Exmouth April 6th to 8th 2007
This was the first of this years trips that I had booked with Rich Tibbs aboard Wave Chieftain 3. Those on the trip were myself, Kieran Barry, Stuart Miles, Steve Chaplin, Megan Clarke, Chris Ward, Dave Organ, Andy Corkill, and a special mention for Simon Kay who travelled down from Barrow in Furness for the trip.
There were a few spaces and these were filled by Duncan Haywood on Day 1, Graham Mills on Day 2, and Adrian Kelland and his mate Paul Hewitt on Day 3.
I travelled down on the Thursday, I had booked into Linhayes Court in Lympstone, as were most of the others, however only Simon was there for the Thursday night, the others arrived on the Friday morning.
We went along to the Saddlers Arms in Lympstone on the Thursday night and decided to enter the pub quiz and so our team called “Divers Down” (consisting of Me, my wife, Simon & Stuart, who popped in for a beer) entered with very little hope, but surprise…we won after a sudden death play off. Total cost of entry £1 each, total winnings £3.50 each. Well at least it covered my helium cost for the 3 days, eat your heart out open circuit divers.
Friday
I had planned my dive trips back last year having looked at the tide timetables, so managed to pick the weekends that had the convenient tides, by this I mean ones that gave a good ropes off time so that people could travel down on the day of the dive rather than having an extra night B&B cost. Other considerations would be whether we wanted to do particular wrecks on neaps or springs.
So we had a 1pm slack and a meet time of 11am, for a ropes off at 11:30 latest. It always amazes me that on many trips you have to wait until a couple of days before the trip for the skipper to tell you the slack water and ropes off time, as if it is some sort of black art. Nothing like advance preparation I say.
Dive One: Chateau Yquem,
The
Chateau weighed in at 1913 tons and was torpedoed in 1917 by UB40 while
travelling from Dunkirk to Barry. She sits upright and is covered with plumose
anemones. The bow is intact and the anchors are still in place.
As soon as we started to go down it was obvious that this was going to be a dark dive. I hit the wreck (literally hit it) at 40 metres and couldn’t see a thing. Moved away from the shot and with the viz at about 1 metre I managed to have a few close encounters with netting, which was not very pleasant. I didn’t have a clue where I was on this wreck and looking up towards the surface there was no light so it was impossible to tell if I had gone inside or not. I was not enjoying the dive one little bit so bagged off after 16 minutes for a run time of 35 minutes. I was the first one back on board, not something that happens very often.
Stuart managed to bag himself a lobster which being the nice guy that he is, took it home and cooked it for us for the following day.
Dive
2: Drift Dive
This was a reef called Tibbsy’s reef, which under other circumstances could have been reasonable, but given that the viz was a metre or less it was awful. Somehow I managed a run time of 31 minutes here. Max depth 15.0 metres
Saturday
Dive
1: Avalanche
The Avalanche was a 1,210 ton ship that sank in 1877 with the loss of all but 3 of the 97 people on board. She was 214 feet in length by 36 feet. She was involved in a collision with The Forest. At the time of her sinking she was en route from London to New Zealand.
Bad viz again today with about 1 to 2 metres at most. There are a lot of bottles to be collected here, but I just had a gentle tour around. Although a “tour” sort of indicates that you know where you are going…I didn’t. So maybe a “mystery tour” would be more apt.
Throughout the dive there was the unmistakable sound of metal hitting metal. This usually meant that Chris had found some spidge. I found him at one point and he was in a cloud of silt with his torch providing a ghostly aura around him. However that porthole, which was still complete with glass is still in place.
I bagged off the 50 metre bottom at 31 minutes for a total run time of 72 minutes.
Graham, did manage to bag a lobster. Unlike Stuart on the previous day he flatly refused to donate it for the following day’s meal.
Dive 2: Boma
I didn’t do this dive as I had a battery failure
immediately prior to the dive. However, someone got 3 crabs, so Graham had those
as well. Chris also got a lobster but somehow managed to lose it after bagging
it.
Saturday night after yet another night at the Saddlers
arms, methinks Dave had one or two too many. Chris recalls sobering up rather
quickly when, back in the B&B Dave woke and said to him “Hi chuck, come
and give us a cuddle”
Dive 1: Grelene
The Grelene was previously called the Ballater, and also Blairmore. She was a 2,286 ton ship carrying iron ore from Bilbao to Middlesbrough when she was torpedoed by UB-40 on 22nd September 1917. She is 313 feet long and is still in quite good condition, with the 4 bladed prop still in place.
Down the shot, yes it was dark again and zero viz at the bottom of the shot, then I realised why, I had gone straight down into a hole as I let go of the shot. Moving away from here the viz was the best of the weekend, at least 2 metres. I went to the stern and here there is a lot of net, so after a few close encounters I headed off to the bows instead. The bows are very narrow and the 2 anchor chains are in place and very close together. All through the dive there was the usual sound of Chris hitting things, another porthole that he failed to get off. However he did find rather a nice sextant.
I
bagged off after about 30 minutes for a run time of 61 minutes.
Dive 2: Boma
The Boma was a 2,694 ton ship which was 312 feet long. She was carrying potatoes and hay en route from Belfast to the Isle of Wight when she was torpedoed by UB-80 in June 1918.
After the previous dives I wasn’t expecting too much viz, and so I got just what I expected, probably about 1 to 2 metres. So just a gentle bimble around, up to the bows first then back along the wreck. Total run time 43 minutes.
So that was it for the weekend and instead of heading back
up the M5 to go home, I instead headed off to Plymouth where I was planning to
dive on the Tuesday. Another trip report to follow for this day.
The boat has already been booked for next Easter in Exmouth.