June DIR-UK
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
Well it was the last regular DIR-UK trip with Grahame Knott this weekend as he’s decided to pack in the weekend charters. It’s a real shame but not entirely un-expected as he’s been talking about it for a while now.
On this trip myself and Clare were again diving the RB80’s. I’m getting much happier with it now which is a good thing given the events that unfolded on the first dive. The weather really looked great all weekend with flat seas and some sunshine. Woody’s boat was due to be following us for the weekend and would be diving the same wrecks as us. The group onboard were really chatty and helped pass gear over to Grahame’s boat which was much appreciated.
So on saturday our dive was on the wreck LH Carl. The wreck was a British steamship sunk in WW1 on the same day as the nearby Salsette by the very same U-boat. It was a 2000 tonne vessel around 300 ft long. The bottom was at 54m but there was enough of the wreck left for us to do an average depth of 51m.
We dropped down onto the wreck pausing for a bubble check at 9m before switching to SCR mode. Once down on the wreck though I noticed a small stream of bubbles from Clare’s RB mouthpiece. I initially thought it was one of the corrugated hoses leaking on the inhale side of the loop, that left me concerned that she might be aspirating salt water so I told her to bail out. Once I looked it became clear it was just the BOV low pressure feed. Most likely it had twisted slightly loose and it was easily solved. We started off on the dive but Clare then stopped me to tell me one of my corrugated hoses was also bubbling slightly. We paused while Clare investigated but after failing to resolve it I decided to continue the dive. This was a tough call but I decided as my RB is still rigged with double 12’s that I would happily just dive open circuit if I needed to. As it happens the leak was so small I didn’t notice any difference – the RB80 is incredibly tolerant to being flooded.
Once we’d sort out the kit problems we set off round the wreck. The visibility was great 10m odd and it let us really get a sense of scale and perspective on the wreck. It’s split into two major sections and we managed to essentially circle the wreck twice. Andy Carroll and Bob flashed passed us on scooters a couple of times – no doubt thinking the wreck was small.
Given I was still expecting the RB to fail at some point I thumbed the dive after 35 minutes or so and we began our ascent. While on deco we heard an almighty bang underwater and both of us were convinced something had just impoded or burst. We swam round each other looking for bubbles or issues. We couldn’t find anything and in the end just had to ignore it. All went to plan and we returned to the surface really chuffed to have had such a nice dive. We subsequently discovered the bang was the result of one of the guys from the other boat loosing his first stage underwater. It must have been incredibly loud as I could have sworn it was our kit!
Once on the boat I disassembled my kit to find the cause the leak and see just how wet the scrubber was. The RB was bone dry and I found a gap in one of the corrugated hose o-rings with the missing piece still in the groove where the o-ring sits.
Sunday and we were diving the Chateau Yquem (also known as Yeams or Youeme). This was another WW1 wreck torpedo in 1917 while carrying a cargo of ballast. The wreck sits 9m proud of the bottom and this created some awe inspiring views underwater particularly as we had about 10m of vis. The wreck does some have some large nets on it so some care is required while diving it. It’s also got some big opportunities for some nice swim throughs. We circled the wreck down at the bottom at 45m from bow to stern before ascending 6m onto the deck. We passed numerous other teams in the water who were all clearly visible thanks to the excellent conditions. Passing Gareth Lock was especially nice as he took a photo of us 
We finished our circuit at the deck level and passed through some sections of the wreck near the bow. We then ascended to the very top of the wreck at 36-38m and again toured around for several minutes. Eventually after 47 minutes swimming around we began our ascent.
Overall it was an excellent weekend with two dives both with good vis, good weather and no drama’s. I can’t remember when we had such a nice set of conditions for UK diving, certainly not last year so it was a really nice reminder of just how good it can be.
