a crab had walked off with his goodie bag.
He later said that this was not exactly what happened, but I am not prepared to
let the facts get in the way of a good quotation.
This dive also provided another entry for the kit damage award when Fuzzy, after going down 8 metres saw Rob waving his arms at him. The problem was that his contents gauge had sprung a leak. However not to be outdone Fuzzy was soon back onboard and with the help of Keith’s treasure trove of accessories was soon back in the water.
Day Four
Dive Seven
Akka, Run time 52 minutes, Max Depth 31.0, EAN30
The last dive of our trip was a return to the Akka. I dived with Louise and Digs on this dive and had a good tour around the ship and along the companionways. My computer developed problems early on when it lost the Nitrox % setting and defaulted to 50%. So I spent the whole dive with it bleeping at me to tell me that I had exceeded my PPO2 levels.
At the end of the dive I bagged off first and just as Digs
was about to do so I spotted a Lion’s Mane Jellyfish quite close to her.
Having had a close encounter with one the previous day I had no desire to have
another. Digs then waited a short while until it was out of the way before
bagging off. However she had to part company with her reel and DSMB as it got
tangled with something while on a stop. Fortunately this one was recovered.
As a result of this trip Craig will be running a Masterclass in DSMB deployment. I suggest that everyone could learn something from this master of bagging off and subsequent reeling in.
Some examples form this trip include:
A jammed reel on dive one.
A DSMB filled with air and deployed without it actually being attached to his reel on dive 3.
Seeing Craig go shooting past us sideways while we were on our deco stop on dive 5.
Mentioned above were some entries for the kit loss and kit damage awards. This brings us to the self mutilation award. Not much to report here. There was Digs’ broken finger nails and Fuzzy’s attempt at self garroting, courtesy of his neck seal, either that or he is into some seriously dodgy aspects of bondage.
